Random Map Contest

Hallowed Reefs – 38.6 Points 1st Place

by Chrazini

The long lost and abandoned hallowed reefs have been rediscovered and players will fight to retrieve as many of the holy artefacts as possible. The middle is always visible to all players, and holding that, will grant the player a significant advantage in terms of resource generation. Fight for land, water and overall domination!

The middle holds 4 resource workshops, which can be converted by any player at any time in the game (like a monument in KOTH). Each workshop grants you a small resource bonus when held. Because of time constraints, the map is best played on 8-player-map. Not much optimization has been done on other map sizes.

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
7.4 / 10.0	7.8 / 10.0	7.2 / 10.0	7.8 / 10.0	8.4 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

Design is really beatiful and scenic.
Enough resources on the map for a free for all, safe areas in the back make it an easy option to boom, altough fighting over fish, relics and ofcourse the workshops will give a big advantage to the aggressive type of players.
The map works well on 8player size with 8 players, but I've had it crash several times trying to generate for 7 players (both of 8-player size, as well as 6-player size). Still the coding behind the placement is really proffesional.
You tried increasing the Town Center population space, but this was unsuccesfull (you typed AMOUNT_POPULATION which afaik is not a recognized attribute. To achieve extra population I'd recommend placing a free house at the start or adding pop-head-room (free extra pop space), because adding eextra popspace to TC's also affects the boom later in the game (giving a decent bonus for booming with multiple TC's).

AlgernonR

Very nice looking map with a beast of a script (which is quite difficult to understand at times, here explanations in comments would help a lot - however I understand the time constraints). Good concept for a community game map with the many different areas of interest - you can take another players island for a lot of extra resources, you can fight for controlling the resource workshops at the centre of the map, or fight to win the race to the many relics on the islands surrounding the middle. This balance could be a bit skewed by introducing a monumen in KOTH so perhaps the maps work best with regicide only? I would like to see some pop space added for the regicide start though as being housed at the start is just an annoyance. I like the symmetry and the way the starting TCs spawn on shallow with fish around - however I think perhaps the players with an indented island with place for their TC have a bit of an easier time than the 4 corner players with their TC far out in the open. I like the map a lot.

Cicero

The start is very original. The shallows-start could make this map very water dominant, though players will also be busy fighting for control of their shared land. My main criticism of this map is that it for community free-for-all games, it will largely decided by who you get paired with. Players able to quickly dominate their area could then make it very hard for other players to leave their starting islands. The script shows that this is an experienced and skilled map creator.

Pyroptere

Really love when the islands are shared, and dislike when individual.
Corner players are screwed when individual spawn aswell. (Balance & Playability would be 9 when shared island, 4 when not shared)
But not shared is more in the theme ("Players should start on separate islands", but shared islands is better for community games imo).
Gold are often stuck to forest.

Theme is well-respected.

Zetnus

General feedback:
-Nice perfectly symmetric setup
-Starting islands are larger with plenty of resources, although the resource generation does provide incentive to fight for the middle.
-It seems like the corner lands are at a disadvantage compared to the edge lands, since their TC is much more exposed and they get less space and fewer resources on their land.
-The chance to have players share the same lands is interesting, but not really in the spirit of having your own land.
-Visually great, and actually scales reasonably well to map size until you get to tiny.

Code feedback:
I apologize if I have jumped to the wrong conclusions here, but it seems to me like the author pasted in their fully-fledged multi-purpose skeleton script and then worked from there. While you aren't expected to type out every word of your script during this 24 hour challenge (ie. copying in your gold scaling by map size is perfectly fine), it's not really in the spirit of this contest to copy in a huge existing script and just activate the relevant definitions and parts either. At the least, it makes it hard to follow what is actually being done and can contribute to redundancy. Some of the code is necessary for positioning of the lands, etc. but some of it is also redundant or inactive as far as I can tell.
Credit where it's due, the final product is fantastic, the code is well written, and the author did write the last part of the script specifically for this map and theme. However, 18000 lines seems excessive, and is more than the judges can be reasonably expected to look at.
-Oh and watch for 'if' in comments

Kraken – 37.4 Points

by Zetnus

A stormy northern sea map with cliffs and scattered shipwrecks. Players start on a very small island, but get 2 transport ships to expand with immediately. Wood, gold and stone are found on neighboring islands. If you don't like your neighboring islands, steal someone else's using your transports. Extra starting resources aid rapid expansion. Middle of the map is an uninhabitable icy bulk that has relics and will have a monument in KoTH.

