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Read this first! [514] Guro's Guide to Structure Auto-Critique

Discussion in 'Building Critiques' started by Guro, Sep 25, 2012.

  1. Guro

    Guro SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM

    Messages:
    111
    Salutations KAG forums! Guro here with another helpful guide on how to be a better builder. As many of you may know, I hang around the Classes and Mechanics forums a lot, specifically the building subforum. In my time on the buiding subforum I have critiqued many buildings and traps, but a lot of the time people have the same basic problems with their buildings and I find myself repeating the same criticisms over and over. I mean I don't really mind because it just means I farm more and more delicious likes, but there's a point where this has to stop and we've clearly gone past it. I present to you a simple guide on how to self-critique your buildings.

    Version 1.0

    If you are new to building I recommend you first check out some of the more basic guides/threads on the forums. Try these:

    For fundamental building:

    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/265-the-way-of-the-builder-a-general-guide.3136/
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/394-guros-guide-to-offensive-building-and-traps.6683/

    _

    For structures:

    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/complete-structure-compendium.5602/
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/319-structure-overview.3794/

    This guide is intended as a first point of reference, and I think everybody who wishes to post a critique here (the building critique subforum) should first make sure that everything checks out with the features in this guide. The purpose of this guide is to help filter out more trivial critique requests and give people a better knowledge of the optimal stats and features for a building. Understanding why well built buildings are well built helps when creating your own buildings or when destroying/gimping your opponent's buildings.

    Really it's just a compilation of things you should consider before posting a critique.
    _________________________________

    Please note that this guide is not the bible. Some designs by advanced builders may stray from the designs/concepts posted here, and that is fine. Treat this guide as a collection of optimal stats for buildings, treat it as a handy utility, a point of quick reference and as your best friend as a budding building critic.
    _________________________________

    Optimal Features for any Given Building

    Some buildings are simply better than others. This guide aims to teach you what makes certain buildings better than others and how you can make your buildings better using optimal stats/features. I'll list the most important things (crucial things) first and then move on to minor/general improvements as a second post at a later date.
    _________________________________

    Things to consider:

    Optimum Height

    This is an important one, and one that many people seemingly do not know/care about. The optimum heights for the main front door of most towers are 3, 5 or 8 blocks. I'll break each one down individually for you.

    3 Blocks High

    3 blocks is the optimum height for spike baiting, which is discussed in my building guide HERE. Placing an internally removable spike at 3 blocks from the ground deals the most damage to knights as they leap to attack you/your doors. Look at the following tower design for more information.

    Small_Gurospike_Tower_1.png

    Placing a spike where my cursor is acts as a powerful deterrent for most knights. It relies on surprise value and moderate skill as a builder, so it may be wise to steer clear of this design until you're a confident builder The building above is a pint sized version of a series of towers I like to use. The series of towers are fully repairable spike oriented towers erected from my standard T-shaped linepiece that can be found in my guide HERE. This particular tower is supposed to be a lightning fast temporary defence that allows you to hold the line long enough for your team to arrive to help you. The utility that spike baiting provides is enough for me to warrant using this little tower, and enough for me to value 3 block high doors as one of the optimal heights for extremely small towers like this.

    5 Blocks High

    5 block high doors are fantastic. They are perfectly suited for larger offensive towers. Having the main door at 5 blocks high allows you to place an overhang with another door on top at 8 blocks. What this means is that regardless of what door you use, you do not take fallstun when exiting. This makes it perfect for more permanent mid-end field dwellings. Here is another design from my series of towers. This one makes use of 5 and 8 block high doors:

    medium_Guro_tower.png

    The tower is completely repairable from safety and both ways out of the tower generate no fallstun. I haven't done anything special with the overhang as this is not the overhang section. This is my go-to tower in many situations (normally with a different overhang though). 5 block high doors are very versatile and I would encourage you to play around with them. If you're not interested in using my spike-baiting module for the base of your tower, you can replace it with Strathos' 3x3 repairable module found in his guide HERE. I prefer to use the spike baiting module in most situations but if I am feeling lazy and don't want to micromanage the spike then I'll use Strathos' module.

    8 Blocks High

    8 block high doors are the most defensive a tower can be without generating fallstun as you exit the building. 8 block high doors afford you some interesting options in regard to spike traps. I like to use 2 spike defences in particular as they have good synergy together. There are certain sweetspots for the height of towers where these two traps will work together, and the defence that 8 block high towers provide seems to work well with the defensive utility and stopping power the two spike traps provide. Here's the two traps in action on the front of a placeholder building:

    Synergy_Trap.png

    The lower trap is Killatron's spike boostpad, search the forums for more information on that one. The top trap is just a simple re-orienting spike trap. The premise behind both of these is simple; when an enemy approaches either trap, the bridge collapses and the spike re-orients to the wall, causing damage. Due to the way that spike collision works, boosting into the top trap causes damage at many heights. 8 blocks high is not one of those heights. The defensive nature of the 8 block high door coupled with these traps creates added stopping power. The possibilities for 8 block towers are utterly endless though, so I won't supply any designs. These traps are just an option for 8 block high doors. Check THIS link and also THIS one for more ideas on towers, or maybe just scout around the building subforums for some brainfood in regard to ideas. Experimentation is absolutely key to building.

