Glad to see you're still around Vat, and still pumping out some nice maps! (XYZ8000 here, changed nickname some years ago
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I finally found some time to try this out, hope it's not too late. I really liked the theme, original and nicely done!
I took some notes when playing it, some bugs that can be quickly fixed:
- You can get some fall damage if you move around after respawning. Personally I found having to wait before moving unnerving
- I saw a bot running back and forth between the eggs in the starting room more than once, not sure what it might be causing that.
- The doors before the "get small" room can get bots stuck, they should be IgnoreWhenEncroaching (and so should be all the other doors in any MH map, since otherwise you can get some smartasses that stay in front of them voluntarily to block the other players from progressing)
- I haven't opened the map in the editor but it seems that you're using only one destination for your teleporters, make sure to have plenty of destination spots (at least 4) to both avoid bots telefragging and, most importantly, to avoid players standing in the teleporter destination to block others from teleporting (especially important for the teleporter to the Alice room since it is mandatory!)
- It's not that easy to remember which teleporter gets where in the starting room, I would make the "current" teleporter even brighter to make sure that players get in on the first try (although it's not really a big deal since you can teleport back if you choose the wrong one)
- The "Oxygen level refilled" message leaves some empty lines in the chat box, if you're using an Inventory even if the pickup message is "" it will still produce an empty line
- The underwater caverns below the fountain is a bit plain looking compared to the rest of the level, I would add some more contrast and make the rock surfaces High Detail, some fog could also work wonders
- There's an invisible collision error on the ramp before the Jabberwocky fight, you can't get to the top of the ramp without jumping. Since there aren't many pickups in that area you could maybe add something on the ledge at the top of the ramp? (Maybe some thigh pads)
You can also exit the map from said ledge, you should place a BlockPlayers above the forest if you want to prevent players from roaming around on the top of the cliffs (could be fun with RocketXs though
).
- When Alice kills the cow it says "a cow killed a cow"
- I would stay clear of adding the Minigun and its ammo before the door of the last room. Otherwise players could safely stay in the corridor and "freeze" the queen (make her stuck into the pain animation as long as they keep firing) and make for an easy boss fight... If you add it in the boss room itself players will have to be exposed to get the weapon/some ammo, making it less of a problem.
- The Queen killed quite some Skaarjs/"Cards" with her door projectiles, you might want to make the projectiles pass through them instead
- The Red Queen appears in the score table! Even after you finished the map. Not sure how you're handling her being a monster and not respawning, but if you're relying on her having only one life this could give a problem in variants like MHExcal where lives have been removed. You might want to spawn her right before the cutscene and then Destroy() her once she's done.
As far as gameplay goes there were a couple of things that I didn't like much, but I'm more of a "give me 200 weak monsters in a single room" guy so take these suggestions with a grain of salt since most other players might find the map perfectly fine, gameplay is subjective
. They might also take quite a while to implement so I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to rework the gameplay.
- I've never liked Creature Factories much, especially when used this extensively.
My main gripe is that if you die you basically have to get through the same part of the level doing again a fight that you already "won" by passing through, sometimes it feels like you're playing the same section three times in a row. I would especially avoid using bCovert in this way since it happens very often that you're retreating from some monster and another spawns right behind you, killing you.
In some sections covert works (like the forest) but I would definitely avoid using it in small parts like the corridor where you first encounter the Card monsters. I would rather have the monsters spawn with a teleport effect in front of me. If you want to keep the covert adding anyway some kind of sound effect on spawn could at least warn players when something has spawned right behind them.
If it would be me I'd add some more "permanent" monsters (non spawned via Creature Factory) to raise the challenge a bit (make it harder to go through a section) but make the Creature Factories spawn less monsters.
- I don't like much the quick respawning of the eggs, since being health you can basically stack up to 180 every time you get to some eggs, you just have to wait a few seconds. If it would be me I would maybe give them some more health but treat them as normal MedBoxes as far as respawn goes.
- I found the JabberWocky fight very very easy, he stood still in the lava pool so all I had to do was hit is head with the ripper and dodge a little every time he shot his projectile. Those rockets you gave him are pretty weak in comparison to the normal rocks since they don't fragment, so you just have to move 100uu and you're safe. If you want to keep him stationary like that I'd either add some support monsters or buff up his rockets (not necessarily damage, spawn some more rockets with less damage but wider spread? Otherwise you might try to make them slightly "heat seeking" so that a player has to move quite a bit to not get hit). I noticed only afterwards that you can make the rock roll
- The almost invisible monsters felt a bit awkward to fight, I would have very much preferred if they were very slightly transparent so that you can see their hitbox, it might be just me but especially the Kralls's collision seemed a bit off. It seems like projectiles pass right through the Krall's head without headshotting. However I'd keep them "invisible" as they are quite unique, I like the effect!
- I died twice because of those Dungeon Crawlers, I guess I was unlucky but I landed right in front of them after dropping down in the water
. Isn't their damage a bit high for Pupaes? If it would be me I'd have more of them with less damage (plus you could add some on the walls/ceiling!)
- Just a thought, it would be nice if instead of ending automatically there would be another door/teleporter or something to end the map instead of automatic end, so that who finished the map can wait for others to finish
Bots weren't very useful during my playthrough, I rarely saw someone fighting with me (and one bot was stuck between the eggs in the start room), although it's probably impossible to get them working right with such a twisty layout. They were pretty lively against the bosses though.
In my latest MH map, DarkWhite, I used quite some teleporters (opened up in old areas) to make the bots reach the current fighting location, otherwise there would be no way to make them "understand" some parts of the layout. With some teleporters placed where you see them stop following the player and some patience it's possible to make them stay pretty close...
Overall a very nice fun map, it looks brilliant and it's very original. Keep up the good work!
Kayako's useful Unreal editor Icon Database 
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