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YourMaster
July 29th, 2015, 00:50
https://keeperklan.com/downloads/map02017_y6P.png
Wetlands ('https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=115').
Everything is going according to plan for the heroes of the wetlands.
There are no walls to defend your dungeon heart, holy magic stops you from building bridges
and surely tentacles alone cannot stop them from drowning you in a shallow puddle of water.
Build a bridgehead and figure out a way to get the mighty Horned Reaper to turn the tide.


The third map in a row to illustrate how to use the design principles of this topic ('https://keeperklan.com/threads/4914-Guide-to-fun-DK1-maps') to make any kind of map you like. 'The Death Clock (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=110)' could be called an 'exploration map', 'Thug of War (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=113)' an 'invasion map', this new map - 'Wetlands (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=115)' - is a 'puzzle map'. The player has to win using his mind and his knowledge of the game. No exploits/bugs are used.

Download it here ('https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=115'). Requires KeeperFX 0.4.6 ('http://keeper.lubiki.pl/html/dk_keeperfx_dwnld.php') or later ('http://keeper.lubiki.pl/html/dk_keeperfx_nightly.php').

This map features:
Tentacles
A unique layout to work with
Plenty of time to build and explore


If you played it, please let me know what you think. All Feedback is welcome of course, I'm sure I made some mistakes.

Woudo
July 29th, 2015, 15:12
http://i.imgur.com/3mKCm04.jpg


Does this offend you?

YourMaster
July 29th, 2015, 15:24
Smart, but not game-breaking. You'll have to open up soon anyway and you'll face more enemies at the same time.

Fun fact: I had to make mayor changes on this map because of the pathfinding bug. The map was supposed to look like this:
1608

darkkingkongman
July 29th, 2015, 16:00
Smart, but not game-breaking. You'll have to open up soon anyway and you'll face more enemies at the same time.

Fun fact: I had to make mayor changes on this map because of the pathfinding bug. The map was supposed to look like this:


You're not the only one that had that problem. If you remember the Barbarian Campaign I released about a year ago now, there was one level, Runescape, I think it was, that crashed because of the pathfinding problem.

I tried everything to adjusting the map to fix it but in the end I was forced to release a more simpler map. The game can't handle certain level designs.

Woudo
July 29th, 2015, 18:14
Alright I tried as much random shit as I could;

I killed off blue and didn't get awarded any Bile Demons since i'd deleted the prison. There are two recipes that give a bile demon. One requires spiders and the only listing for spiders is;


REM Blue to be destroyed to get access to bile demons.
IF(PLAYER1,DUNGEON_DESTROYED == 1)
CREATURE_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0,BILE_DEMON,1,0)
REM CREATURE_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0,SPIDER,1,0)
DOOR_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0,STEEL,1,0)
TUTORIAL_FLASH_BUTTON(60,60)
ADD_CREATURE_TO_LEVEL(PLAYER0,TENTACLE,7,1,1,0)
QUICK_INFORMATION(5,"Well done. Bile demons may now join us.",7)
ENDIF

It's indented but it has REM in front of it.
The other requires Demonspawn and both of mine had advanced to Dragons. In the end I just sacced a portion of my army (warlocks and the later tentacles I never trained) until I could attract a Dspawn from the portal.

You have functionality in place to give Biles if the player is blocked from imprisoning, but not for if they have no prison at all and since you already give the player a tentacle for killing so blue, you might as well give them a bile instead.

- What's the point to Speed Monster being where it is? There's a small dirt path you can take to find it but without bridge, you can't get to it. It's not really a reward for exploring since the player needs to beat up everyone in the adjacent room anyway.

- The ghost in the top-left is too close to the guard posts. He'll die almost instantly when claimed unless the player knows ahead of time.

- There's a drip effect in the top-right with one tile radius, is that intended?

- Why'd you put the lava effects in the blocked off section of the volcano? I was heartbroken when I blew some guys in there and didn't find an extra minion or trigger an action point.

- When should the player get the mistress? You can walk in there when possessed so anyone with too much time on their hands could snipe the archers/samurai down and grab her 'early'.

- What's the intended method of getting the warlocks? I blew them out of the prison with the Ghosts wind spell. Not sure if the player is intended to get bridge first or not.

- You can blow creatures through the wall and into the hero fortress ahead of time and then snipe the hero heart without stepping on the action point. Largely useless though since you still need to get horny and kill the LOTL. I suppose if someone was desperate enough they could do that and then blow the LOTL away from the bulk of the party. The final fight isn't really hard enough to justify all this effort.

