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Foray into map making

Blogs > Abydos1
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Abydos1
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States832 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-01-11 19:24:52
January 10 2009 06:57 GMT
#1
Over the past week or so I've been playing around with scmdraft and figured I'd share some of my map designs with the community. Most of these still need some minor decoration and probably major balance work done to them. I'm adding my thoughts behind each map and what I think the racial balances would be. Please add any thoughts or suggestions you might have.

Arena

[image loading]


+ Show Spoiler +
P ? T
P > Z
T > Z

I'm thinking zerg could be hard to play with no easy 3rd gas available. PvT might be Terran favored with no real easy expos to take past the nat for Toss and its probably going to be hard to break a good Terran push once they get sieged up in a good position.

The main features of this map are the bowl-like formation dominating the middle of the map along with the narrow pathways on the side to the 3rd gas. Also note the stacked minerals (5 I think at 1 min each) between the main and the min only. Everything beyond the nat is easily harassable from the high ground and the long distances are going to make them hard to secure.


Echelon

[image loading]

Download

+ Show Spoiler +
P ? T
P ? Z
T ? Z

I'm not sure what the balance is like on this one without thinking about it more; the easy 3rd gas should be beneficial to zerg. PvT probably will lean towards protoss late game once the expansions get spread out and the terran army becomes more easily flankable.

This map was inspired by Ride of Valkyries but should still have some uniqueness to it. Note that the expos near the middle are min only (the geysers are the mined out doodads). Also, while the island expo has 2 gas it is harassable without drop.


unnamed

[image loading]


+ Show Spoiler +
P < T
P > Z
T ? Z

The relatively easy 3 bases and short push distance should make this P < T I think. The hard to defend 3rd gas for zerg will probably favor Protoss I think with Protoss having 2 gas & the min only easily defendable.

I didn't really have a plan when making this map other than the mostly open middle. The back route to the min only is blocked by stacked minerals (5 stacked with 1 min each I believe) which should be enough to deter rushes but still needs to be watched.


Unveiled

[image loading]


+ Show Spoiler +
P ? T
P ? Z
T ? Z

Due to the unique nature of this map I'm not sure what the balance would look like. The key features here are the blocked ramps at the in base natural which are blocked by 4 mineral patches of 500 minerals each while the other patches have 2000 (instead of 1500) each. I wanted to experiment with opening a secondary route via normal mining and also provide unique play in each of the matchups. I believe that it will be to one races advantage in each matchup to mine out the back ramp for example in PvT Terran would probably benefit from mining this out and having easy access to a 3rd base and a short push distance to pressure the Protoss while the Protoss may choose to forgo mining the 4 ramp patches and instead expand towards the bottom more open area forcing the Terran to make long flankable pushes and providing opportunities for recalls on undefended expos. Note that workers mining the 5 patches won't go to the ramp patches so you have to assign workers to the ramp patches or they won't get mined.


Winding Valley

[image loading]


+ Show Spoiler +
P ? T
P ? Z
T ? Z

Again due to the split nature of this map I'm not too sure what the balance would look like. This is another map I think may play out differently in each matchup with one race possibly favoring mining out their back ramp (again 5 minerals with 1 mineral each). Note that the islands only have 4 patches but they each have 3000 minerals; I don't think they'll see much use but they're still an option.


Anyways that sums up my mapping efforts so far. Again any advice or comments would be appreciated. I'll probably make these available if people are interested and after I polish them a little more (and probably work on balance issues).

***
"...perhaps the greatest joy possible in Starcraft, being accused of being a maphacker" - Day[9]
clazziquai
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
6685 Posts
January 10 2009 06:58 GMT
#2
Hm...I'm no mapmaking expert but the map looks VERY plain/boring.
Like the Terrain have the same pattern in each map.
#1 Sea.Really Fan / #1 Nesh Fan / Terran Forever~
Abydos1
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States832 Posts
January 10 2009 07:00 GMT
#3
On January 10 2009 15:58 clazziquai wrote:
Hm...I'm no mapmaking expert but the map looks VERY plain/boring.
Like the Terrain have the same pattern in each map.


