Cold is the Void
by Fatam
version 0.5 [NA]

- The Xel'Naga towers are useable by air units as well. To make it obvious that they are different, I changed the model and the minimap icon. (go to Aesthetics to see what they look like)
- The pseudo-island expansions are each blocked by a neutral Dark Templar.

Playable Bounds: 130x136
Rush Distance (nat-to-nat): 112
# of bases: 12 8m2g
# of destructible rocks: None!
# of watchtowers: 2

Overviews:

56 Degree:
+ Show Spoiler +

90 Degree:

Aesthetics:
+ Show Spoiler +

lost_artz

United States366 Posts

November 21 2012 02:15 GMT

Low ground island 'thirds'? Interesting...

Nice move on the watch-towers, same old design/skin gets rather boring.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 21 2012 02:29 GMT

The islands aren't necessarily a third, you can take it as a 3rd, 4th, 5th.. whenever. The base above/below the starting positions still functions as a fairly "normal" third.

Nice move on the watch-towers, same old design/skin gets rather boring.

Thanks. They kind of float or hover which I thought made more sense for something that air units can use.

Insomni7

667 Posts

November 21 2012 03:09 GMT

Every zerg is gonna park an overlord on the tower in the first few mins of the game. Seems mostly an advantage for us... but I like the low ground base, overall a neat map.

FlaShFTW

United States10397 Posts

November 21 2012 04:01 GMT

i feel like the "normal" thirds are a bit too far and difficult to defend. 3 pathways to defend, plus a huge area you'd need to walk your army back and forth.

Monochromatic

United States998 Posts

November 21 2012 04:34 GMT

So you made flying watchtowers above high ground? So basically super overlord spots? That is completely unnecessary. If you do use flying watchtowers, make them in a place where you don't need flying units to spot, otherwise it is incredibly overpowered for zerg. Especially since they let you spot third, which is the only viable option for all races, unless terran uses a scan to get the island.

Other then that, layout has a ton of space between nat and third, and has too many entrances for a safe third. And again, that super overlord spot lets you see all of it, so ling counterattacks will always be well timed.

RFDaemoniac

United States544 Posts

November 21 2012 05:20 GMT

I think the idea here is "get air units." The island third is easily takable with air and harassable with air, and you can use air units for better vision. This is a nice way to buff air units that isn't island play. Very interesting.

Using a scan seems much more reasonable for terran than going both robo and stargate for protoss, though perhaps you could lure the DT into a cannon/spore/turret?

The expansion paths are a little ambiguous, though perhaps this is a good thing. Blink and drop play also seems like it would be pretty strong here, so good news all around.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 21 2012 05:36 GMT

The thirds are a measly 6 squares farther than on Cloud Kingdom. So it's pretty similar, but I can definitely tweak them so that the distance is less.

Overall, the thirds here really shouldn't be any harder to defend than on Cloud Kingdom. The chokes are actually smaller here (chokes to the third on CK = 10 (squares wide) and 10 again, the chokes here = 10 and 6). And both maps have small entrances that come inbetween the natural and the third. CitV's inbetween entrance starts out slightly larger than the CK one, but is a little bit longer of a rush distance. CK's inbetween entrance has rocks that when destroyed make it larger than CitV's. So make your own conclusions, but I think it's a wash.

The XNT actually can't spot the third for runbys. Or at least, it can't necessarily see if you have an army there or not. I shouldn't have displayed the XNT range on the 56 degree picture as it shows incorrectly and may be misleading. Check the 90 degree picture for the correct XNT ranges. + Show Spoiler +

@ zerg having XNTs:

Here's 5 ways a protoss can take the XNT from a zerg in the early/midgame -
a) once observer is out, bring it to the XNT with a stalker and shoo the overlord away.
b) build a warp prism, warp in a stalker on the highground, kill/shoo overlord away, enjoy your XNT. That warp prism can then be used to drop a probe on the island to expand there, or go harass the zerg w/ drops. Or both.
c) get blink
d) (possibly dangerous) bring your first colossus to give vision, shoot overlord w/ stalker
e) open FFE -> stargate, a common strategy that should work great on this map.

