"Svampet is the danish word for Spongy! The more you know ^*^*^*"
version 0.2 BETA

Hello everyone! Recently I acquired access to the HotS beta and thus decided to give the beta editor a go with its new tilesets & doodads. This is my newest creation.
Svampet is a recreation of my older map, Skovbrand, where I have changed the tileset to the new Zerus & changed a bunch on the layout. Some of the changes are ideas from the previous map thread for skovbrand, whereby I've made the sneak around path more viable to use, removed the big"!¤ ramps and changed the scaling around a bit.
I have to say, the Zerus really has been challanging for me to use to its fully intent, where you simply can't wall off the playable areas with cliffs, but gotta use jungle doodads & terrain to do so. I can recommend Not to use it for your first HotS tileset map.

As bonus, if you're interrested in taking a closer look the map, you can find & download it via the beta editor.
+ Show Spoiler +

Just don't be an ass and take full credit for it.

Map details:

Svampet is a 154x126 playable map.
Map contain 12 expansions (Mains incl.)
Two Xel'naga Watchtower can be found near the middle area.
Line of Sight blockers are located near the middle, corners and sides of the map. Sproting jungle!
Spongy jungle. And juicy too with zerg infestations!

Update log:

~0.3
Collapsable rocks between Natural & Expansion has been relocated to the double ramps. Ramp down has been shorten as of effect.
Path towards forward third has gotten rocks! Collapsable rocktower can now be used to fully block the path along side the other rocks located nearby. Destroy both to open the path fully wide incase of need.
12 & 6 o'clock bases has been relocated a tad closer to main. Zerus plant life has sprout forth cause of it, and can now be used to sneak closer to the bases, incase enemies are located on the highground nearby.
]~0.2
Minor fixes
~0.1
Map Release

Screenshots
+ Show Spoiler +

Overview:

Buttom Leftside Bases

Close Up Shots

Analyzer data
Distance between main ramps are 120 / 170. Roughly the same as on Akilon Wastes for comparison.

Fun times ahead! ~

+ Show Spoiler +

Always gonna be a spoiler down here. It's a habit now!
Anyway, while you're reading this. If you're desperate for a Dota2 invite, throw me a message and I'll send you one. Got 4 invites out of 13 left

Fuchsteufelswild

Australia2028 Posts

January 22 2013 12:59 GMT

I haven't got HotS beta access, but I just want to say it all looks lovely, all the brown and green, naturally (I think) blending.

I'm not sure how natural the roots (if that is what they are) look directly under the brown patch, but they're a nice feature.
If they are meant to be roots, maybe you should put some trees near them! They DO HAVE actual trees in the editor, surely!?

Ferisii

Denmark199 Posts

January 22 2013 14:54 GMT

Thanks for the comment.

My main inspiration for the theme on the map comes from Blizzard's Hunting Ground map, which as far I could find, is the only map with Zerus tileset on. They use the root texture a lot, thus I use them too, nearly everywhere. Might have gone a bit overboard on some areas, but can easily (and tiring) be fixed later.

InfCereal

Canada1759 Posts

January 22 2013 14:55 GMT

On January 22 2013 21:59 Fuchsteufelswild wrote:
I haven't got HotS beta access, but I just want to say it all looks lovely, all the brown and green, naturally (I think) blending.

I'm not sure how natural the roots (if that is what they are) look directly under the brown patch, but they're a nice feature.
If they are meant to be roots, maybe you should put some trees near them! They DO HAVE actual trees in the editor, surely!?

Agree on the roots comment.

You have roots everywhere, but no trees.

Timetwister22

United States538 Posts

January 22 2013 19:25 GMT

That doodad work is hawt. However there really isn't much to this map I really like. It seems the main concept of this map revolves around the high ground in front of the naturals, which I don't think will play very well. The forward base on this high ground, and the bases around it seem very awkward and don't have a nice flow to them. In order for a high ground concept like this to work, you really need to make that high ground area important to hold. As of now, I feel it isn't really all that important, even though it was designed as if it was. In other words, it was correctly designed to be a defensive position, but this defensive position is not where I would like to put my army. At least not until late game.

