[Map] (4) Enigma by prodiG - Page 3

On September 11 2010 20:47 Niji87 wrote:


Nah, it only has 750 per patch. This means it's the equivalent of a standard gold expo on regular Blizzard maps. You get the same overall income as you would from Lost Temple gold, in other words. The difference is that it takes more workers to set up quickly, 24 instead of 12, and you get a hightened income for a brief amount of time. The higher cost of setting it up, the Xel'Naga towers watching it, and the multiple attack angles on it make it just fine. The aggressor has the advantage at this expansion.

One of the parts I really like about it is that the minerals aren't pushed up against the cliff edges, which means you can kill workers/gas without worrying about a PF shooting you. Especially with all those angles you can get on them. You don't always have to kill the PF, yah? Sidestepping is a great tactic. As for the doubters, the center is actually pretty open. I fit an entire 200/200 T army in a single exit lane inside and behind the line of sight blockers for that center gold pretty easy. There were still 3 other exit lanes that were completely undefended. Haha. The map screenshot just makes it look small, probably because the map itself is pretty large.

The real benefit of the gold center expansion isn't the gold. It's the gas. I'd still rather expand to a safer blue for the long term minerals, especially considering that blue expansions all have 30% more overall minerals than standard golds, and this gold is efffectively a standard gold. Also, the standard blues are more defendable and linear. The gas, on the other hand, is godly. Four geysers is just so crazy! I suggest halving how much gas is in each of those geysers so it follows the same concept as the gold minerals. 10,000 gas at one expo is just silly, though. I would fight for that expo in every game I could to get that gas.

Just an FYI, the middle gold gives you an income tab rating of 1350 minerals with 2 workers on each gold patch and 475 gas rating with 3 workers in each gas. With 2 workers on each patch the gold dries up in approximately 8 in-game minutes of mining. The gas just wins. No MULE's were used, btw.

I think there may be too many minerals overall at the gold. Having such a high income, even for just five minutes is pretty beneficial for a timing push. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see people who take the gold use it for setting up safer blue expansions rapidly once they learn that the gold dries up very fast. I would really like to see the total minerals in each patch go down to about 500. That means there's an overall mineral total of 6,000 there, compared to the regular 12,000 at a blue base.

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There are, of course, a few potential issues. Terran MULE's are still godly and can heavily take advantage of that middle expo. Saving up MULE's just for that expo makes so much sense that I'd probably smack a Terran that didn't. There was only one map issue I was able to find. The left bottom wall guarding the gold has a spot where you can siege a tank and it can shoot into the mineral line. Every other side only allows the tank to reach halfway into the actual mineral patch, which means it can't target SCV's properly. Except for on the bottom left. If I find anything else wrong with it or questionable I'll post about it.

Anyway, PF's don't have the range to fight any form of harassment play in the center, thankfully. The distance from the main/natural to the center is big enough that players can really maneuver around. Defending the middle on this map feels like it'll be significantly more difficult than usual. This is definitely one of the most open maps I've played on. Devotion is the only other one that really feels as open to me. That screenshot really doesn't do justice to the size of the map. I suggest everyone at least test it vs Very Easy AI to feel the map out.

It's very easy to simply expand around the edges and just push into their natural that way. Guarding all those side expansions isn't easy if you have to protect the center, too. There are too many attack paths into the center. A 200/200 army can't cover the natural expo's, the side expo's blocked by rocks, and the center at the same time efficiently. Even if you defend the ground paths effectively and super turtle, every single bases mineral line is easily harassable by air. With the upcoming siege tank damage nerf, it's going to be one hell of a crazy map.

This is easily the best map I've seen and my new favorite SC2 map of all time.

Great map prodiG!



EDIT: I also feel I should mention that I highly approve of the destructable rock placement on this map. The gold needs it. There's no question about that. That kind of income in early game would be ludicrous. The rocks blocking the ramp by the natural are also very good. They keep the natural safe early, but allow for the aggressor to open another attack path later in the game. The lack of rocks blocking any expansions other than the gold is wonderful.

On September 12 2010 07:18 Niji87 wrote:
Tested it a bit more and it's possible to safely proxy Gateway behind the 3rd's minerals on the left and right sides of the map but not at the top and bottom sides.

What I mean by safely is that you can place the Pylon behind the center of the mineral line and then a Gateway at each end to seal it off. That's one of the few spots I could find where you could hide a Gateway and a scouting probe might miss it, most of the other spots that are closer are much easier to check. The Gateways are tucked far enough back from the scouting probes normal line of sight that it won't see them unless it purposefully checks.

Anyway, I suggest either shrinking the space behind the minerals on the left and right side to prevent hidden proxy gates/barracks (3x3 buildings) or increasing the space behind the minerals on the top and bottom so that it's even for all spawns.

It's your move Batman!