Map of the Month #5 - Page 10

Coruscant – I like the doodads. The textures seem to repetitive to me, I don't like how its all a grid. Nicely done doodad details though! The layout is pretty standard, I would like to see a bit more interesting expo line (more variety in expansions in terms of openness). The Xel Naga Towers will make things a bit more interesting, but in general the expo layout could be improved-

The 4th and 5th (side expos) are too close to be split between the players. This means that two of the expos on the map are basically unusable, unless players split the map really weird. The third's single wide ramp is going to be so hard to use, holding the third will be hard. If you keep your army in the open space outside the natural, you're right next to the opponent. That will create games that are extremely unforgiving with the 3rd to 3rd rush distance. In the future, consider how each player will expand, and make sure it can be done without coming in too close proximity to the opponent.

Arreat Crest – Nilfhelm glitches on my computer, so I couldn’t see the aesthetics . They look pretty nice in the overview though, so I’m scoring it inbetween (7). It could use more texture variety around the map in general, and probably some more doodads to spice it up.


The layout looks nice in cross positions, but is too choked. Late game, there just isn’t enough room to maneuver your army around the map (200/200 zerg?). Vertical positions are okay at first, but destroying the back door creates extremely short natural to natural rush distances, breaking the map. Horizontal positions are extremely awkward with the middle third, which is too cut off. I would like the middle to be redone to allow more flow, and have more open space/pathways- you could probably remove the middle high ground expos and add ramps up to it. Nice space management though, you have the idea down.

The Machine II – The aesthetics are really nice. To nitpick, the natural has too many straight lines, and is a bit bland; you should add some more contrast there and some more doodads in my opinion. I don’t like how the high ground areas are raised even more, it’s really confusing and makes the camera seem close. The texture dirt pathways seem to forced to me, and distracting from the map because it appears less open than it is. The middle seems cool and creative, but I don’t like the vine strings; they’re kinda ugly.

Balance wise, the space management could be improved. Right now, the middle is the most open part of the map, but it is probably the least used, since the expos are around the outside. The High yield and the 1gas expo next to it are too close, and will encourage turtling because there isn’t space for a ground army engagement. The two top expos have really forced pathways that don’t allow for much army movement, especially with the two tiny ramps leading to the middle. Check out some Brood War maps and take a look how they manage their space (i.e. How much space exactly should be here? Does this area need open space? Does this area need a choke? Etc.)


Road to Remembrance – I remember this map! I feel like there needs to be some more natural cliffs, since most of the texture is grass/dirt. The arch doodad outside the natural is really cool, but I actually thought for a second you could pass it. You might want to put a tiny gap between the bridges to not confuse players. Other than that, the textures seem pretty solid, but are a bit boring. I would like to see some sand or variation on the current textures.

Considering the in-base natural, close third and 4th, and long rush distances, it’s really easy to turtle on this map. You can currently siege the main’s gas from the 3rd, and you can siege a small portion of the in-base expo’s mineral line from the high ground. Both of these seem to favor Terran, as well as the easy use of planetary fortresses around the 3rd and 4th. If you want to keep working on it, I would like to see more spread out bases that didn’t encourage turtling. Overall, nicely done though!


One Must Fall – Wow! This is the first Shakuras map I’ve seen that looks beautiful. Nicely done! I don’t really have any suggestions except maybe make the HY plateau’s man-made, to make it more diverse in areas.

Right now I see a really definite pattern of the first four bases (natural, high ground 3rd, High Yield). I feel like after that it gets a bit iffy. If you take the low ground 5th, its really close to your opponent’s main. If you take the middle expo or the other lowground base, then its too close to the opponent’s high yield. I’d like to see you work out a way so that the map can be split both ways (like Carthage), and still get to 6 bases each.

Note: You can get vision from the middle high ground pod, place a pylon at the low ground 5th, and warp in to the main. I’d just add LoS blockers on the edge of the main, but I will have to dock you in Intangibles .


Near the Gates – The aesthetics on this map seem solid, but they’re really bland. I’d like to see some more interesting colors or views. Some of the areas would really look nice with more doodads too. Take a look at prodiG’s “iCCup Destiny” if you want to get some ideas with the same tileset.

The layout is really standard, pretty good in terms of balance. The high yield is really choked, which will make static defense (especially Planetary Fortresses) too powerful. You might rework that area to have more space. In general, there isn’t a lot of room for maneuvering anywhere. I think all races would have a hard time moving a 200/200 army, especially Zerg getting surrounds. The main place to keep an army is outside the natural, but I feel those areas are too close to the opponent. The rush distances are so short, making a mistake will cost the game.