This is how I am seeing army positioning on this map.
+ Show Spoiler +

Both players take 4 different bases, and thus have to have different army positioning. However, neither position is very strong. Red is trying to use the high ground to defend, but finds himself traveling long distances to defend. Blue has a bit easier time moving to bases, but is positioned in the open near the XWT

However, I do have an idea that might help, though I'm not entirely sure. I went ahead a drew it out.
+ Show Spoiler +

In a nut shell, this rearranges the middle area to shorten the defenders distance between his bases. I also redid a few key chokes to further help strengthen the middle high ground.

Simply put, a better base flow and slightly rearranged middle will do a lot for this map.

hoby2000

United States918 Posts

January 22 2013 19:44 GMT

On January 22 2013 23:55 InfCereal wrote:

Show nested quote +

Agree on the roots comment.

You have roots everywhere, but no trees.

That's because the map is one giant organism, duh!

Antares777

United States1971 Posts

January 22 2013 23:01 GMT

Timetwister brings up very important points in his post, though I might want to suggest a different solution. I disagree with the half base idea he has as an alternative. With a complete expansion so close to it, it does not make sense in a risk vs. reward sense.

I would just simply move the expansion below the main closer to the main. This would help with defensive army positioning by making that particular expansion more safe from attackers by forcing them to commit more so than they would have to in its current location.

The collapsable rocks in between the natural and third do not make sense to me. What would motivate a player to destroy them? The way I see it is that the defender would want to destroy them when expanding aggressively and playing against an aggressive opponent (i.e. someone who counter attacks a lot or uses units to run-by). They would be expanding aggressively because the rocks would block the path into the third that is closer to the natural and further away from the opponent, which designates it as the safe third. Expanding aggressively against an aggressive opponent is counter intuitive.

I feel that if the rocks were on the high ground by that third, gameplay would be more interesting because then a section of the high ground can be cut off and then the high ground third would only need to be defended from one area.

My favorite feature of this map has got to be the semi-island expansions. They have so much potential for interesting builds and become very important late game when resources dwindle, because they will tend to be the final expansions in a standard game. Combat will be awesome to watch due to the path behind the mineral line and the collapsable rocks that can be destroyed to make it an island. Really cool idea!

Ferisii

Denmark199 Posts

January 23 2013 16:21 GMT

Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate it.
My initial idea for the collapsable rocks located between the nat & expansion, is giving the player a choice for which 3rd he would like to take first. If said player wanted the forward expansion, he could take down the rocks to limit the number of pathways for the other player to attack from. Atleast, it went something along those lines when I placed the rocks there.

Now, before I start changing around on the map itself, I have drawn a quick sketch for the feedback you've giving me.

[image loading]

-Relocated the collapsable rocks. Ramp is shorten a bit aswell
-Collapsable rocks can now be used to block off the double ramp path, which leads toward the (possible) forward 3rd. Also, not drawn though, thinking about adding in one normal rock at it, to widen the possible path due to possible siege tank turtling power at the choke point.
-Buttom expansion is moved a bit closer towards the main, giving shorter distance for the army to reach it.

Antares777

United States1971 Posts

January 24 2013 02:07 GMT

Yes, that is a good, accurate drawing of what I was thinking. I think a change somewhat along those lines would be more interesting and improve some of the problems that Timetwister highlighted.

Ferisii

Denmark199 Posts

January 24 2013 17:44 GMT

#10

Sloooowmooootioooon updaaaate. Sorry for the late update, been busy all day with my drivers final test. (spoiler, I passed! yay)
Anyway, 0.3 is here! Well, it will be, as soon the beta comes online again. Update notes are on the main post.

edit: Finally got past the notorious region error bug and updated the map. hf !