Well most are using the jungle tile set and I haven't worked much on adding detail to them besides varying the terrain a little. I'm also sticking with mirrored terrain for now to prevent any balance issues occurring from as a result.
"...perhaps the greatest joy possible in Starcraft, being accused of being a maphacker" - Day[9]
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
7011 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-01-10 07:07:26
January 10 2009 07:05 GMT
#4
Breaking a contain on Arena seems like mission impossible, tbh. it does not look like any easier on
the other maps.

You should start by studying Pro maps and imitating choke designs and stuff like that.

I really don't think these maps are worth talking about as they really seem random made in 10 minutes ones, have you counted the amount of minerals/gas and things like that?
Steelflight-Rx
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States1389 Posts
January 10 2009 07:43 GMT
#5
Teamliquid is the harshest map critics. If you look back to a thread where sum1 introduced wuthering heights as a "leaked proleague map" before proleague announced it, all the TL members were just shitting all over the map: omg that looks so imba proleague would never use that, whoever made it was a noob...

and then proleague announced it and every1 looked dumb for talking shit =P

the point is, ur maps look pretty sweet but its almost impossible to get any recognition for map making unless ur one of the very very few map designers for korean tournaments
yubee wrote: you know? it's a great night you should all smile no matter what harddships, because grass grows and the sky is blue and it's a good life.
jinwoooooooo
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States176 Posts
January 10 2009 07:45 GMT
#6
One thing i want to point out:

Echelon is TERRIBLE FOR TERRAN, OH GOD. THAT CHOKE IS HORRIBLE. PLEASE FIX IT.
And tosses should suffer against zergs too, because of the inability to pull off an effective FE.

BTW, your maps are, in my opinion, aesthetically unpleasant. Way too many straight edges, sharp angles, geometric shapes, that sort.
Loanshark
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
China3094 Posts
January 10 2009 08:41 GMT
#7
I'm not a mapmaker, so this could all be unimportant, but....
Are you sure that basic things are accounted for?
Wall-in can be done? CC add-ons can be built on all the expos? There's space in the mains?

Looks like on Winding Valley you can siege tanks on your main and hit people walking down the unbuildable middle path as they head towards your ramp. If they make it past that, then sieged tanks at main ramp can fire on anyone going towards the natural. The natural looks like it can be tank cheesed as well from the corner islands (at least the geyser).

The nat at unnamed seems kinda vulnerable.
Arena has stretches of high ground next to the ramps going up on both bases in player's depressions, seems easy to put something there and hit buildings down in the main.
No dough, no go. And no mercy.
Jaeden
Profile Joined September 2008
Romania1489 Posts
January 10 2009 11:00 GMT
#8
I would like to download them, so..links?
Boxer: " Lee Jae Dong is the best player. He`s all about the micro; he`s the player which has the most amazing control"
[DUF]MethodMan
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
Germany1716 Posts
January 10 2009 11:14 GMT
#9
creating symmetrical maps is easier to balance but you will see the same plays on those maps over and over again.
Abydos1
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States832 Posts
January 11 2009 19:26 GMT
#10
Updated Echelon slightly; chokes are now wallable for terran with 2 depots & rax. Added some decorations and uploaded to broodwarpmaps.net. Download link is in the op.
"...perhaps the greatest joy possible in Starcraft, being accused of being a maphacker" - Day[9]
Jaeden
Profile Joined September 2008
Romania1489 Posts
January 12 2009 19:17 GMT
#11
thnx, can u post the link to all the maps ? no need for updates on them, I just like some parts of them and I would like to play them :D
Boxer: " Lee Jae Dong is the best player. He`s all about the micro; he`s the player which has the most amazing control"
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