On May 12 2011 08:08 Barrin wrote:
I thought I read somewhere that next month would be the previous 5 winners making 1 map each, being "auto-finalists".

i feel it's a great idea = 2 months for a map is somewhat perfect
You get to tease, motm org thread is ze place to do it

dimfish

United States663 Posts

May 15 2011 20:23 GMT

#203

^_^ . . . . . . . ^_^ . . . . . . . ^_^ . . . . . . . ^_^ . . . . . . . ^_^ . . . . . . . ^_^

:D :D :D :D :D ~ ~ ~ Map Feature Spotlight ~ ~ ~ O: O: O: O: O:

@_________________________@

Here are some interesting, awesome and beautiful map features in this month's submissions you might have missed:

How to make cliffs look AWESOME
on Coruscant
+ Show Spoiler +

This pit could be boring but instead it looks so good I'd get tower vision just to stare at it while my natural mineral line gets destroyed.

The edge of Coruscant is 7,000 times more kick ass than the CENTER of The Shattered Temple.

There could be plain cliffs here, but Mereel took us to a new level! Notice the doodads that have "ignore footprint" enabled and they've been positioned inside the cliff but sticking out of its side: this is a great way to break up repetition in your map. Also notice doodads are small and huge and whatever size they need to be to create a GREAT look. And if I'm not mistaken, some of these doodads look custom made...

An Island Base... In the Center?!
on LoS_Terror
+ Show Spoiler +

This is no pansy hidden island expo.

Islands have been put in the center of maps before, but its a tricky thing to pull off. First of all, you want it to be big enough for a base and some other buildings or units, but small enough that the gap it makes in the map is not a 10-mile detour. WniO (Volta on Bnet) has basically made the tightest competitive map layout with an island in the center I can imagine. And if you want more maps that will boggle your mind and make you play in a new way, look at WniO's previous MotM submissions (1, 2, 3, 4).

A Solid Use For Destructible Towers
on Ithaca and Coruscant
So prodiG came up with some destructible towers on Destiny and it is certainly a very cool idea on its own. Towers provide sight, but if you can't control one you have the scorched-earth option of killing it and retreating so it won't scout your future movements.

It appears prodiG and Mereel simultaneously, like mapper versions of Newton and Leibniz, came up with an elegant evolution of the destructible tower. If you block a gold base with a destructible tower there is an awesome information versus income choice. I love it! AND, if you believe in your ability to kill a base going up at the gold, you might even dart in and kill your opponent's tower! This is a cool and interesting option, because you would NEVER kill the rocks at your opponent's gold on Xel'Naga Caverns, would you? No, but if that rock could see your attack coming, well, now we have a cool dynamic going on here.

Doing Something Different With The Same Old Stuff
on The Machine II
+ Show Spoiler +

I love those vines crawling around.

Those spires are a tinted, scaled, randomized version of one variation of "Space Platform Archway Large."

How can an underwater pipe LOOK SO GOOD?!

I feel like I am not using the same editor as Archivan; but these amazing visuals pop out of the monotonous fog of resources all of us have access to. This is another amazing example of how creative and effective the look of your map can be if you explore what the editor can do.

Go poke around and play customs on these and other MotM submissions that have been published in your region!

Ragoo

Germany2773 Posts

May 15 2011 21:30 GMT

#204

The Machine II really is a beauty and Archivan a master of his art style!

Mereel

Germany895 Posts

May 15 2011 21:54 GMT

#205

oh thank u dimfish <3 (no costum doodads in my map)

lefix

Germany1082 Posts

May 15 2011 22:32 GMT

#206

i will be forever jealous of that underwater biodome idea.

edit: nice post dimfish :D

15 Posts

May 16 2011 06:15 GMT

#207

@monitor and dimfish

Love the write ups. Its very helpful to see what some of the thoughts are on each of the maps and what works and what doesn't and what really stands out.

ihasaKAROT

Netherlands4730 Posts

May 16 2011 06:29 GMT

#208

@dim , niiice

dimfish

United States663 Posts

May 16 2011 17:43 GMT

#209

I should also add: if you play some good games or find a nasty abuse on a custom map, please take the time to send the replay to the author. I'd love to get that message personally, but also finding out what works and what doesn't for custom maps relies on sharing the data.

