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Janus
Made by: TheFish
Published on: NA
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eLGWH.jpg)
Introduction/Inspiration:
+ Show Spoiler +From Wikipedia;
"In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. The Romans dedicated the month of January to Janus."
This is a 4 spawn map modeled after Shakuras Plateau. This map combines alot of the layout and aesthetic ideas I have been working on lately. The concept was to adapt Shakuras for 6m, but add a bit of my own flair with the main bases. I also wanted to have more than one attack path, so I put some highground bases in the middle a la Metalopolis.
The watchtowers should not see any high ground. the plateaus in the middle are pathable.
Close by ground spawns are diabled for 1v1, and its east vs. west for 2v2.
Pictures (Aesthetics):
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Data (Gameplay)
+ Show Spoiler +Playable Bounds: 180 x 162
Number of Starting Positions: 4
Number of Bases: 18
Number of XWT's: 2
Number of Rocks: 4
Close Spawn distance nat to nat - 158
Cross Spawn distance nat to nat - 193
Mineral/Gas Counts: 6m 1hyg
Analyzer pic
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Nice!
My first impressions as a Protoss looking at this are that I think taking a 4th would be very difficult in horizontal positions. In cross positions, there's a very nice progression to the 4th, 5th, and 6th bases where taking each base opens up one additional path of attack (the 7th in the opposite main is then basically free), but if you have to expand to the 9/3 o'clock position for a 4th, you add two very wide pathways that have to be defended, so there's going to be a strong incentive to stay on three bases and try to snipe an opponent's 4th in those positions. I'm new to trying to think about how maps are constructed, but maybe it would be possible to narrow the entrances to those bases to make them more defensible?
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Not a fan of different coloured decals at the mains... but whatever. Are close spawns possible?
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Close by ground spawns are disabled, in other words, the same spawns as shakuras plateau
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The layout is cool, but its really, really big. Assuming the listed rush distances are correct, there is no reason to disable close postions. 158 Nat-Nat is plenty long enough. To give you an idea, both Avalon and Serpent Sands have a Nat-Nat distance of about 110, and that's acceptable. However, there is a general rule that 180 main-main is max. I broke that rule with Frigid Pass to experiment, resulting in 186 and a 52 sec rush distance. Here, yor Nat-Nat distance is over 180 cross positions, which is over a minute rush distance main-main, if not Nat-nat. That is quite frankly way, way too long. Such a long distance discourages aggression, and severely punishes slower armies (Protoss). As a result, I think PvZ would be entirely broken, heavily in the zergs favor. In fact, because of its size I really couldn't even see Terran push across this map TvZ (Discouraging aggression, heavily favoring zerg.) Over all the layout itself is good, reminds me of ESV Helios a bit. However, its the size that kills it.
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Here are the analyzer pics to give you a better idea of the size.
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You may be 100% right about it being too big but I would like to play devil's advocate for a moment. The size of the map was intentional, I wanted to give players more breathing room in terms of expansions. The highground 3rd, for example, was actually done with protoss players in mind. The idea that in PvZ protoss players must use timing attacks and slow units like colossi does not necessarily apply to 6m games. Just because the current metagame in standard maps dictates that protoss should do X, does not mean that I should design my experimental map to cater to X. Also, the idea that long distances automatically cater to Zerg is again, mostly because that is how the current metagame is played. (and somewhat because of zerglings and mutalisks)
I have yet to see a successful 1 base all-in on a 6m map, and therefore I don't think the main to main distances are all that relevant for 6m maps. (As I said before, I may be wrong) Realistically, no one is going be pushing out across the map from their main base, but rather from one of the ramps near their natural. This makes the distance a bit more reasonable, though still long.
Anyway, if we do discover that the rush distance favors Z or messes up the gameplay, there is always my previous map, Redstone Fortress, which has a much shorter rush distance but similar base layout :D
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cbUBJ.jpg)
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