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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9G5Ds.jpg)
Introduction
Hi, welcome to my second map. I wanted to create a map that got some sort of "Dune" feeling with it. So i fiddled around quite a bit, but i didn't like the results. My first shot at it got quite to large (rush distances cross-pos around 225+) and it wasn't satisfied with the colors so i scraped it, and started all over again. This next try got also got too big in the first place, but i was able to make it smaller with keeping the (imo) cool parts of the layout. So here it is: Arid Mesa! I think the shakuras temple walls and mar sara textures fit very well together, even tough the contrast might be a bit to harsh.
The map is still very much work in progress, atm the layout and textures are done, doodads are completely missing yet. Each main has the shape of a sickle. My idea was that one can drop there (even without LOS-Blockers) or hide tech (from a scan for example, also the downside of this: It's very vulnerable to air attacks!). I hope you like it, please give feedback! 
General: [4] Arid Mesa
.: 4 player map, spawns at 2, 5, 7 and 10 o'clock.
.: 162x142 playable
.: mar sara / shakuras tilesets
.: two viable options to place 3rd expansion
.: four Xel'Naga watchtowers
.: uploaded to EU-Server
Overview
1.16 (current)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tEbtI.jpg)
1.7 + Show Spoiler +pre 1.7 + Show Spoiler +
Pictures
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Analyzer-Pictures
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From a glance, I love this. I'll be back later with more. =)
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The blocked off high grounds at 12 and 1 o'clock are pointless. Take those out and just add ramps that go up to the center from those expansions while keeping the one pointing toward the natural.
The high grounds all around the center appear pathable in the analyzer. This is siege tank/colossi heaven all around the golds.
You only have 2 textures... you should work on adding more.
Rush distance is very short on close spawns. Needs to be addressed.
The bases at 9 and 3 o'clock should just be on low ground. There's too many ramps in those areas.
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I'm gonna be honest, when I saw this in the sidebar I immediately clicked because of the Mtg card xP. Otherwise it looks like a pretty good map :D
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rush distance is fine. 144 is more than enough.
Looks like a good map balance wise, i would work more on aesthetics tho, try adding more doodads.
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On July 14 2011 08:34 dmasterding wrote:
I'm gonna be honest, when I saw this in the sidebar I immediately clicked because of the Mtg card xP. Otherwise it looks like a pretty good map :D
inorite? =D I really want to make a series of maps based on the fetchlands now
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![[image loading]](http://i54.tinypic.com/e5nwur.jpg)
is my sugguestions for this map
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Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it!
On July 14 2011 07:57 IronManSC wrote:
The blocked off high grounds at 12 and 1 o'clock are pointless. Take those out and just add ramps that go up to the center from those expansions while keeping the one pointing toward the natural. I'm not really sure these high grounds at 12 and 0 o'clock are entirely pointless. Sure, they are pretty far away from the action, but i thought it would be kind of cool that not all possible attack paths go right through the middle. Another option would be to have just a single rock there. That would allow Protoss to place a pylon and warp stuff in on the other side, but it would also disallow reapers to get across. The Idea i had with it kind of also covers this whole 3rd base issue.
now:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rUJTN.jpg)
3 Bases can be easily defended by just positioning the army in front of the natural. But this possible path down the 3rd makes it kind of inconvenient, because our army has to walk quite a bit to defend stuff coming from there. So holding the watch tower right next to the 3rd becomes important. On the other hand, we could just position part of our army over there, thus splicing our unit blob a bit. Removing it would make it to easy to get a 3rd up.
possible change: adding a blocked path from 3rd to middle. Removing the back door while doing this would it make easier to take a 3rd there, since base vulnerabity now resembles a "V" instead of a "\". Moving the ramp closer towards the middle would be an option to increase the area the army has to cover, but would also make slow pushes from the middle choke into the 3rd a lot easier. Another issue: removing it makes West/East Map splits easier. Another option: just 1 rock down there. That would allow to build a pylon on the one side to warp stuff in on the other. But also makes it unusable for reapers. So i'm pretty unsure about it. Please post your opinions!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7yI3F.jpg)
On July 14 2011 07:57 IronManSC wrote:
The high grounds all around the center appear pathable in the analyzer. This is siege tank/colossi heaven all around the golds. I'm pretty sure it doesn't turn it into a heaven for them. Walking/Dropping them onto it I placed it there to force the middle path into the XNWT's vision range, create a moderate choke which seperates both open areas from each other. I guess it requires some testing, but at the moment i can't imagine how to really abuse it with tanks and colossi to make it broken.
