Critical Error is the final map in a 3-map sequence. This was the level that challenges the players the most, and it tests what you've learned along the way.
When my group played the map, they beat it and didn't have too much difficulty. The ranger almost died on 2 separate occasions which was a little cool to watch. Overall when progressing through the map, they weren't stopped on any one enemy for too long which helped smooth out the gameplay a little.
When going through the level the ranger was taking a beating, but every time I tried to fight the warrior it was no use, because of the insane defense stat. My map was still a little too long, so I had to cut an encounter short to make it in time for feedback. Because of my items being really good, the group absolutely murdered the boss without any challenge.
There were many things that I could improve with the map. One thing was the hallways, they were telling me to remove them entirely because they take away from the open rooms. I was told that the items I had were balanced in a good way, besides the x2 damage. I underestimated that powerup and thought that the boss could tank hits. I found out that they were hitting for around 50 damage, this was half the boss’s health which then set them up for a very short easy fight. Some rooms just felt a little longer than others and that hurt the pacing of the game a little.
Enemies were properly balanced towards the player attack this whole time, so it was a, who rolled higher deal for the enemies. Nothing felt underpowered, besides the fact that the intermediate level buffed their defense and attack, which made the enemies that I had practically irrelevant.
I didn't set up enemies properly to really test the items that I gave each class. I had plenty of other items that got used, but I gave each class an item, and they never went through with it. Because of the strength of the players off the bat, my enemies didn't stand a chance, and because of this the player never used their items until the boss room.
Again, to my knowledge, I believe I put appropriate challenges for the players, but with the stats from the previous level the enemies in my level were able to take a few hits, but couldn't return hits.
When my players were playing through the level, they had a clear critical path.
The overall flow of the level was a hallway to a big room and repeat, this didn't provide super smooth gameplay. Because of the uneven pacing, my players got a little bored, I think.
Were there circulation elements? Yes, in the form of hallways, these cause conflict and I took advantage of them on multiple occasions throughout the map.
In my map it was a straight line from one side to the other, with rooms along the way. It was very obvious where the players had to go.
We had to work in teams of 3 for this project and trying to put a vision for a map you want in front of 2 other people is difficult without getting many changes to suit everyone's needs. The intermediate level and myself I guess had miscommunication, because of their players being op for my level.
This map taught me a little more about teamwork and how this work could have it’s downsides, I thought I made a decent map with decent items, but with the stat limits that were set, and me not giving the enemies a unique quality to them my level was not successful as a final area.
