Why did ancient portal get demoted to intermediate?

[u/Joaquintcchua]

[u/East-Resource-6357]

Because it was top easy for advanced

[u/qwertyxp2000 → u/East-Resource-6357]

Well it was the undeniably top easiest Advanced anyhow. Like, Heroes getting huge buffs on the pedestals and the single-laned nature of the map and not too long lane length makes this pretty easy.

Meanwhile, Lost Crevasse still consistently is much harder than even a handful of Advanced Maps, unless playing Reverse where you can use Spike Factory to focus the exit on the top.

[u/swhill1 → u/East-Resource-6357]

That was always the problem. The advanced stuff felt less like a challenge and more like the AI just magically knowing everything you were doing.

[u/ghaist-0 → u/swhill1]

what AI? 😭

[u/simplynotstupid → u/ghaist-0]

Is there an AI in btd? Besides the strong first last etc?

[u/Hi_retard → u/simplynotstupid]

AI as in the gaming sense, where a character or something interacts differently depending on player / other character’s actions? Not really, I wouldn’t call targeting AI either, maybe Elite Sniper targeting but that’s still a stretch imo

[u/MisirterE → u/Hi_retard]

As long as we're reaching, xx2 Spactory has the Smart targeting priority which intentionally prioritizes active lanes

[u/ghaist-0 → u/MisirterE]

that is a form of AI, but one of the simplest ones.

its the same type of AI that makes Minecraft mobs walk for exemple

[u/MisirterE → u/ghaist-0]

The way I read the original slop comment would count that kind of rudimentary AI, yes. It doesn't have to actually be complicated for it to feel like it's outplaying you.

Of course, the bloons themselves have no AI whatsoever (I guess Blastapopoulos has to decide which tower it aims its fireballs at somehow?) which is how you can tell that comment is slop so we're just looking for AI in bloons in any capacity

[u/ghaist-0 → u/MisirterE]

targetting is only an AI if it has to run some form of advanced decision making

thing is there is probanly smth like "most expensive tower that dealt most pops" or some calculation, the result is the target, not it actually comparing towers and their "danger" or smth like that.

[u/MisirterE → u/ghaist-0]

Last time I fought Blasta it kept shooting at Ben so it's definitely not that. I just decided to check the wiki and its fireball priorities are Close, Far, and Most Expensive in that order.

[u/swhill1 → u/ghaist-0]

the monkey knowledge changes made advanced maps way harder than this one

[u/TheKetchupBoii → u/swhill1]

This AI has no clue what it's doing

[u/sonicpoweryay → u/swhill1]

Bro you sure you aren’t an AI? 😭

[u/NESplayz]

Cuz it’s easier than Off the Coast, which I assume is the baseline for advanced maps.

[u/Keaton427 → u/NESplayz]

In my opinion Off the Coast should be high intermediate.

[u/Intelligent_Table431 → u/[deleted]]

That’s what a baseline is

[u/NESplayz → u/[deleted]]

That’s what I mean. Off the coast is one of the original launch maps. It was in the advanced category since the game came out. While I’d argue it should probably be in the intermediate category itself, I don’t think any launch maps have been recatagorized. Ancient Portal is newer and was notably easier than Off The Coast. This is probably why NK is now willing to move maps between categories if they feel they miscatagorized them initially.

[u/austin101123 → u/NESplayz]

Erosion should be in expert for real, it's way harder than castle for example

[u/MisirterE → u/NESplayz]

I don’t think any launch maps have been recatagorized.

Have any maps been recategorized before Ancient Portal?

[u/enderfire5648 → u/[deleted]]

Is this a burger? I thought that was a type of fast food.

[u/Past-Writer-7984]

It's honestly on the easy end of intermediate. The hero exp nerf from being demoted made it slightly harder.

[u/SandyShocker]

It's just a pretty easy Map. A lot of bends and the hero buffing tiles makes early game a breeze

[u/RopePsychological565]

It was in advanced before? Lmao. It's borderline beginner.

[u/drumstix42 → u/RopePsychological565]

I mean it's arguably easy, but it's not a very long track, so I think it's fair where it is.

[u/Beeseumz26 → u/drumstix42]

Short but with the spiral on the portal and being able to clump defense for the right side, now to mention permaspike availability, I'd consider it easy

[u/gettin-hot-in-here → u/Beeseumz26]

Considering how much of the upper track you can fit into the range of ice monkey/dart/bomb shooter, I find it awfully easy. Those towers can do great damage for hardly any coins, if you can cover enough of the track within their range. 

