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waffnuffly wrote:Awesome, thanks Are you talking about the...

*SPOILER*
The section I meant is the very first climb, the grate is above a stocking out ledge next to a fence (on the right) and the boxes are to the right of that fence. I had climbed those boxes before without seeing the grate ans since it is the first climb I wasn't even sure I should've been able to access it.
*END SPOILER*

FYI, I went ahead and fixed the last Skaarj ambush, Scrag. You hear a sound before you even see them, so if that's not a good time for you to pause and go "wait a sec" before they show up, I don't know what is But it is a lot better than before and it will be in V2. Wish I had fixed that beforehand, though (and the hidden chain).

Yeah the boss had a little to much hp I even played it at easy.. and otherwise it was easy.. the thing that bothered me was the rocket XD splashed me all the time.. I was really lucky.

Waffnuffly wrote:FYI, I went ahead and fixed the last Skaarj ambush, Scrag. You hear a sound before you even see them, so if that's not a good time for you to pause and go "wait a sec" before they show up, I don't know what is But it is a lot better than before and it will be in V2. Wish I had fixed that beforehand, though (and the hidden chain).

I don't think I'll hold either of these against you in terms of the score, given the overall scope of what you've delivered.

Did you catch my edit last page about the boss? What was it you thought was overpowered, the sheer amount of health or damage resistance to explosives (75%) or the rockets he shoots?

[Edit] 3500 health, 75% reduced damage to explosives (including SK-6 rockets, which do 500 damage each), and his rockets move about double the speed of normal Warlord rockets with a slightly larger splash radius and 65 damage instead of 60. These are the settings I use currently.

Waffnuffly wrote:Did you catch my edit last page about the boss? What was it you thought was overpowered, the sheer amount of health or damage resistance to explosives (75%) or the rockets he shoots?

Well, I was in god mode for the second half of the fight as I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed (!), but felt that he had a combination of high health or damage resistance and fast, damaging projectiles that made him a bit tough for a boss at the end of such a long map. In fairness, however, the combat environment offers plenty of cover for a less tired player.

Yeah, I'm not sure I will alter the boss too much. I really wanted that fight to be epic; I wanted it to last at LEAST long enough to go through the music a couple of times But I will probably alter the stats a little for other difficulties (lower splash, lower speed rockets for Easy and Medium). That's a fair suggestion to make.

Thanks for all the great feedback guys! I've already got TheLastFortressV2.unr open and it's got a ton of changes already incorporated.

Agreed.

Waffnuffly wrote:But I will probably alter the stats a little for other difficulties (lower splash, lower speed rockets for Easy and Medium). That's a fair suggestion to make.

That seems like a good compromise. The fast and damaging nature of the boss projectiles in VVV was a worry for me in terms of Easy difficulty (a level at which player's can't be guaranteed to know how to strafe!). I compromised by removing the first squad of SkaarjAngels on that difficulty setting and not having the boss' health too high overall.

VVV was perfect on Hard. I only died a couple of times, but was really low on health for a lot of areas I was more reckless in, but there was always some relief when I really needed it. That's the kind of gameplay balance we should all strive for.

[Edit] And I forgot to mention in my commentary that while this is a single map, it's meant to feel like a "final" map to a series. I didn't want to shortchange the difficulty; I was going for like a Demon Crater / last Shrakith'a map / etc. sort of feel.

[Edit2] OK, on Unreal difficulty, the final boss does take WAY too long to kill, probably because it increases the health so much. I took 500 off the default and will keep testing until I get it to a point where the boss is fun and takes a while to kill but doesn't just drain you of all your ammo and keep on truckin' (I was out of ammo in half my weapons when I finally killed him). Also added some seeds and a couple extra rockets to the boss room in case you spent all of them beforehand and needed a boost.

I see. Mostly I was just looking at the scale and thinking "Chocoverde, eat your heart out."

That's it from me. Full comments, including some criticism of course, will appear when the votes are revealed!

Ok I officially don't know where to go or what to do now...I'm on top of one of the towers with a pair of jumpboots. These jumpboots critical? I haven't managed to get anywhere special with them...so idk. I think I'm really bad at puzzle maps like these. Also the lighting makes it really hard to spot on chains or ladders to climb

Check back on page 17. It's my fault for not making the path clearer. The Jumpboots are not critical, though. In fact, they aren't necessary to reach ANY secrets; they just make some easier/safer.

Just posting that I think I found the way, as I found another translator message high on one of the roof tops...continuing my way...

You know, I'm going to give this map another try on Unreal difficulty. Depending on how it goes, it might actually make me this map (which I thought was pretty lacking on medium) turn into something Epic fun. Would I be surprised if this map won the contest? Well at this point, yes I would be surprised.. because I think that the map has fundamental flaws in its "gameplay vs. design". Notice I said "gameplay vs. design" and not just gameplay. Honestly, I think the gameplay and design are both awesome seperatly. (the design is much more professional than the Unreal stock maps imo). I don't agree with how the gameplay was executed within the map itself (Once again, my impressions could change after playing this on Unreal difficulty). Most likely, when this map is EXU'd.. it will become what I wanted it to be. I do understand that you were under pressure from guys like UBerserker to make your contest map to the level of EXU standards. I think this is where the map is fundamentally flawed (trying to make a classic 'Unreal' themed map under EXU standards). But whatever.. I still had alot of fun (being an EXU fan). I know it will be so much more better in EXU already. So when is the next EXU patch?