Random Map Contest

Kelimutu Lakes – 38.0 Points 1st Place

by Xingxing#0070

According to some, the lakes act as a resting place for departed souls. The souls of the dead are directed by the gatekeeper, Kondo Ratu, who decides based on the age and the behaviour of the recently deceased the lake they will go to. Tiwu Ko’o Fai Nuwa Muri (Lake of Young Men and Maidens) and Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake) slumber to the east. It’s the third, Tiwu Ata Bupu (Lake of Old People), the westernmost body, which seems the most bewitched. Long after the sun has risen and cleared the sky of any clouds, a thick mist stays swirling around the crater. Faint outlines, vaguely human in shape, form and dissipate in the vapour. Players start with only 4 gold mines and no stone mines close to their tc. The 3 volcanic lakes (1 big one in the center and 2 small in N and S) have high amount of fish. The water is shallow everywhere. When a fish is completely harvested, a gold mine with 400 gold spawns. The 2 small lakes have stone mines with 700 stone each on their shore. When a stone mine is depleted, a holy relic spawns. Close to each small lake, a shrine is located, which if you control it gives you the option to train priests. They only have 25 HP and 4 range, while also costing 100 gold, and you cannnot deposit relics in the shrines, so you have to consider your investment. (Remaining problems: The 2 lands in S and N where the smaller lakes should generate, do not generate reliably, sometimes too far away from the corner. If used competitively, this has to be fixed.) (Some volcanic vent and debris structure taken from Mount Bromo by HenkDeSuperNerd. Shrine control mechanic taken from Aftermath by Chrazini. )

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Huehuecoyotl22

Visually very appealing. Some unique gameplay elements. Maybe too unique? As the scripter mentioned, the positioning of the N and S lands should be improved to be less variable and with that the shrine placement would also be better.

Nili

i think this map is kinda confusing and I don't think the center will work as intended

daehiise

This map is absolutely stunning, the atmosphere described in the text comes across very well. Resources are scarce and the 'hidden' gold and relics seem difficult to reach, but the one single gold is safe and in the back, I'm interested in seeing what strategies players come up with to fight for the resources around the lakes. I think the competitiveness could be improved with slightly more stone and gold in the players' base.

Lavie_Head

--- The gold that spawning in the middle spaws inside the water and is impossible to mine.
--- Too little gold on the map for a competitive play.

+++ The idea of relics spawning once the stone is mined is great
+++ Like the idea with monasteries capture mechanics

T-West

The central feature of the middle lake, with the "walkable" water and smoke coming out of it to create a volcanic environment, looks really cool. The various scenery elements placed on the rocks work really well. Using different colors for each of the lakes is a nice touch as well.

It's always a bit risky to bit a big hill with resources in the middle of the map. That can make it rather difficult to make comebacks. Winning the middle gives a player fish, gold, and a hill bonus.
Sometimes the edges of the map are completely walled off by the forests and cliffs, other times they are open. This inconsistency can sometimes make it difficulty to access the top and bottom lakes. It adds another benefit to controlling the middle, as if these passages are blocked off then the middle controls the side ponds as well. And since the only stone is in these side ponds, that lets the middle player add more Castles and control to the middle.

Sacred Glades – 37.4 Points

by Zetnus

Sacred Glades is an open land map that features additional trainable units to serve as healing support.

Sacred Glades is an open land map that features additional trainable units to serve as healing support. These are monks with modified stats. The following are available: "Blind Lame Priest" - trainable in dark age from the pagan shrine that players spawn with. - Cost: 30 gold - 0 conversion range - Very slow walk speed when carrying a relic - 6 line of sight - 15 hitpoints "Healer" - trainable from a monastery. - Cost: 60 gold - 0 conversion range - Cannot pick up relics - 45 hitpoints - 4/4 armor - Regenerates health - Cannot be converted Map Resources: - 6 berry bushes, 6 gold, 6 stone close to the starting area - Standard amount of starting food (4+2+2 sheep, 2 boar, 2+2 deer) - 3 Neutral glades each containing 6+6 berries, 6 gold, 6 stone, 2 deer, 1 relic - Additional scattered 3 tile golds and 2 tile stones - 1 additional relic per player (for a total of 5 in 1v1)

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Huehuecoyotl22

Above average in all categories, but to me it feels like something is missing to make the map more appealing. I don't know how useful a monk (priest) with 0 conversion range is, but I expect a lot of strategies to be viable on this map.

