I'm trying to get pre-placed buildable creep without using colonies or hatcheries. I just want a little 2x2 square of creep that exists from the start of the game, that never goes away, that drones can build on.

I've tried placing the tileset indexed creep tiles, and while they look like creep in-game, the drone won't be able to build on them. I found this post http://www.staredit.net/topic/8871/#185331 that talks about creating buildings on null terrain, but when I try it, the creep just goes away once the building is destroyed.

I am working on the ash world/char tileset, if that matters.

constantly create/remove a 2x2 square building like a spire or spore colony. Alternatively, just place 2 spires and remove one of them, allowing a drone to build there.

Is that really the only way to do it? Also I'm not sure how your second suggestion differs from your first, or exactly what you mean. Do you mean place 2 spires in the same spot, and remove (as opposed to 'kill') one of them?

Also I believe doing that method would result in lots of error messages when the player actually builds on that spot due to the building not being created. There might also be flickering visible?

then create/move. 2nd method leaves a spire there. Take a look at this

That second method is also used for stacking in game w/o lights. If there is a stack, and any amount of buildings die, that terrain is marked as "unoccupied" for being built on. When a building is made there, that area becomes "occupied." So make 2 spires, kill 1, and you can build there. Similarly, making 50 spires, and killing 1 spire for player X whenever there are 50 buildings there will allow players to build 50 buildings in that spot.

(i'm quite sure that right, if it isn't then it was prob my hax...)

Wow, that map is really well done rockz.

I think the spire trick will work out well for my purposes. I'm making the Nydus Canal into a 'skip lap' building that is semi-secret. I already have some neutral spires on my map in pretty much the spot I wanted the creep to go anyway, so I'll just re-use them.