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Desert Portalby Fatam 136x174Published to All RegionsVersion 1.2![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1ve2tWd.jpg) Overhead view: (exact bounds) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4F8IWR2.jpg) old: + Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BMvB7Bd.jpg) Overhead view: (exact bounds) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9UEmyN5.jpg)
This is a somewhat standard mirror-symmetry map with a giant twist: a one-way portal in your main leads to an island up north with lots of riches (two 6hym2hyg bases on each side of the island). That's pretty much all you need to know! Simply send any non-structure unit into the [hopefully obvious] glowing portal which is immediately visible to your workers when they hit the mineral line at the start of the game, and voila they will appear at the corresponding "throne" on the island.
The idea is to create this lucrative area up north with a balancing act of "how much stuff do I send through the teleporter?" since it's hard for those units to be useful in the "real" fight on the mainland for a while, until you break down the rocks.
I think the mainland portion of the map may be decent enough to release as its own standalone map (I'd probably just add it onto this OP rather than make another thread).. not 100% sure. It would be 136x138 in size. Let me know what you think about that.
Thanks for looking; hope you give it a try! Any feedback welcome.
Close-ups:
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/liPrTrP.jpg) Main w/ portal ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jnz8zfy.jpg) Natural ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YYuQBjL.jpg) Reaper entrance on the left ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5kPjUrd.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Xcsxa61.jpg) Portal exit ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/u8jrGCo.jpg) XNT and surrounding area
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I suspect the portals help Protoss the most, because Protoss can commit more heavily to the island early on using recall to get back. As a normal map I think the lack of open space and all the chokes make it zerg unfriendly. Securing a fourth sounds pretty difficult against siege tanks, since all four centre bases are very easy to control using them.
How fast can you go through the teleporter? Is it possible to camp the arrival location with photon cannons?
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Remove that gold island, put 1 gold base at 12o'clock and it will be good map.
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One of those long destructible rock piles placed in the middle where the cross shape is would allow an attack path to open up later in the game providing a route to the opponents expansions, as it stands, army has to go up and through the maze of ramps at the top. That being said, I really like the gold portal idea and the look of the map!
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the high ground around the watch tower feels wasted, like "i don't know what to do with this area so i'll be creative with the high ground platform." I feel like it could be better though. I don't know how, but I feel like it could.
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Really like the interesting aspects of this map. Will definitely be trying it out in-game.
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On July 17 2016 17:31 earendillo123 wrote:
Remove that gold island, put 1 gold base at 12o'clock and it will be good map.
lol, the guy tries to do something new and interesting and you're just like: "No, make it the same as every other map"
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On July 17 2016 23:56 IronManSC wrote:
the high ground around the watch tower feels wasted, like "i don't know what to do with this area so i'll be creative with the high ground platform." I feel like it could be better though. I don't know how, but I feel like it could.
I don't really approach mapping that way at all, so I can assure you it's not  If you look at it, every part of it has a purpose. (Whether that purpose could be better realized is a potential argument, though)
Anyhow, to explain it: the XNT watches one of the main two attack paths on the mainland. If you're taking the shorter portion of the northern attack path then controlling the XNT is more difficult because of the small choke to get to it. Whereas the longer path is rewarded with wider access. Also, the longer attack path is rewarded by not having to go onto lowground like the shorter one does. If you're trying to take the northern middle base on the mainland then I'm sure you'll be interesting in having that tower as it gives you warning of incoming harass from the lowground across the chasm. So it serves a few different purposes.
On July 17 2016 13:11 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
I suspect the portals help Protoss the most, because Protoss can commit more heavily to the island early on using recall to get back. As a normal map I think the lack of open space and all the chokes make it zerg unfriendly. Securing a fourth sounds pretty difficult against siege tanks, since all four centre bases are very easy to control using them.
How fast can you go through the teleporter? Is it possible to camp the arrival location with photon cannons?
It's actually a very open map in terms of how wide hallways and general proportions are compared to standard maps (lots of 16-20+ square wide areas and lots of 3 and 4 FF ramps), but some areas are indeed hallways and as such have no flank opportunity, which is exactly why I made everything so wide (to help zerg). It may not be super apparent from the overview though.
The teleporter is absolutely instant. The potential destination area is somewhat large (if you look at where the texturing is darkish red, a unit can be teleported roughly anywhere in that area); I did this on purpose to weaken any kind of camping tactics like you thought of, either with mines or cannons or whatever. I'm sure it's still possible to pull off but it would require your opponent not using his island area at all for a while before you get there and get everything set up which is unlikely, and it would require quite a money commitment.
@ tanks, I think that is definitely true and I thought about it a lot (which is why one of the center bases is quite a bit further from the chasm than the other). However there are soo many bases on the map that hopefully zerg can just avoid taking those bases for a while in ZvT if they feel it will be unholdable.
