i wanted to make a 4spawn macro map like meta/lt/shakuras. also, i love space platforms, they are what makes starcraft stand out from other rts games to me. i have no idea why i haven't done one before, tbh.
the tileset consists of 5 custom textures mixed with some castanar, monlyth and aiur grass. i have also changed the textures of the braxis alpha cliffs a little bit (made them a bit shinier/silverish and changed orange parts to white. the idea for the visual style was to create a space tileset that isn't all rusty and broken but rather shiny and clean for a change. kind of like a luxury cruiser..
I have no critiques/changes i would suggest immediately. And i really really like the aesthetics. Its very modern-minimalist which is a style i love both irl and in-game. So i think its pretty amazing looking. Everything goes/blends together nicely but not soo much that you cant distinguish things. Great work. I'll look at it a bit more later to see if i have any better critique or change suggestions but atm im <3'in it.
for 1v1 tho close positions would be ridiculous... similar to metalopolis/shattered/even slag pits but id need to see analyzer be4 i say as imba as slag pits Close positions. taking a 3rd wouldnt be bad but the close rush distances = Zerg will hate this map in close spawns.
im pretty sure this map wont have close spawns...we know better then blizzard lol i just let the computer play a game so i can take a look on the texture. its so amazing. and those light texture adds so much style, way better then blizzard texture. the maplayout is also very good
Really nicely done layout, reminds me of Metalopolis.
Close ground postions look really close, I think they're too close. Are they enabled?[edit]Okay just saw they're disabled, that's good.
Close air postions look good, I like the crescent expansion line for Zerg, and the aggressive expo line for Protoss/Terran. The chokes and open spaces are nicely balanced too.
Cross positions looks excellent, especially the options for taking a 3rd base. The open middle works since there are more closed paths off to the side.
Basically the only thing I'm seeing right now is that the natural is a bit too open I think- forge FE's look very difficult. You could adjust the main and natural setup so that the natural choke could be smaller and more defined maybe?
The grass patches in the center look really great, they contrast well with the space tileset. Is it possible to add more grass/tree areas on the sides? It looks so good in the center, it would be nice to have on the sides (bottom left, top right expos).
Putting an island between each of the mains like on Python could be nice to allow Terran an easier base when playing Zerg, and it would fill in some of the useless space. Not really necessary, but I would suggest it for this map.
Aesthetically, I think you should try to spread some more green patches throughout the level. Right now they are all in the center, but there is plenty of room to add them to both the main bases and elsewhere in the level. This would tie the level together more visually and add contrast to the otherwise grey-on-grey palette.
You should make the trees a little bigger in those holes in the ground so the leaves kinda pop out more.
I love this map but part of me is a little discouraged because this map encourages "my side vs your side," much like metalopolis and shakuras, where you don't dare take a base on his side of the map. I personally prefer maps where bases are laid out in such a way that there are no "sides" but that's just me. I still love this map!
I think the texturing on the main bases could use a little work though to set them apart from everything else.. cuz everything is just one texture.
op updated, now with less texture repetition, more green, and a few fixes
@barrin: yes, i've been thinking about making the middle highground, too. but i feel like it isn't really necessary. you can easily swing around and enter the highground at another point and the defender will have to swing around the long path or come down to engange
@ironman: i kind of share your philosophy of forced map splits. ideally, a map should be able to be played in various different ways with different possible split scenarios. thats why i tried to do with curfew. but at the same time i think that is one of the reasons why maps like metalopolis are producing so many good macro games, so i wanted to try that, too.
How far does the XWT reach? Are you able to sneak around the sides of it with an army without being noticed or will that 1 XWT pretty much control everything going through the middle?
Make sure all those random pure white squares aren't too bright in game. It's why a lot of people dislike snow maps because they are too bright and are kind of sore on the eyes.
I kind of wonder how the 2 and 8 o clock bases would look like if they were on low ground and those little grassy areas by those bases if they were on high ground so zerg could park overlords there to make scouting a little easier for them.
sorry for being lazy. i've finally added some analyzer pics. the XWT reaches just across the middle area. the range ends where the side path ramps begin
and heres a before-after pic of the grass area changes
I've worked on this map again last night. I felt like with a few changes, the map might work very well in the current state of the game. Most noticable changes are the destructible debris on the third ramps and the center bases now being half bases. The natural choke is now a little easier to defend and I've tweaked some more chokes/proportions of the map. Also, the lighting was changed back to something more standard. Thoughts?
