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Frozen Sanctum 1.9
Overview:
90 degree angle
40 degree angle
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/ymMB5.jpg)
I tryed to create a ice map just with the textures which are allready in this game. A mixture out of white und blue Sand/ Dunes actually did the job pretty well. I also used some cloud and fog doodads to increase the cold atmosphere. It's not distracting ingame though. the map is also diagonal mirrored which seems to be not that common.
Impressions:
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+ Show Spoiler +Ingame 4th cloud drifting over the cliff
Map Specifications:
- Map size:186x176
- Playable:144x136
- melee map 1v1
- Main bases on 9 and 12 o'clock
- standart 12000 minerals and 5000 gas at each base
- 1 gold expansion with 9000 minerals 5000 gas
- 2 Xel'Naga watch towers covering the middle
Map analysis:
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Change log
+ Show Spoiler +1.2: - added new 4th
- removed rocks at the 5th
- added rock at the gold
1.3: - incresed the space between both 3rd expansions
- added some more details like falling snow, snow drifts and some doodads
1.4: - added some no flying zones in the north covert by doodads
1.5: - fixed the right side Natural Expansion
1.6: 1.7: - Changed the 3rd again
- added Niflheim Textures
- some more details, Trees, falling debris in Cliffs, ice spikes on all minerallines
- changed light
Download:
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Visually this is really really nice, I love snow 
I don't like the expansion layout tho. If Zerg wants to take a third they expand towards their opponent, and the thirds are really close together.
That the fourth has Rocks is even worse, since Zerg can't take it as a third then. And in any case those Rocks are pointless and should be removed 
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dezi
Germany1536 Posts
On February 09 2011 02:16 Ragoo wrote:I don't like the expansion layout tho. If Zerg wants to take a third they expand towards their opponent, and the thirds are really close together. That the fourth has Rocks is even worse, since Zerg can't take it as a third then. And in any case those Rocks are pointless and should be removed
This and there is so much space for air :/
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On February 09 2011 02:16 Ragoo wrote:Visually this is really really nice, I love snow I don't like the expansion layout tho. If Zerg wants to take a third they expand towards their opponent, and the thirds are really close together. That the fourth has Rocks is even worse, since Zerg can't take it as a third then. And in any case those Rocks are pointless and should be removed
Hmm good Point. I think i will remove the rocks at the 4th but adding one at the gold.
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First off, the map looks incredible! Good job with textures and mirroring!
However, a few problems I see:
-3rd is way to way to easy for P and T to take, and there is no real good option for Z
-Xel'Naga Tower on an island? o.O
-The tight chokes and narrow attack paths don't allow for much flanking.
-Are the backs of the base, behind the mineral patch in vision of workers gathering? If so, boooo, if not, yay!
Suggestions:
Move Third to the area south of the natural, closer to the 4th.
Open up attack paths in center a bit.
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Great look. I love it.
In terms of gameplay I want to stress what Ragoo said. Zergs don't want to expand towards an opponent, so they will probably have to take the fourht as a 3rd which sadly have rocks. I'd rather put the rocks to the gold. On a side note: Since the 3rd is easy to take Zergs will have a hard time denying the 3rd of their enemies which is crucial for them. I am also concerned about the size of the map. While the map itself is okay in terms of size, there is so much empty space around which means that air harassment is hard to scout since you can avoid getting scouted by taking huge detours to your opponents base.
Overall: Nice map which could use some little rearrangement of the expansions.
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I added an new 4th expansions, removed the rocks from the 5th expansions and added a rock at the gold.
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dezi
Germany1536 Posts
Can you make a top down pic with borders on? Because MOST of the decoration won't be visible ingame anyway (useless deco tbh).
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Third to Third is so close, maybe if you change the ramp so the third is the other one aside the nat?, that way you can also solve the problem that XNWT would create in battles, it will give a huge advantage to whoever got it.
There is too much air space behind the mains, make it smaller, the map looks incredibly great.
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On February 09 2011 03:50 dezi wrote:
Can you make a top down pic with borders on? Because MOST of the decoration won't be visible ingame anyway (useless deco tbh).
I've added a pic with borders on and no doodads to the map analysis pictures.
