[M] Hypnosis Bridge 1.0

While I hadn't originally intended to use the octagonal, spiral, super-ramp of death again, the combination of the comments from the gentlemen mentioned above sparked my creative nerve. I decided that I should make this map and fast. I have to apologize that the hypnotic effect isn't nearly as strong on this map, but I tried.

I had already been playing with a number of other map concepts in head since the last batch had been set in binary in the aforementioned work in progress. While I certainly fit quite a few into that map, I couldn't do all of them at once. So this map also features the next bunch of ideas I hope can help create a spark for the pro mappers out there.

One thing I really wanted to do was create a main that had more than the standard ramp or even ramp plus back door. Unlike the WIP, I did want to keep it to under eight potential enterances. However, I also didn't want to make it impossible to defend early rushes. So while I did utilize three of my old friends (distance, rocks, and mineral blocks) from the WIP, I also utilize a new device: CRAMMING my old friends into a really small space! All three land paths into the main base are right next to each other and in immediate view of the spawn location inside the main. While these can help to keep out the early rush, I'm quite sure clever cheese will be rewarded since there are still three chokes to defend.

An overarching concept I wanted to bring with this map is a balance between clockwise and counter-clockwise expanasion. I'll let the pros judge, but I think I pulled it off fairly well. The way I think I achieved this was through a combination of some of the elements I was trying. First, as mentioned, the ability to move out of the base in three different ways, each having potential to expand in a different way. Second, extreme usage of terrain height -- I mean, I go nuts here, amirite? And third, and sort of partly a byproduct of the last aspect, separate subsections of the map. What I mean by this is that there is a sort of sectioning off of the outer ring, middle ring, and inner ring. The inner ring is the Hypnosis Bridge itself. The middle ring is the area that is low ground where the naturals are. And the outer ring are where all those crazy expasions are.

One of the less "to build a perfect map" and more "to try something crazy and new" was the sight into the main from the Xel'Naga tower. This sight is just good enough for things like warping in or nydusing, but not for any meaningful siege. There is only a tiny portion of the main that it gives vision to and the place where it gives vision you might as well have had an overlord or hallucination or floating building there, so I don't think it really breaks the "never have a tower see into the main" rule... too much...

The last thing that I was trying, and this was more off the cuff than something I was thinking about, was the bridges outside the nose of the main. These started out as simple doodads until I realized they had no pathing. After finding minimal helpful advice ( http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php/154402-Bridge-problems-with-a-doodad / http://www.sc2mod.com/board/index.php?page=Thread&postID=2038 ) I just decided to go with the advice I found somewhere on team liquid which was "put land under it"! So yeah, they not real bridges.. they only sit about .02 whatever units of measure above the ground to minimize the graphic distortion, but I couldn't bring myself to try to figure out how to make a 45* bridge with only the sc2mod guy's tutorial... plus I didn't really want to deal with step 12 after so much love went into the map as it was.

So anyway, about the "bridge" itself: it is unbuildable and blocks creep. 'nuff said.

Oh and one last thing, the wavy interlock of the outer and middle rings was somewhat by chance, but I think it works in favor of the map name.

Overview


Analyzer
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The images aren't rendering properly again -- I uploaded analyzer shots to igmur in advance and copied links, but the overview shot I uploaded through TL and is showing right. Is that the only way to get it to render correctly? PM me with your mystic knowledge.