I started with this new project today. The Machine 2 inspired me to make a similar map. some of the games i have seen on it have been pretty awesome. so i gotta give some credit to Archivian this is a very early version, as i'm getting some testing done on the layout before going into detail. the first testmatches have been pretty promising already.
You used reflectional symmetry, didn't you? The golds are very well placed. Blizzard seems to have forgotten that gold bases are supposed to be highly contested areas, not secret bases.
Couple things: I don't think you need the bottom 2 watchtowers, get rid of them and then at least if the enemy travels all the way around the bottom to attack you won't know it's coming. Plus eventually if you get that base you can sit on that watchtower and not have to worry about any attacks.
The golds seem they are waaay too small. Terran and Toss will love this because of how choked it is. Seems like if that's a pfort, the terran can just sit around that gold base and besides drops won't have to worry about much. Protoss on the other hand can double forcefield the ramp and he's protected enough. Zerg though, just won't be able to do much since it's so cramped.
Connected the 5 and 7 bases via high ground, remove the watchtowers and create a path to them could be kind of interesting.
that's all for now.
ps: can the thirds be sieged......lol jk! I kid I kid.
I don't really think that the golds are that small and choked up, but they could use a little more space. I'd suggest stretching the map out east and west to add more room in the middle. This will increase the air distance between the bases and the thirds, and ground distance. I'd then put a tower in the center of that plateau in the middle of the map, and one where the doodad is in front of the 6 o'clock expansion.
I like the design. It's simple and offers expansions towards your enemy and away from him.
hmm, i'm not sure the golds really need more space. i think most likely one would try to defend the gold on the highground in front of the gold, not on the low ground - which would also allow your opponent to go straight to your main. the gold then would still be vulnerable from the backside, but again, moving the army around to the back would leave your base open for a counter attack.
i agree about the towers tho. i must admit i haven't given the placement much thought yet, altho i have considered putting it into the center of the middle highground, too.
by the way, does anyone else see a panda face in the map pic? i can't unsee it.
I'm glad my map contributed in some way to you making such a cool map :D
I quite like the size of the gold, their placements and vulnerability.
The only real issue is maybe the XWT's. I'd say lose the bottom two. but the top 2 I wonder if they show too much of the map. An attacker can lay seige if they take the opponents tower but the opponent has a very small space to slip out and round. And the attacker would have both golds with early warning of attacks.
Maybe drop one tower and it will be point of contention? OR Move them a little closer to the center, (along the wall that they are already at.), but just out of range of each other. That way you create a bigger space for armies to slip out.
My games never came to it, but as others have said: removing those bottom xelnaga towers might be a good idea. To have counterattacks be a bit more effective. I could see a terran taking that middle and having good hold there, but dropping the main or taking the south route should be a strong play in that case.
i have the impression the map is quite big and it could(!) be a bit smaller overall. from the analyzer images I got the impression it might lead to a turtling terran, because the map strengthens the aspect of terran's low mobility. This might not be a real problem, but coming from this observation, the distance from third to inner centre, over highyield to fourth and back to third seem quite long to me (the two circles around both HY basically forming an 8). Therefor I would suggest to move both golds a bit to the outside, which will give you some space for wider ramps at the HY (widen them to the outside) which then grants shorter routes around them.
This might even create some space to cut a slice from the centre away (north south axis) and make the map a bit smaller. the only limit is the space between the thirds.
otherwise a nice and clean layout. what will the visuals be like?
i have shrinked down the overall size of the map slightly. it is now 148x128. the ground hole in front of the natural has been increased in size to make the natural a little bit easier to defend and the third and 4th have been moved closer at the same time. overview pic in the op has been updated.
i have added some more doodads to create more chokepoints. also build some sort of city ruins underwater and other eyecandy stuff. op has been updated and new detail shots have been added.
This map looks really good, although I'm worried a bit about protoss or terran pushes vs zerg on this map.
Yes there's an alternate path, but it's longer, and the short path is quite short and pretty easy and quick to move to any location from, making the long path a bit useless for zerg in that scenario maybe.
It looks good but the middle platform gives way too much power to siegetanks. Just imagine 5 tanks around the watch tower and bunkers turrets towards enemy ramp. You only have to worry about air/drops after securing the high ground.
You should probably test if tanks/bunker are too strong on this map.
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