The Planetary Workshop

From what I can see, it looks awesome!
I really like this combination of colours, it looks really nice with derelict mechanical pods in a wasteland.

There are two thing which worries me, first is the distance difference between positions when it comes to air and then also the distance difference to the backdoor rocks.

The air difference will probably not play a large role, as it seems like you have to move your banshee (or whatever) in from the front almost all the time because of how tight the map bounds are, and that makes it a lot more even because of the positioning of the mineral lines with them in the back of the natural and main.

The difference with the rocks might only be minor and I might be unintentionally exaggerating a bit here, but I feel like it is a lot easier psychologically to break down the rocks at your enemy's natural if you spawn counterclockwise from him. There is a difference in the distance difference between your natural ramp and your opponents natural ramp compared to your natural to your opponents rocks.

A few questions though:

• The small ramped highground pods in front of the natural, how does the pathing look on them? Because currently it looks like a hole there which you cannot move over, which will be really frustrating for someone with many large units (tanks, roaches, immortals, not to speak of thors and ultras).
• Are the highground behind the thirds pathable? Some of them looks pathable (aesthetically) while others don't.
• How easy is it to wall of the natural ramp? (and ignoring the fact that the rocks can be broken).

Thanks Martin. Glad you like the setting too.

Yeah, Air distance is different but I also think tight map bounds will make mineral-line harrasment harder. You'll need to get past buildable (air defendable) ground to get there.



That was a tough sentence but I know exactly what you mean and I've gbrought it up before, but no one but you seems to agree with me It might be a small problem, although I'd rather avoid it really. It's why I've been promoting a crevasse-style nat ramp to make the nat less safe. I also got the suggestion from WhinO to lower the heoght levels and have a typical wide choke into the nat instead. I'm also considering doing a nat ramp layout similar to Funcmode's Sanctuarium:

http://imgur.com/Q6Zk6

http://i.imgur.com/b84j3.jpg




It's a feature! It's meant to be narrow. You'd place a pylon there, squeecee speedligns through, scout from it, etc. I've removed the DSR rocks nearby (see discussion post above) so you'll tkae your bigger army around that. Part of the concept is to balance the high ground space so tanks and collossi deathballs won't be too powerful in attacks on the left-hand third.






No they're nto pathable and I intend to doodad em up. However, do you think some of it should be pathable and why?







Valid?


EDIT:

Another WIP:

5. The reaper-backdoor
A reaper backdoor betwen one player's third and the other player's main. It goes along the shoet air distance path and allows siege tanks dropped there only to reach the area BEHIND the mineral line. Large units can only move in the part of the path that is closest to the main. Reapers and collossi can move through.



The high ground around the path is unpathable .. you can only drop on the path.

is it done?^^

No sorry not yet. It's harder to find the time now that I got full time work.

EDIT:

keeping this list updated.

Todo
-----------

Post release standing points:

* fix mineral lines imbalance as well as is possible.

* Concistent use of doodads.

I tested soem ingame yesterday, and since then I've fixed the main and nat mineral lines and added doodads with painted pathing behind the main mineral line.

For the high ground between the thirds, I've widened the path so that tanks can move through.

I also added non-playable map space for aesthetics.

I'm gonna work some more on cliff doodads, and some yellowish ground decals I think.