Many thanks to the Masters Terran streamer UpATreeZelda for this map, who simply gave me the idea to create a "pocket third." While slightly distancing the natural and fourth. This should pose very interesting games revolving around two and three base pushes, and creating tension amongst the fourth base despite the passive positioning, ideally. The aesthetic was a popular candidate when I polled reddit and multiple streams, often second or third, generally behind Neo Venice and Derailed.
This map has quite a bit of history, it started sometime in early May, where Snute wanted to mess around with map design. Originally entitled Snakeland, Snute wished to create a variation to the Frozen Temple base layout, and most importantly, make it lush and green. After weeks of tweaking and 'balancing', testing distances and build interaction, Huangshan would be released to the public and be played on a $250 matcherino tournament casted by BaseTradeTV. The map proved to be relatively standard and appropriately and expectantly balanced, and popular with the players.
Since the 2nd Nova DLC pack was released, as many of us mappers know the Elsecaro sand texture is the only sand texture we realistically have that can fit beach tilesets aside from Xil. Replacing Xil, the Elsecaro sand and some other aesthetic updates were updated to the map for this release. A rock was added by one of the thirds, and the rock tower pulled closer on the other to account for concerns from Protoss and Terran players.
A re-skin of my original Detox map from earlier this year, Danger Close is an attempt for me to address some of the issues posed by the original map. Some of these solutions involve the rocks behind the gold, the complete re-design of the middle, the removal of the bridge between the natural and the third, a reaper path from the third to the main, and a few others. Unfortunately I wasn't able to shrink the bounds of the map as I wanted to, without some more layout changing around the outside (which I was already content with). But, I'm happy with this version enough to lead me into considering it for another TLMC involvement.
This map was done on stream in 7h and 47min, with very little breaks every 2 hours. Originally I was having issues with the middle design, before settling on the one here. The bases at the corners were a concern, since I wanted to avoid circular syndrome as much as possible. But I had to put a base there, nudged closer to one player to make the base below the natural seem even worth it at any point. Definitely bases I expect to be taken later on, but better than it was before. I've also wanted to make a map based off the map with the same aesthetic for almost half a year now, so this scratched a pretty bad itch. I'm happy to see it getting positive reception.
Another stream map. This was another take on the pocket third that UpATreeZelda gave me an idea for, making this too a heavy macro map. I'm satisfied with it, but only partially. Similar to Talandar's Rise, I have concerns about one the flow of one of the base directions. I might address this in a future update to the map, but I think the obvious base route might just prove to be fine, and the other two bases just taken as lategame tension and map presence. I'm not too sure.
I think the order you listed them in is pretty much the order that I like them, other than maybe switch huangshan with blood boil.
I'm not sure I like the execution of the backdoor of blood boil, and I'm pretty sure those tiny groups of los blockers don't serve any real purpose (why not make them longer so they can actually be used effectively? Unless they are just there for decor) but I do kind of like the apotheosis size of the layout combined with it being chokier+cliffier than apotheosis. Since apotheosis is pretty Z favored those things can perhaps counter that and arrive closer to 50%.
On October 17 2016 14:17 Fatam wrote: I think the order you listed them in is pretty much the order that I like them, other than maybe switch huangshan with blood boil.
I'm not sure I like the execution of the backdoor of blood boil, and I'm pretty sure those tiny groups of los blockers don't serve any real purpose (why not make them longer so they can actually be used effectively? Unless they are just there for decor) but I do kind of like the apotheosis size of the layout combined with it being chokier+cliffier than apotheosis. Since apotheosis is pretty Z favored those things can perhaps counter that and arrive closer to 50%.
Do you mean the backdoor into the main or the path that wraps around the natural?
And yeah the LOS in that screenshot is more decoration, there are other pockets of LOS blockers that serve more purpose.
path that wraps around the nat. I think right now it would mostly be used as a way to sneak a worker out to take the 12:30/6:30 expo as a 4th or whatever. Maybe that's ok though.
I almost want to see the ground brought in some from the edge of the map at that base so that something like a tank can cover or mostly cover that base from the nat highground. That would really make the whole sneaking a worker out and then protecting that base without actually being there thing more viable, if you wanna go for that. Idk just rambling with my half-baked ideas, map has a lot of interesting potential though. edit: you could probably horizontally flip that 6:30 base to start with, if you like that idea
path that wraps around the nat. I think right now it would mostly be used as a way to sneak a worker out to take the 12:30/6:30 expo as a 4th or whatever. Maybe that's ok though.
Yeah that was the idea, not sure how it'll work out though.
I'd have to mess around with that tank idea, I thought the ledge extended far out enough to cover the base, but maybe not.
Hello Avex! We are planning to use this map pack for one of our Amateur Hour events tomorrow (Diamond League event) on GauntletSC2, is it okay if we use this map pack? We will give you credit of course!
Some of the shallow water doesn't seem to have any splash effects when units move through them. Is this an oversight? I imagine the water is just a texture that doesn't allow for said effect, but figured I'd ask.
Lot of cool and interesting maps. Glad to see you're still plowing through maps. Possibly when I get some more free time I'll write up some better analysis on these maps but currently life is too busy. Congrats on getting some games played with Gauntlet. I actually watched about two games during my lunch hour today. =)
It was a ZvT on Terria which was pretty interesting and the high ground usage in the middle of the map was a pretty awesome staging ground for both players. Great work!
On October 20 2016 11:31 SidianTheBard wrote: Lot of cool and interesting maps. Glad to see you're still plowing through maps. Possibly when I get some more free time I'll write up some better analysis on these maps but currently life is too busy. Congrats on getting some games played with Gauntlet. I actually watched about two games during my lunch hour today. =)
It was a ZvT on Terria which was pretty interesting and the high ground usage in the middle of the map was a pretty awesome staging ground for both players. Great work!
Thanks! I hope you get time to make more maps yourself, I'm a big fan of Abyssal Reef and can't wait to see what else you can push out with me!
What I'm about to say isn't particularly thought out, a bit of a knee-jerk reaction if you will, but I'll say it anyway:
It seems like these maps try to be rather complex in a way, but they don't necessarily accomplish it in an elegant manner. I want to say that they lack "flow", but that is a very poorly defined term. Another poor way to put it is that there doesn't seem to be enough economic incentives in the middle 'field' of the map; or maybe that the present incentives do not necessarily "pull" (towards the center) as much as you might imagine.