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So lately I've been trying to figure out a way I could contribute to the SC2 community and be a part of it in a meaningful way. Up until last night, I thought there were only 2 ways in which I could really do this: Play hard and become a tournament level player so that I could deliver exciting matches and/or lessons -or- Try my hand at casting/commentary.
The problem I run into is that I don't really have the time to commit to becoming such a high caliber player, and probably lack the talent as my ladder rating would tell you 
When it comes to casting, I don't feel I have the voice for it and there's already so many great casters.
Anyways, it hit me last night that there's also the map making side of things. There's been a few threads popping up lately about blizzards new map pool and even some complaints about the never changing tournament line-ups. Now when I'm watching a tournament this is the last thing on my mind but we all know there's one or two maps that no one wants to see or play on.
My goal is to make a map that is viable for the highest levels of play.
Acceptable victory will be to get the map into a regular map pool like Blizzard Ladder or maybe for an event like IPL or Go4SC2.
Ultimate victory will to have the map widely accepted as the best map ever made! lol
Right now I'm just in the planning stages. Just brainstorming ideas and reading up on all the mapping threads I can find.
As I make progress I'll make a new blog entry and when I feel it is ready for public play I will make the appropriate forum thread.
As of this moment, the one thing I'm really set on is it being a four player map where close spawn positions do not need to be disabled.
For anyone that reads this and is even slightly interested. I'd love to hear your advice, suggestions, design ideas, etc. I promise that I won't stop working on this until my goal is reached 
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Check out Map of the Month, great team, great maps. Maybe u could use theirs for inspiration, GL!
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On August 04 2011 03:05 omgbambi wrote:Check out Map of the Month, great team, great maps. Maybe u could use theirs for inspiration, GL!
Thanks for the shoutout, though Map of the Month isn't a team!
I would look through all of the resource guides in the subforum, and then just try to make a map! It takes a lot of time and patience to get a map up to the absurdly high caliber you see from the top mappers. Your first few maps aren't going to be good - thats okay, expect heavy criticism, take it and use it when creating your next map. Its all constructive criticism.
If you've got any questions, feel free to ask me or Barrin, the maps banling.
Looking forward to seeing what you can come up with!
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Mapping is a slow, meticulous process of finding problems and solving them - it can get frustrating and tedious at the worst times and really fun in the best. I'd suggest:
1 - spending a lot of time just playing with the editor and seeing how everything works.
2 - Check out the previous MotMs for a good idea of what works, doesn't, what looks good, and so on. It's full of great inspiration.
3 - A map is only good if each race equally thinks it is biased against them.
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On August 04 2011 04:04 LunaSaint wrote:
3 - A map is only good if each race equally thinks it is biased against them.
Theres a really good quote, "You know a map is balanced when Zergs are angry, Terrans are sad, and Protoss are confused"
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Hyrule19159 Posts
You can also always edit Liquipedia
I'd like to see something funky. Like a main where there's an area for just the CC/Nexus/Hatch, a choke to the production area, and then another choke out into the wide world.
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Map making is difficult. I made a 4 player sized map called Overship (check it out on Battle.net), and for all my planning it still had many flaws.
The other thing is decoration. It is one thing to lay out a map; it's another thing entirely to decorate it and make it look nice. This is where I failed at making my map.
+ Show Spoiler [Features of Overship] +- Elevated base with small ramp to natural.
- Easy forward natural with wide ramp.
- Back attack paths to natural.
- Wide open donut-shaped middle area.
- Out-of-the-way 3rd and/or 4th bases.
- Mineral-only gold bases.
- Terrazine-only central base, meant to be a major late-game control point.
- Easy Reaper/Colossus/Blink Stalker movement.
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EPT
