After an excessively long period of (not really very steady) work for the size of the map, Radial is complete. All game systems are in place and, as far as I have been able to tell from testing, work the way I want them to (which may not necessarily be how you think they should work).
What is Radial? Radial is a third-person space combat game with, forgive the pun, a twist: firing vectors for projectiles can only be defined in terms of four points, which are always rotating, creating a battlefield where the relative value of any given position is always changing.
A quick word on the design of this map (and what follows is true for most of my maps, a fact which I am neither planning on nor willing to consider changing): The map is constructed as if it were an independent game. This means a few things, some more significant than others; here are a few examples:
--Units that have been renamed will not be referred to by their Starcraft names.
--The game is designed to have a learning curve. Simply put, one should not expect to be able to play the map "fluently" the first couple of times around.
--Skills required for playing the map may or may not be similar to those needed for other maps.
--The map is not designed with the expectations of Starcraft's Battle.net population specifically in mind.
--Features that are added to maps for the sole purpose of looking "fancier" than other maps, but which don't actually contribute to gameplay, have been omitted.
Brief History of Radial, with Occasional Bits of Map Information Mixed In:
Like most of my recent maps, including Star Mercs and Walker War, this is a "unit command" map, where the player is in control of one unit. However, the direct ancestor of this map, Squadron! (which can be found in the DLDB) is a parallel linage to the previously mentioned maps, that favors a simpler arcade-type gameplay instead of a more strict "command" style, where many special features of the unit are placed at the player's disposal for them to win the game with.
Radial's earlies incarnation was entitled Starfire, and was to feature direct, instead of Radial targeting, standard instead of virtual HP, and a combination of beacon and dropship systems. The original purpose of Starfire was to serve as a technology testbed for Squadron II, which is still in long-range planning and looks like it will include either keyboard or "virtual joystick" unit control, advanced virtual weapon systems (no, not with EUD) including straight-line cannon and guided missiles, traditional "Unit command" special features for the unit, and a similar playing perspective to Radial.
With the inclusion of the Radial firing system, the map gained a central concept that made it worth developing into its own map. Virtual HP was added to save a player and a hassle; a star was added in the centre of the map to serve as "terrain"; two weapons were implemented instead of one; control systems were reduced to unit and dropship for streamlined play. As the map entered early testing, a ping system was added to make it much easier for players to direct their weapons fire.
A few play tips:
*You are expected to use common sense in how you go about learning the map. If you don't know what I mean by this, you soon will.
*Firing becomes easier at three points in your development as a Radial player. The first point is when you learn how to keep track of the Four Points by means of the ping system. The second point is when you start to realize the different speeds of the points, enabling you to predict the motion of a point. The third point is when you get to know by memory which unit corresponds to which target point (note that normal and Hero versions of a unit fire Xiers and Ta'ans, respectively, at the same point). After that, it's less a matter of controlling where you shoot than it is a matter of using that control to shoot in the best place.
*Don't fly into the sun.
*Hotkey your Soljiticutuwii (sorry, it's late and the "normal" name of the unit escapes me...).
*Don't shoot yourself down. This means no flying into your own warheads, and don't launch if the warhead is gonna arm in front of your face because of a nearby enemy.
*Skillful use of the two weapons together may succeed where use of one or the other alone does not.
This map is fully compatible with either Classic SC or the Expansion.