Green means the map is live and up-to-date in the region. Blue means the map is live in the region but on an outdated version. Red means the map is not published to the region.
Updated map info metadata to better present the map in the Battle.net client
v1.1
General
Fixed a publishing issue when released to Battle.net
v1.0
General
Initial Release
Introduction / Map Concept: This map actually began its life as Abaddon Blaze, believe it or not. I was looking to alter the map to be more HotS friendly, similar to what I did with Gemini Heights, but ended up transforming things into a completely new map.
I wanted to have at least one Xel'Naga Tower due to the map's size (148x148), but I really wasn't feeling just another bland centre tower. So, I decided to play with high grounds a little bit. I always found the high ground pods on Shakuras Plateau pretty cool, even if the map was kinda wonked, so I decided to do a similar concept here. The Xel'Naga Tower will be able to reveal the high ground pods, so it becomes a back-and-forth between high ground and XNT control (or control both for dominance over the middle). The high ground pods also make for good positional defence of the low ground third options.
For the aesthetic design, I wanted to try something that was more doodad-light, rather than the intensive aesthetics I did for Gemini Heights and Khalani Sanctuary. I'm sure folks with lower-end PCs shall be pleased.
Measurements are based on the time it takes for a worker to reach one town hall location to another.
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An individual ramp up 3rd also. I actually like that. Needs good planning. Especially for a P and T. Would say this map could be Z favored. But maybe not again.
Main > Nat > 3rd are all fine, although I absolutely hate the angle of the ramp by the 3rd/4ths. Absolutely hate that.
I know in your post you said you wanted it to be more doodad-light, but I think I'd like you to do more doodad work. So much of it has a plain clean look, which isn't bad, but I think you could still spice up some areas of the map without hurting the lower end PC guys that much. :D
Keep it up yo, Galaxy maps just keep getting better and better.
That curved ramp makes the 3rd 10x more interesting. Also, I like the high ground pods versus the tower thing. That will lead to more creative play, which is always good, and keeps this from being standard.
I think a lot of the textures in char marsh can be pretty difficult to "populate" without losing the dark/dreary feel of the tileset because a lot of doodads don't quite fit the theme.
This map and newsunshine's new one are both fairly barren in this regard (along with a ton of blizzard maps that people have been playing for years). I don't know if it's really a problem. As long as the aesthetics are at least solid, the only thing that matters is layout imo. But some people might disagree w/ that, idk.
@ those ramps, I was a little weirded out by them at first, but I think it's more of a "oh that looks weird" thing than an actual bad feature. It makes engagements a little different, how armies come up the ramp, and such. When you really think about it, there are some decent reasons for it to be shaped that way. It slightly increases the close-spawn rush distances, it makes your 4th not as close to your third (assuming you expanded that way), it allows you to do highground stuff above that lowground base, and units on the highground on the other side of the ramp (inbetween nat and 3rd) can possibly hit stuff coming up the ramp.
On May 09 2013 04:45 SidianTheBard wrote: Pretty solid map overall.
Main > Nat > 3rd are all fine, although I absolutely hate the angle of the ramp by the 3rd/4ths. Absolutely hate that.
I know in your post you said you wanted it to be more doodad-light, but I think I'd like you to do more doodad work. So much of it has a plain clean look, which isn't bad, but I think you could still spice up some areas of the map without hurting the lower end PC guys that much. :D
Keep it up yo, Galaxy maps just keep getting better and better.
Haha, sorry you don't like the angle of the ramp. There are reasons for it! Actually, I think Fatam covered it the best:
On May 09 2013 05:12 Fatam wrote: When you really think about it, there are some decent reasons for it to be shaped that way. It slightly increases the close-spawn rush distances, it makes your 4th not as close to your third (assuming you expanded that way), it allows you to do highground stuff above that lowground base, and units on the highground on the other side of the ramp (inbetween nat and 3rd) can possibly hit stuff coming up the ramp.
I'll look at the possibility of making a doodad-intense version of the map and see how I feel about it, but for now I prefer the benefit of Blizzard-style lower-end PC performance since I'm probably going to submit it for TLMC.