Nice. I like the general theme and that you're using doodads sparingly, and not cluster the whole map with them. I think I'd personally texture the mains differently, in a less patchy way. Might just be personal preferance though.
I liked it better before. Metropolis uses rocks because it's such a long campy map, but I don't think you need them here because it's a little shorter and the high ground is easier to get up to. I also feel like the 3rd base shouldn't be such a liability to defend at because it's the most important feature (assuming your main and natural are playable). On metropolis no one defends at the 3rd if they can help it because it's low ground and you get zoned out of your own natural so easily. On that map the end result is to promote forward defending (at the ramps from mid) which is fine. Here, I don't think you need to incentivize forward defense because it's already really good to hold the center ramp up from mid, and I'd prefer the defender be allowed to fall back to their 3rd and then cover other areas as the attacker moves.
Probably the better choice to have 6m1h center bases though. But please no rocks. ;D
Oh also you can have a nice high ground protected pylon for warping into the natural if the rocks are there, something to consider.
On February 07 2012 20:07 EatThePath wrote: Probably the better choice to have 6m1h center bases though. But please no rocks. ;D
Oh also you can have a nice high ground protected pylon for warping into the natural if the rocks are there, something to consider.
I tend to agree here.
It's a really, really nice map, but I don't think the debris is necessary, it does look like it causes more harm than good.
I always liked the center area though - aesthetics are awesome too.
Oh and I'm curious - what are the bounds here? It always felt to me that the bounds were so much more influential when making exactly this type of map, and it seems like you've nailed it on the head.
Beautiful Map but pretty much a Terran map. Theres no way a Protoss can make a Fast expand on this map in PvZ. Walloff at main choke: Yes. But there is this 2nd entrance on the left side so u always can run past a wall. This Map isnt any different from "Balancing" than that new 1v1 map where u have two entrances at your natural and to be honst 99 % of my games on this map are cheese or be cheesed. The remaining 1 % are All-ins.
There should be some Rocks on the 3 base (highground one). First of all zerg cant take super early 3 bases AND u deny stuff like i just said cause they cant run by your wall in a second
Edit: Just seen u added rocks, nice one
Edit2: Just played the Map. I think it was version 1.1. Somehow i have that feeling that everything is so extremely strechted out. I like the generel look of the map etc but i kinda think its too big in some areas. lets say i like that: U could have achieved the same with less. The area in the mainbase is amazingly huuuuge. Theres no way u can protect everything against drops. Doesnt matter if we talk about Overlord, Medivac or Warp prism drops... the area u have to cover is too big in my opinion.
On February 08 2012 00:33 ULuMuGuLu wrote: The area in the mainbase is amazingly huuuuge. Theres no way u can protect everything against drops. Doesnt matter if we talk about Overlord, Medivac or Warp prism drops... the area u have to cover is too big in my opinion.
It's not. Tournament maps have something between 25 and 40 as main size, and under 30 is like Blizzard maps only. This map is 32 so pretty average.
On June 12 2011 05:35 Barrin wrote: You can spawn close positions right?
Close position spawns are imbalanced (against Z) for basically the same reasons that metalopolis is (early-mid game close positions is practically identical to metalopolis close positions).
The biggest difference is how you can indeed expand away from your opponent (closer to the center). On some levels this balances it out. However, in this particular instance, the ideal place to position your army to defend that third closer to the center is drastically far away from the ideal place to position your army to defend your natural. Defending both against a good Terran would still be quite difficult.
One improvement I would make would be to make the lowest ground in the center of the map into highest ground instead. That way the zerg could position their army on that ground to defend the third quite soundly. However, the natural would still be quite out of the way to defend.
If you removed the two side paths between the two close position naturals on that third, made the third entrance to it that points to the middle wider (and maybe move it back into the base some), and made the natural wider to compensate, then it would be A LOT better IMO.
IMO It's really the better alternative to removing close position spawns or just plain redesigning the whole map (which would be ridiculous because of how much work you must have put in to decorating).
If he removed those ramps then getting a third would be stupid hard to get and secure.
As long as there aren't close spawns I say this map is perfect. It's simple and very well laid out. It sort of reminds me of fighting spirit, in a weird way.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/q91W4.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7PFIi.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6ySUM.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DwGDl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SS7SU.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NcFJg.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KmCOP.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0ZWEJ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Sc15p.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KVboW.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9JFZ7.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iNhhd.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XW1U4.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tGY8Q.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xLHtF.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VzqiL.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/emooR.jpg)