Map is for UP 1.5 WITHOUT WK. WK will break the terrains in this map.

AoC+UP – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
6.6 / 10.0	7.8 / 10.0	6.4 / 10.0	8.4 / 10.0	8.2 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

perfectly fits the theme.
Map is really cool but doesn't have that extra suprise factor that many of the other entries have.
The code is really solid, with smarth ways to get cliffs to spawn in weird locations, but without making the script unnecessarily complicated.

AlgernonR

Visually stunning map using very clever scripting, like cliffs spawning before terrain to create the cliffs in the ocean for example. Overall the script is very well written and the comments are very good at explaining the reason for certain things added. The different weather is also a very nice touch and fits the map feel extremely well. One issue for me is players are housed at the start of the game - is 2 transports really needed? If they are, maybe add a house or some pop room using UP features. Another potential issue in gameplay could be the difference in wood amounts between players. Since the woods on extra islands are created using a certain distance to the shore the amount generated could be very different based on the irregular shapes of the islands. A long thin islands will have no wood while a circular island will have lots. This is a late game problem though most likely and perhaps not worse than any other bad generation in the game - just something I noticed. Also, playing the map on KOTH I see an extremely drawn out game in front of me with water control being the only real thing to go for, and with the chokes on this map it could get pretty disgusting. Perhaps it would be good to introduce some "quick" way to win as a standard thing? Perhaps a guard_state of some kind? But overall, a very impressive map.
Housed at the game start - could have added some extra population space or maybe a house.
Wood situation can be very different between players depending on the shapes of neighboring islands - this is due to the forests having a certain distance from shores.

Cicero

I liked the atmosphere evoked her. I also liked the way the outer islands generate (the method used was smart), though I don't think there's enough wood on the map, so perhaps there could have been slightly fewer/bigger islands. Good idea with the cliffs on the water around the middle to make it harder to traverse, though I think the amount of objects is too many considering AoE2 pathing. Not allowing building in the centre was a good move, since it makes the centre more difficult to hold (though the massive hill might still make it too easy to retain control of the monument). I thought the amount of gold/stone on the tiny starting islands was excessive - also I once had my gold trapped behind the stone and castle.

Chrazini

I like it! I love how balanced the map is. All players seem to have an equal amount of lands, and the way this was coded was also very clever.
It ticks many boxes for the contest requirements and is just overall pleasant to look at. Good job.

Pyroptere

Really cool and good looking map (snow + dark <3), fitting the theme.
Sometimes one island can surround entirely the starting island.

The boosted starting ressources is a good plus for community games map.
I love the fact that we have plenty of islands to expand to.

Cliffs are not fair to people south-east of the map.

Tsunami – 36.6 Points

by AlgernonR

In a small sea region in the far east eight different warlords share the ambition to overthrow the others. They each have an island of their own yet they are all connected by shallow water to one other warlord. They will need to keep this particular enemy at bay while fortifying their position on the mainland, and when the opportunity rises - fight for control of the four smaller resource-filled islands in the corners of the map.

A few things to note: The map is compatible with Regicide or King of the Hill. The map is also played on Sudden Death but player's still have the ability to build new Town Centers. At 3 times in the game the player lands will be harrowed by terrible Tsunami storms and at these moments units should be kept safe indoors or harboured on the main island in the centre of the map. First wave will hit at 30 minutes and last 10 minutes. Second wave will hit 30 minutes after the first one end, same with wave 3. After these 3 storms the sea has calmed and if there are any survivors left at that point they can fight it out under less stressful circumstances.

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
8.2 / 10.0	8.8 / 10.0	5.8 / 10.0	7.6 / 10.0	6.2 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

Very cool concept and well scripted
a monk at start is always risky, however with the 2 sea towers and the small range of the missionary you made it balanced. also sea towers instead of watchtowers means no dark-age trush, which gives every player a bit more time to safely build up their empire.
Fish distribution is not very fair.
Lack of gold/stone in the middle makes it very hard to replenish the expensive units you lost to the storm, or from fighting your opponents

Cicero

The starting situation with the sea towers is a nice touch - although these sometimes fail to spawn. More importantly, the central island can also sometimes fail to spawn (!). Using the tsunami to force players to the mainland is a good idea, but players still need to have some control the outside since there is no gold in the middle. My main criticism is with how players are paired - this can be a problem for community FFAs, since these matchups can be very unbalanced. Being paired with a weaker opponent here would then give a significant advantage against everyone else since beating this player is probably the only way of getting more gold.