----

Something I noticed while I was playing. When I rescued the warlocks from the prison, a payday hit and they instantly went mega-aggro. I reloaded and rescued them after the payday and when the next one came, they picked up several paydays worth of allowance. Apparently creatures still bank up "deserved pay checks" while in prison.

YourMaster
July 29th, 2015, 19:45
Alright I tried as much random shit as I could;

I killed off blue and didn't get awarded any Bile Demons since i'd deleted the prison. There are two recipes that give a bile demon. One requires spiders and the only listing for spiders is;
It's indented but it has REM in front of it.

The other requires Demonspawn and both of mine had advanced to Dragons. In the end I just sacced a portion of my army (warlocks and the later tentacles I never trained) until I could attract a Dspawn from the portal.

You have functionality in place to give Biles if the player is blocked from imprisoning, but not for if they have no prison at all and since you already give the player a tentacle for killing so blue, you might as well give them a bile instead. Nice of you to test, but I would have simply tried my best to beat the level on your first try. This is a puzzle map and the objective you get straight away is to figure out how to get Horny to join you. When you decide to sell off your prison and not build one to capture a blue bile demon I have no problem if you lose. However, as you found out I still left in two backup possibilities to get bile demons.
Spiders are out by design by the way. Older version had spiders but I removed them because I do not want mistresses through the temple.

Looking at the script in a puzzle map before you beat it is cheating of course. Did you still enjoy it?
I guess you played all three maps I released,... which kind do you prefer Exploration, Invasion or Puzzle?


- What's the point to Speed Monster being where it is? There's a small dirt path you can take to find it but without bridge, you can't get to it. It's not really a reward for exploring since the player needs to beat up everyone in the adjacent room anyway.

So get the bridge. You get a hint how as soon as you claim the first few temple tiles.


- The ghost in the top-left is too close to the guard posts. He'll die almost instantly when claimed unless the player knows ahead of time.
I know. When you scout in first person mode you'll almost always be too late, but when you are paying attention on your imps digging there you'll often get it.



There's a drip effect in the top-right with one tile radius, is that intended?Yes


- Why'd you put the lava effects in the blocked off section of the volcano? I was heartbroken when I blew some guys in there and didn't find an extra minion or trigger an action point.Because they are cool


- When should the player get the mistress? You can walk in there when possessed so anyone with too much time on their hands could snipe the archers/samurai down and grab her 'early'.Whenever he wants to. There are multiple elements required for victory, and any order is possible and has some advantages.


- What's the intended method of getting the warlocks? I blew them out of the prison with the Ghosts wind spell. Not sure if the player is intended to get bridge first or not.
Knowing that trick helps the player get the warlocks faster, if not he can get them with the bridge.

Woudo
July 29th, 2015, 21:15
It's not really a puzzle level like Ancient/Post-Ancient; it's more like an exploration level. You're going to reach the end regardless of what you do.

I didn't read the script in detail, I only checked it twice. First time was to check if Defence was operating properly and the second time was what failsafes you had for the bile-demon/blue-keeper. Didn't check the map in ADikted until afterwards when I was looking for things to fix.

YourMaster
July 29th, 2015, 23:47
It's not really a puzzle level like Ancient/Post-Ancient; it's more like an exploration level. You're going to reach the end regardless of what you do. Ok.
If you keep trying eventually you win yes, but I think there will be some people that will be 'puzzled' on how to proceed at a few points. How to get the bridge for example, or some small things like you missing the bile demon at first.
If it felt more like exploration to you, perhaps I made it a bit too easy. Guess we'll find out if we have people coming here and asking questions about getting stuck.

Even so, pacing of the three maps is quite different,... which do you prefer?

Lquiz
August 4th, 2015, 11:54
Hi, I really enjoyed the map. It was difficult enough that I had to let creatures die in fights to win, which I thought was really cool.
I also never had time to frame skip (which in my opinion ruins the fun), which was great. I loved how my tentacles were leveling as they were resting by water (which they spent most of the early game doing), and the lack of gold for training.

The only issue I had was with the puzzle, the way I played the map was to claim everything I could via digging - the barracks area, and a circle around my island - then after a lot of exploring and failed tentacle attacks on blue, I found and rescued the mistress.

