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This is my latest map, I haven't finished it yet because the middle section doesn't look right for some reason (seems kinda crappy). I made a natural gas expo for each player, so Zerg can get their 2nd geyser easily.

I don't know what to do with the middle, so all comments are welcome on how to fix up this map.

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Ok, zerg are at disadvantages on island maps, but i guess this isnt as bad as dire straights. Unless this map is going to be played by all 8 people you need to add more gas. maybe even add a mineral only nat on the main islands.

Oh yea, 10 minerals for each base? Thats too much, take out 3, and add a 6 patch somewhere else.

Im jsut wondering why you chose 7...
This could have easily been done with 6 also amke it possiable to team games...

Anyway the middle... I dont really know what you could do...

since this map wouldn't be played with all 7 people most of the time, i don't think there are too few minerals

Yea, but on islands its unbalanced unless there are a good amount of expansions on each. I think this would have been a better idea with less people, maybe four?

I don't kow what makes an island map balanced for zerg or not, because there has been a "true" island map for a while now.

I dont see a lot of island maps, and I dont see a lot of 7-player maps either, so Im pleasantly surprised you decided to make a 7-player island map.

Anyway, about the map. Theyll all take their own naturals, and from there, either try to grab the mineral-only or attack someone next to them. And thatll mean they wont necessarily take their own min-only, which makes having 7 of them unnecessary.

Perhaps having just three or four islands in the center would rectify that.

I chose to copy Valhalla's minerals in each main, which are 10. This maybe wrong but I'll stick to this for now, if there are problems I will just remove a mineral patch so there are 9.

Depending on the game there will be some empty mains that they could use to expo (6 gas expos for 2v2, and 2 gas expos for 3v3). But it definately could use some more geysers, probably 3 island gas expos in the middle.

I might push the existing mineral only islands further to the mains so they won't take up so much space.

The newer version of valhalla has 8 minerals, but I don't know which is more fair.

The middle island seems kinda obsolete, as someone implied i think since there's really no point in moving/making your units there if there's no ground access to mineral expos.

So I would probably use 9 mins for each main, right? Anyway that's not a big problem like the middle. Should I just make it an island map? Or should I put a big island in the middle with 3-4 expos that you can access by ground?

I fixed up the map so that each main position has an island expo with minerals only. The middle now has 2 islands, that have 8 minerals and a geyser each. I think it is better than before, don't know if it could use more gas expos. Please tell me what you think of the new version.

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Make it 8


it doesnt matter what valhala has, this is a completely diff map, and i think its more fair this way.


much better.

Agreed, much much better.

Actually, i think if you just played this with 2 people it woul make a fun game. Much betetr than first version.

The changes are very nice. Keeps everything close-knit, yet keeps the same island-gameplay intact.

Only thing i see about this map is everyone's distance to the middle islands. Some players' mains are closer to the islands than others. For instance, compare the distance of teal or white's main to the island and oranges distance to the island.

But i dont think that's much of a problem at all (if it even was in the first place).

I actually like this map, good job

I like the fact that its a (7) player map, the fact that in 3v3's positional scouting is still needed, and i hate (8) player maps and/or 4v4's... the locations aren't perfect which is fine, i kind of like that anywayz. This is pretty good for an island map, usually i dont care for them.

imho you should connect the two center islands so that they are one, and make it mostly unbuildable so they cant be turtled easily

i dont think the distance is a big problem unless a player is trying to bring a cc over.

Something that really bothers me is that each main doesn't have enough building space. If I extend their building room, some island expos (or even gas expos) could be bombarded by tanks, and I don't want that. Some help with this would be appreciated.

And I think the map could use lots of water doodads, and some small islands (unbuildable of course), cause it looks a bit empty and boring. So I'll try and make it look a bit neater.

To esem: I thought about that too, but they are too close together, even if its unbuildable its too easy to get from one expo to the other.

as it is now, once a player takes those expansions, it is very very difficult to take it away from them. At least if you connected the expansions, it might be easy for them to take both, but to effectively defend them they'll have to devote a lot of units, thus allowing opportunities to strike other bases if they're intent on fortifying the middle

Yet another version of the map, I added more room to all players, and some doodads and islands to make the map look better. And each main has 9 minerals now, instead of 10.

To esem: Yeah, you might have a point with that. But I think the islands can be attacked, it isn't impossible. Siege tanks can hit the geysers from one cliff to another, and there is that small ledge in between them, that could also be used for tanks or some other ranged units. I will definately try your version if I see it is too easy to defend. It would also help if we had some feedback from others too about these middle islands.

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That looks much better, and thanks for fixing mineral issue. Good work.

I don't see how zerg can beat protoss on this map, but all true island maps suffer from that.

Protoss air > all, and it is very hard for zerg to out expo the protoss.