Nili

would love some more wood or more wood on the trees

daehiise

This map is beautifully crafted, although the full magnificence of the glades can only be appreciated in CA where you can zoom out enough. A very open map, it promises heavy feudal action, with players possibly trying to sneak in a relic. I look foraward to endless scout wars. The woodlines are quite scarce, and if i would change somethin, it would probably be to make them a tad bigger.

Lavie_Head

Love the map

T-West

The usage of the birch trees to make circles around the groves is an awesome trick!

It will be interesting to see how the unique units trainable from the shrine end up affecting the gameplay, those are the defining feature of the map. Otherwise it's a fairly standard "open" map.

It feels weird that there aren't any hills or elevation changes. The map still looks beautiful, but the absence of hills make it feel emptier than it really is.

Starfighter – 37.0 Points

by cebdos#8421

Side waters are connected by a shallow river that runs around a middle hill. Standing on the hill, a rock church protected by a priest generates gold for the player controlling it. This open hybrid map is designed for feudal and castle age action, with fights taking place both on land and water.

The middle hill contains extra stone mines (shaped as rocks) and a rock church (not visible in scenario editor). Controlling the church generates gold (approx. 3 gold miners), however you first need to get rid of the gaia priest protecting it. The gaia priest being located in the centre of the church, he cannot be killed by melee units.

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Huehuecoyotl22

Visually appealing. Water adds something. The monument control condition is very original and I think it fits the tournament very well.

daehiise

This map is a nice mixture of a relatively standard framework with the added excitement of the monument that is defended by the monk. This brings a nice balance of competitiveness and originality. I would love to see players go for water control with the connection between the two seas.

T-West

Having the priest guarding the cross is a fun mechanic, although he dies pretty easily even to Feudal Age Archers.

The map has a fun snowy theme, and has "Scandinavia"-like bodies of water with fish on the edges.

There are some large areas of the map that feel a bit empty. Spreading some more straggler trees through the map might help to fill it up a bit.

The variety of terrains mixed with the snow work really well. They create a coherent environment that is really pretty to look at. The mixture of shallows along with the ice shores is a highlight.

Yam Suph – 35.2 Points

by HenkDeSuperNerd

Yam Suph is the body of water which the Israelites crossed following their exodus from Egypt. A priest (Moses) will lead your peoples, who after seeing the burning bramble bush devoted themselves to the prophet. Players will have to build a town center and establish a settlement, to prepare their exodus through the Red Sea. Eventhough players have no starting TC, The 5 extra villagers speed up the pace of the game, and access to fish will be an early thing to contest.

Players start with 8 villagers, a small herd of goats, a camel, a small hut, and a priest. The priest will be able to heal, but his ability to convert enemy units is significantly reduced (range=1) The passage in the middle resembles the sea floor. All land terrain on this map is buildable, and docks can be placed at shorelines on a flat surface of water. Resource placement for this map is aimed for competitiveness. Equal amount of forest and equal amount of minerals should be guaranteed, if this is not the case, the map is considered a bugged map. There are only 2 holy relics on the map, which can be picked up by the starting priests, so be careful not to lose them. The map is functional in team game settings as well. If the 'Team Positions' checkbox is ticked in the pre-game lobby, the teams will be placed in position where the lowest number and the highest number of the team (p1 and p7 for example) end up in flank position. If the 'Team Positions' checkbox is NOT ticked, players will be placed at a random position within their team. This does allow players to choose different colours, but it means they won't have control over the position within the team.

