EDIT: The maps have been updated. Linking directly to the pictures doesnt work because the links expire after a short amount of time. So click the link below to see the latest pictures and download the maps.
Sylphide is now called Sylphid. Currently Labyrinth is not being used, but the other 3 are live.
Download tip: Click the small green arrow that points downwards (its near the top of the post, inline with the title of the first map). Then click the 'PC' link to download the .zip file.
-------------------------------------------
(2)Autobahn (version 1.1) Author: Waldstein
-------------------------------------------
(3)Sylphid (version 1.71) Author: LatiAs
-------------------------------------------
(3)Neo Transistor (version 2.0) Author: WSH
-------------------------------------------
(5)Labyrinth Author: EVNGSVHKIM (Earthattack)
-------------------------------------------
(tl mods please feel free to edit or update this OP)
There are 2 spoilers below, both of which are OUTDATED...
EDIT: The maps have been updated. Linking directly to the pictures doesnt work because the links expire after a short amount of time. So click the link below to see the latest pictures and download the maps.
I wonder how scouting and early game will change on a 5 player map. Also, on same map, 12T vs 9Z, muta timing will be fast! Like, they pop out, and 5-10sec later killing your workers.
Probably alot of carriers on Autobahn, looks kinda interesting though. Labyrinth reminds me of a weird lost temple. Overall, i'm glad they still go for these weird maps.
Predicting lots of 2 hatch muta on Labyrinth, the close by air positions look really rough for terran. Not to mention all that extra space behind the natural minerals.
-There are two entrances to the hill type, one entrance is blocking the neutral flag, the other entrance is blocking the door can only pass through the worker. The entrance to the flag can not be passed to any unit, and if the worker removes the flag, it will be able to move. However, when a worker catches a flag, he or she must play strategically because the vision of the flag is shared. It is difficult to know the situation on the hill until you remove the flag as a worker, because you do not see the sight on the hill.
The neutral flag is invincible and the size is the same as the tank, draggun, darker, etc.
-You can use a worker to catch a flag and move the flag. Collecting resources is not possible while holding the flag.
-When a worker catches a flag, the sight of the holding flag is shared with the other player.
-If a worker with a flag dies, the flag will be placed back in the dead position, and after a certain period of time, it will return to the original seat (approximately two minutes later)
-There are two entrances to the hill type, one entrance is blocking the neutral flag, the other entrance is blocking the door can only pass through the worker. The entrance to the flag can not be passed to any unit, and if the worker removes the flag, it will be able to move. However, when a worker catches a flag, he or she must play strategically because the vision of the flag is shared. It is difficult to know the situation on the hill until you remove the flag as a worker, because you do not see the sight on the hill.
The neutral flag is invincible and the size is the same as the tank, draggun, darker, etc.
-You can use a worker to catch a flag and move the flag. Collecting resources is not possible while holding the flag.
-When a worker catches a flag, the sight of the holding flag is shared with the other player.
-If a worker with a flag dies, the flag will be placed back in the dead position, and after a certain period of time, it will return to the original seat (approximately two minutes later)
damn, google translate is quite good nowadays
That's about right: Your main ramp is blocked by a neutral 'flag' unit that can only be moved by workers. Holding the flag reveals vision around the flag (the worker can move it around). This has many diff implications, namely that you have to reveal your starting position in order to unblock your ramp and start moving normal ground units out, and maybe there's some interesting defensive options as well (enemy has to bring a worker to remove the flag if they are rushing). Also you can mineral click OUT of your main through the secondary ramp, but there's no way to mineral walk INTO a main without vision, so the early scouting on this map seems all sorts of fucked.
On July 22 2018 20:39 angrypofke wrote: I wonder how scouting and early game will change on a 5 player map. Also, on same map, 12T vs 9Z, muta timing will be fast! Like, they pop out, and 5-10sec later killing your workers.
The real question is: How will players play a map that actively discourages scouting through weird flag mechanics? It's basically a game of chicken. Or players may just scout whether their opponent has FE'ed.
On July 23 2018 00:51 Frudgey wrote: Not surprised at all that we're not seeing a return of Sparkle haha.
That map was insane, though not necessarily for the right reasons!
