First Map - Mountain Pass

[Brook]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the community and the game but have spent much of my time in the editor tinkering with making maps. I like it a lot and it is fun and easy to use. Anyways down to business;

I'm not sure where to post this so I figured this would be a good place so forgive me if this is the wrong section

The map is called Mountain Pass. It is a 2v3 player game. The idea behind it is that players 1 & 2 are working together to clear the area of bandits (players 3,4,5). Also, player 2 is "cut-off" from player 1 and next to having to clear out the bandits they also have to "link-up" as well. I tried to make it so that player 2 is in a bit of a bind from the beginning but can hold their own for a little while while player 1 is well off from the start (as you will see). It'd love to add in the necessary text (like a scenario but I am not that savvy... yet )

I'd also like to point out that Rigor gave me advice while I developed the map so some credit goes to him as well I also have two other maps I'm working and I hope to use this experience to improve them from what they currently are.

Thank you to all who take a look at and play this Mountain Pass

Brook

[monochromatic]

Wait, why does player 1 have a huge castle and player 2 have only 3 recruitable castles tiles?

[norbert]

Wait, why does player 1 have a huge castle and player 2 have only 3 recruitable castles tiles?

Not to mention the gazillion villages near player 1...
Anyways, it's a 2v3 game, so... yeah...

[Sapient]

I think Player 3 is the one in "the bind" since clearly it will be easier for P1 and P2 to target P3 before P4 and P5. That may not necessarily unbalance the map, but it does take away from the tactical interest if there is only one good strategy.

Another problem is factional balance: why would player 5 *not* pick Drakes? The ability to hop over the deep water and wreak havoc to P1 at a moment's notice to would be just too tempting for me to pick any other faction. Similarly, Player 3 would want Dwarves and Player 4 Rebels.

In general, having large clumps of similar terrain creates factional balance issues. I highly recommend reading the map making guide posted as a sticky thread in this forum.

Having said that, I like what you are trying to do. (Unlike some people who posted responses, I actually read the description of what you are trying to achieve)

[Brook]

Wait, why does player 1 have a huge castle and player 2 have only 3 recruitable castles tiles?

It's in the description I posted above, "Also, player 2 is "cut-off" from player 1 and next to having to clear out the bandits they also have to "link-up" as well."
And player 2 actually used to have 2 recruit tiles.

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Not to mention the gazillion villages near player 1...
Anyways, it's a 2v3 game, so... yeah...

You should see my big map
Having that many villages is necessary or player 1 would get whacked pretty quickly.

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I think Player 3 is the one in "the bind" since clearly it will be easier for P1 and P2 to target P3 before P4 and P5. That may not necessarily unbalance the map, but it does take away from the tactical interest if there is only one good strategy.

True but player 1 has to watch for player 4 and player 2 has to watch for player 5 as well so unit dispersal isn't too concentrated. And I've only been playing by myself against/with the AI so I'm not sure what strategies players would come up with since I don't have a whole lot of experience

Another problem is factional balance: why would player 5 *not* pick Drakes? The ability to hop over the deep water and wreak havoc to P1 at a moment's notice to would be just too tempting for me to pick any other faction. Similarly, Player 3 would want Dwarves.

You got a point about Drakes but I don't think one can cover everything but I'll try to keep that in mind for future maps I might intend to make It also works well as 2 people vs the 3 AI. I would like to try and make a scenario out of this but I don't have the time atm (finals) so I figured posting it here to get feedback on how it plays.

In general, having large clumps of similar terrain creates factional balance issues. I highly recommend the map making guide posted as a sticky thread in this forum.

That's a good point and I'll revisit that sticky as well since I found a bit late.

Having said that, I like what you are trying to do. (Unlike some people who posted responses, I actually read the description of what you are trying to achieve)

Thank you and I appreciate your feedback! If you play it let me know how things go

[monochromatic]

Does player 2 get more gold than player 3, 4, and 5? I could see lightning attacks from player 5, combined with player 3's troops blocking the path for retreat, while player 4 holds off player 1. I don't know, I just wouldn't want to play as player 2 unless I started with a little more gold or I can spawn more units at a time with a bigger castle. I see your point, player 2 is "cut-off" from support from player 1. But being surrounded by two players while only being able to recruit 3 units max per turn to defend yourself? *shudders* sounds like inevitable death to me...

[Brook]

Does player 2 get more gold than player 3, 4, and 5? I could see lightning attacks from player 5, combined with player 3's troops blocking the path for retreat, while player 4 holds off player 1. I don't know, I just wouldn't want to play as player 2 unless I started with a little more gold or I can spawn more units at a time with a bigger castle. I see your point, player 2 is "cut-off" from support from player 1. But being surrounded by two players while only being able to recruit 3 units max per turn to defend yourself? *shudders* sounds like inevitable death to me...

I don't even know how to make that as a "pre-set" feature to be honest. I just turn off the default map settings and usually play with 1 gold income when I test to see how things work out. I never gave anyone a pay raise at the start but I'll try that in my next play through. I was thinking of reducing the recruitment tiles for the bandits by maybe 1 or 2 depending on which player it is (that'd be players 3-5) because I don't really want to increase the recruitment tiles for player 2. I pretty much am set with their start, but maybe reducing the amount of recruiting tiles for the bandit force might be a better idea to make things slightly "easier" for players 1 & 2.

[Rigor]

a first game on the map turned out to be quite fun! this map has potential, and i guess if the interest for 3v2 maps is there, and this map is made interesting for regular matchups, why not balancing it later for all races. here is what we got, the chat log is quite a book to read

[Brook]

a first game on the map turned out to be quite fun! this map has potential, and i guess if the interest for 3v2 maps is there, and this map is made interesting for regular matchups, why not balancing it later for all races. here is what we got, the chat log is quite a book to read

Thanks for playing it. And I can see some of the major changes you made, I'll go back and see what I can do with mine

[Rigor]

looking forward for your changes

[Rigor]

drakes are overpowered?, but certainly not here

[Brook]

Alright so I took a look at the changes Rigor made to the map in his playtests on his version of mine and came up with what you see below. I call this the "Alt Version" as I wanted to keep the other map as it was but, practice making some changes to open up the map and see how it goes.