Chrazini

Really interesting idea. The land and water layout is great and forces players to be aggressive - to either win an extra island or two protect the few dockable areas they have. I fear some players getting stuck on their island with nowhere to dock, though.

Nothing screams ghosts, pirates or sea monsters, but the deep sea and tsunami is a very original way of handling it.

Pyroptere

Rain looks good, but isn't it a problem for performance?
Tsunamis comes in 3 waves, so you have some safe moments to get back to the outside...that's a bit weird and only people reading the script can know it, which is a bit unfair. The "outside" with outlaws gold island, and the shared island is crazy cool. I really love that we "share" starting island with that connection. And that we cannot dock everywhere on our starting island.

Main island is not interesting and kinda empty...which is a shame since all will have to go on it @30 min mark to avoid tsunami.

NEVERMIND, I just see now the map description^^ with the timings. I misjudge that sorry and makes it really really cool then, to come back to the islands.

Zetnus

General feedback:
-Yay, weather effects!
-Medium and deep water are not dockable! As result, the player lands are only dockable in one or two places on the shallows. Even if this was intentional, I do not think it is a good design decision to severely restrict docking in this manner.
-Tsunami is cool, and of course incredibly unique, but without a visual or auditory cue, it is easy to miss it until you notice that all your villagers are gone. Playing with the game time displayed is a must!
-Occasionally the player starts will bug out and fail to place the sea towers and transport, which is problematic because it is so hard to dock, and because the TC is on sudden death (and vulnerable without the towers).
-Visually it's blocky, flat and not overly appealing
-The paired islands mean that you basically have to play with 8 players for it to stay fair, which is fine, because it doesn't scale down that well anyway.

Code feedback:
-Birds don't spawn due to a typo in the relevant #const
-A lot of clever tricks to set up the paired lands and and the tsunami itself.

Cursed Island – 35.8 Points

by abductedPlatypus

Somewhere in the seven seas one can find a once mighty fortress towering above many riches. At the foot of fortress the living dead mindlessly roam, no longer able to mind either the many riches that once drove them here, nor your greedy presence. But beware none have returned after startling those forgotten ghosts. Hints: * Dead Pikemen explode on death. * Dead Pikemen can be lured, and killed near enemy armies, dealing * significant damage to them. * In KotH Villagers and Dead Pikemen can be bought at the monument. * They look just like normal pikemen, but with a big bada boom when they die. Designed mainly with King of the Hill in mind, but still very much playable otherwise. Also playable on AoC + UP.

In King of the Hill: * If one dares capturing the monument expect a curse; draining one's gold while granting the accursed access to an ectoplasmic army. * Only patience and trickery can save these anguished fools.

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
8.0 / 10.0	7.5 / 10.0	6.5 / 10.0	8.0 / 10.0	5.8 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

perfect theme!
I think this map is pretty cut-troat: At the start it is hard to manage the eco. Experienced players might get quite an edge here, if they know how to play the early game and manage to afford some fish boom. I imagine good players will be able to get a hold on the mainland, and weaker players will then struggle to find a place to settle, but I don't know how the additional smaller islands might help players who did not manage to secure a spot on the mainland, would be interesting to find out.
Also important is to forbid straggler tree laming (remoing trees by placing a palisade over them), since the starting island only has stragglers. Better not play on explored to prevent laming.
I love the zombie swordsmen, and the monument that drains gold.

AlgernonR

A map with quite special features. The dead longswords (called pikemen in the description?) fits the ghost theme very nicely. The ability to lure them to enemies and dmg them is ofc a thrilling concept for a community game but probably not something you would see a lot. Even as eye-candy they add a lot though. The cursed Monument for KOTH is another interesting idea, but I do doubt how well it works in practice. Seems to me you would have to add stronger units to create from the monument in order to make it worth it ever be the first to claim it. Perhaps make it possible to build something that generates gold from it to over time overcome the curse. Atm I think stalling for middle will be a common sight which kinda ruins the idea. The script is nice and shows a fair amount of knowledge and experience with designing maps like these. Comments are used nicely throughout and makes it easy for a reader to understand the reason for the different elements. The starting islands look a bit too boring for my taste but I suppose players will leave them soon enough. I also would like to see players not being housed at the start of a regicide game.

