Here is my first map ><;;;;;

I thought it was a bit small, to begin with. And maybe had too much resources lol;;;;

What do you think??

And you dont have to worry about making me feel bad. English majors are immune to criticism. I think.

And thanks Neo for the help in making those warp gates happen !!

Editted 4-27-09 - Fixed natural's position. Got rid of the catwalk. Made a lower platform tunnel. Made lower center have possibility for an open fight. "Watchtower" high platform reduced to only 2. Island mineral only fixed. Made unbuildable areas in the lower center.

Without a doubt one of the more interesting maps that I've seen. Already though, a big problem that I can see is that the naturals are rather imbalanced. The top natural is definitely farther away from the ramp than the bottom natural is. Obviously both naturals will be hard to defend since it's near impossible to hold both your natural and your ramp, so you might want to fix that. I'm also interested in the gas placement, because it seems that for many expansions, you'll need 4 workers on gas to get maximum efficiency.

I'm also noticing a very heavy Terran bias here. A lot of ridges for Terran to shoot over, and a lot of tankable expansions.

There's an imbalance with the expansion near the warp gate. On the top, the minerals are facing outward, but on the bottom, the minerals are facing inward. Should probably fix that.

Also, for the mineral onlies on the island area, the bottom mineral only gives better mining because on the top one, one patch is placed really far behind the others.

Try to mirror your map better. It's a good concept, but a lot of stuff on the top and bottom just doesn't match.

thanks thanks. I'll fix it asap. I'm thinking of making that right mid area, instead of that catwalk, into like a pave-in. Or just make it really open.

map has been editted and reposted.

The right hand side expos aren't really matched up.

Otherwise, I really do like the idea of 2player maps starting near each other.

The gases at the naturals still aren't mirrored. The bottom one faces outside, the top one faces inside. I would change the bottom one to go inside for maximum efficiency.

Aren't the gas at the middle expos that are walled off by the warp gates too far away from the minerals? I don't know, but it seems to me like it is. I think that the gas could definitely be moved so that only 3 workers are required to mine from it.

Oh right, the mirrorinng xD

But the warp gate, I was thinking alot about Hunters natural's wierd gas placing. I thought it would be fun to have it like that. But I'll think about changing it.

Btw, the neutral units arent appearing when I test. Why is it like that o-o;;;; MY WARP GATES QQ

I'm not too sure about this because I don't like using neutral buildings a lot. It might be because you don't have a player 12 start location or it might be because it doesn't fit on the grid. The first is probably it. How much HP do the warp gates have? It's going to be imba for T any way it goes though because of the tight path between bases.

The classic problem with an interesting map idea: too cramped. I run into this all the time. Terran likes to be clumped up, while protoss likes to flank/surround terran, while zerg likes to flank and surround both of them. The main route of this map could almost be described as a continuous wide choke point, with no room at all for flanking. The top has chokes so thin that 8 marines or so could hold back an infinite stream of zerglings, so the alternate route doesn't really help matters either. In fact, it just gives terran another place to easily tank the battlefield from.

While there is an easy third gas for zerg, it is also there for terran. It's waaay too easy for a terran to just hole up with their three gas, and maybe even their minonly which isn't too hard to defend either, then move out 10-15 minutes into the game and steamroll whoever they're playing against.

Suggestions: Well, to open the map up a bit, probably get rid of the two chokes on the highground, so that actual battles can take place up there. Take out 2-3 temples from the left of the line of temples, and shorten the little trenches that lead to the raised bits, in front of the minonly. Maps with multiple parallel paths still aren't great for flanking, but opening the existing paths up a bit more will help.

It is an interesting idea, but like a lot of my early maps as well, it is just too cramped.

Oh, then I'll fix the highlands. And do that thing with the 12P make a location for them lol

But the temples are destroyable and only have 300 hp or so.

And the warp gate has 7000hp.

Do you think those hp are alright??

Edit: I tried the starting location thing, it didnt work xD If I do unit, it doesnt show, if I do sprite, things just walk through ;;;;

There is a section that is called "Unit Sprite" that works for me. Its not a unit, but its also not a sprite lol.

I don't think that changing the HPs of the buildings will go through if you don't use UMS. I'm not 100% on that since I'm not a map maker, but double check it. If the HPs do stay, 7k HP for the warp gate is really a lot.

so should i reduce it? If so, what do would think is a fair amount?

Well, open a new map and check the default settings for buildings. Then choose the one with the number of hp closest to what you want, and use that. Terran Power Generators are relatively fragile (1500 hp I think), while stuff like Terran Psi Disruptors are a little more durable (5000 or something). Either way, it won't really help the map unless it gets opened up a little more.

Power generators are 800 hp each, protoss temples are 1500 hp each, psi disrupters are 2000 hp each, and xelnaga temples are 5000 hp each. All the other buildings in the game are invincible by default.

why would one use the one with the value closest to the one wanted if they're completely changeable?

Due to the fact that P12 doesnt work for me, I changed the Warps into 100min fields. And the temples are just gone. lol

Does this look much better than the previous terran-land?

You may want to add a ramp from the highground to the lowground on the right side. It'll help manouverability quite a bit.

I would also recommend decreasing the size of the island only on the left side. I think there's a lot of wasted space there that could be used for other purposes.

Two other notes:
-Check the pathing for the mining workers in the mains. I have a nagging suspicion that the pathing for the minerals at the top might be a might weird.
-Also, ensure that the same amount of minerals are the same distance from the starting position or CC/Hatch/Nexus location. For example, in the bottom main, the bottom 2 patches are a bit farther away from the starting location than any of the others. The top main doesn't have this problem. The top natural however, has 3 patches that are further away than the rest of the patches. It may sound trivial, but minor advantages/disadvantages like that do stack up.

Even if the mineral formations are mirrored though, it doesn't ensure the same rate of mining. In an amateur map like ours, it doesn't really matter but look at pro maps. They don't have mirrored mineral formations. The new carthage had it's mineral line changed just because of this.

If you can give an example of a promap where the mineral patches are not the same distance from the optimal position to place the Nexus/CC/Hatch, then I'll give you a cookie. As far as I remember, there are two maps where mineral placement does matter, which are Python's 8:30 position and Longinus's 11:00 position. Those two maps have screwed up pathing because of the mineral arrangement.

That's not what I meant. The mineral patches are not in exact mirrored spot in each start position. For example, if all the mineral patches are in a line on one side on 6 o clock Python, the mineral patches will not be in a line on the other side on 12 o clock Python.

Actually, the bottom patch DOES bug out. xD I was testing it with my friend and the bottom starting point's far right mineral field makes the unit move in some weird zigzag xD I'm fixing it already =3

And adding ramps at the center to connect the high land to the mid land.

Also, making the starting area a bit bigger by making the island smaller.

Thanks for the advises guys =d

New change to the map has been upload 8D!

Hmm? I don't see it.

2 ramps added on the middle. The island size was reduced and the starting points were made larger. Island's mineral only is more organized. The starting mineral field is now symmetric. (as possible)