by TheFish
Published on <NA>

Uploaded as "Black Mesa Research Facility"
8 Player 4v4
Size 200x240

Changelog;
Version 1.0 finally finished
Completely revamped the Terrain, Textures, Doodads, and Pathing

Overview

Pictures (Aesthetics)
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Pictures (Map Analyzer)
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Info:

Textures - Mar Sara with New Folsom Rock & Dirt, Agria Grass
Cliffs - Mar Sara natural & Korhal Manmade
Bases - 28

The map theme is from Black Mesa, New Mexico, the setting of Half-Life 1
This is the second version I've posted here, the first to be published.
I wanted to create something a bit different from the blizz 4v4 maps in the ladder pool, particularly something oriented towards the macro game. I've found that if I get on 3 bases in a 4v4 game, the game is probably about to end. Hopefully this will provide players with greater expansion opportunity, at high risk to reward, with lots of open space to move around in.

I would like to create a team monobattles version if anyone can fill me in on that...

Feedback is appreciated

Original Post Here:

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Black Mesa

Made By - TheFish
Soon to be published on NA
Also planning to make a Team Monobattles version if I can get permission to use someone's triggers and put their name on it

Playable - 200x240 (Epic), 22 bases.
Textures - Custom - Mar Sara, New Folsom, Agria, Char

[image loading]

Intro / Inspiration: My 3rd map, I wanted to create a top vs bottom 4v4 map, I am building on the experience I gained from creating my last map Electric Funeral Which I felt was a great exercise but with an inherently flawed layout. I am still working on the aesthetics a bit, particularly;

1. Texturing/doodading. I'm still learning here, and I think the current setup is a bit too... busy on the eyes in terms of textures and light on creative doodads.
2. The ramps and setup of the middle, and how they pertain to balancing engagements and base positions
3. the high-ground bases on the sides are a bit bland ATM, also considering adding another base in these areas.

(I also want to allude to the map name -see below- using doodads, etc - You know, make it look like the black mesa research facility - I tried working this a bit around the edges and in the center but I'm sure I can do better.)

Pics:
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Analyzer - (it seems to be messing up, since its 8 player, No I'm pretty sure the main bases are not 55 CC's big...)

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Feedback is welcome, and before anyone asks, yes the name/theme was inspired by Black Mesa, New Mexico which is where Half-Life 1 takes place.

Sea_Food

Finland1612 Posts

February 27 2012 22:12 GMT

the expansions are too damn far

DomiNater

United States527 Posts

February 27 2012 22:22 GMT

The ramp is horrible on the middle bases for 2 players. You need to do something with that, or the odd man left out in each corner will get rushed by any competent players since his ramp is so far away from his 3 partners.

TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

February 27 2012 22:51 GMT

On February 28 2012 07:12 Sea_Food wrote:
the expansions are too damn far

Thanks for the feedback, but could you please be more specific? I'm guessing what you mean is that the two players who spawn in the double-base will have a hard time holding a second base.

On February 28 2012 07:22 DomiNater wrote:
The ramp is horrible on the middle bases for 2 players. You need to do something with that, or the odd man left out in each corner will get rushed by any competent players since his ramp is so far away from his 3 partners.

You make a valid point, and after reading both of these I immediately thought of a couple simple solutions-

1. I could move the double-base closer to the center, (Imagine you're looking at the bottom team) I'd eliminate the two middle ramps leading down to the center, (as well as the current main ramp) and put two small ramps on the south west and south east corners of the double-base. I'd also add at least one expansion in the newly- created space at the bottom. Of course, I'd have to make it so you can't cliff walk from the middle to the main base, and it would leave 4 players very close by air...