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Huehuecoyotl22

A Nomad start and a water-dominated map. As this is the only map in both of those categories, I would like to see it played. Still, the same as for the WDC contest where it entered too 4+ months ago, I wonder about how late game with water control will go and how enjoyable it will be to watch when one player wins water on both sides. That it's 2 separate bodies of water and a connection is there, however makes is more complex than standard water maps like Islands or Team Islands, because each player could control one side.

Nili

i think games will close to always go to imp here

daehiise

A very biblical map. The start with many villagers brings it somewhere between EW and RM, which could lead to nice aggressive games both on water and on land. Other than that, the resources are pretty standard, and make me want to see long games with ships and massive land armies fighting at the passage.

T-West

A great concept for a map, with a great usage of elevation to keep the water lower than the edges but higher than the "floor" in the middle.

The extra Villagers help to get off to a fast start, particularly since they can build the TC faster. Starting with the Hut to avoid being housed right away is a nice touch.

The resource distribution is fairly "standard", other than players being able to choose their TC location.

The patches of terrain throughout the map and the bits of reeds placed near the waters are nice touches as well.

Overall this is a very solid map.

Holy City – 34.3 Points

by Jasuni

Players start as pilgrims traveling to a friendly monastery in an abandoned Holy City. The city is surrounded by a moat and contains many relics which players will need to capture to defeat the enemy marauders.

Map requires a Tiny map size to generate properly. Priests have had their range lowered. The relic trickle rate has been halved and controlling the temple of heaven also generates a gold trickle. The gates of the neutral city are weakened, but villagers may not attack them.

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Huehuecoyotl22

The center looks very important, unsure how balanced it is. I like that it is difficult to reach the center. Visually it could be improved a lot with some objects, terrain mixing, etc.

daehiise

This map looks like it was crafted in the scenario editor, you can clearly see the effort that went into it. The mechanisms with the walls are a bit confusing, as you can't walk through gates and can't attack with villagers, but then rams kill the gates very fast. I think the middle part is a bit too big and makes walling too easy. It would be nice if the houses matched the architectural style of the monument.

Lavie_Head

Hard to figure out, can't decide on this one

T-West

This map certainly uses the word "Holy", giving players a Priest with a Relic and a "Monk Arena" in the Holy City for them to battle over Relics.

It will be interesting to see how players break through walls to get to the middle. Will they batter them down with Villagers? Get Siege Towers to hop over? Or just ignore them and focus on the outside? Looks like it will be fun to figure out strategies on this map, it's definitely something unique.

Having a Monastery in the middle significantly amplifies the power of civs that have Atonement (the tech to convert Monks) and even more for the Teutons with their conversion resistance. This has the potential to make games rather one-sided, if one player can just convert the other player's Monks in the middle and prevent them from getting Relics.

It's a bit distracting to have a slow trade cart for a scout, particularly in a 1v1, even though it does fit the theme. It consistently shows up as an idle villager, and there isn't anything to trade with. It probably works better in TGs when players can build Markets, but even then it's pretty disruptive to keep seeing an extra idle Vil in the Dark Age.

The Gaia City Gates get converted by players. Even though they can't be deleted, it can be a bit luck based if one player is able to get a dock up and get vision of them before the other. Making these unconvertible would probably help here.

Texcoco – 34.2 Points

by TheMadCADer

Past the dense jungle in the Yucatan, a shrine to the jaguar god lies in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Whoever controls the shrine will receive a blessing, so long as they are able to provide a sacrifice...

-The monument in the middle gives a gold trickle to the player who controls it -Players start off with a scout that has the same stats as an eagle scout, but it is not immune to jaguars

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Huehuecoyotl22

Looks quite competitive to me. The center is important, but there is good space on the outside with enough resources that you don't lose by losing the middle.

Nili

I don't like the bridges and think that feudal age agression won't be a thing, mass tower fest in the center?

daehiise

You start with a siege tower, need i say more? Other than that, the map is pretty, I'm interested to see how players will deal with the jaguars potecting the monument. It is a bit disappointing that the bridges seperate the water into 4 parts, I think with shallows this would open up the map a bit more for water play. Cliffs can spawn on the sides, which leads to very easy wall offs - easy enough to doule wall and render the siege tower useless.

