Honorgrounds is a 4 player map (technically 2 player since I have it forced cross). It gives you a nice inbase natural and a fairly easy third. Then...things get interesting! I don't usually make really heavy macro maps but I had a really strange idea, didn't know how it would really do balance wise but thought it could be a lot of fun, so gave it a shot.
Size: 152x152 Bases: 20 Regular 8m2g bases. ||| 4 High Yield 6m2g bases Towers: 4 Main Ramp to Main Ramp (Cross): ~45 seconds Doodads: 1344 (I actually went light on the doodads...)
Thoughts:
First is your 3rd/4th/5th are very clumped together all on the low ground which could result in "boring" play, but the way the bases are laid out and the placement of the watchtower/line of sight blockers make it interesting. I'm hoping as players push out for their 3rd (and 4th/5th) they tend to camp around their watchtowers, to have easy vision past all the line of sight blockers to watch all attack paths by ground, yet now you are completely in the open. When an attack comes do you guard your watchtower to have the vision or do you kite back to your bases to gain the chokes but give up all vision?
Either way, zergs will love it (5 hatch before pool?) Protoss will love it (easy 3rd, then fairly easy 4th/5th). Plenty of ramps to fight at for chokes as well. Terran will love it (You could...actually mech on this map...missile turret the hell out of your natural and camp your tower, free 5 base maybe? lol) but you can easily do aggressive expanding. (main/nat/3rd parade push while eventually grabbing the gold to continue that parade?)
I have no clue if a race will be overpowered (I"m leaning towards zerg?) but I honestly don't know because there are many disadvantages for zerg as well. -----
Surprised no posts yet. I guess the plexa thread + ppl working on their own maps might be why.
Pretty cool, interesting concept with those bases + the XNT. At first I didn't quite get it but I read the explanation and it makes sense. I'm always excited to see new types of XNT usage, it's one of the least innovated-on things in mapping (that we are allowed to do, that is).
I kind of wish the main extended just a touch further behind the 3rd. (I know you're concerned that stalkers can't blink in) That way there would be a reason to take the 3rd as a nat sometimes (that reason being that the 3rd would be less vulnerable to air harass while the in-base nat is vulnerable to it). Maybe zerg on certain positions would be interested in doing that vs. T or P. As-is it looks like there is enough room behind the 3rd that air harass can definitely happen pretty easily, so that decision isn't there as much. I guess some people might still do it (just like on they do on dusk towers and the like) to temporarily hide whether or not they've taken a greedy 3rd at the in-base or not.
I read what plexa wrote on his thread and I'm not sure I agree with much of it. Completely removing the rocks on the big middle ramps probably a) makes zerg too good, because the potential for huge flanks will be there even in the early game, which makes it hard for T and P to move out and b) makes the map too flowy, where there's almost no decisions about what path to take because it all kind of goes everywhere. Which is why I really don't understand why he said the map is hard to move around on. All the ramps are 3FF or 4FF (except the main) and there's plenty of huge open areas with basically no hallways (well, once the rocks are down). I'm not sure we're looking at the same map?
One possible move is to change the middle ramps to being half blocked by rocks (6x6).
Nice aesthetics, trying to remember what map I saw this style on before, it's well done.
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