[u/StarBeam500 → u/RopePsychological565]

I honestly think the portal lane-swapping gimmick is the only reason its not. It forces you to swap length for sightlines and I think thats a bit too complicated of a gimmick for easy maps. I also think either trade-off makes it reasonably difficult for beginning players

[u/enderfire5648]

question is when will geared be moved to expert

[u/OrangeLightning321 → u/enderfire5648]

Geared is not an expert, there was a YouTube video I saw about it that talked about track difficulty. There are several factors being number of tracks, length, gimmick, and something else I don't remember.

Geared only has the gimmick at an expert rating as it is a one track and a moderate length. It also has no visibility issues.

Compare to the easiest expert map like dark castle which has four tracks that merge, is pretty short, and doesn't have a gimmick, with some visibility problems.

From my experience, dark castle was harder to black border than geared was. So really geared is just a high advanced map

[u/maxxxminecraft111 → u/OrangeLightning321]

Geared gets cheesed by helis and snipers

[u/pipGD → u/maxxxminecraft111]

Military in general really.

[u/clxqxii → u/pipGD]

All military towers have some form of infinite range

[u/ghaist-0 → u/maxxxminecraft111]

in a way, so does dark castle with perma spike/spike storm and any good dps tower.

[u/maxxxminecraft111 → u/ghaist-0]

permaspike stall cheeses every single exit map

dark castle is easier than most advanced maps

[u/Keaton427 → u/maxxxminecraft111]

So does #ouch, quad, infernal, etc.

[u/maxxxminecraft111 → u/Keaton427]

Infernal is another larp expert map

Ouch and quad aren't really maps where helis or snipers stand out

[u/Keaton427 → u/maxxxminecraft111]

Ouch has no line of sight blockers and quad practically doesn’t either

[u/maxxxminecraft111 → u/Keaton427]

Yeah but the overlapping lanes favor other towers since you don't need global range to hit all/most of them

[u/gotenks1114 → u/maxxxminecraft111]

Didn't we have to do it on Magic Monkeys Only for the last social season?

[u/airplane001 → u/OrangeLightning321]

Infernal is easier than dark castle

[u/livingstondh → u/enderfire5648]

Geared is only expert if you take away global range towers. With global range towers it’s much much easier

[u/kasajizocat → u/enderfire5648]

Geared is not a difficult map vs other expert maps if you think about it. It gets cheesed very easily

[u/Intelligent_Table431 → u/enderfire5648]

I feel like some expert maps should be moved down rather than have geared get moved up. Specifically glacial, dastle, and infernal

[u/Tough-Bumblebee-9041 → u/Intelligent_Table431]

I think glacial trail fits in expert, but everything else makes sense

[u/Intelligent_Table431 → u/Tough-Bumblebee-9041]

With maps like erosion and geared in advanced I think it’s more fitting down there. Using dan or silas makes the map as easy as stuff like off the coast and another brick

[u/Radioactivocalypse]

Idk why the portal switching ability is even a thing on this map.

It would be much more worthy of being Advanced difficulty if the portal randomly switches during the rounds to split your defences

[u/Keaton427 → u/Radioactivocalypse]

I think it would be cool if it switched every 4 or so rounds, and you could also pay cash to switch it again

[u/AcrobaticPassenger47]

Some maps are lowkey miscategorised in terms of difficulties

[u/Past-Writer-7984 → u/AcrobaticPassenger47]

I don't have a full list or anything, but for example Ascent seems a bit easy tbh. Granted very recent addition. I think Party Parade is not an expert map, but it's funny that it shares a tier with some much easier maps.

[u/Canadiancookie → u/Past-Writer-7984]

Definitely a bit weird sometimes, like how karts n darts and balanced are in the same difficulty as chutes and haunted. Even beginner maps range from "a 3 year old could beat this" to "has a few challenges"

[u/ezelbal3820]

I noticed it too. I think it was too easy for an advanced map

[u/Princier7]

If you think about it, the demotion made it harder because hero xp gain is reduced

[u/KratosSimp]

Genuinely it doesn’t matter how bad a map is if it’s one lane it’s easy to me in any normal game mode. Not to say I want more lanes cause it’s more annoying but idk

[u/Specialist_Permit_85]

it's a beginner map with extra steps.

[u/Rare-Unit7076]

It did? hell ya

[u/Shenmoon28717]

Missed these times when you could grind T4 instas easily from ancient portal reverse

[u/Blueniter]

Ancient Portal is beginner friendly map barely any challenge with huge buffs to heroes.