This coincided with a mad witch attack where I lost everything except my trusty mistress, so I possessed her, went straight for blue's heart, then picked off all the heroes. Only when I killed the wizards did I realise they would unlock the bridge (not sure if I missed a tooltip or something but I assumed I wouldn't get it).

At this stage, I'd inadvertently let all of blue's bile demons leave, and was stuck trying to get a horned reaper. I got the tooltip telling me bile demons were available, but no bile demon was attracted, I sacrificed every creature I got until the pool was empty, but still no bile demon (I did get some hellhounds). Considering I'd claimed blue's dungeon I'm pretty sure I had the required rooms to attract them.

I appreciate that it was a puzzle and I probably should have thought a bit harder about sniping blue's heart but I still ended up a little frustrated that I had essentially won, but couldn't get the reaper.

Will definitely give your other maps a go, thanks for making some new content for such a great game!

YourMaster
August 4th, 2015, 15:25
Very nice to hear you enjoyed the map. Having tentacles level up next to water was indeed a key element of the map. I also don't like it when frameskip is the key to winning.

You probable missed the objective yes, when you claim the first temple tiles the objective window clearly states 'get the bridge now' with the zoom icon to where to get it. With the bridge you could have claimed a prison which would have been a big help in getting bile demons.
Not getting a bile demon from the portal with a low creature count it probably bad luck, they require 25 tiles of hatchery and 25 tiles of lair. Also, as a backup there is also a temple recipe you could have done that gives you bile demons.
On summoning the reaper you would have gotten access to the hero fortress and the heroes there would have attacked you. So better luck next time.

This map was probably the easiest of the 3 released, with Thug of War being the most difficult and The Death Clock somewhere in the middle.

Gwame
September 23rd, 2016, 14:38
I'd say at least train your warlocks until lvl 3 before thinking about research. Training remains more important, but having some of the spells won't hurt, especially sight to see which rooms there are to claim. And note that if you're playing with a nightly build or KeeperFX 0.46U (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=121) guardposts won't help with efficiency. Having the spiders/demon spawn researching sounds like a waste to me, if they can do that they can also fight to push onward and claim more rooms. And I wouldn't say it is trial and error, the level objective clearly states: "Heroes will attack. Raid their dungeon to gain power, or get crushed by the relentless heroes of this realm." This isn't a lie, you must attack or you'll be defeated. If you remember this, you should always win, but if you decide to turtle anyway, you'll die.

Basically this is the walkthrough for the level, so read on your own risk:

- Before you breach out, you can find a workshop to the north-west.
- You may train a bit before you breach out, but when you hear the heroes have found you you're late, quickly claim the library.
- Once you are healed up - time this right with when parties attack - claim your first barrack. When you're recovered from the counter attack also claim the second barracks so heroes don't have it available anymore.
- Quickly train up your Orcs a bit, when they have a few levels, I suggest to take the southern route first. If you're having trouble from the magical parties, go for their library first, if not, try to claim a prison.
- After you have either library or prison, find the second portal before taking the other room. At this point you should get a sizable army that can handle anything the map throws at you.
- Now decide: Push on to get the temple, or take the northern route to get the torture room. This depends on if you prefer skeletons or have some nice heroes to convert.
- Finish both routes now, get a large as possible army now with all the rooms you got, and prepare for the final assault by smartly placing traps: Spellcasting heroes will die easily to lighting traps. If you get dragons, they really help.
- Don't take too long, otherwise they will come out and destroy you. When you are ready, breach the final room with the hero hearth. Kill it and all heroes to win. Fight smartly, not every hero at once and use lightning to kill wizards and fairies.

General advice:
- Only have one entrance to your base to focus the fighting on, and you can use traps.
- If you don't have time to train all your creatures, be smart with the levels. Spiders are much more effective when they get freeze(use this spell well), demon spawn when they get heal, warlocks with heal/firebomb, trolls with speed, etc.
- If you slap a creature before a fight, it is 25% more efficient.
- Feed chickens to creatures if you quickly need them healed before a fight.

Quick question. I'm playing Wetlands now. Are bridges supposed to unlock after defeating the wizards in the library? That seems to be hinted at, but I've done that and now I'm sitting here unsure of where to go next.

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 14:46
Quick question. I'm playing Wetlands now. Are bridges supposed to unlock after defeating the wizards in the library? That seems to be hinted at, but I've done that and now I'm sitting here unsure of where to go next.

Yes, you'll get the bridge when you kill the wizards and walk over the central spell in that room. After that you can claim the next parts of the temple.
Does this mean the hints were not enough to finish 'Thug of War'?