On May 09 2013 05:24 iamcaustic wrote: I'll look at the possibility of making a doodad-intense version of the map and see how I feel about it, but for now I prefer the benefit of Blizzard-style lower-end PC performance since I'm probably going to submit it for TLMC.
The effect the number of doodads has on performance is almost zero, unless you're talking doodads that have animations/glow to them, which isn't many. Not really a reason to not do aesthetics for a map. Also, textures come off as bland, each screenshot has 3 or 4 textures apiece, you can certainly do more with them.
For the map, the natural choke looks oddly wide, and in general doesn't look FFE-friendly. The map also seems to have a case of the-whole-map-is-the-same-width syndrome, which isn't very interesting and makes battles much more predictable, regardless of where armies meet. Overall I feel it's a slightly less solid, slightly less interesting version of Khalani.
On May 09 2013 05:24 iamcaustic wrote: I'll look at the possibility of making a doodad-intense version of the map and see how I feel about it, but for now I prefer the benefit of Blizzard-style lower-end PC performance since I'm probably going to submit it for TLMC.
The effect the number of doodads has on performance is almost zero, unless you're talking doodads that have animations/glow to them, which isn't many. Not really a reason to not do aesthetics for a map. Also, textures come off as bland, each screenshot has 3 or 4 textures apiece, you can certainly do more with them.
For the map, the natural choke looks oddly wide, and in general doesn't look FFE-friendly. The map also seems to have a case of the-whole-map-is-the-same-width syndrome, which isn't very interesting and makes battles much more predictable, regardless of where armies meet. Overall I feel it's a slightly less solid, slightly less interesting version of Khalani.
This is a 4p map, but it's similarities to khalani pretty much end there. Sometimes less is more when it comes to aesthetics and this tileset is not really rich with corresponding doodads that fit the theme.
On May 09 2013 07:41 lorestarcraft wrote: Sometimes less is more when it comes to aesthetics and this tileset is not really rich with corresponding doodads that fit the theme.
Sometimes less is more, and sometimes less is just less.
And no, there is no shortage of doodads whatsoever to choose from. Remember all those Char doodads from WoL that nobody used because there wasn't a good Zerg tileset back then? Yeah. Look at Blizzard's map Queen's Nest if you don't believe me.
On May 09 2013 07:41 lorestarcraft wrote: Sometimes less is more when it comes to aesthetics and this tileset is not really rich with corresponding doodads that fit the theme.
Sometimes less is more, and sometimes less is just less.
And no, there is no shortage of doodads whatsoever to choose from. Remember all those Char doodads from WoL that nobody used because there wasn't a good Zerg tileset back then? Yeah. Look at Blizzard's map Queen's Nest if you don't believe me.
I am familiar with the editor. At any rate, aesthetic preference doesn't determine map quality, and long as the aesthetics don't detract from the map and are tasteful.
On May 09 2013 05:24 iamcaustic wrote: I'll look at the possibility of making a doodad-intense version of the map and see how I feel about it, but for now I prefer the benefit of Blizzard-style lower-end PC performance since I'm probably going to submit it for TLMC.
The effect the number of doodads has on performance is almost zero, unless you're talking doodads that have animations/glow to them, which isn't many. Not really a reason to not do aesthetics for a map. Also, textures come off as bland, each screenshot has 3 or 4 textures apiece, you can certainly do more with them.
For the map, the natural choke looks oddly wide, and in general doesn't look FFE-friendly. The map also seems to have a case of the-whole-map-is-the-same-width syndrome, which isn't very interesting and makes battles much more predictable, regardless of where armies meet. Overall I feel it's a slightly less solid, slightly less interesting version of Khalani.
I do use tendrils on this map, which are animated and produce a glow, but maybe I can add in more static doodads.
While I always encourage critique, as always I have to remind people to actually spend some time reviewing a map instead of trying to just eyeball a map overview without a grid.
Speaking in terms of required structures, it's about the same as you'd expect. I also made the Darkspire wall to be deliberately wider than necessary; you could technically start from the protruding high ground in order to reduce the length of the wall by 1 unit, on top of bringing the wall closer to the ramp/natural.
There are plenty of chokes on the map, but overall I wanted the map to retain a more open feel. Also, where chokes are lacking, there's usually some other creative terrain option to make use of.
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