DnD Map 2 Feedback

DnD Map 2

What went right?
Things went smoothly but not in the way it should have gone. For the good part of it, I stayed within the time limit. The players went through the map smoothly. They experienced the map almost to a hundred percent of its entirety. The checkpoint and items aspect were used. 

What went wrong?
What went wrong would be that the map felt a bit easy. The enemies aside from the boss weren't too difficult, they were defeated within three to four turns. I didn't really choose items that would help the players. They didn't do much overall and were almost useless. My script wasn't solid, I would improv most of the scenes My map was too linear and didn't stretch long enough for range to play much of a factor in combat or encounters. 

How might you improve your map next time?
I should have made my own items that would fit the map as well as revising the map to be able to use the items provided in the rules. I also need a solid script to fall on. Most importantly, I need to think less about the tutorial because I made this map a bit too easy. The playtesters stated that this map felt like a somewhat difficult tutorial map. I could have probably made the enemies stronger and give them more abilities instead of just straight-forward attacking. Lastly, I need to make my map less linear, like my last map, the critical path is obvious and continues in a straight line. 

Were enemies appropriate to the player "level"?
The boss was difficult as it should be but the other enemies were fairly easy. I should have made the attack and defense of the other enemies higher. Or they could have had abilities that made them stronger. The boss might need to be weaker as it's abilities are already a bit overpowered. 

Were there appropriate teaching mechanisms for new items?
The players weren't taught to "use" the items. The items were just given and the items themselves did not have any impact on the level. They were pretty useless aside from two events. One was continuing to the main hall where the goggles allowed players to see the enemies and potential allies in the room. If they did not see them, the players would have needed to battle more enemies but the items are given were obvious and any player could have gotten it if they actually explored instead of going straight to the hallway. The other item was the boots of retreat. Since the enemies were easy to defeat, the players did not use the item up until they reached the boss and retreat from the boss because of consistent bad-rolls (but the boss was already low enough to die if they rolled a 4 or higher). 

Was it obvious where players we supposed to go?
Yes, the map was too linear for a medium-level map. There were only three main rooms connected to each other in a straight line. I have no clue how I missed that when I was making the map. Perhaps it's because my own train of thought is too linear. 

How was the overall flow?
It was good, though there were long pauses where I did mental math in my head (that usually takes a while) to figure out how much damage enemies did or how much health they had left. However, I could have really improved the map by creating a solid script or giving enemies more abilities as well as giving the player more abilities/choices. I hope I can do better next time, especially for the tiered map as it's a group project. I wouldn't want to fail my team.