| Lancet | | |
My first and probably last 8 player map designed for long "epic" drawn out battles over large distances where you may reach a control of 200 several times (if you survive). The island mains have, of course, the advantage that they do not have to worry about attacks by land. To compensate for this I placed a 32 mineral block in their in-main gas expo, let me know if you think if this is too much or too little. The rest of the islands have an 8 mineral block. Corner and central expos are double gas.
I incorporated elements and ideas from Falkoners Terrain Compilation from Staredit.net and Testbug's map "Endless fields.
Let me know (nicely)what you think and how I can improve the map, thanks. |
| Testbug | | |
| this is not 128 x 128 |
| Nightmarjoo | | |
pathing's too linear for close pos
islands' nats aren't cliffable
middle's too tight
SW is missing an expo |
| Kwidowmaker | | |
| This really does look epic. I wish I had some friends to get an 8 or 6 player game going :/ |
| Excalibur | | |
Very nice Lancet.
If youll post a thread about it in SEN's melee discussion, ill get it played at mod night in the next couple of weeks. Promise. :3 |
| flothefreak | | |
| imba, browns nat is easier to defend as the others'. |
| Rye | | |
| This map is huge. And sexy as hell. Islands remind me of my old WCII exploits. |
| MorroW | | |
| gj, 8 player maps doesnt have to be so balanced, look at hunters :) |
| spinesheath | | |
| I would always want to be on one of the islands. Though that probably isn't so good if my allies are outnumbered on the field... |
| neobowman | | |
| Maybe this should be slightly smaller. Islands also seem to be a bit imbalanced still. 3 Hatch before pool? Tech rush? Lots of options unless there's only one other enemy who is not on an island. |
| Lancet | | |
Thanks for your comments.
Testbug, I corrected the size to "other" (it is 256x256).
Yeah, there are imbalances in the map. The one that irks me the most is Blue's closest minonly which is right next to Teal's high ground minonly. Damn! I used a grid and everything but I could not get things to fit just right. My only consolation is that you can't play an 8 player game like if you were playing a one-on-one game.
The middle is tight but I figured that your immediate concern are the bases that are closest to you anyway. So in a free for all if, say you are Blue, I don't think that you will consider crossing the "tight center" to attack Brown and risk getting wiped out by red or teal. I envision that gameplay at least at the begining will be mostly "lateral" and if you survive the initial assault and control your third gas you will want to employ some of your available control to make air units anayway.
I do think, however, that you need to have 8 players on this map, with less than 8 there is the chance that someone will end up on one of the islands with no opposing "island player" and then just go air and expand while the rest of the players are engaged in attacks by land. I don't know how this will play out.
I will make the island's in-main nats cliffable.
Hey, any comments on the mineral blocks on the island in-mains nats? To many? Too few? Thanks.
modified by Lancet |
| Excalibur | | |
| The less CC floats the better i say. |
| neobowman | | |
| Maybe you should have spider mines on the island nats like Flo did. |
| Lancet | | |
neobowman, flo did that to give zerg an edge in island maps. Here I don't want to do that I just want to delay the island economy a little.
OK, the island in-main nat mineral blocks are now 64 and the island main nat can be attacked from the nearby island.
modified by Lancet |
| Lancet | | |
| Fixed a few missplaced tiles & added some extra doodads. I have played a few games against the comp, the map plays well but hell the games are long, LOL! It would be great if the stupid comp just surrendered when it has no chances rather than having to search for every single building spread throughout the map. |
| SiaBBo | | |
| Why this map even have so good rating? Just cuz it looks cool? -.- |
| MorroW | | |
| probably, its 8 player map, how can u go after balancing? |
| Excalibur | | |
| We played this map extensively at mod night and SMMM, it was amazing. |
| Excalibur | | |
| Just wanted to say we had an epic hour and forty five minute game on this map last mod night. I'd really like if you could make another 8p epic map like this Lancet. |
| Lancet | | |
I was lucky to catch your post Excalibur as I don't check what is going on here that often anymore.
I am glad you guys liked EPICA so much and I would be thankful if whenever you have a replay you can upload it here. That would be very useful for me in planning more maps if I do get my motivation in gear to make more.
As there are no replays yet for me to see I wanted to ask you some questions.
1) Do you think that having island positions in EPICA added to the fun and diversity involved in playing an 8 player map?
2) Was the mineral block in the in-base gas expo of the island positions enough to counter the advantage of having a starting location in an island in this map?
3) Did it make a difference to have the island positions in the same quadrant of the map (for example, did the the island players go after each other first)?
4) I have thought about making a two island 8 player map. The idea is to have 2 islands each with 4 players. In this map your immediate worry would be to wipe out the 3 opponents you can reach by land but then you would have to go air to deal with the survivor(s) in the other island. Of course it could also be 4 islands and 2 players per island. What do you think of this idea?
Thanks for your input. |
| Excalibur | | |
1. Some people liked them, some people didn't. Because I know how to run an island economy and ruin one in a large player setup, I liked them.
2. Yeah I'd say the min blocks were enough. Usually Id have one of my starting workers go at it for a fast expand. :3
3. Yes, definitely. You should split them, because when we had 5 or 6 people instead of 8, if one person got an island start and the other one was empty, they'd dominate every island. We called them the Pirate mains and that area the carribean empire. :P
4. I don't like this idea. A more EPICA like setup would be preferable. Perhaps an island start in the NW corner and another in the SE corner. |
| Lancet | | |
LOL The pirate mains and the caribean empire, great names!
In the map thread I did mention my concern that if you did not have 8 players somebody would end up in one island main and get a huge advantage. That is the problem with having them.
As to splitting them my concern is that if you are in a land main, and you are next to an island main, then you may get pounded from both the island and the mainland. The reason I placed the island mains in the same quadrant is for the island players (the only ones that do not have to worry about land attacks) to be a threat to each other. But like you mentioned, if you have less than 8 players you have the chance that someone will be signing "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!".
Well, I will think about it and see what I come up with. I don't promise anything right away as I have a million things going on in my life at the momment. |
| Excalibur | | |
| Thanks Lancet, I look forward to your next release. |
(8)EPICA