Further exploration of island map concepts would have been nice, though. Better than Labyrinth, definitely.
On July 23 2018 01:06 blabber wrote: Google translate about Labyrinth main ramp:
-There are two entrances to the hill type, one entrance is blocking the neutral flag, the other entrance is blocking the door can only pass through the worker. The entrance to the flag can not be passed to any unit, and if the worker removes the flag, it will be able to move. However, when a worker catches a flag, he or she must play strategically because the vision of the flag is shared. It is difficult to know the situation on the hill until you remove the flag as a worker, because you do not see the sight on the hill.
The neutral flag is invincible and the size is the same as the tank, draggun, darker, etc.
-You can use a worker to catch a flag and move the flag. Collecting resources is not possible while holding the flag.
-When a worker catches a flag, the sight of the holding flag is shared with the other player.
-If a worker with a flag dies, the flag will be placed back in the dead position, and after a certain period of time, it will return to the original seat (approximately two minutes later)
TLDR: The Flag behaves like it would in a CTF UMS map.
About the backdoor block on Autobahn.
Google Translate:- Scarabs can pass between neutral buildings and minerals.
It's great that for once this is taken into conscious consideration by a Korean map maker :D
- Autobahn is a German highway system and is famous for its unlimited speed.
I knew this would be clichéed…
Some more weirdness from Labyrinth:
- At the main entrance, there is a 249-inch minerals for worker to click on the minerals, and a square-shaped space is provided for easy hiding of workers holding flags.
I guess that weird high ground hook is meant to be the hiding spot then. No idea why you would implement that in such an unintuitive way (players cannot see terrain levels in-game) when some cliff edge or even vision blockers (which at least would have left more of a terrain clue, any you can mark them with bush doodads) would have been so easy to do. This map is just such a weird combination of badly executed questionable ideas… Claiming that I'd be surprised if this map made it into the actual tourney would be a grave understatement.
[Source] Africa TV Star League ASL Season 6 Map Test (Autoban / Silpid / Labyrinth / Neo Transistor)
in the description, so it's only a pre-selection I guess, probably to narrowed down further to maybe two or three (i.e. ditch Labyrinth O_o, I am actually cool with the rest for a change, safe for some required bugfixing).
I practiced on Labyrinth and i got to say while the flag concept is cute/cool the mains are retardedly small so that was poor editing. That flag thing has the potential for a great map but they need to make the main natural pathing alot better and make mains bigger for macro. Transistor really needed a refurbish/polish so im glad that got done for tournament play. Lab needs a redo/ update to 2.0 badly.
Can somebody knowledgeable explain to me about Labyrinth - why the 12 o clock and 5 o clock bases have such exposed areas behind their mineral lines compared to the others? I understand that because workers spawn from the bottom of the CC/nexus/etc, having E/W facing mineral lines is more balanced, but surely having them not either against the edge of the map or at the very least against some the edge of some unpassable terrain is better than having 2 bases which are extremely vulnerable to drops.
On July 23 2018 09:16 Wonk wrote: Can somebody knowledgeable explain to me about Labyrinth - why the 12 o clock and 5 o clock bases have such exposed areas behind their mineral lines compared to the others? I understand that because workers spawn from the bottom of the CC/nexus/etc, having E/W facing mineral lines is more balanced, but surely having them not either against the edge of the map or at the very least against some the edge of some unpassable terrain is better than having 2 bases which are extremely vulnerable to drops.
Well, you already mentioned the reason. Nowadays there is a workaround with hallucinated critters overlapping the SL building area to push the initial worker spawn around to whereever you want it to ensure a quick split (Roadkill and Transistor are two examples where this is done). But Labyrinth is pretty much bullshit bingo become BW map, so differences in mineral line exposure are the least of its problems.
On July 23 2018 09:16 Wonk wrote: Can somebody knowledgeable explain to me about Labyrinth - why the 12 o clock and 5 o clock bases have such exposed areas behind their mineral lines compared to the others? I understand that because workers spawn from the bottom of the CC/nexus/etc, having E/W facing mineral lines is more balanced, but surely having them not either against the edge of the map or at the very least against some the edge of some unpassable terrain is better than having 2 bases which are extremely vulnerable to drops.