Cicero

I especially like the idea of for the cursed monument - to have a penalty for holding the monument could make a 'regicide' victory a more attractive option to players. The lack of wood on the starting island forces players to transport early, but regicide resources makes that more feasible. Also, a minor point but I liked how the relics only spawn on the extra islands, encouraging exploration of them. Overall, a well-made map, showing experience with some of the more advanced UP effects. Players do start very housed, which is not ideal.

Chrazini

Superb map - All the extra lands are useful, very interesting and original game mechanics. I love the "zombies" mindlessly walking around, though I would like to see more objects that would enhance the theme and aesthetics. It seems like you were extremely focused on the idea of the monument and the units it produces - and that is executed extremely well, but that resulted in the lack of other interesting features about the map.
I love the originality. I do fear that games may become long as no one wants to capture the monument early as you get punished immensely by holding it.

Pyroptere

That's a really cool concept, I really hope that people will see the potential of having an extra TC to take the monument at the start. (instead of waiting for it to be reached 100 years thx to someone else). The draining gold stopping at 0 makes this possible and interesting imo.

The special unit is probably too costly, especialy since we cannot delete it.

Special "wolves" doesn't aggro you, and even after an attack, you cannot lure them very far away.

The extra islands are also nice.

The main island looks really "standard" visually, which is a bit sad, since they are like "undeads" maybe more graves and stuff theme? =/

Zetnus

General feedback:
-It is basically migration. The dead pikemen are cool but gimmicky, and everything else is pretty standard.
-Could have made the terrains more interesting and varied.
-Player starts are fair, but TCs are sometimes very close to water.

Code feedback:
-Good job on the dead swordsmen and all the thought that went into giving them the right attributes.
-A bit of base size for the player lands would be good to add.

Possesed_Monks – 33.2 Points

by SnippyInDaHouse

The mighty King was not happy he had to use the local boar transport ship to get to his new homelands. And the storm brewing did not amuse him either. Getting shipwrecked next to the island of posessed monks was not in his plans. Hopefully the villagers pathfinding will get the ship safe through the storm....

Monkey_Boy will transform into a monk with a relic when killed. Only 5 relics needed for relic victory means several players can have victory countdown at the same time, this also prevents longer games as relic countdown will force players into more aggressive play. Map is regicide by default. Can be played with or without diplomacy. Can be played as KOTH, or standard. (Relic victory should be enabled in settings).

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
7.7 / 10.0	6.5 / 10.0	4.7 / 10.0	8.0 / 10.0	6.3 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

monks? monkeys? totally wicked
I love the tiny startingisland with the boars, however they sometimes are connected to other islands with golds, seems a bit unfair. Also here it is preetty hard to balance the early eco, and to save enough wood for a transport and some fishing ships.
Vills being unable to fight back when attacked by a monkey, makes it even more hard-core. however if you manage to box it in you have a nice trap for your potential monk-with-relic
you forgot to add the guard-state that causes the player who loses a king to be defeated. Also regicide resources were missing (you only defined the constants but forgot to add the actual effects)

AlgernonR

Simple but cool concept using relics introduced after the start of the game to create a custom game mode using relic victory. I like that the map doesnt go crazy with UP effects but rather just use a single, important one which players will understand very easily. I think the start is perhaps a bit too slow for being a community FFA map, but I suppose the regicide resources added correctly will help somewhat with that (At the moment Regicide only works if selected in the lobby - but this could easily be fixed: "Henk's regicide thingy" should be moved up to <PLAYER_SETUP>). The script is well layed out and clear to read.
Starting islands are sometimes connected with gold islands - sometimes not. I dont think this a big problem, but it is an advantage for some players. Visually the map is a bit of both worlds. The middle island is really good looking with elevation and cliffs as well as various different terrains and objects. The rest of the map looks very bland though and it wouldnt hurt to use a terrain with a different minimap color on the outer/middle islands. The ocean and outer islands look rather unfinished - which given the timed challenge of course could also be the case. Again, easily fixed to add some different water terrains and perhaps add patches of terrain on the outer islands. Given the map concept the middle area will be where all the action is anyway most likely so its not a huge issue - overall a well-working map with a clear thematic connection and a clever concept.

