any map making advice

[tokumeiko]

https://mod.io/g/timberborn/m/great-heights

this my first time making a map, and i'm worried it's not survivable, but i might just be bad at playing.
I also haven't made any screenshots because i forgot them, sorry about that i'll do it tomorrow. screenshots added
anyway I'd like someone to play the map give me some idea of what i'm doing right or wrong.
the idea was using large differences in altitude to limit the size of districts but i'm worried I underestimated the requirements for keeping the first district alive.
I've uploaded a new version that should be easier to survive on, based on the advice given

update: I've labelled this map complete now, but i'd still appreciate feedback as i plan to make another more difficult map on the same theme now that i know what i'm doing.

[Alcator]

If you are not willing to go through the effort of taking a screenshot and adding it, then why would anyone go through the effort of downloading it, putting it into their system, and loading the map just to give you feedback?

[tokumeiko]

Originally posted by Alcator:

If you are not willing to go through the effort of taking a screenshot and adding it, then why would anyone go through the effort of downloading it, putting it into their system, and loading the map just to give you feedback?

i just forgot to do it and now i have chores to deal with, i'll do it the next time i open the game

[jaquig]

well I took a quick look in the editor.
you don't need to put dandylions into the map, they grow so fast they will take over.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943163341
if you uncheck the randomise growth box as I did in the screenie, you can place fully grown and ready for harvest plants, like berries.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943163646

second screenie shows the berries.

and yes, both are taken of your map.

[jaquig]

Ok a bit deeper look now, besides what I mentioned in my earlier post the next thing is you have 7 levels to drop to expand, that is a lot of logs and planks for them to get off the small mesa you are starting them on.
I would build up a set of stepped plateaus ( 3 or 4 blocks in size ) that get enough moisture from the river to let them expand down easier.
The river is either 1 square to narrow or to wide, folk tails will only get 1 water wheel in it and then need to burn logs for levee to narrow it down to fit. ( they don't have access to metal to make explosives to widen it. )
iron teeth will get 3 compact water wheels across the river.

It's not so much as you miscalculated the resources needed as the space needed. The mesa top is just to small for them to last long, food and space to grow it will be the big stumbling block.

[tokumeiko]

Originally posted by jaquig:

Ok a bit deeper look now, besides what I mentioned in my earlier post the next thing is you have 7 levels to drop to expand, that is a lot of logs and planks for them to get off the small mesa you are starting them on.
I would build up a set of stepped plateaus ( 3 or 4 blocks in size ) that get enough moisture from the river to let them expand down easier.
The river is either 1 square to narrow or to wide, folk tails will only get 1 water wheel in it and then need to burn logs for levee to narrow it down to fit. ( they don't have access to metal to make explosives to widen it. )
iron teeth will get 3 compact water wheels across the river.

It's not so much as you miscalculated the resources needed as the space needed. The mesa top is just to small for them to last long, food and space to grow it will be the big stumbling block.

right so i can plant fully grown berries to smooth out early game, and make the starting mesa bigger with a few cliffs to make an easier path down, and making the river bigger as well, yeah I might start from scratch but thanks for the feedback.

[Alcator]

The starting location's river shape looks very unnatural and 'ruins the mood'. Use a lower percentage of density when placing down trees, otherwise it's too 'regular' (every square filled with a tree in the Dead trees area).

[tokumeiko]

Originally posted by Alcator:

The starting location's river shape looks very unnatural and 'ruins the mood'. Use a lower percentage of density when placing down trees, otherwise it's too 'regular' (every square filled with a tree in the Dead trees area).

good point, it's difficult balancing act to make things look natural

[muskegontrucker]

good start for a new map maker. still too many dead maples and water is to much and to many river sources. played iron teeth on normal had a nice game no difficulty at all. have screen shots of my game but dont know how to post them. any help anyone?

[Gresh]

Originally posted by muskegontrucker:

good start for a new map maker. still too many dead maples and water is to much and to many river sources. played iron teeth on normal had a nice game no difficulty at all. have screen shots of my game but dont know how to post them. any help anyone?

Press F12 in-game to take the screenshot. It should save to your account.

From there you can go to the screenshot through Steam and publish it publicly, then people can view it through your profile.

Or you can go to the screenshot through Steam in your browser and press the "Share" button which will give you a link you can post in chat that will embed the SS in the forums. (Share button is in the options, the gear icon)

There might be easier ways, but that's what I do when I rarely share screens.

