Dave's 1st Map

posted on November 28th, 2011, 3:02 pm

Heres the 1st version of my 1st complete map (normally I just add derelicts and stations to normal maps to fight the ai). Its a big 8 player map 40000x25000. Its nothing special just lots of space to get lost in. 1st person to secure the centre gets lots of resources but while be in for a fight! Any problems or improvement ideas PM me or write here. Thanks and enjoy

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posted on November 28th, 2011, 5:28 pm

I like the basic layout, but you'll need to change a few things to balance it.

-It's really, REALLY big.  You could almost halve the dimensions to 20k by 12.5k and it would still work.

-Every player needs access to at least one Dilithium moon in addition to his home pair, preferably a full expansion pair.  Some races (feds especially) do better with fewer moons while others do better with a lot of moons such that the races are balanced for each having 2 moon pairs.

-When you shrink down the map you'll want to look at the nebula positions and make sure they're still fair.

posted on November 30th, 2011, 11:53 am

v0.5 is on the way. I've made the map narrower by 10000 units then rejigged the start point, moons, etc.
Guna have a big playtest and i'll then post the updated map

posted on November 30th, 2011, 1:37 pm

After tweeking my map and adding blocking triggers for the asterodes the game noe crashes when trying to select it on either map editor or instant action, any ideas? I just updated the minimap .png as well. 

posted on December 1st, 2011, 1:06 am

Sorry for the triple post sorted out the problem, it didn't like the newer .png file I made for some reason????? Duno why, anyway heres the next versiopn of my map. Its thinner but just as long as before. Great for 4 v 4 bulldog type game.

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posted on December 1st, 2011, 3:20 am

I went ahead and played it, still too big.  Please let me explain my reasoning.

There is a very delicate balance between the time required to tech-up and the distance to the enemy base.  Consider the situation where your opponent rushes straight to his large yard.  He will be weak at first, but given enough time he will have a powerful force.

There are two ways to fight against this strategy.  The first is to build up even faster and get a more powerful fleet of your own, but if you used a standard build order he'll have a head start.  Also, some races are better at this than others (Non-cloakers are more efficient fleet builders than cloaky races).

The second option is to spam small ships and rush him.  Usually this also means getting short-ranged ships because they move faster and have better firepower for their cost.  You will have the advantage of better firepower and maneuverability at first, when he only has one or two ships out.  If he stays near his repair yard, it will be nearly impossible to kill his combat ships and you must go for his mining.  If he moves to defend it you may have a chance to snipe his large ships when they're small in number.  If you can't kill either his ships or his mining, he will get enough firepower to kill your ships before you can kill his.

If the map is too big, it will take too long for the first wave of small ships to reach the enemy and it will be too late.  That means that ONLY tech-rush strategies will be usable and some races will be out altogether.

Try looking at the latest generation of maps:

Duel II: 12k by 12k, bases near the edges of the map

Star Traffic: 14k by 14k, bases 1/4 in from the edges
Rotary Supercollider: 12k by 12k, bases in the corners

Argus Conflict: 24k by 19k, bases far from the edges
Broken Borders: 16k by 16k, bases near the edges
Plasma Conduit: 14k by 14k (inside the nebula border), bases on the edges

Eraudi: 20k by 20k, bases near the edges

No map should have a side longer than 20k unless the bases are away from the edges.  It doesn't make for good balance.  Don't worry, the general idea of the map will still work, a corridor that encourages group slugfests and and combined fleets

posted on December 1st, 2011, 3:51 am

I'm going to go ahead and agree with Tryptic .

  The biggest problem with large maps is exactly that: the time it takes to travel between your base and your enemy's.  In line with what Tryptic's examples show, I'll go so far as to say that 10,000 units is about the farthest distance you want opposing player's bases to be located from one another.  Fleetops currently is balanced for a matchup of about that distance.


  That changes when player numbers go up.  As long the players are not more than 12k away from at least 1 enemy player things should be fine.

  If you REALLY want a huge map then I suggest at least limiting the distance between teams to around 12k or less and then having that extra space go AROUND the players themselves.  This will let a person who is patient swing wide around an opponent's base and strike from the flanks if they are sneaky .

posted on December 1st, 2011, 12:00 pm

I agree what you guys are saying flying from one end to another but its fun if you play across the longest edge against the other (then you wouldn't be more than 14000ish units apart), and with players on either end as well they wouldn't even be that far away.
Thanks for the feedback  I'll make the next one a little differnt.