You just can't cook up a great map in a vacuum.

CHeeSY

United States45 Posts

May 16 2011 18:36 GMT

#210

rSCHeeSY.698 1200 Masters

Halcyondaze

United States509 Posts

May 16 2011 18:42 GMT

#211

Halcyon.680
~850 points Masters

I have a smurf account as well that is low masters, finally starting to play more seriously and would love to try out these amazing maps

dimfish

United States663 Posts

May 16 2011 18:45 GMT

#212

There is a motm channel that has people in it occasionally. If you want some games maybe jump in there and post an alert. I used to have 'motm' auto-join but I think the last patch wiped out my auto-join list or something.

Hummingb1rd

United States97 Posts

May 16 2011 19:49 GMT

#213

Hummingbird.656
Masters
Random

razzer

United States28 Posts

May 16 2011 21:17 GMT

#214

Razzer.424
diamond 700 pts

unkn0wn71

United States20 Posts

May 17 2011 04:56 GMT

#215

sorry for posting this here, i r bad

WniO

United States2706 Posts

May 18 2011 02:37 GMT

#216

finally got back from omaha... thanks for the writeup dimfish (:

and nice aesthetics arch.

still waiting on scores for my map though.

FlopTurnReaver

Switzerland1980 Posts

May 18 2011 18:50 GMT

#217

Looking for 5 more people to play in a MotM#5 Pocket Tourney right nao!!^^

FlopTurnReaver

Switzerland1980 Posts

May 20 2011 00:31 GMT

#218

Time for some neat Awards!!

Yes, since prodiG took his pregnancy leave or something.. not completely sure actually.. I took the resposibility to look after his first creation which is

FlopTurnReavers Special Awards
yes I renamed it..

[image loading]

Arreat Crest by FourChanXD
+ Show Spoiler +

Besides the fact that every MotM Staff Member misspelled the name a little bit different each time, this map also features very unique use of Destructible Rocks and earns this months Dustin Browder Award.

Let me ask you something. What is better than one entrance into a natural? Two entrances. What's even better than that? How obvious, three entrances of course because, who in this world likes safe expanding? Exactly. Zergs!! So what can we do to not make them cry about it? NO PROBLEM!! ADD SOME ROCKS!!

To be fair I have to say that those are actually Destructible Debris and not Rocks, but not only is the word "Rocks" easier to pronunce but also are we very tolerant and don't want to descriminate those poor Debris.

So congratulations to FourChanXD for making us fellow Zergs feel a little bit more safe each day.
Also I don't really play Zerg.

[image loading]

Hysteria by Antares777
+ Show Spoiler +

"What is this about now?" You may ask yourself. "Is it Friday already??" Well actually here it is right now. But it doesn't have anything to do with the days of the week. Neither does it with occupied seats in a car. No.

Every month there is at least one map that is so fresh and original that we really get excited about how it will play out in the tournament. Maybe because it uses some totally new features or because it has a very unique layout. Have you ever seen a map like the one by Antares777? Well I haven't and most certainly neither have you. I myself watched the progress of this map from the first presentation until now and I have to say that a lot happened since then and it only got better.

I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to seeing this map beeing played by some of the best players this game has to offer. Congratulations to Antares777 to the Rebecca Black Award for this very innovative and also beautiful looking piece of work.

[image loading]

Coruscant by Mereel
+ Show Spoiler +

Yes it is true! This is actually the overview of a Starcraft 2 map and not a picture from an other terrible George Lucas movie! I have to admid that I myself are a big fan of integrating a certain topic into a map and creating the aesthetics according to it. Also I'm a huge Star Wars fan. This however doesn't have anything to do with me being bias. I would almost label this as a beautiful piece of art. Isn't it just amazing how many cool details you can find on this map? I forgot to ask the creator about the time he put into the doodad work alone but I'm pretty sure he spent quite a few hours on it.

That's why I'd like to give this very honorable Themepark Award to our valued fellow mapmaker Mereel. And please, I beg you, go to the thread for this map (which you can find here) and take a look at the other aesthetic shots of the map. Have you ever heard people talking about the "distracted by beauty while playing" issue in Starcraft 2? Well here we have the perfect example for it.

Congratulations Mereel and please keep doing what you're doing because it's just what we need.