Well, you already mentioned the reason. Nowadays there is a workaround with hallucinated critters overlapping the SL building area to push the initial worker spawn around to whereever you want it to ensure a quick split (Roadkill and Transistor are two examples where this is done). But Labyrinth is pretty much bullshit bingo become BW map, so differences in mineral line exposure are the least of its problems.
mm, I had seen a lot of maps where they spawned according to position, so I was confused as to why this map had odd mineral placements. I guess there wasn't a good reason, thanks!
Well, I'm glad they've shown off these maps well before the start of the season this time, some of the recent maps definitely haven't had enough time to be figured out before being used (Third World, I'm looking at you). Labyrinth definitely needs some work before the vote on the maps start. Personally I hope we don't see Gladiator as the "standard older map" again like ASL4 and ASL5. It's not a bad map but I'm gettin' real sick of it, with it in the KSL too. If they want to bring back maps from that era I always had a soft spot for La Mancha.
Sylphide looks to me like a strong Terran map.I'm no specialist so I'm curious how's this one going to play out.
There's too much stuff implicated in Labirynth at the same time.Not only a new system with this flag but also very tiny double gased main ? That's too much. Also :
-If a worker with a flag dies, the flag will be placed back in the dead position, and after a certain period of time, it will return to the original seat (approximately two minutes later)
I'm not sure If I get this one right. So this basicly means You cannot sacrifice Your worker couse flag is gonna come back and block Your ramp anyway ?
I wonder what happens if : a)You get the worker to a dropship? Opponent still gets the vision through drop ? b)that drop dies over undropable terrain? The flag cannot spawn on the ground and..what then ? c)You optic flare worker holding it.Does flag have vision circle of its own ?
Sadly I cannot test it myself .
I really dont know what to think about Autobahn...I've got no idea how the games can play out on it.I'd love some analysis from somebody who understands maps better than me(so probably 3/4 of our community ;p )
On July 23 2018 18:14 NewbOnTheFloor wrote: Sylphide looks to me like a strong Terran map.I'm no specialist so I'm curious how's this one going to play out.
There's too much stuff implicated in Labirynth at the same time.Not only a new system with this flag but also very tiny double gased main ? That's too much. Also :
-If a worker with a flag dies, the flag will be placed back in the dead position, and after a certain period of time, it will return to the original seat (approximately two minutes later)
I'm not sure If I get this one right. So this basicly means You cannot sacrifice Your worker course flag is gonna come back and block Your ramp anyway ?
Yes (see also below).
I wonder what happens if : a)You get the worker to a dropship? Opponent still gets the vision through drop ?
Yes.
b)that drop dies over undropable terrain? The flag cannot spawn on the ground and..what then ?
It goes right back to the spawning location. I am not sure what happens if that is blocked by units as well, though, I'll try it out.
If the flag can fit at the locations where the worker dies, it will be dropped there.
If the flag-bearing worker dies while in a transport or bunker, the flag will respawn at the spot where the worker was picked up unless there is no space to legally fit it there.
Otherwise the flag will respawn at its initial location on the ramp.
A flag on the ground will be moved back to its initial location on the ramp after a fixed amount of time unless picked up again.
When a flag is dropped or moved back to the initial position, it will ignore unit collision, but not building or terrain collision it seems, so it will be placed back on the ramp, regardless whether the spot is occupied by another unit or not, thus creating collision box overlap ("glitching out units").
c)You optic flare worker holding it. Does flag have vision circle of its own ?
Actually haven't tetsted that either, but I think the vision is actually worker vision. Blinding a flag-bearing worker reduces its vision range for all players!
Sadly I cannot test it myself .
I really dont know what to think about Autobahn...I've got no idea how the games can play out on it.I'd love some analysis from somebody who understands maps better than me(so probably 3/4 of our community ;p )
Well, you have two fairly open, but close-by forward bases and a farther away but much safer corner base as well as neutral base in the centre that will mostly be taken as a tie-breaker in the very late game (although it is also a decent forward base for a Terran slow pushing across the map, better than the centre bases of FS, Galdiator or Bloody Ridge for that matter). Pretty straight-forward actually. The only thing you need to look out for is early shenanigans at the natural backdoor, as that can fairly easily be mined out by a single scout worker, opening the natural up for backstabs. Strategies will mostly evolve around controlling the forward high ground 3rds as strategic spots for attack and defense and trying to intercept an opponent's army when they try to move through either of the 5 paths connecting the top and bottom, as they are all pretty narrow and limiting to big armies. Splitting you army to do a two-pronged attack might be a good idea, for example in PvT. Terran will probably wall lots of the chokes with Supply depots. There's a lot of buildable ground overall.