2. Simply get rid of the big ramp and put two small ramps on the sides.

3. Split the double base into two, laying them out horizontally, putting one close to the middle, so it looks a bit like Lava Flow.

prodiG

Canada2016 Posts

February 27 2012 23:54 GMT

This map seems to have the same problem all of Blizzard's 4v4 maps do: The expansions are too far, too infrequent and the main bases have WAY more space allocated to them than needed. Just about every main base you could cut in half or like 5/8ths and add another expansion for each player. Every player has a natural and if they're lucky, a third which makes it basically the same as every other 4v4 blizzard map and isn't interesting at all. Given the cheesy nature of 4v4 as well as the fact that you don't need anywhere near that much space in your main to build all of your buildings, you could very easily re-allocate that space to additional expansions making the map more fun for the players who don't die to the initial rush of 6pools and 10rax.

The double wide ramps on the mains, even though there are 2 players in the base make it much more vulnerable to cheese and when you have to open with some hyper aggressive opening just to stay in the game, the map really doesn't do anything. Definitely suggest shrinking them down to make things more defensible

Secondly, the aesthetics leave something to be desired (and I can see that you're working on them). Try to avoid using straight lines in your terrain and shake up the texturing a little bit more. It shouldn't look quite as blotchy, blending everything a little better will make the map feel much more authentic

I like where it's headed and I hope it turns into a really solid and unique 4v4 map when it's done

EDIT: Here's an example of an aesthetically well-0done map using the the same tileset as you are (or very close, anyway) ESV Discord
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TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

February 28 2012 01:39 GMT

Thanks, ProdiG, that helps tremendously! Discord looks awesome - I may have to steal some ideas from it ;-)

Its nice when you work part-time, because I've been working on this thing all day, and of course the aesthetics aren't done - I decided to re-texture since I was pretty much going to have to anyway and I wasn't happy with the original to begin with, but here is the new layout if anyone is interested and wants to give feedback

I decided to go with option #1 from my previous post, all the bases are now smaller, and I added 6 bases in total, bringing it to 28 total, 4 more than any ladder map if I'm not mistaken.

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prodiG

Canada2016 Posts

February 28 2012 01:53 GMT

That looks like WAY more fun but there's a lot of unneccessary openness throughout the map still. You need to keep things a bit more open since it's 4v4 but I wouldn't think quite to the point it is now (specifically talking the open space around the expansions directly above/below the mains (the would-be 3rds)

I also feel like some of the nats are a bit far away (particularly the two middle ones) and you coould pull them closer (maybe even add a semi-island cliff and add an expo there while positioning the two middle nats below it)

My final concerns is for the center mains, the gas looks pretty close to the edge and I wouldn't be surprised if tanks could hit the outer geysers from below. It'd be a rare occurence but it's an easy fix and not a really good "feature" to have imo

TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

February 28 2012 02:19 GMT

Yea, I did want to keep things really open, especially since there are so many bases and therefore probably 8 deathballs wandering around. What I plan on doing is adding some aesthetic features that will cut down on some of the openness around the mains.

I think your right about the two middle naturals, and while I'm hesitant to add any more bases I think I'll probably change that area around a bit and bring them closer to the double-main.

The double-main is currently seigeable from the low ground, but I'll be fixing that for sure. Since there is some dead space in there, I'm going to play some half life for inspiration and then tackle that area tomorrow.

Thanks again, ProdiG

TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

February 29 2012 22:32 GMT

Updated. Completely revamped the terrain, textures, doodads.

I also changed some of the textures from the original - here is what I used

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FlaShFTW

United States10566 Posts

March 01 2012 01:26 GMT

#10

This map looks so good!!! I expect to see this on ladder soon ^.^

TGGC

Germany17 Posts

September 01 2012 20:38 GMT

#11

If you play a 3v3 on this map, what spawns are allowed? Is it possible to restrict the spawns to either the two mid bases + the one on the left or the right?

TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

September 01 2012 22:05 GMT

#12

Right now, its only set up for 4v4, so if you were to play a 3v3 on it I think you'd just get random top v bottom spawns.

I'm not 100%, but I think it would be possible to set up a 3v3 game mode, where the shared bases are automatically picked as spawn locations. You would need to do this by going into Team Placement (Advanced) under 'Map', and creating a couple possible 3v3 game modes.

Feel free to download the map and play with it / upload it to EU.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/anfef86n90z6711/ckZ5BIXL8P