The cRPG team should really put a little more love into DTV to bring back old players, help current noobies and attract new players to cRPG.
DTV Helms Deep RohanPlease excuse the 1990s graphics, my PC sucks.- The ladders and stairs are a problem. They make bots extra slow, which increases the round time significantly. Fun is action divided by time. If players have to wait a long time before the action happens, the fun decreases. The ladders make horses get stuck, which again get infantry bots stuck between them. Chasing down a single stuck bot for several minutes is boredom in its purest form. Blame it on the map, not on the players, because you can influence the map directly, while you can't influence players that easily.
- The river is a problem. Fighting in the river is a hassle for characters with short weapons, because once they are close enough to deal damage to the bots, they can't escape from the blob which is surrounding them the next second. Dodging projectiles while underwater is almost impossible. The river also decreases the field of vision drastically, which makes it hard to see incoming attacks and the block direction of the bots. The river does not represent additional challenge; instead, fighting in there defeats the purpose of Warband combat itself. Waiting behind the river only prolongs the round without providing additional action, which reduces fun. Charging through the river at the beginning of the round is bad because only players with high athletics will arrive outside in time. They are killed and need to wait till they respawn.
- The wall is a problem. Fighting on the wall either leaves you cornered on the right or the left, or you're surrounded by bots from all sides. It may be possible to have good fights on top of the wall if almost the whole team goes there at the beginning of the round. However, players don't do that, ever. Again, you can't change the way people play, but you can make the game a more enjoyable experience by making the map flexible to various play-styles, instead of enforcing a strategy nobody wants to follow.
Want to keep up LOTR atmosphere of the map?
Simply change the map to the point after this popular scene:
Make some adjustments for gameplay reasons:
- The breach has to be larger than the movie suggests, so players can't easily form a single shieldwall to cover everything.
- Cover the complete river in debris. Every aspect of it is annoying, so please make it inaccessible.
- Decrease the wideness of the enemy spawn area to the right side, so HA bots won't run away from players forever.
Please remove the map from the rotation until these or similar changes are implemented, because this map tends to kill the server population.
DTV Ballista MadnessPlease remove the dead tree circled red on the screenshot. Bots get stuck there every time, and since it's far away from the Viscount, no melee player will make it back alive after killing the bot. It's not in ballista reach either, so simply shooting the bot won't work unless you are a highlevel archer. Currently, luring the bot closer to V before killing it is the only way, and that's fun for one player and boring wait for the residual 20.
DTV BattlemastersPlease remove the crossed out area to the left. Bots get stuck due to the small wall in the middle of the two gates all the time. Removing the entire crossed out area is a better option than just removing the wall, because the map is too large anyways. I know this is supposed to be a tournament field over there, but a tad bit more immersion isn't worth the huge gameplay deterioration.
Please also reduce the distance between the players' spawn and the bots' spawns by moving the spawns to the green numbers.
Please remove the map from the rotation until these or similar changes are implemented, because this map tends to kill the server population.
DTV Lichen's IslandPlease move the beach spawn on the top left closer to the players' spawn. Also put an obstacle to the right side of the mountain to prevent bots from running all the way from the right of the map to the beach on the left before attacking.
DTV Celtic RuinsThere is often a single bot stuck where the red mark is. It is strange because there is no hindrance blocking the path, but it is happening a lot. Please move the spawn around until bots no longer get stuck.
DTV Grey HavensBots are getting stuck at X1 and X2. Both spots are hard to reach because of how labyrinthine the map is. Both spots are close to enemy spawns, which makes it very risky to hunt down stuck bots as a melee player. Additionally, killing stuck bots in these places as a melee player increases the likelihood of causing bots of the next wave to get stuck in the same spot.
The barrels at X1 are beautiful but nasty because of the stuck bots. Please move or remove them.
Please take care of X2 by moving the spawn on the left to the "3". This way, bots from the left won't get stuck any longer, and the action on that side will happen sooner. It won't be a problem balance-wise, because players still have enough time to hold the bridge or even the stairs.
DTV ThermopylaeThe platform on this map needs to be surrounded by something that prevents bots and players from going under it. Right now, you can use a side-swing animation to dive under the platform. Most of the time, not more than one bot is under it, so you can kill this bot and then the other around the platform, which have no option of fighting back, because while it is possible for bots to go under the platform, it is very unlikely they actually manage once they are fighting against the shieldwall. In summary, the area under the platform leaves room for exploits.
Apart from that, since usually one bot gets under the platform during their initial charge, it is quite possible that players standing on top of the platform using ranged weapons or ballistas are being killed by this single bot from under the platform through the wood. This is unrealistic and stupid, and it happens a lot, especially when somehow a cavalry bot gets stuck under the platform.
Thanks to all scenario creators and editors for your awesome work! Apart from the mentioned issues, your maps are exciting to play and well-designed.