Curfew – The aesthetics here are pretty nice. I like your texturing. The doodading could use work though. I think more vegetation (trees, plants, vines, etc.) where the grass is. And then more doodads in the man made section, such as ground props, rocks, pipes, hatches, etc.

The layout is nice, pretty simple. I’m not sure how I feel about the two high ground 3rds (top left) being so close. It makes it hard for each player to hold their own. In general, nice use of open space and chokes. The low ground third (right outside natural) might be too easy to hold, maybe consider reworking that. Right now it’s really close to the natural, pretty choked, and doesn’t have many harass opportunities. Otherwise, nice map!


Excousia – The aesthetics here are sorta cool, but really bland. I’d like to see you try to add some different looking areas, maybe more grass or rocky? There could be more doodads too, its looking really empty. Some more rocks or dead trees would fit nicely I think.

Your concept is really cool. Honestly, I like it a lot. The problem is that everything seems to be enlarged. To start, the main is bigger than it needs to be. It should definitely be shrunk a little bit, so Zerg doesn’t have to use 3 tumors to reach the natural. The backdoor path is quite long too, it could definitely be reduced in length. Then the middle of the map won’t be quite as massive too, because right now it’s like Python. The map could also be shorter horizontally. So overall, cool concept, but shrink it a bit!

As a final note, please change the mineral lines. Take a look at any Blizzard map or iCCup map and copy the minerals- Right now on Excousia they look really weird being the same minerals and straight lines. It is just really unappealing for some reason haha.

I don’t want to discourage you, because I love the concept. Glad you submitted it!


Hysteria – I like the creative tileset, nicely done. Overall, the textures are nice. My only gripe is that there is really nice potential for a ton of doodads, and you haven’t yet taken advantage of it. Try searching through the entire doodad list, and mess around placing stuff.

I like the layout. I think the 5th is a bit close to the opponent, but it will probably be okay since the map is split down the side. The third expansion is a bit too turtley, but won't be too bad for balance. The natural is a bit awkward, since the main choke is so far from the backdoor. Some of it seems a bit small, I'd like to see each area slightly enlarged. Really nice overall!


Volcano – Sweet aesthetics! I’ve never seen a good use of Typhon and Tarsonis, really good. I like how the trees blend in well- although make sure not to overdo it. You might consider making some areas more rocky, instead of the whole thing being mostly trees. The manmade pathways leading from the main to natural isn’t my favorite, it looks weird and sort of out of place. Maybe make those patches of manmade, and include some patches of man-made cliffs?

My main concern is how forced and choked a lot of the paths are. The paths leading around the main are fairly wide, but have no options for troop movement. This will make maneuvering a 200/200 army quite impossible, and also make forcefields/Planetary Fortresses/siege tanks very powerful. However, I think this issue is sort of unavoidable with the main set-up you have now. In the future, definitely try to avoid this imbalance.

In vertical positions, the main to main distance is too short when you break the back door. Horizontal positions the pathways are to small to use nicely. Cross positions has a too long ground distance. It is really long- and the air distance is so much shorter, counter attacking will be quite hard.

I noticed the mains can be sieged from low ground. On maps like Shakuras Plateau, its not an issue because its easy to get to the tanks. Here however, the distance around your main is quite long, and will make early tank play very hard to deal with. Again, just something to avoid.


Ithaca – Sheesh, prodiG. You make my computer lag on the lowest settings lol!! The aesthetics here blow me away. I like how it is artful, and looks good in-game. Honestly that giant shark is scary. I think the lightening garden is the weakest, just because it doesn’t seem really fitting. Not complaining though.

Balance wise, I like most of it. Outside the natural seems a bit choked to me, big armies will be really clustered. The 3rd and 4th also seem really tight to me- really easy to put a Planetary Fortress on. Since the gold is closer than the normal third, you might consider switching them so Terran won’t dominate with the planetaries. The middle seems open, but Terran can push along the sides so easily. I’m mainly concerned that this concept and expo layout will favor Terran.


Lighthouse – Lol, the lighthouses. The people have to walk under water to man the lights? Unfortunate … I like the diverse use of jungle textures. I think there’s too much rock in the bottom left, it’s kinda hard to look at being so bright and shiny. In general, it seems a bit sloppy, but maybe that’s what you wanted. Try to avoid straight lines, especially near the watch tower, when it’s organic cliffs.

I don’t like the layout very much. There are so many expos, and none of them are any different. The choice of thirds is really going to favor the aggressive race, since Zerg almost always has to expand away from the opponent. You want every expo to feel very unique in terms of openness, harass, location, level, etc. The expos here are just located in different places, but have identical feels. Take a look at the 2 player Brood War pro maps, or check out the map iCCup Travin by Superouman (new, search ‘iCCup Map Team Update”). On a different note, on Lighthouse there is a good amount of open space and chokes, very nicely done on that regard.