Cicero

Ok, this map is hilarious. The start is very original, and there seem to be a few different approaches for how to start this. The victory conditions are also quite unique, demonstrating a good understanding of UP effects, and I appreciate the idea of allowing multiple players to have the victory countdown. Having such small starting islands allows for a large central landmass (larger than migration) which is also a plus since this allows for plenty of action on land. Obviously, this map isn't the most balanced/playable in the conventional sense, but I saw that to be part of the fun. Sometimes, however, players can start with gold on their starting islands (or perhaps different islands are merging together) so this is something I'd like to see fixed.

Chrazini

It's a fun idea and concept, but I don't think it works very well in this case. The two times I tried the map, I lost most villagers in a matter of seconds to the monkey boys. Because the villagers cannot attack the monkey boy, it's really difficult to consistently get a good start. It seems unbalanced as you need the mainland and wood to properly fight back, but when you lose all wood on the spawn island and all access to wood on the mainland is so restricted, you just kind of end up so far behind from everyone else.
I like the "story" on the map. The villagers crashing on the small islands, standing near their respective shipwrecks.
Why is all water shallow when the requirement is deep sea? ;)

Pyroptere

Very cool concept with the furious monkey boy dropping monk with relics, could have been pushed even further (whole map should have rotated around that mechanic).
Many hills on main land, hard to TC.
I love the text explaining why there is boars with us and why we're here^^
Villagers cannot attack monkey though, need king scouting before building on main land, everyone will have to use archers.
Some people can spawn on a side with less monkeys.
Theme is deep water^^ all is shallow here. (But the "possesed monks" are cool) The story is really nice aswell, stormy =)
Visual is a bit above average, I like the main land but not too much the islands and water (too much red fishes)

Zetnus

General feedback:
-Player starting lands sometimes merge with "bonus" gold islands. This is particularly problematic because the player lands are otherwise incredibly barren, so this can create a significant imbalance between the player starting conditions.
-You could consider providing nomad starting resources so people can build a TC immediately.
-The monkey boys to monk+relic is a really cool and original idea.
-Central land is nicely done, but the rest is dull.
-Some water mixing would have been nice.

Code feedback:
-spacing_to_other_terrain_types is exactly that. It will not space desert from other patches of desert. Which is where the issue I described above stems from. The solution is to make the player lands out of some other terrain and then fully replace that terrain with desert after you have created the bonus lands.

Haunted Islands – 26.8 Points

by HenkDeSuperNerd

In the spooky sea is where pirates be. The stories being told, is that they lookin' for gold

Looks best on WK or HD, because the black rocky terrain looks good. also works fine on AOC (here the black terrain is substituted by shiny roads)

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
5.0 / 10.0	5.4 / 10.0	4.2 / 10.0	6.4 / 10.0	5.8 / 10.0

AlgernonR

Good looking map using starting islands without any gold. No stone at all on the map (can be a problem for certain civs - but at the same time an interesting decision). The no gold on starting islands is a problem though cause there is a pretty high likelyhood of a player not being connected to the middle islands but rather having to walk through another player's island or transport to getting to there, a pretty unfortunate position to be in. Maybe this could be fixed to be a bit more consistent. I dont really see anything in the map that makes it fit especially well for a community FFA game but rather it looks fairly standard except for the missing stone. When launching the KOTH version it looks a lot more fun when you also have the relics to fight for - is it really meant to have no relics if played only on Regicide? The script is clear and pretty straight forward - and with comments at some sections. If Regicide start players will start housed, maybe could be fixed by adding a house or pop space using a UP effect? I also dont really think the trade cog start adds much personally - I would have went with a transport ship or a demo ship. :D

Cicero

I like the way the islands in the middle generate, and that they are all connected by shallows. Nice use of mountains also to make this map a little more distinctive. My only real criticism is with the land-water ratio. Imo more land would both make for a better balance of land and water aggression, and allow for wood on the map - which is needed. With only a few changes this could be a very playable map.

Chrazini

Great map in terms of theme. Lands can be very uneven and the general balance doesn't seem to be prioritised here. Some players have to cross enemy lands to enter the middle gold, other players spawn with their own private land behind their base with gold.
The map is great but doesn't offer anything out of the ordinary for a community game.

Pyroptere

Gold island can spawn at the back of your base, overall the balance is pretty weak (you can spawn far away from center aswell).