    NOTE: If your tower is at 5 blocks or less in height (total height) then a knight may slash-vault directly over it, so make sure your buildings are AT LEAST 5 blocks in total height.
    ______________________

    Overhangs

    An overhang is a a piece of stone that juts out over your tower to prevent builders laddering over your tower or archers climbing directly over it. Like this:

    OVERHANGG.png

    I consider overhangs a crucial part of essentially any building. There is almost no justification for not including an overhang of some type on your building. An overhang of even 1 stone block is enough to keep all but the most skilled of archers from arrow climbing your tower. Most overhangs should include nice features and support for archers. I cover a little more about overhangs in my guide on offensive building HERE. You also might want to look at Killatron's Tooth Puller. I consider it one of the most useful overhangs.

    Stats:

    An overhang of 1-2 stone out from the door is usually enough to stop all but the most skilled archers, but with enough skill an archer can climb up and over any overhang. An overhang of 4 blocks out from the door of your tower is enough to prevent builders from laddering over your tower
    ______________________

    Multiple Entrances

    Another incredibly important point. Make sure your building has AT LEAST 2 front entrances (entrances towards the enemy). It would be wise to incorporate your second entrance above your first one, preferably as part of your overhang. If a builder stones up your main door and you have no other entrances, your team is at a positively gargantuan disadvantage. The enemy team can fortify their position and gather their forces while your team languishes behind their own tower. Providing multiple points of access to the other side of your tower (even if one of them is just straight over the top of your tower) is absolutely crucial.
    ______________________

    Thickness

    This is a little bit more fluid than everything mentioned so far, but I'm going to include some loose information on it anyway because it is still very important. Please don't build towers with a 1 block thick front wall. There are very few situations where this is acceptable. Having a strong front wall is incredibly important. Much more-so than having defence in the back of your towers. Generally speaking, symmetrical towers are superfluous. As long as your tower is not directly ascendable by your enemy from the rear it should be fine. There are a couple of super quick line-pieces and forward towers where I think 1 block thick front walls are acceptable, but I would advise new builders to steer well clear of designs like that outside of sandbox.

    Outside of a clan war, you should seldom see buildings that are thicker than maybe 8 blocks. Anything thicker than that is getting a bit silly. Sometimes less is more. Just use common sense.

    NOTES: It is more important to have thickness at the base of your tower to combat termites/entombers. The bottom of your tower will get the most severe beating out of any part of your tower, so fortifying it is important.
    ______________________

    Accessibility and Pathing

    It is important to make sure that movement through your towers is as fluid and quick as possible. Don't make door hallways or huge big complex paths in your towers as it just slows down movement to the front-line. Most players (especially new ones) don't have particularly good movement/jumping skills and will normally hold up and a directional button while climbing most towers. There's nothing wrong with this, as it is generally the most efficient way to ascend basic towers. It would be wise to keep this in mind when you design towers, as it often only takes the addition of one stone to make your tower more newbie friendly. This is a bit more complex than it sounds and probably deserves a guide of its own. I'll include more information here as I muster effort to include it. For now, please refer to HERE for more information.

    ______________________

    Things to Avoid

    Generally speaking, if I see any of these things on a tower it really kills the design for me. This guide aims to help remove silly things like this from the critique section. If I continue to see these things in the Building Critique forum after this guide is released I will turn to hard liquor and narcotics as a means of coping with the stress you will cause me. You have been warned
    • Loads of ladders
    • Door hallways
    • Too many team doors in general
    • Large symmetrical towers
    • Towers that probably took you 2 hours to build and are completely impractical
    • Excess backwall and wasted resources in general
    • Kneecappers on small towers
    • Any sort of spike pit (for new players)
    I'll add more stuff to here. I'm sick of writing this guide already and my knuckles are bleeding from typing so much so stay tuned for more exciting additions to this section.

    __________________________

    Template for your critique

    You're not obliged to use this, I just thought some people might find it helpful.

    Name of Tower

    <foreword here> // Basically include what the tower is designed for and a little background info
    __________________________

    <Image here> // Images are extremely important. Include at least 1 but preferably more
    <Optional second image here>

    <Explanation of features> // Explain the features of your tower and what each module does

    __________________________

    <Outline any possible flaws with your tower

    ___________________

    Non-Structural Things to Remember

    • Build number. [xxx] in brackets beside the title. Use my guide as a reference point.
      To find the build number, open up your KAG and look in the top left hand corner of the window to find the build number. In my case it says "Engine (build: 514 version 0.95a)" so the build I would put next to my title would be 514
    • Pictures/diagrams. Normally pure explanation is not enough to get your point across, so include pictures that are correctly cropped so they are easy to read and neat. To learn how to crop pictures, click THIS link.
    • Justification and breakdown of features. Include a list of all the features of your tower and highlight key points in an image editing program (even MS paint will do). Flesh out each feature and point in your tower and tell everyone why it is in there and what it does.
    • Possible drawbacks. Seeing as this guide is about self criticism, look for flaws or possible weak points in your tower and include them in your breakdown of your tower. Knowing the problems with your structure may allow other people to help fix them. Here are a couple of common issues that people need to deal with. Some are fleshed out in the guide and a couple are not:
      • Incorrect door height
      • No more than 1 way over your tower
      • insufficiently sturdy for the intended purpose of the tower
      • wasted resources
      • weakness to bombs
      • too easily ascended
      • incorrectly designed, inefficient pathing
      • Incorrect spike placement
    That is pretty much it at this stage. I'll add writeups on anything else that people would like to see in my guide (within reason). If you have any questions about my guide or building in general I am always more than happy to help so don't hesitate to PM me or write a message HERE or in the thread. Also you should follow me. And like this post.What.

    Seriously though, thanks for reading. I hope this stuff is informative. I'll add more info as I get around to it.

    Guro - c:
     
    InsaneMTL, rocker2, I3lue and 18 others like this.
  2. Great job :) I like how you made the concepts easily understandable