[M] (4) Arid Mesa - Page 2

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Raelcun

United States3747 Posts

July 16 2011 07:36 GMT

#21

I'm sorry I had to circle this and point it out
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sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

July 16 2011 16:46 GMT

#22

lol, didnt notice that yet. Only thing i recognized was that this part resembles the volition logo. Maybe some fans of the conflict: freespace series still remember.

[image loading]

sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

July 19 2011 11:51 GMT

#23

Update: Version 1.7

I added a small ledge to each main plateau to allow reapers to get in. Before that, the options for them were to jump up very close to the ramp or use the cliffs behind the natural - a place where they are unlikely to ever get to unharmed/unspotted.
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I redid the middle. Now both gold expos are closer to each other, but it is still impossible to siege each gold from the other side. This way it is possible in TvT for each terran to take their gold which should create some sort of no man's land on the low ground in between. The "swords" will keep pathable, the high ground in between will be unpathable.
This repositioning was also necessary because of the redesign of the alternative 3rds to get more space over there.
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Many said i should put this expo on the low ground, and so i did. It took me quite some fiddling to get it in a way i liked (double ramps are just awkward, i just had to make it work in another way). So i put the watchtower on the low ground as well and surrounded it with LOS-Blockers. The manmade-cliff high ground will still be pathable, though. Yet it's not close enough to the blue minerals to allow siege tanks to hit a cc/nexus/hatchery over there, but it's able to hit the gold. Downside of this? Well, the tank will be safe from melee attacks, but everything else will be able to hit it, since the ledge is so slender.
I added the chasm in front of the XNW after i realized that the area was now fairly open, in fact so open, that it would be uncomfortable for Protoss or Terran to take this expo against zerg.
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Those are the major ones, please let me hear what you think

TibblesEvilCat

United Kingdom766 Posts

July 19 2011 12:03 GMT

#24

widening of middle gives room to allow units to run past guarding players, but take my thoughts with a pinch of salt, i personally like to disallow such an easily taken 3rd, that has limited possabilties to threaten the 3base camp player.

but to be honest, any more fiddling with map will destroy is overall feel and style so, just get some play-testing done if you can. :D

sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

July 23 2011 02:36 GMT

#25

Hey

Luckily i got several players from master to play my map a good amount of times and got some additional input. Except for some details they were pretty content with the map, that's why i decided to start the polishing process and spent a good amount of today doodading the map.

This is how it looks right now:
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Still quite a lot to do though, also not sure if the idea with the oasis in the middle is a good idea. It doesn't seem to fit in very well, but on the other hand i am clueless what i should do instead.

RonNation

United States385 Posts

July 23 2011 04:24 GMT

#26

maybe a mine shaft

sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

July 25 2011 02:47 GMT

#27

Yay, another update

On July 23 2011 13:24 RonNation wrote:
maybe a mine shaft

i thought about that one, too. But there are only terran-themed mining doodads which don't really fit in the setting. This is why i decided to go back to the first attempt i did and just tried to polish it enough so it would nice. I also added some sinkholes between natural and gold expos, since that area was just way to open. One could easily get an entire screen without any obstacles. It's still pretty wide open though. This is how it looks now:

I really wanted to include those giant archs as a center piece since they look quite awesome. On the other hand, it's quite hard, because they take quite a lot of space on the player's screen and might hinder vision on the action. It works though if you put them in a big area of impassable terrain Where units can't go anyway

I redid the area between the gold and middle expansions. The issue i had there was that that XNWT was pretty much always in the hand of the player with the outside expo, and the abyss in front of it made it a real tough spot for zerg to fight off units that get a hold on that spot.
Now the XNWT covers more of the middle area and can be taken from that location, too. It can be taken to lock down movement around the gold with siege tanks, but not around the expo towards the ledge of the map. The destructible rocks are an experiment. I re-enabled up/down spawn points, and the rocks give it a rush distance of 125 main to main and 100 natural to natural. That's short (yet not as short as on meta/shattered), i know. But i want to give it a try before i rule it out entirely. It can also force zerg into a less comfortable very fast third if they scout a fast expand in certain positions. Please give me feedback on this since it is a pretty big change.

Another shot of the doodads i used all over the map. Small shrubbery, cactus, bones and some crashed protoss aircraft. Still need to do the top of the cliffs, though (upper right of the picture).

The big picture to sum it all up:

Looking forward to you suggestions and feedback, particularly about the change between gold and 3/9 o'clock bases and close spawn. Gotta get some sleep now though, it's almost frikking 5 am over here and i got to work tomorrow x_X.

sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

July 25 2011 02:48 GMT

#28

*** double post, feel free to delete x_X ***

sCnDiamond

Germany340 Posts

August 05 2011 02:22 GMT

#29

Hi,

I've got another update. I'm pretty happy how the map turned out in its test games, so I polished it some more to enter it in Map of the Month #8. The competition is tough, and im curious how it turns out.
In detail, i've refined my texturing, and did the impassable high grounds at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. I guess now it's pretty easy to see, that it's impossible to drop stuff over there. Thanks to funcmode i was also able to chance the textures of the Xel'Naga Towers to a black/orange color sheme to fit in.
I hope you like it! I'm also looking for someone to upload the map to the NA-Servers. If you're able to help out, please pm me