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"Spiky Spines Everywhereeee"
Released on: Global - UNLOCKED
It's that time once again. Team Liquid Map Contest is happening and thus my mapping mood spirit fired up. I took upon myself a task to create something unique themed. (I hope it atleast is!) Taking some layout inspiration from my previous map, New Pompeii, which some may or may or not know is being used in Totalbiscuit's Shoutcraft Clan War. I decided to create a 4 player map whereby early game happens around clock wise, but turns completely when rocks are destroyed to the middle field. Can it work at all? maybe, maybe not, but I do like creating something not-so-standard!
Map Decription:
Map for up to 4 players.
At first, there's either two ways to reach your opponent, the short or the long one. Or either two long ones if it's crosspawn... Either way. Destroying the rocks will open up the middle area, giving access to gold bases and new routes to win over your opponent.
Update Log:
~1.1 Localization files fixed again again. Will it ever fix itselv? Find out in the next possible updates! Added new screenshots to battle.net showcase. Minor fixes. ~1.0 Localization files fixed. Again. Map info should no longer hold old information. Reduced map file size by roughly 1 megabyte. Re-did GameHeart logo locations. Minor fixes. ~0.9 Removed silly leftover preview images. Map size should be way much smaller now. Sorry 'bout that. ~0.8 Updated Battle.net screenshot showcase with recent changes. Minor fixes. Yes, many minor fixes. ~0.7 Added 4x4 rocks ontop gold bases. Minor fixes. + Show Spoiler [Older notes] +~0.6
Fixed goldbase locations.
Minor fixes.
~0.5
Localization files fixed. Map info should no longer be COMPLETLY DEVOID OF ANY TEXT.
Changed overview screenshot to a angled one. Pretty!
Critters has arrived.
Minor fixes.
~0.4
Minor fixes.
~0.3
Added unbuildable rocks near buttom of main ramps.
Added Overview & Gameplay screenshots to battle.net showscase.
Minor fixes.
~0.2
Added GameHeart support.
Change of fog colour.
Minor Fixes.
~0.1
Map Release.
Screenshots
+ Show Spoiler [Screenshots & Overview] +Overview:![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/W2wbI0O.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LUlVPrk.png) Top Leftside Bases![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/M5aFusY.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KsjBVY7.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/puTjIyh.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NQlG75B.jpg) Details![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iPfu1Fs.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DSH3H1e.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1Ldmdzq.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CiA09tM.jpg)
Fun times ahead! ~
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Looks really cool, very similar to New Pompeii, which is very good because that map is awesome. Also really cool theme, loving it.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Wow. Very interesting concept.
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Wow some of the more creative 4p map in recent times. Hope you place high in the contest. GJ
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your Country52797 Posts
For me, this is a pretty well-explored concept, but this is much better in its execution than the maps I have done.
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The map looks elegant and ist quite interesting visually, but i do not see at all why it is amazing.
First the layout is a usual 12base layout scaled up to the point to fit in 4 gold base with a rocked centre.The Concept was explored before as well, but i think this element is well chosen and fits the "12base layout" or central thirds (in between two mains ) respectively. Also it tackles some problems 12 base map layouts are known for, mainly thirds that are difficult to keep. I especially like the way you integrated the circular path into the two-ramp natural! So congratulations on being bold and brave and try a map with quite far away thirds!
Now some more cetailed critique:
- with the rocks you enlarge the distances and attack paths. once they are down an attacker can easily position himself between nat and third. I had a similar problem on tlmc1's burning altar btw, so this is not some hypocrit negativity, but i want to point out that once the centre is controlled, the third could well be gone. the watchtower makes this issue even worse, it gives away control!
- the golds provide some point of interest, but I don't see them being defended if taken at all. in a super late game scenario with 5vs5 bases i think it is more interesting to see the 12/6 taken by one side for the win.
in short: it looks good and creative and everything, but it is not something that unique and when you look at the hard facts of this map, it only has the rocks going for it in between centre and third and it does far too little in the department spatial awareness and control.
btw: did a 12base layout recently and I hope it will tacle all the problems I list here for your map ^^
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Thanks for all the comments & feedback! Much appreciated.
Updated map to v0.3 with the following changes:
*Added unbuildable rocks near buttom of main ramps.
*Added Overview & Gameplay screenshots to battle.net showscase.
*Minor fixes.
Pretty silly of me to forget the pylon wall in strat... damnit protoss. Anyho.
@Samro
I don't exactly see why a players third expansion would easily be gone, if the opponent would take control of the middle area. The opponent would still need to leave a good chunk of their force down the ramps to fully blockoff a passage to said third expansion(s). But perhaps a slight change to the ramps, by moving them a tiny more towards the middle area, could help defending players some more. Or perhaps a different idea is needed. Thoughts? Anyone?
It is true that, the gold bases are there to give a point of interest for players to break into the middle area. Nor had I thought or making it super easy to keep hold of them. Just wanted to give players a possible forward base that's fast mined out while also giving somewhat protection for their attack forces.
Also, I hadn't done a map with a gold base in a long time now. Seeing them getting slightly back into the game due to Habitation Station, I just had to try make something work. 
About the Xel'naga Tower perhaps being too strong in the middle. I had some thoughts about placing one near each third expansion, barely catching sight of the gold vespene geysers, but gives full vision over the ramps leading down. But not exactly sure it would work well, if players would spawn next to eachother.
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Here's an upcoming update to my map I want to pass trough. But before doing so, I would love to hear feedback regarding it.