Lavie_Head

The map is way too gimmicky for my taste

T-West

I've never seen bridges used in a random map script before. It's really cool to see them used here, echoing the usage of bridges from the Aztecs campaign.

I like the usage of the Jaguars in the middle. If one player tries to snag the monument early with their scout, then it will be killed, so the other player can just take the monument at that point. There seems to be a good bit of strategy about when to go for the middle.

The edges of the map feel a bit empty. Some other scenery, such as the old stone heads, or extra hunt, could help to liven up these areas of the map.

Otisco – 34.0 Points

by TechChariot#4776

Otisco Valley may be difficult to access, but its humble residents possess artifacts greater than gold. Will you make camp immediately or press southward to the fish-rich lake and seize the valley before your foes? Choose carefully, for the pass in the ridge may not reopen for quite some time. GLHF, T/c\

Players start with packed town center that requires a clear, flat 4v4 space to initiate construction.

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Huehuecoyotl22

Visually very appealing. However I think there are too much elevation to find a good tc spot, too little building space, and too many wolves.
With fewer wolves and no elevation on the inner land, I would like to see it played, as it is a complex map which fits the holy category well.

Nili

the wolves feels way too strong, tc spawns felt a bit buggy, very slow start

daehiise

This map has a very interesting concept. Its main weakness the lack of TC placement sites (I think it needs a reduction of hills, it can be quite difficult to unpack the TC). The map also has a lot of resources, which in my opinion could be reduced a bit, as wel as making the starting point for the waggon somewhere halfway to the pass. I think this map will be very fun to play, I however am not sure that it will be the most competitive.

Lavie_Head

There is not clarification for the neutral market, monastery and halbs in the middle. The map lacks further description. Too little gold, too many wolves and the distance between the opponents is really large. It does seems like the distribution of resources is still fair and thus the map can be seen as competitive. BUT the map's playability is really low

T-West

This map looks absolutely beautiful. Great job using a variety of terrains and blending them together. The Gaia Village looks really cute as well.

The amount of hills in the starting locations can vary quite a bit. Sometimes there is a clear place to put the TC right next to wood and hunt. Other times there isn't a great place to put it down. A bit more consistency here would help for more competitive games, either making the TC impossible to place so players are forced to the middle, or making it easier to place so they can get off to a decent start every game.

Putting all of the Relics on one side of the river and the Market on the other can be rather unbalanced, even if the river consists of shallows.

The lake in the bottom-left looks really interesting on the mini-map. But there isn't much going on in it---it's mostly just empty terrain. I feel like there's potential to do something more here.

Monastic Lands – 32.0 Points

by Corn#7379

Players start at the scarcely forested lands separated with a river, but connected through the central island. On the latter there are a wood-encircled area with "monastic lands" inside containing player's monasteries, houses, missionaries (1 per player), and 3 or 4 relics. River shores don't allow players to build docks, but they can use the transport ship available from the start to make some landings.

You will have 2 monasteries at start - one at the inner monastic settlement, one not far from TC - but you can't build more. Monks have +2 increased converting range and cost 80 gold, missionaries have +3 range but cost as usual. Transport ship has 150 HP and can board 11 units at once.

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Huehuecoyotl22

I don't like that there only are 2 very narrow passages to reach the other side. You can't build a dock and chopping enough wood to pass through the center of the island will take a long time, so unless both manage to keep their starting transport ship alive, it will become very defensive. I see it as a high risk-high reward map which can be interesting or not.

Nili

no real idea how comeptitive this map will be

daehiise

The outer part of this map seems quite standard, if it werent for the monastery grounds in the middle. It might lead to some heavy walling, if there weren't the transports. One just has to be VERY careful not to get them converted, for they are irreplacable. In my personal opinion, I would remove the missionaries to make it possible to pass the middle more easily.