On July 17 2016 17:31 earendillo123 wrote:
Remove that gold island, put 1 gold base at 12o'clock and it will be good map.
Well I am considering publishing a version without the portal stuff and the northern part (as noted in the OP). If I do that I'll consider the gold idea, thanks.
On July 18 2016 00:16 Yonnua wrote:
Really like the interesting aspects of this map. Will definitely be trying it out in-game.
Thanks, hope it's enjoyable.
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On July 17 2016 23:03 scoo2r wrote:
One of those long destructible rock piles placed in the middle where the cross shape is would allow an attack path to open up later in the game providing a route to the opponents expansions, as it stands, army has to go up and through the maze of ramps at the top. That being said, I really like the gold portal idea and the look of the map!
Thanks. That's definitely a consideration. I'd probably put at least 2 rocks (or since we're breaking rules already, just make a rock with a ton of hp) since the rush distance is absurdly short if you put a path right through the middle. The curse of the mirrored map
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On July 17 2016 17:31 earendillo123 wrote:
Remove that gold island, put 1 gold base at 12o'clock and it will be good map.
yeah also it would be super boring.
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Portal concept to the top island is interesting, but the map in general looks very siege tank friendly and not very friendly to zergs overall.
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Agree with concerns about cannon wall camping the tele.
I think you should do 2 things, just my opinion:
1) Open up the XNT area a lot more to create an open space for map control fights.
2) Connect that general area to the gold island, with rocks to block access to the gold from the rest of the map.
IMO, the early game is the interesting part of the "how much to commit" gold island minigame. Once a player starts a base there, decisions become more crystalized/simple, since you kind of have to answer that, and then attacks just commit forces there en masse. If you make is a semi-island, it will have a lot more play later into the game without being an all-in binary gimmick thing, since you can attempt to control it from the rest of the map -- playing "standard" can interact with the gold eventually. And the teleporters will still be super relevant because of the increased mobility option for deploying reinforcements to the north side of the map / secret flanks etc.
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Cool thoughts! Maybe I'll switch it up. An earlier version had the island connected to the mainland (with rocks separating) but I got rid of it.. was worried it watered down the concept (i.e. it wouldn't be as big of a gamble to devote resources to the island if it was connected) But then again the things you mentioned would also make things more dynamic.
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Put the gold island at bottom of map I would say, then perhaps a bit farther to not make some float CC builds too strong.
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Hey guys, thanks for the good ideas and feedback so far.
1.1 is here, updated OP. More iterations may come based on your feedback but I thought this was a decent first pass.
Changes:
- opened up/simplified northern part of the mainland
- added ramps to connect the island to the mainland with rocks
- changed the middle ramps on the island from 3FF with 6x6 rocks to 2FF with no rocks.. just seemed simpler and I didn't really see people killing those rocks too often anyway.
- moved the middle bases slightly further away from the chasm.
Overhead view: (exact bounds)
+ Show Spoiler +
One thought I had while making the update was to add another portal somewhere in the middle (either right smack in the middle of the map, or at the bottom middle inbetween those 2 southern bases) which either teleported to or from the island. Maybe it could really make things interesting then Thoughts?
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Could you rotate the rocked ramps to the gold bases round 90 degrees so that they are covered by the watchtower?
It seems like that's one additional use for the tower and I can't see why it would be a problem.
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Love it! Another teleporter could be fun, but might be a bit much. Although it'd be neat -- since it's neutrally placed -- if it landed in the middle of the gold island, at 12oclock on the lowground. I think I'd prefer the launchpad at the 6oclock spot to match the other ones and preserve the map's flow and shape as much as possible.
On July 22 2016 01:23 Yonnua wrote:
Could you rotate the rocked ramps to the gold bases round 90 degrees so that they are covered by the watchtower?
It seems like that's one additional use for the tower and I can't see why it would be a problem.
I feel like it's more interesting if they aren't seen, so it can potentially be used for an unknown army movement (perhaps just passing through not arriving at the gold island). The tower is already pretty good by watching the whole northern ground path.
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Damn Fatam! Really liking those revisions (making the island golds accessible through destructible rocks).
First I saw this map... I really liked it, but figured that it'd be a tough sell due to the islands. I like where you're taking it.
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is it intended to send lifted terran structures though the portal? Its really Imba. Maybe restrict it to units which are not structures
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well, uprooted spines/spores can go through too. But maybe it is imba since protoss doesn't really have anything to match. But they have recall which is nice here, so maybe it balances out? hmm
either way, I guess the lesson is you really don't want to basetrade terran even moreso than usual on this map
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EPT
