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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zRJjm.jpg)
Hey everyone,
after a long time lurking around the Custom Map Forum, I'm now trying to contribute.
This is High Island, my attempt to make Steppes of War a better map.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/A2eL5.jpg)
main differences :
- size increased: 124x124 → 136x141 , nat to nat distance from 84.9 to 113.6 (~34% longer)
- ramps around the watchtower to third/gold are wider
- natural is not abusable with tanks anymore
- natural choke smaller
- main closer to natural (only 1 creep tumor needed)
- semi-island removed, instead there is a island now which has a small unbuildable highground area to prevent it from being dropproof with mass static defense; the island expo is protected by 1000hp 3 armor rocks (takes 5 SCVs about two and a half ingame minutes to take down)
All the changes were made to make Zerg easier on the map because SoW is normally very anti-Zerg.
Pictures
+ Show Spoiler [Pictures] +
Analyzer Pictures
+ Show Spoiler [Analyzer pictures] +
Map is published on EU and NA as „High Island“.
Any feedback is welcome, whether it is about balance or aesthetics. I'll consider everything and try to make this map better.
Ragoo
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I love the darkness thats closing in, but why is there space textures?
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dezi
Germany1536 Posts
The space texture doesn't seem to fit and i personally don't like the islands that much ^^
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haha i wanted to do a map with such decoration 
i will do it when i will have a good idea about layout/gameplay
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On January 18 2011 08:23 WniO wrote:
I love the darkness thats closing in, but why is there space textures?
Hm,my thought was that it's a small Terran hideout base which got partly destroyed cause of the volcano (maybe it was even bigger than you can see now).
Does it really look that stupid? (sorry can't see these kinda things as I am the creator and love evertything about my map )
@dezi Did you like the semi-islands more? And why don't you like these islands?
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+1 for continuing the lava drip and make your mark+ Show Spoiler +usually it's nice to answer a gameplay issue with graphics ( + Show Spoiler +graphics helping out players with tricks to better "situate" your units on said maps )
it feels japonese somehow... water > beach > mountain > volcano
wherever you "end the lava drip" might become the coolest area on your map
edit:
"you do not want to have XWTs in locations where it is easy to mass units."
+1 Antares777 is spot on
+ Show Spoiler +@Antares777: excessive bumping = 2 days for lings, i suppose it's worth doing once... in a life
edit2:
"By the way, can anyone tell me an easy way to replace 2 textures (the space textures) with something else now? When I replace them in my texture set I can't use the new textures "
there are several threads on tl about bugs with textures... use search function in proper forum
you have to modify the general tileset in map / map textures (you will click on only "highlighted" item on bottom of said menu)
then replace / yes blizz for ever and ever / correctly oe for another a SECOND time
then the effect should occur
you can also just "erase texure" with the proper brush while on terrain "view"
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:O
That volcano idea is really good for the texturing, nice job on that!
The map itself seems macro oriented, but I see a lot of Steppes of War built into the design, so it should be balanced in terms of build options. The only issue I can see at the moment is the poor XWT placement. In general, you do not want to have XWTs in locations where it is easy to mass units.
@Baserkville - glad to see that your back!
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United States10584 Posts
if you turn your head sideways 45 degrees to the left, it becomes at better version of SoW!!! HOORAY!!!
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Whoa, didn't see the islands.
In my honest opinion, islands are generally safe expansions that should punish players for expanding to them by having 7 mineral fields instead of the standard 8 (you did this, good). Also, expanding to an island is more of a hassle, particularly if they have rocks. Islands with rocks will most likely not be used in actual games because of the risk that your army will get out of position. The unfortunate thing about islands is that they can be used for cheesy strategies from the Terran player. This is uncommon, but a Terran can lift his Command Center to an island and turtle and tech to something powerful like mass Battlecruisers. A more common strategy would be fast expanding there. This can happen on Lost Temple. Lost Temple's islands are in a balanced location in such that they are equidistant from the adjacent mains and not too close, so Terran will not be able to fast expand there as easily as on Scrap Station.
With that in mind, I do not think that the islands should have rocks blocking them. If removing the rocks gives Terran more of an advantage than on Lost Temple, your islands are not far enough away from the main and/or are too far away from the center of the map and thus protected from most air harassment and should be moved more so towards the center of the map. I think that your islands will be balanced without the rocks, but if it turns out they should be moved, then do it.
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On January 18 2011 08:30 Superouman wrote:haha i wanted to do a map with such decoration i will do it when i will have a good idea about layout/gameplay
...What do you call Testbug then?
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dont try and make blizzards maps better than they are, just come up with original ideas for maps. i still say you should get rid of the space tileset. it would look wicked.
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I'm for it! And, if it were on the NA servers, I'd play it!
I wouldn't mind seeing an expo at position 3 - make the map flow a little bit more and allow for some longer games (the likes of which have never been seen on SoW).
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Cool map and I like the textures, but it seems like mutas could be a real problem flying between your natural, main and 3rd. It's a very long distance for stalkers to move between :o but besides that cool map keep up the good work man!