On July 14 2011 07:57 IronManSC wrote:
You only have 2 textures... you should work on adding more. Actually i used several shades:
impassable low: Mar Sara Dirt Cracked + Mar Sara Blackened Rock
low ground: Mar Sara Sand + Mar Sara Rocky + Mar Sara Dirt
middle ground: Mar Sara + Mar Sara Dirt
high ground: shakuras concrete + shakuras hexiles
impassable high: Mar Sara Rocky + Mar Sara Dirt Cracked
+ Mar Sara Blackened Rock on the cliffs to gently add additional shading.
For the screenshots above i removed the Mar Sara Dirt on the low ground. I added it to brighten it up a bit, because i thought it was to dark in the first place.
On July 14 2011 07:57 IronManSC wrote:
Rush distance is very short on close spawns. Needs to be addressed. More oppinions on this? I chatted with dezi a while ago and he said 120-160 is a good range to be in, so that's what i aimed for. Close ground North-South was around 120 for the mains and only 90 for the naturals, so i removed it.
On July 14 2011 07:57 IronManSC wrote:
The bases at 9 and 3 o'clock should just be on low ground. There's too many ramps in those areas. I tried that while creating the map, but makes placing a ramp for the XNWT much harder. I would have to do two ramps right after another, making the position very chokey, look weird and also force units to walk closer towards the 3rd to use this path, making PFs in that position much stronger. I fiddled around with it for quite a while, but i think this solution is the best without having to move the XNWT.
On July 14 2011 08:34 dmasterding wrote:
I'm gonna be honest, when I saw this in the sidebar I immediately clicked because of the Mtg card xP. Otherwise it looks like a pretty good map :D Glad i'm not the only (former) MtG Nerd around. I picked "Arid Wastelands" first, just to remember that Blizzard made "Arid Wastes". That's when i had a sudden inspiration to just name it after MtG land cards :D.
On July 14 2011 22:39 TibblesEvilCat wrote:is my sugguestions for this map How would widening the cliff help harassement? Sure, the overlord would be unspotable from the low ground, but i think it's safe either way. Please help me out 
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spin I promise I will share my two cents in a bit, I can't give you all the in depth critical thinking I want to until I get some things done first
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After a quick glance I feel like (as a zerg) this map somewhat has the shakuras effect with the high ground rocks at the third. Just a thought tho ^_^. If you upload to NA I'll help/test play it ^_^.
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On July 15 2011 04:55 EatThePath wrote:
spin I promise I will share my two cents in a bit, I can't give you all the in depth critical thinking I want to until I get some things done first Looking forward to your input
On July 15 2011 05:02 PandaBlunt wrote:
After a quick glance I feel like (as a zerg) this map somewhat has the shakuras effect with the high ground rocks at the third. Just a thought tho ^_^. If you upload to NA I'll help/test play it ^_^. Hey, with Shakuras effect you mean the push over the backdoor, right? Zerg can avoid it on this map, because they have two options to place a 3rd. If they both spawn North for example, Zerg can just expand away downwards instead of towards the terran. I'll give it to a clanmate of mine, to upload it with his NA-smurf and post here once it's up.
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On July 15 2011 07:50 spinnaker wrote:Show nested quote +On July 15 2011 05:02 PandaBlunt wrote:
After a quick glance I feel like (as a zerg) this map somewhat has the shakuras effect with the high ground rocks at the third. Just a thought tho ^_^. If you upload to NA I'll help/test play it ^_^. Hey, with Shakuras effect you mean the push over the backdoor, right? Zerg can avoid it on this map, because they have two options to place a 3rd. If they both spawn North for example, Zerg can just expand away downwards instead of towards the terran. I'll give it to a clanmate of mine, to upload it with his NA-smurf and post here once it's up.
Ah I see. Didn't think of that, I guess that is a good way to avoid it. Please pardon my comment then
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Tap, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Arid Mesa: Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Did I win?
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United States10402 Posts
damn, a really great map.
only prob is the 3/9 should be on low ground. i dont get y you need an extra ramp set.
but i like the idea of backdoor at the 12/6. keep as is.
