[M] (2) Uncanny Valley - Page 2

I've got a couple balance concerns/gameplay concerns that I'll list here, but I must preface by saying this is a very good looking map and looks well made.

So my first point is a minor one, and it is that the main looks very small. Lategame TvZ and TvP can sometimes get up to 15+ barracks or so. It's important to have somewhere to build them, and usually the main the is the most comfortable and logical spot. On this map, there is a little bit of space near the third and a tiny bit of room in the inbase natural, but not quite enough total. I think the main needs to be enlarged- you could almost double the size now and it would be fine. For my suggestion how to do this, I have to talk about my other concerns.

My second point of concern is the the fourth, fifth, and sixth (if needed) bases are nearly impossible for zerg to take in ZvP, and to a lesser extent in ZvT. This is because the distances between the players are very short- similar to Ohana. These days, Zerg can almost never take a fourth or fifth expansion against P/T on Ohana because the opponent's pushes come so quickly that there is no time to react or get into position. Ohana has some previous stats that help it be balanced on TLPD, but I believe it is going to become worse and worse for balance. Also the gameplay strongly discourages comebacks and encourages being highly aggressive.

The white lines show pushes coming from Protoss, but it could be Terran also. The distances are all very short and don't give Zerg much time to react, build spines, get in position, counter attack, etc. On top of that, the push paths are very very small and choked which will make any PvZ just that much stronger until Zerg has brood lords.



Daybreak has a similar lategame style, where the expansions are along the left and right sides of the map in a linear fashion. However there is a major difference between the maps- Daybreak is MUCH larger cross map, because the map is longer horizontally than vertically. I believe that Uncanny Valley is going to need to be stretched in order to make the gameplay work. Widening the map by simply enlarging the middle would work wonders imo. Even 12-16 hexes would help the problems, but you could probably go up to 24 hexes increase if you want. Essentially you could leave the main/nat where they are and move the rest of the map outwards, which will allow you to increase the main size.

Note: The push distances become even shorter as the game progresses (5th to natural is short and the middle bases are seconds from the opponent).

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My final concern with the map is that these areas are too easy to hide units below, because the double cliffs with overshadow units on the lowground if they are positioned correctly. The same problem occurs with the middle expos on Shakuras, except minerals block most of the spots that units can be hidden. A simple solution is to raise the lowground harassment areas to middleground.