Lavie_Head

Middle wood is the only reasonable place for a lumber camp and it is within the range of the missionaries in the middle ---> encourages some villager conversion and war starting in dark age. Fun, but potentially extremely messy

T-West

An interesting concept for a map, with an emphasis placed on the Monasteries in the middle.

The Missionaries are trapped in the middle and can't pick up Relics. They stop Villagers from chopping through the middle in the Feudal Age, since they can just convert them to keep them away.

Placing two Houses for each player is a nice way to prevent them from being housed right from the start.

Having a Monastery in the middle significantly amplifies the power of civs that have Atonement (the tech to convert Monks) and even more for the Teutons with their conversion resistance. This has the potential to make games rather one-sided, if one player can just convert the other player's Monks in the middle and prevent them from getting Relics.

The middle of the map looks really pretty, with the flowers, mountains, statue, and roads mixing in beautifully with the Monasteries and House. By contrast, though, the outside of the map doesn't feel as interesting. While that may be by design, I feel like there's room to add some more scenery there. Even something like a destroyed building would help to draw a contrast to the middle, rather than just being empty.

Players aren't able to Dock on the deep water, so losing the Transport Ship is a huge loss. Having it at the beginning allows for landings and sneaky strategies.

Holy hill – 28.0 Points

by Wolf_silver#7217

This map consists of a monument on a giant hill in the middle and generating resources for the player who control it. There is also a raised ring of grass surronding the central hill containing lot of stones and all relics of the map. Four lakes on each corner are also present but don't get so many fishes to get meta oriented into the control map of the mid. And finally a swamp is located between the central hill and the ring and can be used to make some demolition ships or any warship in later stages of the game to help control the mid.

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Huehuecoyotl22

Competitiveness and visual appeal are intermediate to good. But: It looks too much like just Cross (4 Lakes) with a hill+monument in the middle. I like Starfighter more for a map with a central monument.

Nili

m@a spawn not consistent, maybe make it more of them?

daehiise

Four Lakes King of the Hill, is what I would describe this map as. It is probably one of the more standard map, which benefits its competitiveness. I think this would be an awesome map for a FFA, but I am also excited to see what it will be like in a 1v1.

Lavie_Head

Too little starting food, meaning long dark age which is not great for a competitive play.
I can see berries on the screenshot, but there are none in game <-- ?

T-West

This map is essentially a variant of Cross, with the monument and a ring of stone and swamp in the middle.

The edges of the map feel a bit barren, I'd recommend adding in some straggler trees and perhaps more scenery objects (although the destroyed buildings do help a bit here).

The map is fairly balanced, by virtue of being quite "standard", and should be fun to play competitively.

Lost and Found – 26.8 Points

by nhoobish#7508

Between the lands of two rival lords a trade caravan has been plundered by brigands. All the goods stolen, its livestock butchered or scattered, yet there is a rumour going about in taverns and streets alike — a Piece of the True Cross was also among its cargo. The brigands would have not known to seize this invaluable ancient piece of wood, thus both lords are now determined to test authenticity of this gossip and retrieve the holiest of holy relics at all costs, even if it comes to war.

Currently utilises a bug with create_actor_area to place a singular Relic around the centre of the map. On Standard victory conditions after collecting this one and only Relic the Relic victory timer starts its countdown. This singular Relic (named Piece of the True Cross) generates gold equivalent to 4,5 Relics. Relic Food Rate is unchanged. Boars are not a privilege, they must be earned. Herdables have a chance to spawn, not guaranteed in every generation.

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Huehuecoyotl22

Visually neither bad nor special - it looks good. It also looks quite competitive. However, I think it lacks originality, something that sticks out in comparison to other open land maps.

Nili

mongols/franks fest with lots of luck factor, would like it more with consistens res spawn

daehiise

This map has an interesting idea, allowing for a relic victory. The issue I see is that the resource spawns can be very imbalanced, this as well as the potential for a snowball victory by getting the relic reduce the competitiveness score of this map. But the map looks very nice with the birch trees and the competitiveness could be vastly improved by making the resources spawn more reliably for both players.