9/10
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hi guys
first of i wanted to say this is a great looking map. i dicided to play a game on this map with a friend and it turned out to be quite a nice fight. ( il put the replay in at the end.) please dont rage to much over some failures in the game im not GM . my friend gabbek said he ahd a hard time trying to attack me. and the same goes for me when i was at his 4th and saw some cannons.
here is the replay
hpe you enjoy and, i hope this map gets used more :D
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I like the map, but could you perhaps put some fancy stuff on the field? Like some cracks in the ground, maybe some foliage, etc. The plains look really empty and non-realistic. I dont give a crap about it during a match I want to win, but I can really feel something is missing. Blizzards maps might not be the best on architectural side, with annoying 3rds and such, they do polish them really well and give it a realistic feel, which I can appreciate.
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On July 16 2011 04:56 Xorpzor wrote:hi guys first of i wanted to say this is a great looking map. i dicided to play a game on this map with a friend and it turned out to be quite a nice fight. ( il put the replay in at the end.) please dont rage to much over some failures in the game im not GM . my friend gabbek said he ahd a hard time trying to attack me. and the same goes for me when i was at his 4th and saw some cannons. here is the replayhpe you enjoy and, i hope this map gets used more :D hey
Thanks for playing, just watched your replay. Seems like the two of you had a pretty long match :D. What gave you a hard time when you wanted to attack? To open? To chokey? Map overall to big?
On July 15 2011 11:30 SilverSkyLark wrote:
Tap, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Arid Mesa: Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Did I win? Indeed .
On July 15 2011 11:59 FlaShFTW wrote:
damn, a really great map.
only prob is the 3/9 should be on low ground. i dont get y you need an extra ramp set.
but i like the idea of backdoor at the 12/6. keep as is.
9/10 i tried some more options with the 3/9 o'clock expos, and how to make it low-ground. Here's what i got:
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RAhAy.jpg) No1: uses to much space ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XZ8Ic.jpg) No2: looks pretty weird ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1PBvy.jpg) No3: straight ramp into straight ramp? I dunno, i don't really like the look of it.
On July 16 2011 06:02 []Phase[] wrote:
I like the map, but could you perhaps put some fancy stuff on the field? Like some cracks in the ground, maybe some foliage, etc. The plains look really empty and non-realistic. I dont give a crap about it during a match I want to win, but I can really feel something is missing. Blizzards maps might not be the best on architectural side, with annoying 3rds and such, they do polish them really well and give it a realistic feel, which I can appreciate. Don't worry, this map isn't finished yet and is almost completely missing doodads at this point in time. I will add those and give the map a polished feel once the layout is final. It sucks to do all the details, spend a lot of time just to recognize half a week later that the layout doesn't work out or there are major flaws that force huge changes and ruin a lot of previous work.
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On July 15 2011 11:30 SilverSkyLark wrote:
Tap, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Arid Mesa: Search your library for a Mountain or Plains card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Did I win?
No, you don't need to tap to sacrifice arid mesa. They would suck if you did.
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i tried some more options with the 3/9 o'clock expos, and how to make it low-ground. Here's what i got:
+ Show Spoiler +
What do you guys think?
maybe if you move the 3 abit to the right you can create more space.
which makes your first option more viable. as for the second option i think it will be easy for any ranged army to make a good choke there. denying a 3th/4th.
so imo the 3th option is the best. might not look as good but its better gameplay wise
hey
Thanks for playing, just watched your replay. Seems like the two of you had a pretty long match :D. What gave you a hard time when you wanted to attack? To open? To chokey? Map overall to big?
well the first 3 expansions can be guarded with 1 area. (just infront of the nat). but overall there is nothing wrong with the attack path, they are just different from waht im used to from blizz maps.
im off to italy tomorrow :D, il be back in a week and il definatly play some more on this map
glhf
~Xorp
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I'm sorry I had to circle this and point it out
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VtcD9.jpg)
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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]](http://i.imgur.com/Ptfga.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.volition-inc.com/file/image/historyfeatures.00009.history_feature.jpg)
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Update: Version 1.7
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kp5A9.jpg)
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.
+ Show Spoiler +
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.
+ Show Spoiler +
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.
+ Show Spoiler +
Those are the major ones, please let me hear what you think .
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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
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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:
+ Show Spoiler +
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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.
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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:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jLrWB.jpg)
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 .
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1DgGs.jpg)
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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WRoVO.jpg)
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).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kcyTx.jpg)
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.
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*** double post, feel free to delete x_X ***
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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 .
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/V3rcp.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4e2x8.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SmTzk.jpg)
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I'd love to see this played.
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