Heart of Trouble - Discussion Thread

[This Is Halloween_2]

Hello everyone, I see that no one has opened a thread on the new maps, so now it is done 😁.
 

Please leave your feedback and opinions on the new campaign map here.

[This Is Halloween_2]

And I'll start.

I have played the map quite a few times (~10+ games) in different difficulties and with different factions.

1st the good part :

- Difficulty is overall well balanced, map isn't too hard once you know it.
- Wave strength & strengh increase is well dosed.

- There's a lot to do on the map, and a few strategies.

- New ennemies are interesting.

- The concept of map clear & boss to defeat is overall well implemented.

Now for the minor problems :

- Unless it is a problem on my side only, I think the gold chest are broken. Same for the horne, on the last match it didn't work at all.

- The problem of the walls when entering into the camp : the mechanic is very punishing for players or decks that cannot clear with sufficient time remaining, with your wall being able to crumble when being bomb at start by the canons. Solved : the +75 Power in exchange of paying 25P for each wall helps T1 faction which are more unit based, giving them a better chance to compete with a fire start.

- The canon bombardment at the start : the randomness of the shot means that, unless you can come into the camp in advance to get T2 up ~20s before time is up, there's a chance you can lose a tower or 2 by pure lack of luck. This kind of roll of the dice is really frustrating, and punish even more players or deck which reach the middle in the very last seconds of the timer. Bad luck means players push can be delayed, meaning it won't synchronize with the attack waves, and after that it just a roll of things putting you behind in time & accumulating.
It's even more frustrating for a mechanic that isn't much loved by players (forced to repair constantly because of the bombardment). Personally I think we can keep the canon shot, just add some delay.

--> Can we delay the start of the bombardment from 4:35 to 5:05 or 5:15 ? I feel giving a delay of 30-40s is fair considering players that reach in time their orb should finish building it before min 5. Add some building construction delay and anything between 5:05 to 5:15 would be more fair to players.

- The L knockback on the NPC wasteland terror ability is something I'm not a fan of. The team has done a great job overall to bring plenty of L unit into the meta at T3-T4, diversifying the good old XL bandwagon. Now, not only this unit cannot be attacked by L melee (which is fine since it's a flyer), not only it has L counter type, but it has an L knockback. Not only does it force a bit too much XL units to clean the bottom section at T3, but for the future the unit will be re-used, and on different maps where L unit strategy would be viable, it's going to come & force XL bandwagon a bit too much (I suspect the unit might be re-used for other maps, and even some day an rpve rework of bandit).

--> This new unit counter a bit too much L units overall, and has a vocation to be re-used in the future. I'm clearly not in favor of that. Bandit already has artillery with L knockback. If we find ourself in the future with map that have artillery + new wasteland terror NPC, people will stay on the XL bandwagon. This accumulation of anti-L mechanic isn't healthy I think. A bit is good, too much ain't.

 

Now for the "bigger" issue (which can't be solved, it's tied to how the map was made) :

- The map seems to a coming player to be designed in 3 part, a T2 part where you have a boss & a side to clear, before taking a crystal & moving to the second part with T3, and a last part to deal with at T4.
- However, the camps are overall too strong to destroy in a timely manner at T2 considering allies & available power. On the other side, crystals (and particularly the top one) are 100% designed to be sniped. The map in truth isn't a T2-T3 map with a T4 part to finish, it is designed so that both top & bottom part are taken down at T3 (even T4 in case of speedrun, but the increased defense on the second crystal if no speedrun split is done overall makes sure that most player will take down top & bottom at T3).

So the map is designed with a short T2 crystal snipe period in mind, followed by a T3 clear. Even though it looks like a true T2-T3 section at 1st look.

Alright, I've given you my feedback after some play time on the map. There's also a number of smaller but less important detail here & there that I haven't talked about, but those are secondary.

Overall the map is better than I expected after my 1st game. It's a good map with just 1 true "flaw" & some inconvenience. And 1 got already corrected, good job 👏.

I would give it a 8/10.

Edited August 21, 2025 by This Is Halloween_2

[Rankerz]

Since there are currently 2 ongoing challenges for this map, hopefully more feedback arrives and changes will happen, because the current format is more frustrating than fun

T1 and T4 phase is very clear, I'm going to focus on the T2 - T3 transition

Whichever direction you choose, you have to attack on one front while defending 2(!) spots. Also getting bombardment shots requires contant repair

Is it really a good macro check or just straight up annoying to do so? 

The current cheese meta is to block bottom wave with Motk, showing 1 attacking direction with 1 defensive task is still enough challenge for this map at T2(!)

The crystals snipes are also popular, simply because your strategy will be the same with T3 instead of T2. Which is a huge jump in power level

I have tried to aid the Ally squad, but they mostly able to clear 1 camp and getting facerolled afterwards.

Also let's say I focus on down direction, if I send the Ally squad up, I expect to at least hold that lane for not needed focus, but they are getting stomped and have to defend there as well

1 leg of the balance chair have to be buffed, because you either have to too much at once or you block 1 leg with MoTk

Someone compared it to Bad Harvest but you do every position at once with no real upside, which I can agree with

I think the best way would be to reduce the spawn rate of enemies to get more breathing room.

I dont want allies to do the heavy lifting either, but they are basicly afk this game after the first two attacks

Edited October 5, 2025 by Rankerz