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So... you've "improved" Steppes of War by making it SHORTER?
Nice texture work. Really unique. But otherwise made a bad map badder.
I do like the pools by the nat, however.
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dezi
Germany1536 Posts
On January 18 2011 08:35 Ragoo wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2011 08:23 WniO wrote:
I love the darkness thats closing in, but why is there space textures? @dezi Did you like the semi-islands more? And why don't you like these islands?
I try to use as less islands as possible (also used them in earlier maps) because they are bad for zerg. But with this layout it don't see an other option currently.
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@FlaShFTW
HOORAY! That was my intention :D
@ Antares777 : Thanks! About the XWTs, I just placed them where they were in SoW and made sure that you can sneak by a dropship at the very edge of the map. Do you think there is a better place for them on the map? I really don't have an idea about what they should or could do on this map.
Now about the islands: First of all I replaced the semi-islands with these islands because I thought the semi-islands were disadvantegous for Zerg cause Protoss/Terran had an easy time defending them with only the one ramp as an entrance.
So I replaced them with islands. But I didn't want the standard Blizzard island (especially not in this position) cause it favors Terran. Terran can just build a CC in there base, grab 5 SCVs and get an easy third or even natural that is super safe very early in the game, and can later be nearly impossible to take down with mass turrets.
So first of all I made sure you can't just fly over there and grab the island so early, and that's why there are rocks. Now Zerg, Terran and Protoss are in the same position to get the island techwise: Terran needs either air or a Medivac, Protoss needs either Void Rays or a Warp Prism and Zerg needs either Overlord drop or a Nydus or Mutas.
I want to have rocks that you don't need your army for to take down, just some units. They are 1000 HP and 2 armor at the moment but I think I will lower that. I just have to make sure that it's not so low that 5 SCVs can easily take the rocks down, other than that the rocks don't have to do anything at all.
As I said I don't want the islands to be safe just by spamming turrets/spore crawler/cannons. I want these to be islands that are only safe if you control the air around the island. That's why they have a little unbuildable highground so you can safely drop them at any time, if the owner doesn't have aircontrol.
Considering I changed the concept from normal Blizzard islands, I might give them 8 mineral patches, what do you think?
@WniO
I will try to come up with something original but I really like the layout of Steppes (and I think others like it too) so I tried to fix the map.
Do you like this better for the main/natural?
+ Show Spoiler [new main and nat] +
@41d3n
Thanks! It would make me very happy if I could find someone willing to upload this to NA and if you'd play it 
@bjornkavist
Thanks! What third are we talking about? Cause it's a long way for Mutas from the natural/main to the third, if they don't want to fly directly over your base.
@Ownos
Eerrr, I made it shorter? It says in the description that I increased „nat to nat distance from 84.9 to 113.6 (~34% longer)“. And also you can't siege your tanks in front of the natural and hit it, that's a big deal in TvX, too.
@dezi
Can you tell me if you think the way I made the islands is still bad for Zerg? And if not, why?
By the way, can anyone tell me an easy way to replace 2 textures (the space textures) with something else now? When I replace them in my texture set I can't use the new textures 
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Wow, think this looks really cool. Any chance of it coming to US?
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On January 18 2011 15:29 dezi wrote:
I try to use as less islands as possible (also used them in earlier maps) because they are bad for zerg. But with this layout it don't see an other option currently.
Actually I think islands are quite good for zerg, as they have the easiest way to defend them with nydus worms. Muta with Nydus island expos was quite common in ZvP on LT recently. It's just important to make sure there are other options on the map as well, otherwise it streamlines zerg play too much and hurts protoss.
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On January 19 2011 00:02 Prog wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On January 18 2011 15:29 dezi wrote:
I try to use as less islands as possible (also used them in earlier maps) because they are bad for zerg. But with this layout it don't see an other option currently. Actually I think islands are quite good for zerg, as they have the easiest way to defend them with nydus worms. Muta with Nydus island expos was quite common in ZvP on LT recently. It's just important to make sure there are other options on the map as well, otherwise it streamlines zerg play too much and hurts protoss.
Yeah, I have seen this too, on several occasions from Darkforce in ZvP. He'd go for a Muta/Ling basetrade style and take the islands with Nydus. After the basetrade he is left with two islands and mass Muta do defend them.
That was before Toss started to do Stargate play against Zerg tho, and I don't believe this counterattacking style of Muta/Ling is very viable on this map.
@CaptainCrush
As I said, if I find someone to upload this to NA I will do it 
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looks nice, the major changes i see are the rush distance (better or worse?) also there's a choke at player start ramp and nat, making it alot easier to deal with 1 base pressure if u FE,
at good way of stoping seig tanks/collous shooting at the nat is to add highest cliff with a lowest cliff to prevent steping forcing fly'ers to be apparent to get odd pot shots.
i'ld almost say i feel you'ld be better off just making a sow map inspired layout with that theme then using the blizzards sow, as there so many niggley things to fix, esp with the mirror layout
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