Well, personally i think it should be clearer (in the main guidelines for example) of how much modified robots are a big no no. Yea i can remove all the random attributes i put but it will feel too bland as i totally disagree with the saying that 'valve has supplied us with everything we need'. No, imo custom missions should have their own flair with some random attributes and i did all i can to show the players what each bot does using the custom icons (also NYS is amazing, im not sure why some had issues with the icons).
If you guys are against this mentality then im gonna have to drop this submission away. As said, i CAN do this your way, but i choose not to, because i wont enjoy playing it (learning this the hard way via my GG mission in potato).
Sorry Randomguy, no Condemned Cock for you after all
Some smaller nitpicks regarding the feedback:
* I asked on Discord before submitting this if the next event will be themed, and if its possible to submit a halloween mission. I got the green light by the staff that it can be featured, tho i was a bit uneasy with having a halloween mission in a non halloween event, i know that there are no promises that next halloween will have its own event, either by ML or potato, so i wanted to poot it here as it was fine with you guys. But then you're saying that w666 is a usual nono as it doesnt mention how many waves are there and so on, well, this is basically how any halloween mission is played out, and its not (imo anyway) a problem to the general playerbase.
* Correct me if im wrong, but both Underworld and Underground share the same nav, as its just a reskin. I did notice some very mild nav issues in these maps in the span of playing them within the last few years, but overall i feel like its fine, and pacing wasnt really hurting becaue of robots being stuck. Going back to your guidelines, you've said that "Your mission must use a map that is deemed "sufficiently complete and functional." ", and Underworld definately answers this criteria.
For those who know me well enough, my criterias for good maps boil down to 3 elements:
-Front upgrade station is a must, even in a small map like dusk/barren, because just like irl, killing yourself is not a valid option (ends killstreak basically, or just an annoyance if the players have no killbind), also its somewhat forcing the engy to buy the bisexual teleport upgrade.
-Tank paths that dont crush you with zero remorse (im looking at you, powerplant!).
-Flank spawn that actually makes you turn your head around to fight the flankers (otherwise its like bigrock).
* The 'bullet hell' remark is still unclear to me. Floro mentioned that even heavies are better suited to fight against than the pistol scouts (now back scatters) in w1. I dont see the reason here. If i supply enough money for resistances, then you're fine with whichever bullet based robot is spawning. During playtesting, nobody said anything bad about these scouts except their pacing/amount/subwave length, which all got fixed for this judging session.
* Having no uber meds in the mission is one of the main gimmicks (alongside being a demonic themed mission based on Runescape lore). I've tried compensating it with adding some difficulty in terms push force, either by amount of giants or health buffs.
* I personally find the last demo boss to be a nice challenge overall, the resistance bubbles are clearly showing the info the players need to know about (and even if not, a few secs of firing at it with no damage numbers would tell them what they need to know). I made him easy enough so you *dont* need to spec into melee upgrades/classes in order to get him killed, as hes been nerfed enough during tests when people complained about him having too much damage.
*** No nitpick, i just wanna say that i do want to remove the pumpkins, yet have no knowledge whatsoever about vscript, so.. yea, feel free to tell me what to do about it, and thanks in advance!
If you guys are against this mentality then im gonna have to drop this submission away. As said, i CAN do this your way, but i choose not to, because i wont enjoy playing it (learning this the hard way via my GG mission in potato).
Sorry Randomguy, no Condemned Cock for you after all
Some smaller nitpicks regarding the feedback:
* I asked on Discord before submitting this if the next event will be themed, and if its possible to submit a halloween mission. I got the green light by the staff that it can be featured, tho i was a bit uneasy with having a halloween mission in a non halloween event, i know that there are no promises that next halloween will have its own event, either by ML or potato, so i wanted to poot it here as it was fine with you guys. But then you're saying that w666 is a usual nono as it doesnt mention how many waves are there and so on, well, this is basically how any halloween mission is played out, and its not (imo anyway) a problem to the general playerbase.
* Correct me if im wrong, but both Underworld and Underground share the same nav, as its just a reskin. I did notice some very mild nav issues in these maps in the span of playing them within the last few years, but overall i feel like its fine, and pacing wasnt really hurting becaue of robots being stuck. Going back to your guidelines, you've said that "Your mission must use a map that is deemed "sufficiently complete and functional." ", and Underworld definately answers this criteria.
For those who know me well enough, my criterias for good maps boil down to 3 elements:
-Front upgrade station is a must, even in a small map like dusk/barren, because just like irl, killing yourself is not a valid option (ends killstreak basically, or just an annoyance if the players have no killbind), also its somewhat forcing the engy to buy the bisexual teleport upgrade.
-Tank paths that dont crush you with zero remorse (im looking at you, powerplant!).
-Flank spawn that actually makes you turn your head around to fight the flankers (otherwise its like bigrock).
* The 'bullet hell' remark is still unclear to me. Floro mentioned that even heavies are better suited to fight against than the pistol scouts (now back scatters) in w1. I dont see the reason here. If i supply enough money for resistances, then you're fine with whichever bullet based robot is spawning. During playtesting, nobody said anything bad about these scouts except their pacing/amount/subwave length, which all got fixed for this judging session.
* Having no uber meds in the mission is one of the main gimmicks (alongside being a demonic themed mission based on Runescape lore). I've tried compensating it with adding some difficulty in terms push force, either by amount of giants or health buffs.
* I personally find the last demo boss to be a nice challenge overall, the resistance bubbles are clearly showing the info the players need to know about (and even if not, a few secs of firing at it with no damage numbers would tell them what they need to know). I made him easy enough so you *dont* need to spec into melee upgrades/classes in order to get him killed, as hes been nerfed enough during tests when people complained about him having too much damage.
*** No nitpick, i just wanna say that i do want to remove the pumpkins, yet have no knowledge whatsoever about vscript, so.. yea, feel free to tell me what to do about it, and thanks in advance!