I've heard:
"Main ramps are too blocky", "Not enough space behind mineral lines", "Nat Chokes are too small", "Main areas are too small", "Nat areas are too big".

If you give me advice please explain it with well-reasoned and fully explanatory responses.

Heres a copy of the map:
[attach=7360]

Attachments:

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Aug 20 2010, 6:16 am by Phobic.

Try using a hosting site for the picture or no one will care

Your avatar hurts my eyes.

You used a BMP image.

Your map is protected.

What. The. Fuck.

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Sorry, I am new to this whole forum thing and honestly do not know what the fuck I am doing.

Also I downloaded the map and it was not protected, but then again I do fuck up a lot.

My SCMDraft refused to open it, so I had to put in the missing data via StarEdit. Anyways, thanks for actually uploading the image after we mention it, a lot of people failed to do that in the past so we're a bit frustrated from all of it, lol.

In any case, this is what I can see:

• Your map decoration is a bit bland, but it's not a major issue right now.
  
• Your ramps look nice, but they aren't exactly the best for melee play. Ramps from the main to the natural are generally accepted to have to be narrow enough to be blocked by a single zealot. Download the Jungle Ramps map file and use the ones there, since they are optimized for melee play (correct vision/height/width). Specifically, use the ones that are second from the left in the first four rows, because they are the "standard" ramp sizes. The smallest ramp should be avoided as a main-natural ramp because large units can't move through them.
  
• Your natural-to-mid choke is too narrow. It can be blocked by a single pylon/supply depot and will be difficult to move through. Replace that piece of cliff near the water with dirt and the size should be fine.
  
• Corner islands have way too much turret space.
  
• Highground expansions have no turret space, so move the mineral line about two tiles inwards diagonally.
  
• Min-only expansions have too many patches.
  
• Your natural is fine, I don't know what they're smoking.
  
• The way your map is laid out is very cool, so I'll suggest changes that don't mess too much with your map's layout.
  

Here's a summary:



Red means remove the circled part.
Green means replace with the ramps from the map I linked to you.
Blue means fix the tank holes.
White means move.
Yellow means narrow the ramps to that size.
Orange means make the terrain unbuildable in the circled area (rocky ground, ruins, whatever. Preferably rocky ground.)

(Those big ramps near the middle are awesome. They're fine as it is. )

Thank you, however I am color blind and can't make any sense of the picture u posted so I will just go off of the text when I make my next edit.

Oh wow . I didn't know that, sorry. I'll give a better text explanation:

• The circled cliffs in the middle should be removed.
  
• The two amoeba-like blotches in the middle = make rocky ground.
  
• Main ramps that are circled = replace with the ramps in the file I linked to you.
  
• The four small circles around the min-onlys and natural chokes = remove.
  
• Highground expansion mineral and gas on the east and west should be moved around two tiles diagonally inwards, approximately to where the line shows.
  
• Ramps at 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock positions are to be narrowed to where the lines indicate.
  

The minonly expos in the middle on the ground need to be further away from the cliffs so that there's some turret space. Also, the expos on the high dirt are HUGE! Add high ruins to them so that there's a LOT less building room.

I don't quite think you need turret space for that minonly, considering that if you don't control the expansion above the cliff the enemy can just attack it anyways. Turrets built so close to a cliff are vulnerable to hydra/lurkers. Having some space wouldn't hurt though.

The expos are large, but just pushing it back a little by adding the turret space would be sufficient. They don't need to be unbuildable, as the side expansions for desti are fully buildable as well.

Heh, I thought it would be cool for you to see what the first edit of this map looked like

If you leave the high ground expos as they are, you can block off the entire mid if you control both high and low ground expos. Especially if you're T. They can just bunk up and wall in the entire middle section with that much buildable space.

wtf it's a completely different map


I *did* specify removing those cliffs in the middle and making it unbuildable, if you read my previous post.

First version was better dude. Nat is way too far away from the main, and those bridges makes the map a bit too tight. Also, the high dirt in the center is the perfect spot for tanks to camp.

LOL MISUNDERSTANDINGS XD, that one up there was the FIRST EDIT I EVER DID ON THE MAP, MEANING MY STARTING POINT, SORRY FOR CONFUSION
There it is
And heres the file:
[attach=7362]

Attachments:

Work on your mineral formations. I'm pretty sure that you can get closer to the minerals than what you've shown in the picture (for the middle expos, that is). Here are some formations that you could use.



As a pointer, diagonal minerals lines don't really well (or maybe I'm just not good at making them), so you're better off sticking with semi-horizontal/vertical lines.

are those mineral lines better?

Kind of, but you want to get the start location to be as close as possible to the minerals.

These mineral formations are shit. Ignore them.

It's not how they "look" that's important, but how well they MINE. Make a CPU mine at each main and end the game after 5 minutes, and check to see if the resource scores are about the same. If not, then the mineral formations are NOT equal. For example, if "minerals gathered" are very close to each other, like

1008
1008
992
1016

Then your mineral formations are good. But if you get stuff like

912
1088
1040
1016

Then the mineral lines need to be adjusted. Move a mineral or two one grid closer for ones that gather poorly, and move one or two minerals outwards for ones that mine better than others. As long as they mine equally, it shouldn't be much of a problem how good they look.

Those mineral lines all mine perfectly well.

One has six minerals, one has nine minerals, and the two others have eight minerals. Yeah. Balanced