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I'm not much help with map layout/gameplay comments...but visually I do have some initial comments;
1) Readability is low. It is dark and desaturated, making it a bit less easy to tell units apart (especially in mirror matchups). This can be ok, since say...readability isn't nearly as easy on Metalopolis as it is on Lost Temple. My concern is that you just went a bit too far with it. (although it could also be needed due to needing desaturate the terrain enough to seem like its white)
2) Map feels empty. You could use more details/doodads placed, especially ones that play up the arctic/cold feel. Obviously you don't want to impede gameplay, but you could always instead of just pure drop down to the abyss have it go down just 1 level and be impassable. Fill that with doodads/detail as much as you like.
3) Is there a sort of generic wind particlefx you could toss on the map? Doesn't one of the desert tilesets use one? One of those could help play up the cold feeling more.
4) Overall, the terrain is fairly monotone, always that snow type texture on ground. Why not break it up for some of the expansions and have it be exposed rock, maybe exposed rock with minor traces of snow on it?
Anyway, good work so far!
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The broken turf or whatever that doodad is, very cool "icicles" in the cliff.
The island tower is pretty strong for tvz. Maybe give it an entrance with rocks? I don't think the expansionsare awful, but it is unfair to zerg right now. You might try tucking the close third further to the northwest, sort of underneath the mains. You might make some room by pulling the mains closer to the edges away from mid. Then that base is not directly on the path to the nat, and the distance between those bases gets a bit longer. I can draw it if you want.
I have to say, very well done on the ice theme. Coldest looking ice map yet.
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Love the ice on the cliff-edges!
I think you made a better ice/snow map than I did, so thumbs up!
But I can agree with others here saying it is a bit too plain. That is not to say that plain is bad, you probably want it to be somewhat minimalistic as snow covers everything, but some more eye-candy won't hurt.
Also, the look of the layout is also suffering a bit with the few cliffs you have. One thing which might liven it up a bit is to add cliffs which are unpathable (ie. with doodads and pathing blockers), this will lessen the feeling that you're playing on a block of ice which has been dropped in a cave.
Just plain cliffs might also work, but consider balance with drops, reapers, collosi etc.
An additional aesthetic change you can make use of is to use the height tool (not cliff) to make hills outside of the playable area (cliff level 0).
On February 09 2011 04:15 smurfbizkit wrote:
3) Is there a sort of generic wind particlefx you could toss on the map? Doesn't one of the desert tilesets use one? One of those could help play up the cold feeling more.
I'd recommend windy ash, it will look somewhat like falling snow.
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On February 09 2011 04:59 NullCurrent wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2011 04:15 smurfbizkit wrote:
3) Is there a sort of generic wind particlefx you could toss on the map? Doesn't one of the desert tilesets use one? One of those could help play up the cold feeling more.
I'd recommend windy ash, it will look somewhat like falling snow.
Thank you for the advices. I've added now both windy ash as falling snow and desert storm as snow drifts. Looks fantastic even though the windy ash has a light red glimmer to it.
I also changed the 3rd expansions. There should be now more space between both.
And i added some more doodads. All in all the map looks now even colder.
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i like the bleak look of it and the ground edging as well, but i think it should have more variation to it on the edges. so have some areas with and some without, or add stuff to break up the repetition. also this looks to be a nightmare for computers - you might want to shrink the bounds a little so the doodads dont lag too much.
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I just realized the existens of the Niflheim Textures, so i added them to the Map. I also changed the light, added some more details like falling debris to the cliffs and ice spikes to the minerallines and the 3rd is now even closer to the main.
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Good update. Can you post a picture of the old version for comparison? The weird shadows in multiple directions are kind of distracting, but I guess it's not overpowering. (Also.. bizarre lighting algorithm that gives multiple direction shadows..?)
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On February 24 2011 15:22 EatThePath wrote:
Good update. Can you post a picture of the old version for comparison? The weird shadows in multiple directions are kind of distracting, but I guess it's not overpowering. (Also.. bizarre lighting algorithm that gives multiple direction shadows..?)
Here are some pictures of v1.2 :
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V1.7 has nearly the Lightalgorithm of Zhakul'Das. There are no multiple directed shadows.
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Thanks for the pics. The new version is definitely an improvement for base distances.
In the "impressions", for example, the last two, you can see what I'm talking about quite clearly. Why are there dark spots all over the ground? Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong.
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On February 25 2011 03:23 EatThePath wrote:
Thanks for the pics. The new version is definitely an improvement for base distances.
In the "impressions", for example, the last two, you can see what I'm talking about quite clearly. Why are there dark spots all over the ground? Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong.
can it be that you talking about the little "ice spikes" i added to the Minerallines and to the main spawn points
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