Lavie_Head

How will the one relic impact lithuanian kts?
The map design encourages an aggressive gameplay which a big plus. Can't be competitive if the spawn of food is so random. If the food spawn is fix, the would be one of my favourite maps in the competition.

T-West

This map has a fun fight over the Piece of the True Cross, placed nicely next to a broken cart.

Sometimes the Relic can be closer to one player than to the other, which can make the fight over it a bit unfair. The Relic is just sitting out in the open, so there's no real investment required by the players, other than fighting each other and trying to snag it with a Monk.

This map is very similar to Valley, but with a road running through the middle. The outsides of the map look quite barren and empty. Some extra resources, hunt, straggler trees, or scenery objects. The extra Boar in the middle road are nice, but there needs to be something else to fill the outsides.

HoleyCross – 26.3 Points

by dangerduck#1378

At the interesection of a dead river of stone and a lively mangrove river with fishyfruit, an scorched lake of gold marks the site where ancient relics are buried nearby. Two adversaries have set up across the scorched lake where they have found mysterious fish jumping out of the land. Will they eliminate their opponent through conventional means, or reclaim all relics to achieve control of the Holey Cross?

Please turn relic victory on! This map is meant to be a balance between the three prongs of water, land, and holy victory.

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Huehuecoyotl22

It looks fine, I just don't like the sharp edges and contrasts between biomes. A "gold rush" type map would fit into every map pack, however, I don't see the "holy" aspect.

Nili

chinese/indian feast

daehiise

This is the indian paradise. I think that the concept of this map is very interesting, altough it might try to do too many things at once. A few select civs might be way stronger than the rest, due to the massive amount of fish, but nonetheless i think we could see some nice messy entertaining games on this map.

T-West

The map has an interesting idea: a "cross" of forest/river that meets with an island of cracked dirt in the center.

Overall though the map has a lot of different themes that struggle to fit together. There are African trees, southeast Asian shallows, Bamboo on the cracked dirt, and basic grass terrains on the outside. I feel like the map would be stronger if it picked a single theme and rolled with it, rather than trying to cram in all of these different biomes.

The usage of hunt throughout the outsides of the map helps to fill in some of the empty space. Adding a few more straggler trees along with some smaller terrain patches would probably help even more.

The fish jumping out of the land feels like a rather random addition to the map. I don't see how they fit in with the rest of the script.

Pilgrimage – 26.0 Points

by Rorrik#8480

Two contending peoples encamp beside a wooded sea in a desert land. They come bearing holy relics in a pilgrimage to the mosques in two of the corners of the map, the usage of which can return gold to their own shrines at home, but at the cost of scouting information. With gaia markets in two corners, a starting market, and a trade cart for a scout, players must decide how much gold scouting information is worth.

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Huehuecoyotl22

I like the conecpt. Visually it could use some improvement in several aspects. The biggest weakness in my opinion is that it looks very easy to wall and that player spawn positions vary so much, that distances to the neutral markets can be unfair. If you connect those 2 aspects, one player might get a big advantage if (s)he can wall off both neutral markets.

Nili

market to mosque spawns can be really unfair

daehiise

I like the sound of the tradecart. I think this map is one of the better balanced ones and I am interested in seeing if players will actually go for the trade. The water seems quite difficult to reach and I'd hope it does not go forgotten. This map will probably play out as a closed map, with the easy possibility to wall. That can be desired, or the woodlines could be reduced a bit.

Lavie_Head

The opponents are too far away from each other with easy walls. A boring wall+boom map with not many other options

T-West

Starting with the trade carts and markets in the edges is an interesting mechanic, particularly with the Trade Cart being the only scout. It can be a bit annoying to use the Trade Cart as a Scout, though, since it shows up as an idle villager. But being able to task the cart to the market helps to alleviate that pain.

I expect this map to have a rather "closed" playstyle, with the woodline around the water in the middle making the map rather easy to wall.

The water in the middle is rather simple: using some terrain patches to add in some mixing water terrains would help. Right now there's just a simple progression from shallow to medium to deep.