Gwame
September 23rd, 2016, 15:34
Yes, you'll get the bridge when you kill the wizards and walk over the central spell in that room. After that you can claim the next parts of the temple.
Does this mean the hints were not enough to finish 'Thug of War'?
I made it further but ended up dying again. That was over a week ago; I haven't been playing much lately.

Twice I've played Wetlands now and I'm not getting the bridge after killing the wizards. Today I possessed a level 10 demon spawn and took out all the witches and wizards manually. I then possessed an imp and ran around the room trying to activate something. Next thing I knew, a huge army spawned from the south-most point of the map and wiped out all of my creatures, mostly thanks to the witches spamming wind. Earlier in the game, when enemies spawn from three different points at once, I lost all but one creature - a demon spawn, and had to basically start over with all new creatures, so this invasion force from the south was too much for my creatures, most of whom were levels 3-5. I had also run out of gold to mine by this stage so creatures were getting annoyed.

Also, what do you mean by "next parts of the temple"?

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 16:41
I made it further but ended up dying again. That was over a week ago; I haven't been playing much lately.

Twice I've played Wetlands now and I'm not getting the bridge after killing the wizards. Today I possessed a level 10 demon spawn and took out all the witches and wizards manually. I then possessed an imp and ran around the room trying to activate something. Next thing I knew, a huge army spawned from the south-most point of the map and wiped out all of my creatures, mostly thanks to the witches spamming wind. Earlier in the game, when enemies spawn from three different points at once, I lost all but one creature - a demon spawn, and had to basically start over with all new creatures, so this invasion force from the south was too much for my creatures, most of whom were levels 3-5. I had also run out of gold to mine by this stage so creatures were getting annoyed.

Also, what do you mean by "next parts of the temple"?

I have no idea why you are having difficulties with this. I've played the map a few times, and also people in the topic about wetlands never mentioned a problem here. This is basically the walkthrough of the level:

- Get the troll to the north-west and the first three tiles of temple
- Behind the troll, dig through and claim the barracks
- With the barracks, lead a party of creatures to the wizards down south. This gets you the bridge.
- Free the Warlock
- Defeat the party south for three more pieces of temple
- Defeat the monks and claim the final three pieces of temple. Rebuild it to be able to sacrifice creatures.
- Go north east to free the mistress
- Defeat the blue keeper and capture some of his bile demons
- Use the temple to get a reaper. This should trigger the hero dwarf from their southern fortress
- Destroy the hero heart and the hero party triggered there

If you don't get the bridge when you walk over the flames in the wizard room and have the wizards killed, something is wrong. A restart should never be required, please save your game and share it with me so I can take a look. The witches are unrelated, they spawn after 75 minutes of playing, but at this point you should almost have the level beat already.

Gwame
September 23rd, 2016, 17:06
Theoretically that's all fine, just hitting quite a few snags on the way.

My units weren't powerful enough to defeat 5 level 9 bile demons. I had to take them out slowly and claimed the hatchery to weaken them. Not much point in capturing them since they just die in prison without becoming skeletons. Not sure then what the point of the blue keeper is. I'm not attracting any bile demons through the portals either.

Attacking the samurai and archers guarding the mistress is tough because of the guard posts and water. I cant claim the tiles close enough to drop units since the samurai keeps killing my imps. Obviously invisibility is no use. So I can't build bridges to connect to the guard posts and allow my creatures to attack.

I did eventually get the bridge unlocked, it just took possession of an imp and running around the centre area a few times before it triggered.

Also is it intended to access the areas of lava and earth within the impenetrable rock? There are a few diagonally placed tiles of rock that maybe a wind spell could blow through?

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 17:28
Then you probably did it in the wrong order, play it in the order I list above. The bridge is one of the first things you should get, as that enables you to get a prison and improve your army. When you use the barracks you can quickly get it if you make a party with a few orcs and tentacles/demon spawn.
To get a more powerful army, make sure to get your tentacles strong enough that they get freeze, but don't continue training them much further as you'll run out of gold. They gain experience when they sleep next to water.

The samurai can be brute forced if you've got some ranged creatures, you can use wind to blow in your army, you can use your barracks and you can also be smart with your imps and claim/dig beyond the guard posts.

And when the blue keeper is the last thing on your list. You should have over 20 creatures and be able to freeze the bile demons, so that is easy. And yes, you can use your torture room to convert the bile demons, if you capture them before you've got it, keep them alive with chickens.

