Abyssal Reef is a macro friendly two player map that is based on The Great Barrier Reef.
I first want to give a huge shoutout to Team CruX, but mainly EastWindy for creating Abyssal City. It was probably my favorite map, aesthetically ever made and I've always wanted to do some type of underwater map. I finally got the motivation (and a layout I like) so I thought it's finally time. This map is a shout-out to you guys! Cheers!
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Map Bounds: 158x134 Sixteen 8m2g bases Two Xel'Naga Watchtowers Uploaded to all regions
~45sec main townhall to main townhall ~35sec nat to nat
Fairly safe main & natural. Both 3rds are viable depending on which type of style you'd like to play. Plenty of harass & flanking available. Unsure if I'll keep the watchtowers as they seem awfully defensive early but I think especially when the rocks get taken down they become very fun to play around with.
I love the middle of the map. The cavity or hole right in the center, coupled with the great aesthetics, makes it a memorable location. It's been a long time since I've seen something stand out this much on the tl forums.
The lighting however makes the map look flat, and I think it needs to be toned down. Its very hard for me to look at the images let alone play.
@Hexe - I could play around with the bloom effect a little bit to try to make it not so noticeable. I basically used the same lighting as Abyssal City was though, although there are brighter colors in this map so that could be why.
There was a couple different lighting I was looking at though, especially using a type of light that really made the colors pop. I went with the Abyssal City type lighting just because I wanted to try to give it an "underwater" type lighting.
I think it would be a lot more interesting if the middle of the map was more open. Most of the map is narrow paths and the line of sight blockers/narrowness of the center doesn't help. Great aesthetics though! Really pretty!
@Isarios - Well, some units will "float" up when they did (like in abyssal city), there are also some random fish swimming by. By your natural, some fish even swim up to your minerals!
@Woobz - I'd be tempted to remove the smaller batch of sight blockers in the middle and possibly open it up a tiny bit. I think I'd almost prefer to open the edges around the outside of the map more to hopefully make players want to use the outside rather then quickly rushing through the middle.
@Knatterking - I included a picture of a possible wall-off for Protoss under the "Natural" section. You can wall off with 3 gateways + 1 zeal completely. Or you can wall off the rock side with just 1 pylon and watch the ramp. I thinking it's good enough but time will tell.
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Thanks for all the kind words about the aesthetics guys, appreciate it! =)
Couple of changes I'm contemplating on doing. I haven't done these yet, but it might be a possibility.
Remove some of the Sight blockers in the middle and made the giant hole in the middle a tiny bit smaller to make the middle not as choked. + Show Spoiler +
Re-arrange the gas on the natural to put both of them by your main, this allows me to move the ramp down (to make room for the changes to the forward 3rd) as well as move the actual natural base a tiny bit. Add rocks that cover 1/2 the ramp, thus you can easily 3warp gate to completely wall off if wanted. + Show Spoiler +
Change up the gas position of the forward third, add a 3x ramp that connects to the 3rd (makes rotating/flow of the map a ton better), and got rid of the watchtower. + Show Spoiler +
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I've also had a ton of feedback regarding the lighting of the map. I'm still torn on this as I think the way it looks now makes it really have that "underwater" feel, yet it might be a little uncomfortable to play on, which is something that would need fixing. ___
How the new overview would like like:
Again, these are just some thoughts I'm thinking of as I get more and more feedback. I probably won't go through with any of them immediately but just letting people know I am open to suggestions. =)
looks like a somewhat standard wall is possible with the proposed changes. you could pylon+3x3+3x3 the ramp and pylon+adept the small opening nearby. Or maybe even less buildings are required than that. Hard to tell from overview. But I think at the most you are building the same # of buildings you would for a normal wall.
Good changes sid, looking great. Not sure you need the rocks on the nat ramp, maybe just add a tree/barnacle to reduce the wall by 1 square and shift the big rocks on the 2nd entrance by 1 square? Seems really easy to defend the nat now, and the base density is really high until 5 bases, so I don't think you should make it an "auto" macro map.
New Overview I"m playing around with: Basically changed up the 6/12 bases to make it much more opened. It makes it a much better option for zerg as a 4th (maybe 3rd?) and I could now see terran taking it as a 4th since it'd be pretty close to how you rally your units anyway. It does make it a lot less choked off to help with army movement, but just weighing my thoughts.
Also made the choke outside your main ramp a little bigger so if siege tanks get behind the rocks they shouldn't be as devastating. Plus, doing it this way I get some more "coral pod" locations...so more colors & fish!!! =)
Btw. You made Habitation station? The Scarlett, sos and bomber games map? That map was fun for the shake up.
Cool! Yay for fish!