It's a bit of a shifting dynamic. Early on, zerg will have easy access to both towers, but as the game progresses they may have some trouble holding EITHER tower, until corruptors (or mutas) are out. Basically what I did was say hey - I'm going to give terran and protoss a little BETTER map vision in the mid and late game. The tradeoff being that zerg gets better vision in the early game. I think most P's and T's will gladly make that trade, every time. Zerg already has a stranglehold on map vision for the first 8+ min of any game anyway, so does anything really change there? Keep in mind that the middle passage of the map is not visible by either tower also.

Sorry for being long-winded. I wanted to clear things up.
It can be difficult when you've been making a map and you understand everything that's going on because you've been looking at it so much and playtesting it.. and then you post the map. You think that everyone will see what you saw and understand, but they sometimes don't because it's hard to understand everything w/ one look.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 21 2012 05:38 GMT

The expansion paths are a little ambiguous, though perhaps this is a good thing. Blink and drop play also seems like it would be pretty strong here, so good news all around.

Yeah I thought the name was fitting because of the look of the map + blink play should be excellent here.
I think PvP could be interesting b/c blink play AND phoenix play is amazing here, so there could be a lot of meta and counter-meta'ing. Do I go blink stalker thinking he'll go phoenix? But what if he goes blink stalker, maybe I could go robo expand and go into the late game w/ an advantage. But maybe he'll do that and I should go Phoenix.. lol

edit: another option for the third could be to make a chasm where those LOS blockers are, at least part of the way. That would reduce the choke, but things like Colossi and Tanks could shoot over the chasm at attacking units.

Sumadin

Denmark588 Posts

November 21 2012 10:13 GMT

#10

Daring design that is for sure.

Ill be honest, not a fan of the DTs. It is a personal thing, alternative blocking just looks too cheap and too much of a bandaid to me.

High ground flying XT is intresting.

If you wanna go full out ax crazy then i think the corner bases could be made into High yields without breaking anything, while still demanding the players to scout more aggresively than just the towers. I know it is heavy taboo but i think it could work.

lefix

Germany1082 Posts

November 21 2012 10:48 GMT

#11

really, really like that island third. should make things interesting.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 21 2012 11:29 GMT

#12

I'm not sure what I would/should change about the DTs. It's basically the same thing as having a neutral creep tumor (which is pretty standard for island expos), except once the DT is killed you don't have to wait the absurd time that it takes for the creep to recede.

I think a terran being able to float a CC over there scott-free might cause complaints. Then again, he probably wouldn't take it any earlier than the 6 or 7 min mark (in case of a greed play, which is already risky on a small-ish 2p map), and he can only mule there at first, no easy SCV transfers other than an initial 5 loaded into the CC.. it might not be all that imba. I'll have to think about that. Maybe some other people can weigh in.

SiskosGoatee

Albania1482 Posts

November 21 2012 11:35 GMT

#13

I like the dt more than the tumour because with the tumour, he can load 5 scvs, scan and kill the tumour with scvs, I don't think 5 scvs can kill a dt. Depening on if you make it neutral or hostile of course.

a176

Canada6688 Posts

November 21 2012 12:55 GMT

#14

in the current meta game where you have terrans going for fast 3cc, you are forcing players into specific unit paths to counter an enemy's advantage due to the map (ie zvt absolutely have to go drop/muta to take out early island third). i kind of get that you are trying to 'spice' up the gameplay with these terrain features but i am not a fan of that style of mapping. the same reason i hated sc2's lost temple, and never really liked python from bw.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 21 2012 19:52 GMT

#15

Yeah I see where you're coming from. I think this map would play out more interestingly in the other matchups than in TvZ.

TvT or TvP the opponent has viable options to harass any kind of early 3rd CC on the island so the map wouldn't be "forcing" any strategy then.

lorestarcraft

United States1049 Posts

November 22 2012 00:04 GMT

#16

YES!!!! You used a DT to block the island!!!!! That is awesome. I will take credit for inventing that though, on my map Life Sentence.

Fatam

1986 Posts

November 22 2012 00:17 GMT

#17

haha, yes you did. I think someone that had seen you use it suggested it to me (or maybe it was you) on one of my other map threads and it made sense.