Best AoW3 maps

[hiliadan]

In a way similar to what was done for the best mods of AoW3 (see https://www.the-battlefield.com/aow3/index.php?page=commnews&eingabenewsid=58), the-Battlefield.com/aow3 is going to organize a poll about the best maps for AoW3. We'd like to have a shortlist of about 20 maps to include in the poll.
So what are your favourite maps?

He are the top 10 by subscribers (I removed some and took only their latest version, e.g. for Middle Earth and Westeros):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433461636
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=339439231
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=368714026
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=382065842
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=318379089
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=322554763
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=336393065
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=660725638
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=389580111
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365639392

[hiliadan]

+ I never tried them but I think these maps are also worth a shot, even if they are not in the top 10 of subscribers:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=508372170
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=508371902
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663112483
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766295594

[hiliadan]

The RMG is that good that nobody plays user-made maps? But at the same time I see many posts about the campaigns, so people like to play custom maps. I guess many people don't know that there are some very good maps out there with many quests, scripts, and immersive stories, which are kinds of mini-campaigns.

[GreyHuntr]

I have played many of the maps based on fantasy settings. I find that the scale of the cities in relation to the map is a detriment. They often end up feeling kind of cramped when you only have one or two cities per "nation". That, or the treasure sites aren't placed in a way that allows for easy expansion or empire planning. The random maps do a decent job of providing strategice fun without allowing yourself to be distracted by immersion breaking. I normally love mods and maps that let you play in Middle Earth, or Westeros, etc. I just feel AoW 3 doesn't lend itself well to other settings. It is fun and immersive enough from a lore perspective to stand on its own merits.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

The RMG is that good that nobody plays user-made maps?

Well... yeah, kinda.

I've played most official scenarios, I've played the campaigns. But user made random maps?

I've tried a number of the ones on this list, but never finished any of them.

The ones based on other fantasy worlds/the real world just didn't work as AoW3 maps, for me. Too many empty regions or design choices that may have been accurate to the source material, but didn't make for a good map, i.m.o.

Or alternately, if I'm unfamiliar with the source material, I never really saw the point.

I've never had the time for long co-op maps. I didn't like the writing or the more RPG like style of the Kzentar map, or the asymetrical design of some others. Some I found too crowded, some too sparse. The Old World one is bugged, according to the description.

Perhaps I'm picky. But why play a user-map that doesn't appeal to me when the random map generator does?

[GreyHuntr]

Custom map editors. Yet another job taken over by automation. I did not see it coming.

[hiliadan]

Which ones did you play Iguana? The quality is very variable. I played the Illuria map, which has many subscribers and it's basically a very dull map with no elevation, huge swathes of mono-terrain, no quest, no script, ... Boring and not fun. But in contrast the Westeros v3 map (the only one I played among all those maps actually), has very good geography with varied climates and terrains, and is very very tense, because everyone starts very close so each turn is like if you were at turn 40 of a normal game, a lot of actions going on. It's also very close to the Game of Thrones world obviously and for me, that's great fun too. It has a mini-mod with it which introduces special abilities (e.g. the Greyjoy have Fast Embark even though they're Humans) and the latest update also brings custom units for each faction. It has a few quests and several eastern eggs hidden in the map. All in all, it's a very good map, better than a RMG map, and it's very good to play in PBEM! I'd love to play the M.U.L.E. maps, they look good, but they're for SP or coop and I don't play that, so I can't. :( But you should try them and tell us if they're better than RMG, I'm pretty sure they are.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

I tried the Fairy Europe one, and one of the Middle Earths... but not the latest version, I don't think.

Haven't played the MULE maps, since A] I don't really want to mod the game rules, I just use tweaks and graphics mods, and B] I've never yet managed to play a large co-op map to conclusion, and those maps are mainly made for co-op according to the description.

But I'll try a few on the list, see if they appeal.

[hiliadan]

So should I drop the idea of this poll then? Nobody likes AoW3's custom maps? :'(

[Sam Hotte]

Originally posted by hiliadan:

So should I drop the idea of this poll then? Nobody likes AoW3's custom maps? :'(

That's an invalid conclusion. If nobody (or only a few) took part in the poll, the valid conclusion is that they don't like the poll or at least don't want to take part in it for many reasons. E.g. you may (dis-)like them all the same, or you may just know a few of them and therefore don't want to rank them. Or whatever. Maybe they just don't like polling (over the matter at hand at least). :p

[hiliadan]

That's an invalid answer. The question was about the fact to organize a poll. This is not a poll, this is a discussion.

Ok so I guess I'm dropping the poll idea for maps. If anyone has other poll ideas (to organize polls on the Battlefield community website), please share them! :)

[Sam Hotte]

I just tried to express, that the fact that hardly anybody seems to be interested in the poll (or discussion/preparation of the poll) doesn't mean that nobody likes the maps.
You could love many/all of the maps and still not be interested in such a (discussion about a) poll. And vice versa.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

The biggest problem is the size of the community on this forum.

That Middle Earth map has, currently, 3500 subscribers, and over 12K people visited the page.

This forum has, perhaps... 20 regulars? And a bunch of people popping in and out on top of that?

Any response you're going to get will be heavily skewed in some way, just because the tiny sample size. Maybe nobody on this forum likes custom maps. Or maybe the 3 people who do all experienced computer failure/forced immigration to Siberia/conversion to neo-Luddism.

As for myself, I tried the Westeros map, Warhammer map & Middle earth map, but didn't really end up liking any of them.

Westeros map had some neat units and ideas, the map didn't make for that interesting a single player experience. The Westeros part of the map is quite small and crowded, with lots of players starting very close together, whilst the Essos part of the map is boring and empty.

The Warhammer Map stuck with vanilla leaders, which was boring. Why play Warhammer if you can't be/fight Karl Franz? Why do the Dwarves start in Ulthuan and the Orcs in the Empire? (It says you should make your own custom Warhammer characters, but that would A] take ages, B] make them appear in normal maps, and C] still wouldn't give you any of the proper heroes and such.) Why aren't there any of the warhammer world cities on the map? Plus, it killed my PC by being too big.

Neither map looked as good as a random one, terrain wise, let alone the official scenarios which (mostly) look better than the random maps.

The Middle Earth map seems well done, though I do question why they name the custom leaders things like "Rohan King Theodin" so every message says "Hello, Rohan King." That's easily fixed, though. I plan on playing that one some more.

[hiliadan]

Sure but the thing is when I launched a similar discussion about mods, we quickly had more than 20 proposed and easily got to a shortlist.

For the Westeros map, you mean the v3 from Gilafron, right? (the one I linked) I guess it depends on what you like in AoW3 but for me the crowdedness of the Westeros part was what I enjoyed a lot in the map. But clearly, it's much more fun in PBEM against humans, when you can get the RP interaction, the treason, the tension every turn (even more than against AI), etc.
I'm planning on playing the Winter is Coming and Fairy Tale maps some time in the future, as I remembered they were cooperative maps, so I'll play them in PBEM with 1-2 more players. Looking forward to it as I'm curious to see what the map creators cooked for us! :)

[Luqe]

yeah... that fan-service middle earth map is just another concept. teleporters everywhere sending you 1 screen away over useless mountains, 3 neighbours ready to jump you at 2 screens away. stacking 3 armies of desesperation tier 1s in a village is not my cup of tea in this game. that's AI's shtick. good thing it's number 1.

[hiliadan]

Looks like so far, except me for Gilafron's Westeros 3 map, nobody has praised any maps (and Iguana disagreed with me about Westeros 3 so it doesn't even count as true praise :D).