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Defile the only peaceful refuge on Aiur with the blood of your enemies.

Something I threw together today. I never actually finish any UMS maps I make so I figured I should make a melee. At least I can get a job like this done. It probably has a few balancing issues that I could fix so feedback is welcome.

EDIT: Attachments removed. Check my other posts for updated versions.

seems balanced enough, kindof original. id move the expansion farther away from the starting location though. almost too easy to defend. good job

Heres what jumps out at me:
The bridge in the middle/right should be moved more to the right. This is because the bottom play can post tanks on the temple and kill guys coming from 2 bridges while the top player can only seige units coming from one bridge.

This map isn't going to supply quick games, the players are going to need expansions and this does not have many. Try to find a spot that you can modify to add a mineral only expansion.

Also take out some of the ruins that are by the bottom players closest expansion. because he has more unbuildable terrain than the other players.

This map puts zerg at a disadvantage, not many expansions, no real nats, and there are many choke points protected by high ground where they can get seiged from. You are forcing zerg players to go mutas which isn't a good thing.

I don't believe you should move the bridges, their placement is fine. It's hard to create a balanced melee type map without making it too predictable and symmetrical.

I think it's pretty well balanced and not too symmetrical—good work.

I think this isn't very fair to P as well because theres not much open space or room to flank It's really just two bases connected by four bridges. No middle ground.

What dont you get? They bridge unbalnces the center. One player can seige more bridges than the other.
Non-symmetry is not the main point of melee, Fortune.

A 2-player map with only 4 expos isn't really a help for Zerg. Too many chokes, and the mains can be sieged from the gas expo. Add more expos and widen some chokes.

When you play the map same race vs same race it's pretty well balanced.

But when you go TvP or TvZ or ZvP it's quite unbalanced.

As you can see the only way to cross that river is by using one of the many bridges. For terran it's quite easy to defend all those, just place a bunker/tank combo and it's defended.

ZvP would be very interesting but seeing how the map is small and lings would get to the other side pretty fast. Also Muta harassment has a big advantage given to the proximity of the gas/mins expo and main. You could just alternate between then two when he brings his army to kill you. But it is also very easy to defend, just but goliaths/goons on the edge of the cliff and it's defended.

Your right about defending the bridges with tanks and bunks, but that only applies when the player is done stting that up.
While terran is trying to do that, zerg will have mutas by then, and they can kill the scvs/marines while they are trying to set up, then when they are done they can have thier way with the tanks.
Protoss would have a harder time trying to do this, the only real thing i see them using to keep terran from defending bridges is using shuttles with archons or reacs, Dts, and to accompany either of those corsairs.

Obviously you dont play melee that much yenku...
I can get Bunkers/tanks sometimes faster than Zerg can muta...
It all depends on the Zergs Stratagy... If they rush muta then
We can get it around the same time... But, If they get units and tech to muta
I am far faster...

I dont like completly balanced games because well, I like to have to adapt to where I go

Your dead wrong man, dont judge me like that.
If you go muta with zerg thats the second thing you tech to.
Want the oder? Too bad here it is:
Zerg:
9 pool, refinery, lair, spire, mutas
Terran: barracks, refinery, factory. (and without dropships than they are completey screwed)

Oddangel, dont tell me how mych i play melee, you are a UMS person, I have the most posts in the melee forum, i am all melee. I know what im talking about. Anybody want to back me up?

ADDITION:
Oh, yea:

That makes for terrible games.

I like how each base have their own set of "stairs" on the temple, but it's pretty useless . Wastes some space.

And is it me or the expansions are a bit... Rich? You should consider adding more expos, but with less mineral on each of them. It'll make up for the rest. One last thing: Blue's natura (w/gas) is more optimized than red's. Watch for the mineral locations.

Very nice start, if it's your first melee map.

Does anybody see what im saying about the bridges? Gahh, i feel like im talking to a wall when i post!!!

Sry I haven't checked this in a while. But I'm going to fix the bridges. I'll post it tomorrow. I do feel that is a problem.

Since the map is small and all the possible expos are pretty close a game played on it is meant to be short. Harassment is an important part since it's easy to take an expo you have to keep your eco above the other player's.

I can see how this couldn't work to well for Zerg. But I'm not too sure about how I could fix that. More expos maybe, but I can't think of where they could go.

I'm going to take away some of that walkable temple on either side. Not enough so a player can't siege a single bridge, but it does take up too much room.

Maybe put a small expo on an island on either side?

So I moved the left bridge over a bit and removed some of the temple on either side. Now each player can only siege one of the bridges. The top can siege the left, the bottom can siege the right.

I removed some of the ruins near blue's min+gas expo.

I tried to see how much room I had in the top left and bottom right corners for an island expo but there isn't enough room to put in something worthwile without taking away building space from the min only expos. I was thinking of putting a few mineral patches behind the thin temple wall one either side, but I'm not sure if that's the best idea since it's kinda close to the expo right below or above it.

And something about the bridges. If you look critically you can see that the dual bridges on either side are set up so only one player could build a good amount of defense on their side. Red can build defense on the left and blue on the right. The ruins terrain disallows this on the opposite side of the water, and the rocky ground on the little islands also stops this. The sides with the ruins terrain might be able to stick one bunker or turret but that's it. While the other side could just fill it up with those.

The games are meant to go fast on this map. Because a player can take the bridges and control the map, both players must move out quick to make sure this doesn't happen.

I guess its better, you fixed major problems.
The thin temple on the bottom is shorter in length than the one on the top.

There's no gas on this map, zerg is screwed.

And no nat.

There's a nat. There are just not many expansions. I like how he's not trying to make like everyone else

Maybe you should make the mains smaller, and add.... something else. Gas-only expo? (it'll calm down ihatett )

Ther is no nat. A nat is a close expo which is somewhat gaurded. There is none. There are also on 4 geysers on the entire map, and only two on each side. Zerg desperatly needs both.

EDIT: typos+clarity

I was thinking of a gas only at the thin temple on either side. How might that sound?

I made this unlike other melee maps on purpose, it was supposed to be this way. This is when you guys help me to fix it. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Zerg absolutely needs more expos and more gas.

But hey, at least this guy listens to the people critiquing his map.

Of course I listen to advice. I don't know why people don't. I've been making maps for a while now and I know what I'm doing, I just haven't posted here in a while. I definetly have learned to take people's advice.

I've added a geyser and 3 mineral patches at each of the thin temple walls on the side facing the player's main. Since the bottom wall is small and would only let me place them a bit awkwardly I did that for the top too. Basically, you can't place a town hall there idealy on either side.

Any other suggestions for possible other expos. The problem is that a player isn't really supposed to have more then the expos on their own side. And even if they did it'd be very hard to hold. That's why I'd like to add island expos but there's no room.

Yenku, the point of melee is to be able to adapt to your surroundings, make good-use of your resources, and all out have fun.

I think the bridges placement are fine.

Ok, that was established awhile ago. But whatever.
And second, the point of melee is to adapt to what your enemy throws at you, not what the unfair terrain does.
I think you need more gas, this is a hard map for zerg, cant get ultras or many mutas. You want them to bring hydras through those bridges and up that one ramp?
Dont think so.