Sylphide is a solid map, i dislike the other maps tho. Autobahn is a T map, Labyrinth is just fucking weird so i have no idea how it's gonna play out and Transistor is a P map.
On July 23 2018 19:03 TT1 wrote: Sylphide is a solid map, i dislike the other maps tho. Autobahn is a T map, Labyrinth is just fucking weird so i have no idea how it's gonna play out and Transistor is a P map.
Sylphide looks hard for Zerg though. No nice chokes or ramps to simcity and Lurker turtle, so it's hard to secure a third.
They need to make Labyrinth more like Python, maybe decrease the players from 5 to 4? Also has shades of the map Acro to me which never made it anywhere in MSL or leagues due to a failure of main base design/space. main functionality is like the most important thing in a map lol. if you neglect that as the maker u really failed.
On July 24 2018 12:19 Kau wrote: What happens if you float a building over the flag? Do you become unscoutable?
Just barely tested it.
I floated my own building over the flag and tried to move my worker inside, you have to place the building carefully over the flag so that they don't pick it up by finagling the worker around, but yeah the flag acts as a blocker to workers.
EDIT: I'll note that it's also easy to completely wall off the top of your ramps with 2-3 depots. So, either/or works.
On July 25 2018 07:10 Freakling wrote: So it'll be Transistor + 2, which will not be Labyrinth for sure. That's alright then. We've seen a lot worse in previous ASLs.
i really hope they put labyrinth in, not only for the flag shenanigans, i like how the main is oddly shaped and you have to reconsider building placements... also the adjusted resource counts will make for some interesting new timings
seems like zerg can totally use that extra main gas for more muta and look to snipe the revealed flag probe to block off protoss ground forces... kinda turns into an air battle?
it's a cool tradeoff in that sense with the revealed flag worker... protect it from air snipe and reveal some key stuff... hide it in the corner trying not to reveal anything and you're vulnerable to air snipe...
On July 28 2018 22:44 mishimaBeef wrote: also was a weird thing on sylphide top mid high ground base where a drone was stuck behind the extractor with a gas in hand
You are right, that can happen. I'll put it on the bug list. By the way, that is not a high ground base! It is raised jungle, which is equivalent to sunken ground in Twilight, sandy sunken pit in Desert as well as water in Ice terrain and is considered low ground by the game.
Yes lots of changes again. The reason Im not linking to the pictures in the OP is because you cant link directly to the pictures for long before the links expire and Im not going to keep making and uploading new pictures for all of these edits. So keep checking the naver blog to see the latest updates guys.
Looks like it really IS neo transistor now, they've put in some serious work there with the new ramps. Labyrinth hasn't changed quite as much as I was hoping though, at least no double gas. They've also fixed the 12oclock base, but decided to leave the 5 oclock with a big ol' space behind its mineral line? very odd.
Anyway, I'm excited to see how the new ramps affect how games play out on transistor.
On August 07 2018 23:30 Jukado wrote: Yes lots of changes again. The reason Im not linking to the pictures in the OP is because you cant link directly to the pictures for long before the links expire and Im not going to keep making and uploading new pictures for all of these edits. So keep checking the naver blog to see the latest updates guys.
On August 07 2018 23:51 Wonk wrote: Looks like it really IS neo transistor now, they've put in some serious work there with the new ramps. Labyrinth hasn't changed quite as much as I was hoping though, at least no double gas. They've also fixed the 12oclock base, but decided to leave the 5 oclock with a big ol' space behind its mineral line? very odd.
Anyway, I'm excited to see how the new ramps affect how games play out on transistor.