[Alcator]

The PrintScreen key works quite well, and it saves the screenshot directly into your clipboard, so you can then paste it into Paint or any other graphics program and save it as a file.

[muskegontrucker]

posted 2 screen shots of your map that I played. on community screenshots area. tokumeiko

[City Builder]

less try at pretty map and more at playabiity

[aaror]

This is a good map if you intend it to be super easy. The lake at the source allows pulling water even if you somehow forget to build a dam. There are enough trees that I had no worry about wood supply. But I think there was too much wood.
A good rule of thumb in my opinion is to do the tutorial and see if you can buildeverything in the tutorial plus your dam, and have no problem building the forester, you have too much wood. The tutorial has some extra stuff you don't need, so you can go a bit lower. I'm not talking about the "bonus wood" that needs a staircase to reach, only the amount easily reached at start. I think you could halve the dead wood on the starting level and it would still be playable.
I was able to reach the metal in the direction of the water source from spawn without a new district. If that is intended, fine, but wanted to let you know since a lot of maps require a district to get metal (or moving your district center).
A few other examples of "cool but easy" are the giant river that has deep spots to hold water during droughts and the large number of areas where water can easily be diverted into pools.
Also I have to agree with the folks who said it looks a bit artificial. If I were making this map I'd look at pictures of the mesas in the US southwest and in China, and try to look like those.

I hope I'm not discouraging you, I think it could be a fun map. But I tend to play maps for the challenge, so I got bored of this one pretty quickly. Then again, some folks like to play a more relaxed game, so they might really enjoy your map. Just because it seemed too easy for me doesn't mean other folks wouldn't really enjoy it. But you asked for advice/thoughts, so I provided mine.

[City Builder]

Originally posted by aaror:

This is a good map if you intend it to be super easy. The lake at the source allows pulling water even if you somehow forget to build a dam. There are enough trees that I had no worry about wood supply. But I think there was too much wood.
A good rule of thumb in my opinion is to do the tutorial and see if you can buildeverything in the tutorial plus your dam, and have no problem building the forester, you have too much wood. The tutorial has some extra stuff you don't need, so you can go a bit lower. I'm not talking about the "bonus wood" that needs a staircase to reach, only the amount easily reached at start. I think you could halve the dead wood on the starting level and it would still be playable.
I was able to reach the metal in the direction of the water source from spawn without a new district. If that is intended, fine, but wanted to let you know since a lot of maps require a district to get metal (or moving your district center).
A few other examples of "cool but easy" are the giant river that has deep spots to hold water during droughts and the large number of areas where water can easily be diverted into pools.
Also I have to agree with the folks who said it looks a bit artificial. If I were making this map I'd look at pictures of the mesas in the US southwest and in China, and try to look like those.

I hope I'm not discouraging you, I think it could be a fun map. But I tend to play maps for the challenge, so I got bored of this one pretty quickly. Then again, some folks like to play a more relaxed game, so they might really enjoy your map. Just because it seemed too easy for me doesn't mean other folks wouldn't really enjoy it. But you asked for advice/thoughts, so I provided mine.

are u playing the same map i am? Starting on top of a mountain?

[tokumeiko]

Originally posted by aaror:

I was able to reach the metal in the direction of the water source from spawn without a new district. If that is intended, fine, but wanted to let you know since a lot of maps require a district to get metal (or moving your district center).
A few other examples of "cool but easy" are the giant river that has deep spots to hold water during droughts and the large number of areas where water can easily be diverted into pools.
Also I have to agree with the folks who said it looks a bit artificial. If I were making this map I'd look at pictures of the mesas in the US southwest and in China, and try to look like those.

good advice, yes i might make a new map at this point, with bigger mesas and less water, i halted work on the map to play it a bit, and reached the point where i had more beavers than my PC can handle.

If your talking about the ruins near the starting mesa, i intended on that being a small initial burst of scrap, as it was in the original map i liked, but i over sized it like i did with the wood.

If you reached the underwater ruins near the end that river without a second district, that is impressive, but I hid that with the intention of requiring an expensive infrastructure project so i don't mind if you got that one, since the other ruins are at least two districts away, and I've since learnt that mining tends to require either a massive hospital or a huge investment into robots.

I deliberately designed the starting waterfall to encourage the construction of a large water storage, but i got overenthusiastic when making the river it flows into, I learnt a lot from that area in particular so i'll be more discreet with my use the brush in my next map, which should be a more moderate challenge.