Planning Permission: Mapping a main/natural/third.

LunaSaint

United Kingdom620 Posts

August 08 2011 08:30 GMT

Okay - so I have finally gathered the inspiration to redo a map I tried to make a long time ago (from scratch, just the base concept) - a Dominion theme park.

I already have most of the visuals planned out. The northwest will be a car park/loading bay, the southwest a creepy zerg experiment laboratory, northeast an unexplored protoss temple in ruins, and the southeast a monument to the glory of the human dominion!

But enough glamour. Before I can do anything cool like that, the map needs to establish a decent layout. I've been toying with a http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Burial_Grounds style high ground centre.

After thinking about http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Crevasse though, I realised that whoever has control over the high ground has a terrible advantage, and it's something difficult to move both up and down. There have been loads of awkward TvT games on it.
So I'm going to have to allow open space and alternate pathways without removing the focus on the high ground. Something I failed to really achieve on another map I made, Mountain Retreat.

But before I worry about that, there's a different problem. The main and natural are on the low ground. How can I make an interesting, reasonable third that works with this?

Currently, my layout looks like this:

The rocks allow the expansion to be easy to defend without exposing the natural. It also provides workers an escape route. I was also considering making the rocks have reduced armour so lings could pick away at them much easier. But I realised then that a 4-warpgate push or something similar would be devastating from this point.

Ok, so I could solve the pylon problem with doodads:

But breaking the natural from the rocks still seems pretty easy. Seeing a few games on Crossfire SE has shown me that even from the low ground, pushes through the rocks can lead to a disappointing game.

So, I'd like to call upon peoples' experiences. Am I worrying a bit much, or should I just make the main/nat have middle height, the third low ground and the big main path of the map on level 3?

+ Show Spoiler [Aside:] +

I totally love this XWT placement. Just enough to cover the shortest attack route and natural entrance but leaves the north and south routes in the dark.

Firesilver

United Kingdom1190 Posts

August 08 2011 09:09 GMT

Hmm, I actually like the position of the third on that small ledge of high ground, you say you would like to lower the armour of the rocks for zerg to easily take it, but you fear that 4WG would break this?

I think I know what you're getting at, as in they can bypass static defense by destroying the rocks?

An option could be to keep the easily breakable rocks from the natural -> third but also add rocks to the other entrance (the one that is currently clear) and make them 3 armour rocks. This would allow people to have time to re-act to a 4WG but wouldn't make it totally unviable (they can still attack through the natural entrance, just like most maps).

Hope this helps.

Rorra

Australia1066 Posts

August 08 2011 09:21 GMT

Ok that third will just be an issue in some situations blink + collossi seems like it could abuse that are quite nicely , and even siege tanks with drop would be too powerful, saying the rocks would be easy to knock down is useless as every second matters in sc2.

I'd say either put the 3rd on 1 ground lvl lower than the main and nat, or possibly just remove the rocks, with the first maybe being the preferred option, after all you don't want the third too be too easy to hold and a low ground third seems perfectly reasonable, even though it would technically be hard to hold vs tanks etc. Probably the most balanced option would be to just put the main nat and third on the same level, keeping the current chokes/entrances to the 3rd.

prodiG

Canada2016 Posts

August 08 2011 14:56 GMT

Try pulling the third farther back closer to the main and putting a bigger buffer between where the ramp and actual natural is and that will help. You could also try to put a Xel'Naga Tower on the high ground next to the main choke that provides vision of the top of that cliff.

Probe1

United States17920 Posts

August 08 2011 15:08 GMT

My zergie senses are telling me that the third is a deathtrap. No way to hellion proof your base with any less than 7 evo chambers and 4 spines. O_O Just sayin.

LunaSaint

United Kingdom620 Posts

August 08 2011 17:12 GMT

On August 08 2011 23:56 prodiG wrote:
Try pulling the third farther back closer to the main and putting a bigger buffer between where the ramp and actual natural is and that will help. You could also try to put a Xel'Naga Tower on the high ground next to the main choke that provides vision of the top of that cliff.

Pulling it back actually makes a lot of sense, yeah. Allows me to make the third a lot more defendable too!

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Planning Permission: Mapping a main/natural/third.

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