And no, using wind is not required on this level, and I've hidden nothing within the rocks.

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 17:39
I got past the samurai using possession and a dragon. I was able to walk diagonally to get onto the guard post and flame him to death. Got the mistress, defeated the monks...

Is the horned reaper necessary to complete the level? If so how do I get one? I can't capture bile demons as the imprison button has been disabled by the script after I captured a few heroes.

Yes, the whole point of this level is to get the horned reaper. And the bile demon is required for this. There are three ways:

* Capture one before you lose the ability to use your prison
* When you've already lost the ability, you'll get a free bile demon once you've defeated blue
* If you kill blue when you can still use your prison, and fail to capture a bile demon you're out of luck, but are now able to attract them from your portal if you've not yet reached your creature limit.

Edit: You've removed your post. You must have noticed you had a bile demon.

Gwame
September 23rd, 2016, 17:46
Got it, thanks.

As if that weren't enough, now I'm having problems with the temple sacrifice. Dropping the bile demon, mistress and troll is only casting rebound on my creatures. Tried again, it cast protection. The third time I tried it, I was given a demon spawn. Fourth is rebound again. I don't think the game wants me to complete this map haha.

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 17:52
That means you've already thrown other stuff in the temple. The recipe for rebound on your creatures is 'Bug + Dark Mistress'. And a demon_spawn you used to get when you sacrificed a 'bug+troll'. So tell me, what did you do with your bugs?
The solution is to sacrifice another bug before you do the horny recipe. I also recommend upgrading your game (after you've finished the map) to version 0.4.6U (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=121).


I sacrificed my beetles as I was at the creature limit and hoped to attract something better.

I thought this might be the case so I tried to break the chain by dropping a chicken, hoping it would reset the sacrifice. I've no more bugs to throw in now...

Edit: Sacrificing an Orc first should also work for you, you'd get a tentacle. Or a demon spawn for a hound. You can't break the chain.

Gwame
September 23rd, 2016, 17:56
I sacrificed my beetles as I was at the creature limit and hoped to attract something better.

I thought this might be the case so I tried to break the chain by dropping a chicken, hoping it would reset the sacrifice. I've no more bugs to throw in now...

Edit: So I had to sacrifice an Orc to finish the Beetle sacrifice and that gave me a Tentacle. I was then able to get the Reaper, but he was only level 4. Either way, I pressed forward and made it to the Lord of the Land, just wasn't able to beat him. Still, at least now I know what to do. The lack of gold was the main setback as it really limited my training and led to a lot of angry creatures.

YourMaster
September 23rd, 2016, 19:02
It seems you took way too much time, causing you to spend gold on paydays, and perhaps even losing trained creature(=gold) against the late game parties. The level has enough gold to win, without having to use the workshop for gold. But you need to press on a bit, train wisely, and don't lose too many creatures.
When you face the heroes, you should have a very high level reaper. The troll you have since the beginning and can be trained plenty, the mistress comes with a few levels, and the bile demon you can capture when he is level 9.

But I've made this map to be able to use a lot of tricks, and knowledge of the game helps out a lot. For example being able to backdoor the samurai, having creatures gain sleep experience, getting the Warlock early but also knowing you could have sacrificed the enemy bile demon without converting it. Unfortunately, you seem to have a bit more trouble with the map than most people here, and this is the easiest of the bunch I did.
Perhaps this just isn't your style, you could try Desperation (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=117), which I personally think is a bit more challenging, but is very straight forward: Kill the 3 rival keepers.

Gwame
September 24th, 2016, 01:36
Moving quickly seems to be a recurring element of your maps! I suppose I'm a bit out of my depth, being used to slow plays / building up perfect dungeons and armies in the original game. I haven't played a great deal of custom levels/campaigns. What I find troubling is progressing too quickly and making a mistake that costs the game. For instance, you've laid out basic walkthroughs, but without them, figuring out the correct order in which to progress through the map can become a case of trial and error. Knocking down the wrong door, triggering an event you weren't ready for, opening a pathway you should've left unexplored for the time being - all of these mistakes can easily be stumbled into on an initial playthrough.

Come to think of it, my main problem is with resource management. Give me a map with a scarcity of gold and it's gonna take me a while to work through it.

