MVM Wizardry

Wizardry is a Mann vs Machine map that I have been working on for about 2 and a half years, not continuously but the first version was around there somewhere. The map features wizard themed waves with a lot of custom bots mixed in.

The map has been tested by me and some of my friends and confirmed beatable without too much difficulty. However, as most of us are 50+ tour MvM players as well as me being the main dev, this is likely to be biased. I'm currently looking for feedback on the 5 missions included to make sure they are of a difficulty somewhat level comparable to the official maps.



Mission List
Casual:
An attempt at an intermediate difficulty mission. Not properly tested due to skill gap.

Normal:
A basic mission featuring 7 waves. Probably above normal difficulty.

Advanced:
A mission with 8 waves. High overall credit count with some pretty intense waves towards the end.

Impostors:
A mission featuring me and some of my friends as bosses at the end of each of the 8 waves.

Wheel of Doom:
A mission featuring the wheel of fate from Ghost Fort. Every wave starts with the wheel being spun, ending on a predetermined card affecting the players for the rest of the wave.



Special Thanks to:
The Wizard Degon - Original map concept and one of the main supporters coming up with a lot of ideas for the map. Currently standing at the top of the wizard tower. Impostor Mission Wave 6 boss.
Thunder Tits - Some of the most evil ideas came from this individual. Most of which were tested and then quickly discarded, the map has to be beatable in the end. Impostor Mission Wave 5 boss.
Rob Is A Thing - Previous owner of the servers we ran most of the tests on. Impostor Mission Wave 3 boss.
Jakebob-Smegheneghan - Pun spewing Welshman who recorded a few of our earlier tests. Impostor Mission Wave 1 boss.
flipples - Impostor Mission Wave 4 boss.
Acewonder - Impostor Mission Wave 2 boss.
Commissar L - Impostor Mission Wave 8 boss.
Warboss Grimjaw - Impostor Mission Wave 8 boss.
Seviecookie - Impostor Mission Wave 7 boss.
And of course anyone who's helped me test the map over the years. This wouldn't have happened without people playing the map.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I've upped the ambient lighting on the map for now, my monitor is quite bright and I didn't realize how dark the map was. So far my main focus has been making sure the map plays well so lighting and detailing hasn't quite gotten the attention they deserve.

I've also started a quite heavy rework of some parts of the map meaning the next version might take a while to finish up.

UltimentM said:

only real complaint is that there are so many different types of robots in certain waves, and they drag out a bit too long

Click to expand...

I'm aware that some waves are longer than they should and I've been meaning to go through the missions and reduce bot counts or even remove sub-waves entirely depending on the situation. Doing this takes quite some time however as I have to sit through the entire missions to verify the pacing.

UltimentM said:

Cool mechanics with wave hampers and bosses, but I don't like how they are wave-specific. Maybe make it so it affects everyone (humans and robots) and it is random

Click to expand...

By this I assume you mean the wheel of fate? If so the answer will unfortunately be no. Over the years I've been experimenting a lot with MvM and I've reached an important conclusion: Random events have no place in this gamemode.

The wheel has a quite large effect on the players and the mission that uses the wheel have waves specifically set up to work well with the effect. Having the effect random would not only eliminate this possibility, it would also frustrate players if they get a bad card at a bad time, outside of their control.

The success of the team should always depend on the skill and teamwork of the players and not on the luck of draw. If the players feel that the only way they can beat a wave is by getting a specific card they will simply get irritated and possibly abandon the mission if the random luck gods fail them.

UltimentM said:

Maybe too many robot icons?

Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you mean by this. Is having the icons more accurately describe what threats you're about to face a bad thing?

UltimentM said:

So many places that look like they can be accessed... But can't.

Click to expand...

With the redesign I'm doing a few of these areas are being remade, for the others I'll try to make it a bit more obvious they aren't accessible.

UltimentM said:

WHAT SORT OF WIZARD MAP DOES NOT ALLOW SPELLBOOKS?

A big add-on, I would consider, is the addition of spell books, which would be a good substitute for the power-up canteen. If you add spell books around the map (with maybe 1 or 2 powerful ones) it would be another cool mechanic.

Click to expand...

Spells have been considered in the past but I decided to scrap the idea. Some of the spells have little to no use in MvM, some even cause issues, teleporting into giants comes to mind. Unless I find a way to control what spells are handed out I won't add spells. I really want to add spells tho, they fit so well thematically.

UltimentM said:

Also, helicopter heavies bounce around too much, and are extremely hard to take out. Either make them jump less, or give them less health.

Click to expand...

Noted. The wave with those was finished only recently and have only been tested once. We had no problems with them but thinking back to it I was juggling them with airblasts, effectively preventing them from jumping about. Preferably the map should be beatable with any reasonable class setup.

Could you post some examples of bots where you think the differences are minor enough to not have a specific class icon? Most bots with custom icons have an icon because their behavior is different enough that I feel the players deserve to know this before the wave starts. The only exceptions I can think of are some melee based bots left behind from an older map version, but most of those aren't even used in the current missions.

Previously the waves were all medieval themed with the bots using mostly melee or medieval weapons, like bows or crossbows. I changed this as it limited the waves too much but the class icons survived.