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The Desert and the Mountain
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| Author |
File Description |
| John the Late |
Posted on 01/28/15 @ 03:21 PM
| File Details |
|---|
| Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Screenshot:
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A really unique map with a desert theme.
All players start with only villagers in a shared oasis at the bottom of the map. Mines are scarce, but wood and food are plentiful there. Outside of the oasis, the desert begins...
At the other side of the map, there is a mountainous area full of gold mines, but without any other resources. Stone is found commonly in the desert covering most of the map.
The map is not intended for competetive gameplay, but might be used the same way as Nomad or LN. If the UserPatch is used, the players will start with Nomad resources (+275W, 100S). |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
| marathon |
Posted on 01/28/15 @ 04:51 PM
Another Desert map, few eyecandy but... it is desert.
Between the green south and the mountainous north there is a wide desert. As in reality, stone is abundant in the desert (lots of Sahara is rocky) but gold is present only in the mountain area. In reality, gold is usually present near tectonic faults, and the long cordillera to the north resembles a fault, like the Dead Sea Fault.
Visual Appeal: 4
It is impossible to give a 5 to a desert map. People like eyecandy. It has a good feeling, so a 4 is proper.
Playability: 5
Unique gameplay! Teams start lined to the map edge. Only one player per team is flank. The rest are pocket, and the corner ones in a 4v4 are the safest players. However the pressure to the flanks is expected to be intolerable in every 3v3 or higher game.
Not suitable for FFA or in general more than 2 teams, since the corner players are safer.
Gold is across the map. The distance in a huge map is just terribly long and it is very hard to mine early. Stone is more accessible. The totally open desert area makes trade too risky for long distances.
The usual flank-pocket differentiation does not apply here. It is an unexplored area in terms of gameplay. Cooperation will be the key, the flank should be the leader of the team since his success will decide the wood of the whole team.
People have to drop TC near their starting points and skip gold for later. AIs cannot play the map efficiently since there will always be streams of villagers going to gold while others will return to wood. Also, almost all AIs assume that gold is always present in reasonable distances early.
Even if it looks like an expert map, superpockets will have the chance to develop in peace so it might be fun for players of lower skill.
Additional Comments:
Mapmakers should definitely download this map. It opens up new possibilities even for 1.0c. |
Possidon
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 01/29/15 @ 07:13 AM |
| Knaber |
Posted on 01/31/15 @ 01:21 AM |
John the Late
File Author |
Posted on 01/31/15 @ 09:50 AM
I made several maps but never bothered to upload any until marathon asked me to do so. :D
Often I lack ideas for what to script, so if you have any idea feel free to tell me. :) |
Gastropod
(id: Tyretian) |
Posted on 02/19/15 @ 03:27 PM |
John the Late
File Author |
Posted on 02/27/15 @ 01:33 PM
About the villagers stuck in forest, that never happened to me so far, but I will look into it soon. I also thought of increasing the amount of wood by a bit.
How did the villagers exactly spawn in forests? I mean, was it next to a lake or something? Was the forest in a circle? |
Gastropod
(id: Tyretian) |
Posted on 02/28/15 @ 02:17 PM |
| Jirimar |
Posted on 07/05/19 @ 07:03 PM |
Possidon
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 02/05/20 @ 04:43 AM
The Desert and the Mountain is a Random Map Script by John the Late with a very unique premise. Set within a vast desert, each player starts off nomadically with three villagers scattered throughout a large oasis full of resources. Theres plenty of wood and food to be gathered from there, however no gold or stone. Next to the oasis is a vast desert in which you can find a number of stone mines. On the other side of the desert is a mountain region overflowing with gold mines. This setup ensures the players make tactical decisions on where to locate themselves, do you setup camp in the oasis or the gold mines? Maybe you can managed two different camps or setup in the desert halfway between the two. This unique setup creates a style of gameplay you won't find anywhere else and it is thoroughly entertaining.
Visual Appeal: 4
Deserts are very hard to do well and make visually appealing due to what they are, a large endless pile of sand and rock. However, with that in mind this is a very realistic and impressive go at a desert script. There's endless amounts of sand and rocks. The mountains to the north where all of the gold is located has nice blends of dirt and desert, with some extra rocks to add eye-candy. The mountains and mines are spaced out well to make it look filled out and busy but allow for movement throughout the area. The oasis to the south is certainly the highlight of the aesthetic design. Theres plenty to see there with lots of berry bushes and forest, mixed together well with good terrain mixing and placement of eye-candy or landscaping objects. It all reasonably good but being a desert suffers from having some very bland and boring areas, particularly in the central areas which are just plain sand.
Playability: 4
The premise for this scenario is very original and creates some highly unique gameplay. I played this random map three times with different people and AIs and I had a great time each go. It's unlike any other Random Map Script I have played and was thoroughly enjoyable. When I first saw the mass of mountains and gold mines in the northern part of the map I had concerns that being so compact that it would be impassable to my units, but they flowed through rather easily, and the same thing happened in the oasis with the mass of trees and forage buses. I played this random map three tines this week. Firstly I tried it out single player with the standard AI, secondly I tried single player against some custom AIs from the Blacksmith, and thirdly I played multiplayer online against a group of friends. The problem with the random map is that it is near impossible to play single player. In my first go with the standard AI I won almost instantly as the AI resigned within 5 minutes or just stood still doing nothing. This is probably because they couldn't find the relevant resources they need to expand due to it being scattered across the map. Playing against some custom AIs was a better experience but even against some of the toughest AIs around I could still easily win because they failed to located to Gold mines. Thus the only way to properly play and experience this Random Map is by playing it multiplayer with your fellow human beings. Whilst this probably the way this Random Map Script was intended to be played, it severely limits its accessibility to many players who only play single player. A good Random Map should be playable at both single player and mulitplayer levels.
Additional Comments:
Overall this is a unique and enjoyable Random Map Script that is only really available for multiplayer purposes.
Well Done John
Possidon |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
|---|
| 4.5 | | Breakdown |
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| Theme | 5.0 | | Visual Appeal | 4.0 | | Playability | 4.5 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 890 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 2.14 KB |
| Added: | 01/28/15 |
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