[M] (2) Anomaly

-NegativeZero-

United States2142 Posts

September 10 2017 23:20 GMT

Anomaly 1.0
184x88
Published on NA/EU/KR

Another attempt at the "long map" concept I first tried with Miris Spele/Apotheosis, but hopefully less zerg favored this time... Despite being the same length, the rush distance is significantly reduced by positioning the nats towards each other, and the map is so narrow that the total area is actually below average.

Features:

Single, winding primary attack path
Linear expansion pattern, roughly intended to be taken in order along the path
Pairs of narrow bridges create shortcuts across the main route, but can be exploited for a positional defender's advantage
Reduced-resource island is located behind the ground 4th, and can be taken safely at any point once the 4th is secured
Destroying the rocks unblocks the final set of bridges, enabling horizontal movement in the center

Angled
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Details
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Tileset
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Shakuras Temple4
Shakuras Rock Cracked
Shakuras City8
Kaldir Ice Light
Zerus Rock
Black Ops Lab A3
Black Ops Lab A4
Skygeirr Lab Inner Grid Small

Castanar Organic Cliffs
Skygeirr Platform Manmade Cliffs 0
Skygeirr Platform Manmade Cliffs 1

IRoha

Korea (South)81 Posts

September 10 2017 23:47 GMT

I LOVE THIS MAP!

MoonStone1

20 Posts

September 11 2017 02:29 GMT

Very unique, i like it.

ZigguratOfUr

Iraq16955 Posts

September 11 2017 05:58 GMT

So what is the rush distance?

Fatam

1986 Posts

September 11 2017 06:15 GMT

So i'm going to be a big ol' hater (even tho im a neg fan and like most of his maps

) and say I dont think this map will play all that great, altho it is a very pretty overview so that really makes you want to like it. (This is why it's so hard to hate iezael maps, he is the god of gorgeous overviews)

It's going to start getting super super turtley and boring once you get to 4 bases (or even 3, maybe) because you can just sit an army between your side's 2 sets of bridges and catch any land attack, while if they attempt a drop on your 4th or nat (the only 2 you could reasonably drop at that point) it's not a very far distance to break off a part of your army to defend either of those places. Or alternatively you can just invest a little into static D and really turtle up.

Also there's no los blockers or height to make things interesting, although at least we do have some contrast in width with the bridges so that will help.

I know it's fallen out of favor but a natural backdoor to connect the 7 o'clock area with the 6 o'clock (perhaps with 2 sets of rocks so it's not abused early) would do this map wonders. IMO anyway :-P

-NegativeZero-

United States2142 Posts

September 11 2017 09:02 GMT

@Ziggurat: 46s main to main, 36s ramp to ramp, 34s nat to nat

@Fatam: i did consider adding a backdoor there, but i assumed people wouldn't like it so i just decided to embrace the turtle... maybe now i'll consider it again.

AssyrianKing

Australia2116 Posts

September 20 2017 13:54 GMT

This is one of the only maps that really interested me out of all the TLMC maps :D

Antares777

United States1971 Posts

September 20 2017 16:44 GMT

Narrow maps are difficult to make appealing in this game imo. Gameplay tends to be less varied than on more standard maps because there are less options for expanding and maneuvering units than on ore square-shaped maps. However, having a single narrow/long map in a map pool make sense for diversity, and Anomaly scores some bonus points here as well due to its tight chokes and corner island expansions.

My favorite feature on this map is actually the main-nat set up. After seeing this, I believe reducing the rush distance by having the nats and the main ramps face each other makes perfect sense for narrow/long maps. If that was a specific category of maps, Anomaly would be my favorite of that type.

EDIT: I do not think that a backdoor is a good idea. The rush distance being relatively short for a map of its size (length) combined with a nat backdoor I think would make games end too quickly on average. There are still ways to be aggressive on this map.

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[M] (2) Anomaly

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