OLD <==========================> NEW 0.7?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZInhhlP.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VKs6vZU.jpg)
Now, the idea behind this change, is to give the defending player easier time keeping hold of their 3rd expansion area by making it much less easier for opponent to switch between the 2 middle ramps leading down to 3rd expansion.
This change should also makes it much more viable to get a gold base up and running, as attack routes needed to be kept watch on is reduced from 3 to 2 instead.
Thoughts? WTB
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can't T just lift a CC and land it in the middle, protected by the rocks?
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I like 0.5 better. I don't think bouncing back and forth is going to be too problematic, especially since they could let the opponent onto the low ground and then have even less travel distance. In 0.6 I think late game play through the middle is going to be less interesting and I don't think it's worth that.
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
On April 05 2014 02:26 Ej_ wrote:
can't T just lift a CC and land it in the middle, protected by the rocks?
Middle isn't protected by rocks. If you look closer, there are small "doors" near rocks
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On April 05 2014 11:54 Existor wrote:Show nested quote +On April 05 2014 02:26 Ej_ wrote:
can't T just lift a CC and land it in the middle, protected by the rocks?
Middle isn't protected by rocks. If you look closer, there are small "doors" near rocks
Actully, the analyser is just a bit off. The big ramps are fully blocked.
If the gold bases turn out to be too good for early terran expanding, I can either block it off with a mere 400/1 rock block, or turn the base into a normal blue one. I'm more leaning towards the first solution as I really want these gold bases to work. :p
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I like 0.5 better and I don't see a problem with the gold bases; it's not like Terran could immediately fly their first CC there like on HS because there's no follow-up (you can't reasonably expand anywhere except another gold and you can't attack either) and there's no preventing an opponent from expanding all over the map when you're in the middle. Also, if any of the rocks are taken out all the gold bases become super super vulnerable.
I'm concerned about the nat2nat distance though; it looks really really close (like, about 30 seconds). Can you post an analyser picture with pathing?
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Current rush distance between close nat@nat is currently 33 seconds. Not too much worried about it as you got a fairly decent ramp to defend on.
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The gold center is an elevation above the surrounding terrain. That will give a big defenders advantage to whoever can get into it first. And that probably means terran: reapers scout the center, 3d CC with 5 scvs loaded up floats over before any rocks are taken down.
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Right, so, newest update 0.7. Added rocks ontop of the gold bases.
Did some testing with 400/1 blocking them, but felt they went down way too fast to make any difference at all, thus instead, there's now 4x4 rocks blocking the gold expansions.
Regarding the middle layout. Havn't fully decided which one would be the best, so, currently still using the old layout for now.
I really should update the video now... Maybe tomorrow. :b
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I don't understand why people are so scared of a Terran expanding to a gold base. Build a Warp Prism. Build Mutas. Build two Immortals and tear the rocks down in 30 seconds. It's not as if the middle was invulnerable or anything. Once any of the rocks are down, the "big defender's advantage" of the central area is exactly the same as that of a one-way vision blocker, and since the ramp where the rocks will first be taken down is most likely quite far away from the gold base taken by the Terran, I hardly see any defender's advantage at all.
I think if you preemptively put rocks there you just make the map less interesting to play on, and all because of some perceived phantom imbalance. I mean, imagine Habitation Station with rocks at the golds. That would just be boring, right?
If you want to change anything, I'd suggest moving the counterclockwise natural ramp a little closer to the base, what with the short nat2nat distance and the inherent advantage for the player spawning counterclockwise.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On April 05 2014 02:26 Ej_ wrote:
can't T just lift a CC and land it in the middle, protected by the rocks?
Yeah this wouldn't be much of an issue. The distance to the middle looks much further than Habitation or Metropolis so theres more time wasted than normal. Secondly, terran would only be able to take 5 scvs (unless there's some scv dropping/picking up trick that I'm unaware of), making the start slightly less efficient than normal. Yes the expansion is more safe since it's on an island but once the fact that they've lifted to the gold has been discovered then there are a lot of reactions which can just kill the Terran. For instance, a proxy oracle would likely be more devastating than normal, blink play would be practically indefensible, fast mutalisk or infestors can be equally devastating or even something as simple as a roach/bane all in.
At the very least it creates an interesting early game, and I doubt it would be broken.
Perhaps the concern is that Terrans will float their 2nd or 3rd (in a 3CC build) to the gold. Again, I think proper scouting is the key to spotting this and reacting accordingly. Once you know the Terran is doing this you can do a lot to harass two places at once (the base is rather split from the main) which makes things rather difficult for the Terran to defend.
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Just a suggestion, but you could put the "unbuildable rocks" that you have at the bottom of ramps by the gold minerals but without fully blocking it off, meaning they would have to land their command center at a not fully optimal position, but one that can be utilized none the less.. I don't think that it would be much of a problem later on int the game because it takes a lot less fire power to kill those off than to kill off normal rocks..
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You can easily have all 6 workers by delaying a bit, dropping the 5 scv's beyond the cliff, and then going slightly back and picking up the 6th scv. It is more complicated than for example, a medivac, but it is still not horribly hard. I do think that having a gold which cannot be contested would be insanely overpowered versus Zerg (Protoss and Terran will be able to hit it from the high ground I think), even if it is slightly farther than Habitation Station or metalopolis.
Even if the Terran takes it only as the natural instead of the main, then it is still a very easy to take base, with much greater benefit than the natural. I just don't see a walled gold working unless it has rocks on it.
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definitely like the old version rather then 0,7. The walls being more centered will allow for much more interesting fights just like old lost temple of brood war.
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