6. Good to know! Going to look into these!

7. Chasms - In this case the chasms are there to make it harder to defend the core, since it is already surrounded from 2 sides completely. They might encourage the players to plan their defenses more. =P

Surprised on the AI as well. =D I did some tests with it yesterday when you asked and kinda worked out.

Again, thank you very much for the feedback, it is always good to see things from another point of view! =)

4. Okay, help me with this, because it shouldn't be like that. The only entrance should be at the sand patches. Where did you found that and in which part of the map? Sometimes the mirroring messes up things and some blocks are missing/not copied.
If you could help me with what way you expanded your dungeon and how you found that place, etc. Thanks a bunch!

5. Hmm, the brimstone is kind of artificial, yes, but that's part of the tunnel system and they are there for blocking. To be honest I was never thinking it to make them look like natural. =/ Since we don't have such things here, in this case, try to think of it as barricades/rigged rocks ready for explosion.

Wow, okay, you had the time for sure! =D Thanks for the detailed feedback.

1. Hmm these are just a few and even the player can sell it if they'd go with something else instead. The defender is just there for as a protector in the beginning. It is not high level and I chose him because he does not need gold. For now I am leaving them I think.

2. I experimented with these democorns a lot and this one is the mid one which can be eliminated with a mid army and some lightning spells. Also I picked one of my signatures to hide a democorn in all my maps. Thinking of changing it to the smallest democorn.

3. I was already thinking of balancing these at some point and I will look into it. Usually I use random artifacts which indeed is a gamble.

As a final note, I would switch the chasms around the cores. I would prefer it to be fortified earth so that it could be mined out for defences.

So I just gave the map a quick AI test. My suggestions are largely down to personal preference:
1 - I really do not like pre-placed defences/minions. It removes player choice and seems artificial. If we want to go down sloth, give us the advantage of doors. As it is, core walling is often better than glacial door anyway.
2 - I am not a fan of the democorns either. They are really powerful and the game becomes less about building your own army and more about rushing these things.
3 - I would go easy on the artefacts. Make them less gamechanging. Anyone who does not know the map is going to be at an immediate disadvantage. Spirit workers are notoriously OP. At least everyone gets one each...but I would prefer more moderate ones such as 5k gold, complete potions, etc.

4 - The map is entirely rushable. I saw a route where I can attack pretty early on.
5 - The brimstone often feels artificial. It feels less of a 'This is how it would occur' and more of a 'The map maker placed it here to slow me down'. I recommend removing some and spreading others out a bit.
6 - Some of the shrines seem a little useless. Gold shrines are better in 2.0 but still nothing amazing to rush. Secondary/tertiary gateways are also often useless. I would recommend some perception shrines instead.

Otherwise, the map seems fairly promising. The AI liked it. =O

Yeeeah... not quite. Probably quite a few rooms are going to end up fragmented.
Could work out though, it is "not as" zig-zagged as it seems...

Sure, I can give it a test, probably with the AI. A final question: is it AI-friendly (is there plenty of building room for it? The AI favours 5x5 spam.

Not as close and not as easy. =P
The main "entrances" to the tunnels are at the sandy spots on the map. When a player reaches that spot, that player can go through the caves, all the way, through almost till the centre. On the way there are multiple one-way (from out of the tunnel) breach spots in both directions, left and right.

So all in all, the player needs to go through most of the islands to get to that entrance and then it has the opportunity to attack both ways as desired.
And these entrances are roughly at the same distance from both adjacent players, so there is no preferred way of going for the entrances.

So they are too close as it seems, but not too close. =D
Of yourse you need to fight for these tunnels (or you can simply ignore them), that is the main point of this map based on my idea.

I hope it makes sense as I described.
Give it a go, it is way easier to see it that way. =P

Not bad. One last thing I would look at: how easy is it to reach someone else's core...and is there a good incentive to go to the farther locations of the map? From looking at it, I could detonate some brimstone very close and encroach on someone else's land very quickly. I would also suggest allowing the brimstone to go both ways so that either player can attack.

Boom! =D

Thanks!
Hmmm, haven't thought of that, and I am not quite fond of those, only quartz, but will try.
Lets see...

Nice, much better. =O As a final suggestion, perhaps you could use rocky earth for some decoration (like veins scattered across, mirrored obviously) and some interesting terrain, such as sand or quartz, around the outside.

Yup, that's right, I was thinking of removing the rest of the preclaimed tiles too.

Fair enough. If it is only a bridge though the AI should be capable of claiming it straight away.

Hmhm... Yes, I see your point. In this case, it is only a bit of lava, stone bridge on the top nd a few starter tiles to help AI players to get around in the beginning. Also it serves as a temporarily defense as it can be sold from below attacking hordes. He-he. =D

Indeed, I like the look of it. In terms of feedback: from looking solely at the map, I am personally not keen on any pre-claimed tiles but that is just me.

Thanks a bunch, glad to hear that! =D

looks really cool
like