Not everyone is Zerg. This space behind the naturals is to actually have enough space to build your base.
what's with the bottom right gas of the new neo transistor being at the bottom? how has the map maker figured out to balance it so that the bottom geyser equals the harvesting rate of the other bases with the geyser on top?
On August 09 2018 06:27 GTR wrote: what's with the bottom right gas of the new neo transistor being at the bottom? how has the map maker figured out to balance it so that the bottom geyser equals the harvesting rate of the other bases with the geyser on top?
Well, yes – kind of. If you look closely you'l realize that all the geysers are moved farther away from the SL, so they all mne slowly and require 4 workers now, like Katrina basically.
New ramps still suck. No post editing was done for any of these, so all the terrain level bugs of the cliffs are there in their full glory…
Labyrinth is still garbage. Units still get stuck in the mains. Making the gated ramp smaller unsurprisingly has not really changed that much…
On August 08 2018 08:13 Freakling wrote: Unfortunately new ramps on Transistor for the most parts just means new bugs…
Could you tell me what new bugs can be occurred by new ramps?
There are some "minor" things, like weird, distorted proportions or the rather lose relationship between graphics and actually walkable areas (walking over "cliffs", or the opposite: "invisible" barriers) for some of them. The most jarring issue though is this: + Show Spoiler [show image] +
ore more likely the wrote a bit of code to create them procedurally, I guess – and yes, all the new ramps have been created superimposing different graphics over the same set of maybe 8 different flag templates all over again! Tileset characteristics? Individual designs? Bah, who needs that…
) obviously had no idea how in-game vision works and did not properly set flags for cliff tiles, resulting in a lot of cliff vision at the ramp edges (allowing players, for example, to snipe units and wall-in buildings from the low ground without actual high ground vision). And yes: The new ramps, they are all like this, no matter which tileset or terrain type (because, as I said, they were are created from the exact same templates).
Now for the most part this can be ameliorated with proper manual terrain post-editing, of course: + Show Spoiler [show image] +
But at this point using old custom ramps, with maybe some selected tiles from the new ones where blends can be improved this way, is actually more convenient and will usually even yield more eye-pleasing results as no amount of custom editing can really hide what cheap Photoshop (or whatever they used) hack jobs these new ramps really are… These space ramps are good examples of this – they even skimped on the on-ramp textures, creating featureless surfaceswhich look incredibly bland
Should be noted that the main gas relocation on Transistor makes the Khaydarin Crystals ineffective as the resource depot building space is thus shifted by one tile as well.
There's gonna be some crazy expansion holds on Labyrinth.
Think about it, hold the flag with a worker, offending army comes towards you, kill that worker and your ramp is blocked. This is easiest for zerg, they don't even need to kill a worker, just morph it into a building = free wall.
The reason you want to hold on to that flag is so that if the opponent brings a worker with their army, they can't just steal the flag right away. You can for example, have half of their army walk up the ramp then kill your worker and then half will be trapped, giving you time to finish off half the army before the opponent's worker picks up the flag.
So every attempt to to take out a high ground expansion with ground units must include 1 worker in the army.
EDIT: I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but when you pick up a flag, the opponent can see the worker that picked up the flag, it's crazy whack!
From watching the first ASL games last night it seems like the maps have been updated again. I see a general tendency towards "hybrid ramps" (customized ramps using some of the new ramp tiles) and Sylphide (which is now called Sylphid – which is the correct English spelling) now has altered worker spawn positions. So these seem like overall good changes to me. It doesn't seem like the Naver post has been updated again though. So has any one any idea where I can download the most up to date map pack?
There was atleast 1 version in between of Autobahn as well. In the current 1.0 version the corner expo ramp has 2 eggs on it, 1 egg either side. But this previous version had both of the eggs on the same side of the ramp for example. Not particularly exciting ha, but nice to make a note of.
On September 03 2018 17:57 Freakling wrote: From watching the first ASL games last night it seems like the maps have been updated again. I see a general tendency towards "hybrid ramps" (customized ramps using some of the new ramp tiles) and Sylphide (which is now called Sylphid – which is the correct English spelling) now has altered worker spawn positions. So these seem like overall good changes to me. It doesn't seem like the Naver post has been updated again though. So has any one any idea where I can download the most up to date map pack?