Edit: I beat it :horny:

Woudo
September 24th, 2016, 04:10
Your entire post, Gwame, is something to be carefully considered whenever making a map. Most people aren't interested in overly restricted, punishing or puzzle-type maps (such as Post-Ancient Keeper) or maps that feature really radical changes (Quest for the Hero) and most people are accustomed to the slow play style of building up a dungeon, levelling troops and then death-blobbing an enemy keeper or a hero packet. If you change the formula too much, people are just going to get frustrated and not play the maps. It's honestly really hard to strike a balance between creativity and familiarity; capturing what was originally gripping about Dungeon Keeper while also not being some groundhog day "well i've seen this 1000 times before" type of experience.

That said, it's a shame Mark isn't actively making maps any more just because he is butthurt about people not playing them. Perhaps your enthusiasm in playing his maps will convince him to make some more.

YourMaster
September 24th, 2016, 13:04
Moving quickly seems to be a recurring element of your maps! I suppose I'm a bit out of my depth, being used to slow plays / building up perfect dungeons and armies in the original game. I haven't played a great deal of custom levels/campaigns. What I find troubling is progressing too quickly and making a mistake that costs the game. For instance, you've laid out basic walkthroughs, but without them, figuring out the correct order in which to progress through the map can become a case of trial and error. Knocking down the wrong door, triggering an event you weren't ready for, opening a pathway you should've left unexplored for the time being - all of these mistakes can easily be stumbled into on an initial playthrough.

Come to think of it, my main problem is with resource management. Give me a map with a scarcity of gold and it's gonna take me a while to work through it.

Edit: I beat it :horny:

Congratulations.
Yes, I'd like to put some pressure on the players, I dislike maps where you can simply keep frameskip enabled until all your creatures are lvl 10 and you can just roll over all opposition or capture all heroes.
And well, I've tried to avoid trial and error gameplay. On my maps there aren't any hero pockets you can dig into that can just kill you. Of course, when as a player you are too slow or too overconfident you can die, but I'd like to make sure this is always preventable. Strong opposition when not scripted is always indicated, for example locked behind a door, and even then it should never be too much for the player to handle at the time if he played well reaching this point. Wetlands only has a single hidden hero party, and if you dig towards it you'll first hit the reinforced wall warning you. On 'Death Clock' when you find strong heroes they are on a guard post and won't chase after you. And the 'mini walkthrough' I gave you is what I believe is the easiest order, but you can play in whatever method that suits you. On wetlands you could free the warlocks early on with a ghost, and possess it and snipe down the samurai and get the mistress first. And like mentioned, when you decide to take down blue first, I've provided backups to still be able to complete the map. Still, I would consider this a player error, as every objective-message on the map says you need to get a horned reaper, and I want the player to decide for himself that he wants to capture a bile demon for his temple recipe and that that would be silly to do without a prison.

And indeed, I figured that gold was your biggest problem. So if you're going to try another one, try 'Desperation (https://keeperklan.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=117)' as that has no gold shortage at all.


Your entire post, Gwame, is something to be carefully considered whenever making a map. Most people aren't interested in overly restricted, punishing or puzzle-type maps (such as Post-Ancient Keeper) or maps that feature really radical changes (Quest for the Hero) and most people are accustomed to the slow play style of building up a dungeon, levelling troops and then death-blobbing an enemy keeper or a hero packet. If you change the formula too much, people are just going to get frustrated and not play the maps. It's honestly really hard to strike a balance between creativity and familiarity; capturing what was originally gripping about Dungeon Keeper while also not being some groundhog day "well i've seen this 1000 times before" type of experience.

That said, it's a shame Mark isn't actively making maps any more just because he is butthurt about people not playing them. Perhaps your enthusiasm in playing his maps will convince him to make some more.

While it is true that people are not playing custom maps, even among the few people that still visit this website, I'm not butthurt that people aren't playing mine. I simply don't enjoy making maps. I've made a few that I'd enjoy playing in the hopes that people would make more like them so I could play them, but also to showcase how some of the new functionality Mefistotelis implemented could be used. The maps not being played is a valid argument to not invest time in making them, but even if people would I think the only chance for me doing an additional map would be for a new feature to be implemented or I play a great map that inspires me somehow.

You are right though that my maps are a bit different from the norm and that might not be everybody's cup of tea, but the 'no-pressure, infinite gold, convert all hero'-type maps are already common enough. Personally I feel that those standard maps really showcase where the game failed in its design, and I believe this is the reason bullfrog themselves hardly released any maps. I like to think though that I've introduced some challenge in the maps in a much better way than the Deeper Dungeon maps did.