That whole rock placed on the natural into that other expansion just really reminds me of the map that's already in the map pool with that gold. And its kinda clunky.
As a "noob" this map is extremely confusing as to where to take a 3rd. That close 3rd is so attackable from the ledge that you can't easily defend. The other option is blocked by those rocks. And the far one is... pretty far. So... I'm totally lost. I can't see a viable 3rd on this map. And viable 3rds are really important for Zerg and Protoss atm. Most Protoss builds want a fast 3rd.
The far corners of the map are sooooooo far away. They feel like they won't get used much. Sure its an easy 5th base, but that's not even a good thing: its hard to get a 3rd, and giving free 5th bases is not great for the game either.
I think you should avoid creating that double entrance with the rocks. It looks extremely forced and it creates too many problems. You could then put the 3rd on the same layer as the 2nd, making a ramp situation to attack into the 3rd. Which might be more interesting. ex. King Sejong is a low ground 3rd, vs a high ground 3rd.
Few minor changes. Still playing around with the natural. Added a couple different doodads to create a little more chokes around the corner bases and the 3rd that hugs the main.
@Isarios Yeah, not sure if 3rds are still too difficult to take. When you take the low ground 3rd, yes you have to defend the high ground behind you but it's pretty easy to rotate army up that way. Also, unless they drop it's going to take awhile to move an army there unless they take down the rocks. I also added a couple little doodads/cliffs by the 3rd hugging your main to make that possibly a little more desirable.
Also, added more colors, more fish, more bubbles & a little bit more fog in areas. Because why not! =P
New nat is better than the 2 rock version for sure.
It occurred to me that this is almost a "guaranteed 3 base map" even with the new nat, by that I mean that aggression before 3 base seems like it would be extremely uncommon, due to how both sets of rocks make most attacks have a super long rush distance or time invested, and also the way that back path is setup makes the attacker have an awkward angle/shitty concave. Of course the 3rds aren't super easy so it could be more a game of denying people's 3rds rather than the game actually always reaching 3 base, but that nat seems hard to attack.
Now granted, 2 base being hard to take down may not even be a bad thing. More of a "how much range of games do I want my map to have" thing. In the TLMC map tourney it was the general consensus that longer games = better games. Korhal Killzone still sits at the bar and gets shitfaced over this fact, amirite? So maybe this is not even close to turtley enough lol, better tighten up those 3rd chokes.
Great job on the aesthetics overall on this map. It takes a creative mind to really push the bounds on what ppl expect to see when someone sez "starcraft2 map". Great job and keep up the good works.
I really like how the map looks, but I noticed that when playing (casually) as Blue or Teal Zerg, it's sometimes easy for me to lose track of or have a hard time seeing a few things: Unbuildable Rocks at each base when covered by creep (constantly accidentally clicking) Building placement grid, slightly harder to see for me on Ultra settings, but probably not a big deal Creep Tumors, again probably not a big deal, and... At a glance, defining edges of creep around the dark grey rock/muddy texture on Ultra settings (fine on lower settings)
Again, I really like the map but I found a few things that bothered me when actually playing it. After a few games it was fine, but I was still missclicking a couple of things. I'd really like to see more players try it out, well done!
I don't think I ever had to veto a map before. Your solution to make it look more underwater, was to put a white texture at most places and a blue light across the whole map. So if one plays with hybrid settings (i.e. disables lightning), your map is just white and looks like this:
I am about to warp in a zealot there on the top left...
Now if you had picked another color than white and put instead only some lightning effect here and there, as used on the map empires of the stormy seas, you could have gotten a better underwater effect aswell as making the map playable with all graphic settings and make it less strainging on the eyes for everyone. (I am talking about the water refrection effect:+ Show Spoiler +
).
Is it too late to rework the textures, lightning for coming seasons? TLO says the layout is great and if it is here to stay, it would be nice to be able to play it.
The picture you linked isn't an underwater map, it's above water, like literally on the water. It's using caustic effects and actual engine water. If you put the map literally underwater in SC2 you get a horrific pixelation effect.
Unfortunately I'm not sure if there is much I can do at this point since the map is now uploaded onto ladder and for the most part out of my hands. I wish I would have knew about the lighting situation beforehand but for my graphics I think it looks amazing and from a lot of other spectators / players it looks great too.
I do understand Hybrid settings makes it tough to see and even some different settings will make it either too bright or too dark.
With that said, I basically made it look great with the settings I use and hoped it would look just as good with people that use similar settings.
yeah on hybrid settings the map is impossible to play ; though it's so good I don't mind always playing on low settings just not to have to veto that gem ^^
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eOlOQdK.jpg)
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So maybe this is not even close to turtley enough lol, better tighten up those 3rd chokes.![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Dw1R0L0.jpg)
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