The map is very rectangular, which can be a problem in 4 player maps. Vertical positions have very close air positions, and makes counter attacking very hard. These spawns are also very choked in the middle. Horizontal positions have a really long rush distance, and the map is cut very narrow through the middle. Cross positions has an extremely long distance (too long), and will really encourage turtling.


Shadow Fury – Man, that minimap is trippy. I like the textures, they’re nice; although, it is too dark and a little disorienting in places. I feel like most of the doodads are nice, but your dead trees don’t really work. They’re placed in weird spots that block some important building area (static defense especially), and they also mess up pathing. Also, on low settings, the doodads actually look really bad and stick out (particularly the red vines and trees).

I feel that the layout has a lot of small problems. The natural is going to be hard to hold, since units can slip past the rocks at the 3rd (hellion or other runby harass) and pylons can warp in all over the place. It's also only 1 gas, which will ruin any builds players have. The long rush distance will make players want to expand, most likely turtle. The watch tower makes it really easy to hold the 4th, and the 3 gases will make it ridiculous, especially because its ramp is only 1x wide. The two side expos are too close, really no point in having both. They are both really choked considering that they’re your 6th and 7th base. Overall, there are far too many tight paths and choked expansions. Having too many pathways makes runby harass too easy, and makes air too strong. Finding the opponent's army and engaging is also too hard.

Mount Terrorat – Nice textures! I would like to see the bricks end at a sharp edge, especially around the natural. In general, I don’t like painting the pathways with dirt, because it just looks bad. Great doodad work imo, I like the trees, flowers, and rocks.

The first minor issue I see is that the top natural is walled with 4 supply depos, and the bottom natural takes 3.5 supply depos. This isn’t a big issue, but something to avoid in the future. At some points in the central lava, you can walk into it. This is really weird, but not a big issue either. Just something else to avoid!

I’m not a fan of how tight the first 5 expansions are. They’re really close and really easy to hold, especially being so far away from the opponent. You should consider reworking this area to be less turtle favoring. The low ground third is really cool though, keep that! The middle of the map is really big, but really useless. The problem is that it doesn’t need to be controlled to get map control. The open space is nice, but isn’t really helpful in its current You should either a) change expo layout to require center map control or b) shrink the center.


Void Rift – Really impressive creativity with these textures. I like it! I notice that the bottom and top middle expos have some bad looking straight lines in the textures, because they look pretty unnatural. The circular brush also looks incredibly strange on the Typhon bricks, I would prefer if they cut off abruptly using the rectangular edge. I’m concerned the map will be too dark, and it’ll hurt players eyes. We'll see though.

I like the natural set-up, but the vertical positions are really bad because of the backdoor. The rush distance from natural to natural is just so short, it’ll make macro/expanding builds really hard. The path behind the High Yield is definitely too choked off, it doesn’t offer any routes for escape of surround. In general, I would like to see the whole map opened up. If you don’t want to add more open space, just add some ramps or small pathways that will help run-bys and surrounds.

Hey!

For a first submission this already looks really cool

Unfortunatly I have to say that, because of time problems we have due to an extremely short scoring period, a pool got created with only 15 maps that we thought had the best chance to make it into the Top 5 from which your map wasn't part of. So there's no scoring available for your map.

A reason for this is that "Desert Oasis"- style maps aren't very popular, at least within the judging panel. Also there are a lot of veery tiny chokes that would make it really hard for Zergs.

So even though I can't tell you any scorin I'd still like to say that we hope you keep on making and sending maps because obviously you really know how to work with the editor and I'm sure next time you'll make it

Sincerely
FTR

On May 13 2011 10:02 BrahCJ wrote:
Some truely amazing pieces of work here! Particularly interested to get on and give Curfew a go..... Will suggest it to a mate, and not let him know about the 3gas expo
The only problem is lack of Support for SEA.
How do I go about getting these maps up on my home server? And whats the kosher with that? Do I ask permission? Or are they free to upload wherever provided you don't edit/mod them to claim ownership?

On May 13 2011 17:12 Corak wrote:
Don't get me wrong Desert Oasis is a horrible map! But not every map with inward bases has to be D:
[...]
Edit: Just saw Vulcano got a score. I'm good then^^

On May 13 2011 09:47 monitor wrote:
One Must FallNote: You can get vision from the middle high ground pod, place a pylon at the low ground 5th, and warp in to the main. I’d just add LoS blockers on the edge of the main, but I will have to dock you in Intangibles .