Zetnus

General feedback:
-Flowers as floating seagrass is nice, but you may have overdone it with the number of shipwrecks.
-NO STONE on the entire map!!! Unless you have a specific reason for this, you should always have all the resources.
-No huntables or shore fish. This is okay, because there are forages and regular fish, but is still unusual.
-Regicide support is minimalistic (no extra villagers, and no castle)
-Gold can be far away from players (ie. having to cross another player's land to get to it.) It might make sense to give players a bit of starting gold on their own island.
-The only map to actually take the connections seriously.

Code feedback:
-Regarding negative borders for player lands: Just don't do it. I know, I am at fault for propagating knowledge of it even being possible, and saying that it is ok in moderation, but the reality is that is is unreliable, and should not be used for player lands. Town centers are sometimes "hanging" off the edge of the map, and it occasionally just crashes because the player lands have their origin outside the map.

Treasure Island – 25.5 Points

by Vectorfield

Map with players starting on islands with starting resources that won't last forever. There are extra islands with gold and wood as well as a "treasure island" with a lot of old and stone, which is however, guarded by a lot of wolves so it can't just be landed with vills.

WK – Download

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Originality	Professionality	Balance & Playability	Theme	Visual Appeal
3.8 / 10.0	4.8 / 10.0	5.0 / 10.0	6.0 / 10.0	5.8 / 10.0

HenkDeSuperNerd

fits the theme well: many small islands and one spooky island with all the golds in the middle.
I don't really see the added value of the ring of land around the edges of the map. and when a player is connected to this ring, they can get acces to other islands without using a transport ship.
Some of the smaller starting islands are lacking a woodline.

AlgernonR

Neat, simple concept of a map - combining Islands with gold rush basically. Doesnt feel like a typical community map though, and I think it would benefit from adding something more a unique trait. The starting islands look a bit bland with just grass, without any other terrain patches. The rest of the map is very visually appealing though, the water looks great and the surrounding land strip also adds a bit to the looks of it. The script is clear and have comments added, explaining certain sections. I do think the script should include some conditionals of player count to adjust land percent and avoidance distances - the map is a bit inconsistent across different player counts.
Fairly high likelyhood of very unfair starting islands - some islands spawn without any woodlines (huge problem) and some even have access to two big forests. Amount of gold actually spawning on starting islands can also differ greatly. The extra islands with wood also have quite a high likelyhood of not leaving space for even a lumber camp which again makes the luck factor bigger than it really should be. The concept is a working one and it fits the theme fairly well. I do however feel like the map is pretty "meta" and doesnt offer that unique of an experience.

Cicero

There are some visual touches here - I liked the use of shallows and the shipwrecks that spawn on them. The concept is solid, and fits the theme well. The main problem here was the land-water ratio. There is little land on this map, and therefore not much wood either - sometimes players have no wood on their starting island at all. Also, almost all land on the map can be ranged by ships, so a higher land % should make land aggression more viable. With some improvements, this can be a good community map.

Chrazini

Simple, but decent submission. I think the creator could have put a bit more effort into the aesthetics of the map. The theme of the challenge is not very well visualised.
The middle island is a great place to see players fight for gold and stone while still forcing them to explore the outside for forests. Once the resources on the players starting island runs out, I don't see them being able to participate much anymore, as water maps require a lot of wood and gold.

Pyroptere

That's not a bad map, but I don't see anything that makes it special.
I like the 1 sheep always under TC.
I don't like the only 1 kind of fish, the often unexploitable ressources (mines close to water or forest island without place for lumber camp)
Gold in general is too scarce for FFA, especially with water and middle doesn't have that much of it.

Zetnus

General feedback:
-Lands are nice and ragged.
-Player lands may start connected to bits of desert, sometimes giving them access to extra gold compared to other players.
-Occasionally players will be connected to the central island, or to other players, neither of which is desirable or fair.
-Resources on player islands tend to "clump" together.
-The idea of an outside ring is interesting, but perhaps too narrow in places to be useful.

Code feedback:
-This map is a good example of how somewhat haphazard scripting can still make a nice map.
-other_zone_avoidance_distance only works for lands, not terrain
-Your desert has no spacing_to_other_terrain_types, which is why it sometimes merges with player lands
-Place your gold and stone earlier (before restricting the space with deer and stragglers trees etc.)