oh ye i forgot to answer this one i believe
its quite special actually but it doesnt hurt other times however

its when ur up against like a zerg on farther positions and a few zergs just take their 3rd ridiculously fast, so i basically say, if ur far positions and take that fast 3rd base it should be in another main base or main base natural because if u take that high ground and ur oppo is on the other side of the map they will have very hard time defending against it. so u sort of call it a positional balance in non-mirror mus where i dont want to reward macro to 3 bases so extremely fast. so then u have the option to get many lings enough or unsieged tanks to break it down and then take 3rd or go a little risky and skip those and go straight for another main base.
so its there for balance and gameplay purposes. i understand its far fetched but from where im standing its really just an improvement in situations like that and doesnt hurt at all in situations when we r not in macro far pos as then u will get many units anyway to,, survive )

its complicated to explain but i hope i delivered the msg about the rocks

SaetZero

United States855 Posts

July 24 2010 18:34 GMT

#44

Most fun I had recently was playing a game of SC2 on a remake of FS. Remake the old shit! I support that entirely forever.

Monokeros

United States2493 Posts

July 24 2010 18:35 GMT

#45

The only issue I had with gaia was how terrans could siege the gas at the 9oclock natural across the bridge, that was such BS back in the old days.

Telcontar

United Kingdom16710 Posts

July 24 2010 18:40 GMT

#46

looks very nice. its like lost temple with some fat trimmed off. not entirely sure about having a back door entrance to the natural especially with that large fron. oh and i wouldnt be surprised if you dont see anyone taking/holding any of the gold expansions. they're very exposed and you wouldnt go for them unless you have a significant advantage.

UniQ.eu

Sweden82 Posts

July 24 2010 18:41 GMT

#47

The map looks awesome! You forgot one spawning location though. It looks like a better version of metalopolis to me! (Didn't play SC1)

Kodan

United States51 Posts

July 24 2010 18:42 GMT

#48

Amazing job! Gaia is one of my favorites.

I also really hope someone remakes neo bifrost!

Two

United States95 Posts

July 24 2010 19:33 GMT

#49

Looks awesome man. Nice work.

ROOTdrewbie

Canada1392 Posts

July 24 2010 19:35 GMT

#50

wow nice job morrow, i always loved gaia in bw 1v1 and 2v2 ;D

Uhh Negative

United States1090 Posts

July 24 2010 19:40 GMT

#51

Looks like a Terran tank fest. Not sure how a zerg would win here other than drops.

edit: assuming players spawn cross positions and not adjacent.

NastyMarine

United States1252 Posts

July 24 2010 19:55 GMT

#52

I love you MorroW

semantics

10040 Posts

July 24 2010 19:57 GMT

#53

It def wont feel as big as it used to if you didn't increase the map bounds.

But Gaia is one of my old time crushes with SC1 so lovely work sir!

Arnu

Canada96 Posts

July 24 2010 20:37 GMT

#54

Nice! I hope that somehow these get included in ladder maps one day

Madsquare

Germany157 Posts

July 25 2010 10:36 GMT

#55

So i guess this is about me beeing too direct. wich leads to bad blood and some misunderstandings. i dont have any bad intentions.
Ill rephrase my feedback and put some more depth into.

---------------------------------
First off, the biggest issue that jumps at me, when i look at the centre of the map.
i know that the temple insignia is 8sq, as i checked in the editor.

image: + Show Spoiler +

note: the the size off the 13sq might be a bit off, however this is not that important, as anything you could call army will still be struck by the tanks range.

siege tanks will lock it down very easily, completly. because this is the only way for ground.
i dont think drops are an option because if you take some preparations (s.tower, turrets, vikings etc) you can lock them down.

In my opinion, the things that make this stronger than it looks like on the bw map are:
- bw map seems a bit wider. though i dont think this would change much because you can just move some tanks further to the edge.
--> you might want to widen the choke at this area.
- the watchtower is responsible in my eyes. because it has a radius of 22sq, it grants the siege tanks full vision without requiring air support.
--> removing the tower would require the terran to need air support at both sides, wich costs time and money, and could possibly be broken by the opponent, thus adding some more gameplay around this area.

-------------------------------
The natural-natural issue.
I think a comparison with steppes of war, checking why something may work better than something else, is a good way to show my points.

images: + Show Spoiler +

If you go straight forward from the choke on steppes (cyan line), you will be very soon at the opponents natural, but from there you cant lock down his choke.
and this is where the issue lies for me. on gaia, if you take a poke (white line) you are already in a position where you can lay siege at your opponents chokes (circles indicate the area im talking about, not the siege tank range). I dont think it should be that easy.
--> redesigning the naturals chokes to make them a bit offset or similar might help.
i agree that reducing the main/nat area is not an option. i suggest to take a look at mineral line/main choke/nat choke releation, maybe theres a solution to find, wich will make the path not that straight up.

Next, on steppes are los blockers around the chokes. meaning that when you are there, you will still need something flying in order to pick up all outcoming units with tanks.
gaia doesnt have los blockers wich leads to greater exposal.
--> you might want to add some los blockers to help staying safe in this area.

------------------

I hope we can settle this disagreement and be ok with each other. but before there are some points i want to be clear about:

- i know how it feels to put hours of time, your heart and your soul into something and getting told its not worth anything.
I havent been long into Starcraft, however i have quite a long mapping history (4years of serious mapping by now). Its not gonna happen that i let myself beeing accused of beeing a beginner. i did walk my walk.

- Its not going happen that i will post positive feedback, because its useless according to my own experience. im sorry if i was too direct. i dont have any bad intentions.
also i tend to cut it to the bare neccesary, not explaining it and just pointing my concern out IF i think the designer is capable of understanding what the keypoints and solutions are. And im sure you are. though i understand you dont bother thinking what i meant, as you dont know me.

------------------

Im looking forward to see you making more maps (but please dont loose your game skills, as we need more bio-mech awesomeness to spectate :-) ) because you have actually the connections to get custom maps played and tournament admins interested in putting different maps into their mappools.
i think we can all agree that most blizzard maps are just not viable

greetings, madsquare.

Mooncat

Germany1228 Posts

July 25 2010 10:42 GMT

#56

Didn't like the map much in SC1 to be honest, but I can see a bit of potential for SC2. Gold Expos in general should be harder to take & to defend imho, so right in the middle seems like a good spot to me.

konadora

Singapore66071 Posts

July 25 2010 11:05 GMT

#57

Pretty, I like.

ilbh

Brazil1606 Posts

July 25 2010 11:23 GMT

#58

I really like your maps, would love if someone makes the Hitchhiker for SC2. I think it will be awesome for SC2...

Pulimuli

Sweden2766 Posts

July 25 2010 11:27 GMT

#59

Gaia was one of my fav maps to TvP on in BW, this looks cool

why did you decide not to make the other mineral only expos outside of the naturals though?

MorroW

Sweden3522 Posts

August 02 2010 15:27 GMT

#60

Map is officially published to the Europe server. I will try to get some of the maps up on US but it will take some time.
Read more about how to download the map.