Mmirg's Moderately Marvelous Maps - updated 1/6/10

[1Mmirg]

Thanks, guys. If you have a chance to play on some of these and bring back some thoughts, please let me know. I'd love outside feedback. High Ways or the Highway hasn't got nearly as much testing as I'd like. But I think the basics are solid. I'm still up for tinkering with the details.

I'm also tinkering with a version that adds Jungle. Won't work for Ry's contest, but I think it's a map that would really be fun with just a tad for range defense.

--

Icy Cavern I really, really enjoyed making and playing on. I've wanted a 1 BftU map for a long time and, well, so I made one.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have, DS.

[1Mmirg]

Okay, based on feedback and further testing (esp. with dragons, swogs, and other double base units), here are two new directions for my High Ways map:



or



In each case:

1) I've added more space around the ruins. Sadly the 3-space center pieces didn't work well with the ruins, so I went with 2-space hexes instead. It means double space units can't get central relative height, but everything else makes the map better for them.

2) I adjusted the roads to be more friendly (at lower levels) with 2-space units.

3) I moved the glyphs out just a bit and created a new high point on the outside of them. (This helps make the central high points slightly less valuable and allows me some space to avoid cramping the map and making it hard on 2-space units.)

4) I tried to use battlements to partially make up for the small ruins. (You can see it more clearly in one map than the other (from the green side's view).) The idea is to make the battlements constrict movement a bit to make up for the shorter ruin. There is a gap. Battlements can't place that close to the ruin, but I added one more battlement, so the total disruption is equal. (Though, yes, a unit can slip through that crack and shoot through it, so it's not "equal"--but closer than having no battlements.)

What makes them different:

Only the use of a large 24-hx at the bottom to make the one have a bit more space on the "wings" or edges of the map. I think it helps, but I'm not sure.

(The views are different--different start zones--but nothing else is different than the added spaces on the edges of the map.)

--

I'd love any input or questions. I think I'll upload one of these soon (if I can get my computer working again for me to do building instructions right again). But I'm curious which you all think would be a better one to upload.

[1Mmirg]

Alright, here is the new version of High Ways or the Highway.



Now revised to be more double-space figure friendly, to have the walls be less in the way of mobility, and to open up the wings of the map just a bit.

The hallmarks of this map are that it uses a tough mix, only FotA and RotV, but creates a map that is active, works for melee, and has multiple ways to win on.

I would love any feedback you have on this map.

[caps]

I'm planning to use your Flooded Temple (revised) map for my casual game day this Saturday. If I have any comments I'll be sure to bring them by.

[1Mmirg]

I like High Ways or the Highway a lot. However, I'll admit that if it has a flaw it is range getting on top and becoming dominant. The walls help some, but in a world with no limits, why not add in some jungle.

Everything's better with jungle.

High Ways or the Highway, Jungle Edition



I made this map months ago, before the wall flooded in our home, before my tenure process began, before all my Scape got put away for months, before my book was accepted, before my Fall semester pulled me away from Scapers, before my laptop died a horrible death.

Typhon2222 came to my rescue and made all the files and images for this map off of what I saved from my old hard drive. (I still don't have Virtualscape--or a computer replacement.)

So, my thanks to Typhon, most of all. Thank you, kind sir!

I hope this map is something that will work for a lot of you. I think it may just be my best map yet. We've certainly enjoyed endless hours of fun on it and found it quite balanced.

[Lamaclown]

I am no great analyzer of maps but I will say that I love the way you used castle battlements to even out the different sized ruins. That always bothered me when trying to make a map using only 1 ROTV.

I tend to over think things so I am always missing and then in turn blown away by simple, elegant solutions that others see. Kudos on the map.

[1Mmirg]

Thanks!

It's not a perfect solution, but an interesting one. I had to work the tiles to allow for an edge that can have the battlements--and in the end you have a gap in the newly formed wall that can allow units through (or to shoot through)--since the ruin doesn't come all the way over to the battlement spaces. But to try to balance that oddity out, I used two battlements, so the short ruin now is a little longer than the long ruin, but with a gap in it.

I find it doesn't "fix" the large/small ruin imbalance, but it mitigates it in a new way that I liked in play on the map.

[itsbuzzi]

I have been playing game for years, but not the "tourney" edition. I got more figures (went on a collect-them-all phase) and have 1 of each expansion pack for maps. But all I have ever thought of is: how can I use all my pieces to make the best map? Now that I joined here, I learned the tourney rules, limited point count, glyphs with specific positions. So what I ask is for a quick fundamentals lesson for tourney map making so that I can make more effective maps.

Thanks.

[tannergx]

Originally Posted by itsbuzzi

So what I ask is for a quick fundamentals lesson for tourney map making so that I can make more effective maps.

Thanks.

Apologies in advance to 1Mmirg for replying to a question in his map thread. But there is a resource on this topic from one of the most credentialed map makers in the tourney scene - mad_wookiee. You can find it here.

Cheers,

~tgx

[1Mmirg]

Thanks, tgx, for posting that up. MW's work is an excellent guide. There are a few more in my Index as well, itsbuzzi (in my sig).

Good luck getting into more competitive maps!

[1Mmirg]

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

I like High Ways or the Highway a lot. However, I'll admit that if it has a flaw it is range getting on top and becoming dominant. The walls help some, but in a world with no limits, why not add in some jungle.

Everything's better with jungle.

High Ways or the Highway, Jungle Edition



I made this map months ago, before the wall flooded in our home, before my tenure process began, before all my Scape got put away for months, before my book was accepted, before my Fall semester pulled me away from Scapers, before my laptop died a horrible death.

Typhon2222 came to my rescue and made all the files and images for this map off of what I saved from my old hard drive. (I still don't have Virtualscape--or a computer replacement.)

So, my thanks to Typhon, most of all. Thank you, kind sir!

I hope this map is something that will work for a lot of you. I think it may just be my best map yet. We've certainly enjoyed endless hours of fun on it and found it quite balanced.

Thought I'd bump this. Curious if anyone has played with the map or for other feedback.

[Typhon2222]

I suggested we use it for the upcoming Online 'Scape Season 6 Tourney, 1Mmirg — until the others reminded me that ladders can't be translated to the online format (no way to indicate, from the top-down birds-eye perspective, whether a unit is resting on a hex or standing on a ladder rung above it). So am afraid we won't be able to give it a whirl there.