A map I have made... [Archive] - Team17 Forum

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SgtFusion
8 Mar 2008, 22:51
Here is a w2w map I made:
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/44332/2004451919652892759_th.jpg (http://www.2shared.com/file/2958434/bd65e75f/rainbowblockw2w.html)
It's kind of simple and featureless, but it's the best I could do with a limit of 113 colours. The walls are at the bottom left and bottom right of the terrain.
If you give me comments and criticism, please give constructive criticism (i.e. If you think something about my map is bad, then tell me why and how I could improve it).

Bawb
8 Mar 2008, 23:57
Reminds me of an old columns game I played years ago on my old iMac.

bonz
9 Mar 2008, 13:41
Are those dark, near-black tiles on the top and the upper left or are those holes where a worm could fall through?

SgtFusion
9 Mar 2008, 18:13
They're holes.

Plasma
9 Mar 2008, 18:25
I do admire the way you've labelled the walls there.
Y'know, just in case any player gets a little confused and mistakes them for very tall, rainbow-coloured weapon crates.

SgtFusion
9 Mar 2008, 18:49
I labelled them because without the labels, there are a few possible places the walls could be. Anyway, do you think I could improve it in any way?

Melon
9 Mar 2008, 20:08
Well alright then, you're twisting my leg.
I'm not sure if I'm the best to give advice over maps for the wXw scheme, largely becasue I don't play it, but also because my one attempt (http://www.kieranmillar.com/wa/moon_station_w3w_by_Melon.png) at making a map for it has resulted in a mixture of feedback from brilliant to death threats. I quickly played a match against myself on it to see how it plays, but the match didn't even need to last 5 minutes until I figured I'd played it enough.
First of all, go to wmdb and search for all the wXw maps they have, or even more easily, click here (http://wmdb.org/maps?type=w2w). There's a hell of a lot of them, isn't there? So why would I choose your wXw map over any of these? The answer, I wouldn't. And here's why:
There are no hides! I've bolded this point because it's absolutely crucial. Good hides are probably the only way you can crowbar even the slightest hint of strategy into a scheme that's desperately lacking in it. Although it's tricky, the best hides are ones that are easy to get out of quickly, but harder to get into quickly, and are in a location that makes them harder to hit. The best place for them tend to be on the ceiling and in the walls. This is because if you fall when roping normally, you end up completely in the open and ready for a severe beating from everyone. If you manage to pull off a successful attack in your turn, you usually have 10 seconds of retreat time to find a good place to hide, so you get the upper hand because you're harder to hit. You don't have time during your go to try and hit a well hidden opponent, so good hides reward people who attack successfully and punish those who fall off of the rope during their turn. Be careful though, because if a hide takes too long to get out of, or is in an inconvenient location, you could end up struggling to make your next turn in time. A good place not to put a hide would be in the top middle of your map, as you've got to traverse half the map to hit the first wall, costing you 5 extra seconds or so in your next turn. (Of course, the best hides could be hidden further away from the walls, experiment and see what works out best).
Your plops seem tacked on as an afterthought more than anything else. I believe that plops can make a game of wXw far more fun to play if they're done correctly. If it's too easy to plop someone, then it all becomes really silly, but if they're in a daft location where nobody is ever going to plop someone, then what's the point? If you're going to add in plops, try to place them somewhere where a worm won't just fall into them, but where you could also fling a worm through if you were skilled/lucky enough. Somewhat high up on the outer side walls tend to be good places, so the plop on the left is OK. The "plop" at the top of the map is just silly, if someone does fly out of there, then they'll just end up on the top of the map, and they'll have to waste their next turn walking back in, and that's just annoying.
One of the biggest criticisms I got for my wXw was that wXw maps were made for going as fast as possible, and mine couldn't let people rope like that without some serious practice, so I understand why your layout has straight walls and is simple. However, the layout's a bit boring. Try making one without a symmetrical pattern, and perhaps a few more bends. Just roping in a straight line most of the way isn't as great as some people make it out to be. They aren't supposed to have complex layouts, but 4 bends (actually, it's just 2, but flipped) with one long flat bit going across the entire width of the map doesn't cut it for me.
The graphics are nice, but they're a bit boring. OK, so most wXw maps are just straight flat lines, and this map has a far better attempt at graphics than many, however, the colours are a bit garish, and I personally don't try to force the full 113 colours on a map unless I need to. Some of us like the background details on. This point is probably the least important point of them all, feel free to ignore it. I believe that playability should always come first. Always.
Please remember that this is my opinion. It is not the definitive 101 guide to wXw map making.
Making a good map that plays well is extremely difficult, regardless of the scheme. Balance and fun are essential. Make sure the map is varied and fun to play on, not necessarily completely original, but also make sure that somewhere isn't too advantageous. Fort and CTF maps are symmetrical to prevent one side having an advantage, but on maps where anybody can start and go anywhere else, it just feels as though you're actually playing half a map twice.

SgtFusion
9 Mar 2008, 20:43
Thank you for your criticism. I will keep it in mind. This is my first map of this kind I have made, and I actually expected to get much more negative criticism.

KRD
10 Mar 2008, 09:51
Please remember that this is my opinion. It is not the definitive 101 guide to wXw map making.
It will be when I start linking everyone ever to it.

SgtFusion
10 Mar 2008, 20:22
Here is my second attempt. It uses the same graphics as the first one, but is not symmetrical, and there are hiding places like there are in some others I have seen.

franpa
11 Mar 2008, 00:14
perhaps remove the solid black outline between the blocks that are the walls your meant to touch (merge them all), so that they are given a more unique look?
aside from that, i'll play it now.

SilPho
13 Mar 2008, 23:02
Much better than the first map. (I'd probably have more luck playing the first one though).
If I had to be really critical, I would repeat franpa's suggestion of making the walls stand out a little more, but other than that I think it looks really good.

SgtFusion
14 Mar 2008, 02:55
Here's another version of the second map. It has basically no difference to the first version except that the walls are more easily distinguishable.

TeDdywoRm
14 Mar 2008, 14:03
I wonder how it'll look like if you made a rope race map using those boxes.;)

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