skirmish maps New skirmish map: Valleys

[Grapjas]

Hi all,

Description:

Spoiler

 

A map divided in lanes by valleys. Each lane is connected by passes. This map aims to provide a balanced resource layout for all players, while keeping the lanes somewhat unique. 

North vs South: 
Team 1: p1-4
Team 2: p5-8

East vs West: 
Team 1: p2, p4, p6, p7 
Team 2:  p1, p3, p5, p8

 

 

 

Made a new map. The place is fictional. It's overall design is meant to be balanced for both teams and thus i aimed this map to be played at both a casual, but mainly competitive scale. 

General info:

• Map size: Normal 
• Players: 8
• Layout: Top-side against bottom (However, you could get creative with a different setup)
• Biome: Desert
• Resources available: Enough (Depending on game length ofcourse)

 

Key features:

• Aimed for balance for each lane. The enemy on the opposite side has the same resources available as you (Wildlife, metal/stone etc), unless he expands in a different lane. However this does not mean every lane is the same, it just means the lanes are seperately balanced. Each lane has 1 extra metal and stone placed in the middle, meant to be fought over.
• Bottleneck crossings (or bridges). The idea was to have it actually look like a passing in the sense of a bridge, but to my knowledge i can't actually hollow out terrain. Anyway, these are the only way to reach the other lane. 
• Lion packs. Wildebeests and goats, which actually occassionally walk out of the valleys. Not too much wildlife though (for performance). Each valley has 3-4 wildlife in it that could walk out, making them available for gathering.
• Even though wood might look somewhat scarce, they are densely packed.

 

Lanes (Starting from West to East)

1. Spoiler

   

2. Spoiler

   

3. Spoiler

   

4. Spoiler

   

   Lane 4 (East) is by far the hardest lane to play for both players in that lane. The big mining deposits are inside the woods between them. Space will need to be managed properly. Left has slightly more space to build while right has slightly more accessibilty (which can be both good and bad).

 

Other screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

As always, constructive criticism is welcome, and if people have suggestions to balance it better i would love to hear it. Would love to playtest this map with 8 peeps for true testing, because AI don't really oppose a challenge in any way.

Have a nice day all,

- Grapjas

Valleys.rar

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Grapjas

[badosu]

I'm not a fan of bottlenecks in current 0ad meta.

That said I really like how you distributed resources and the way the map looks, nicely done :-)

[badosu]

North vs South though makes things more interesting, I'd like to see a game played like that

[Grapjas]

1 hour ago, badosu said:

I'm not a fan of bottlenecks in current 0ad meta.

That said I really like how you distributed resources and the way the map looks, nicely done :-)

I understand this concern and share it somewhat too. However, you dont neccesarily have to have the fights at the passes, and you should at least have 2 passes (In a decent tg) you can cross without being bottlenecked too much. However this would require some testing with actual players because that displays things much more accurately. I would even like to host a game as an observer for 8 people just so i can see best what needs improvement. 

I already have a plan B if bottlenecking does occur to much, which is simply making passes wider. I appreciate the feedback for sure though.

[BeTe]

@Grapjas Does this works with new release? If yes, where I need to install ? Tried in "mods/user/maps/skirmishes/Valleys" but doesn't work.

[Grapjas]

@BeTeOh boy, thats an old map i made lol. 

I doubt it will work and could look into bringing it to current alpha (and make it prettier). Do you get errors or does it simply not show up?

Edited November 15, 2023 by Grapjas

[BeTe]

2 hours ago, Grapjas said:

@BeTeOh boy, thats an old map i made lol. 

I doubt it will work and could look into bringing it to current alpha (and make it prettier). Do you get errors or does it simply not show up?

Doesn't show up.

I am curious how it looks and how people reacted? I think we need such competitive map for 1v1 rated games... Mainland / Mainland balanced has too much of all resources in mainbase, imho.

Edited November 15, 2023 by BeTe

[Grapjas]

27 minutes ago, BeTe said:

Doesn't show up.

I am curious how it looks and how people reacted? I think we need such competitive map for 1v1 rated games... Mainland / Mainland balanced has too much of all resources in mainbase, imho.

The reactions here are the only ones im aware of. As for it not showing up i'm not sure off the top of my head without looking into it.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Nice map

[SolarEagle]

  On Alpha 27 (built just an hour or so before), the map does show, with no preview though, and I get the following errors followed by a game crash:

ERROR: CCacheLoader failed to find archived or source file for: "art/textures/ui/session/icons/mappreview/Valleys.png"
FILES| JSON data written to '/home/nicolas/.config/0ad/config/matchsettings.json'
FILES| Replay written to '/home/nicolas/.local/share/0ad/replays/0.0.27/2024-01-28_0001'
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'PSERROR_Game_World_MapLoadFailed'
  what():  Could not load terrain file - too old version!
Abandon (core dumped)