[map] [ra] Seven Stairs [7 players]

[Tirili]

Hi

I have built a map for 4 vs. 3 or 3 vs. 3 matches (or even less players).

I call this version 0.1 because the ends of the bridges must still be fixed to look nice
and it's probably imbalanced, because I haven't tested team play on it yet.



Team play is supposed to be left 4 vs. right 3.

The idea of this map is that on each team there is one good starting spot and two (three) bad ones. The bad ones don't have a lot of ore and are directly connected to a long lake. After destroying 2 bridges ships can go to the weak enemy bases and attack them.
A long chain of mountains divided in 7 levels with a lot of ore goes from the top right to the bottom left. It can only be entered from it's ends or from transport ships.
I hope that players from the weak spots will expand and build their refineries on the mountains, so that there'll be a fight for the mountain chain and for the water.

Happy testing and feel free to post suggestions!

Tirili

[hamb]

Played a 2v2 with buddha & dom VS. tirili & myself

Here are my guesses

The top left - has two ore wells for 3 spawns, and maybe enough ore that will last for just 4 truck loads from all players. What top right can do (as seen by buddha) is just wall off the one choke from top left, forcing the top left players to find another way in (south detour, which is very far). If the 3 players rush the top right early on (jeeps, 1tnk, ftrk, apc, or even move an MCV right off the bat) they can kill him. If they fail, the players on the top left will need to work with bottom left to take over the south ore fields to have a chance.

The top right - is rolling in ore, and although it's one person, the economy of the 3 enemies won't be able to put up a fight after the 10 minute mark. Seems best if they wall themselves in and focus on air or building naval units down below.

The bottom left - crap ore at spawn, and obviously will expand south to the three ore wells on the right. Next that player should expand expand refineries to the ore directly below the river. This requires the player to move their MCV to reach the five ore wells, and by this point the player should axe off those bridges if there is pressure coming in to kick their ass - because likely, by then (around 10-15minute mark) top right is pretty souped up and ready to kill you. Bottom left should consider moving their MCV rather early on and gathering help from other players. A consideration is make it easier for bottom left to get to the main ore on the south.

The bottom right - two spawns. The lower spawn has similar ore to bottom left, and no easy way to move into the bottom middle ore as well (so that balances itself out) - however, I found that the choke that connects bottom right to the ore in the bottom middle is too small, and seems way too easy to block -any- attack. The upper spawn is simple - help out bottom right with owning the ore patch in bottom middle, or deploy mcv, build a pp, then move up to top right to grab their ore.

The map is 4v3 thus the extra player can provide that edge, but I feel that the economy of the 3 is a bit too hurt, and some chokes can be unfair. For people who have played this map & know what can be done, the 4v3 can be balanced out.

I like the map, could use a few changes though

[Tirili]

All right, I added an ore well to the top left and generally more ore to all 4 (5) weak spots.

I still want, that players on the weak spots are forced to expand (or even to move, if necessary) towards their own team's stronger spot's player or even to the mountains.

While I made more chokes to the northern mountain front, which weakens the strong player on top right, I only gave the player on bottom right more chances to defend at the southern mountain front. No additional chokes.

The bottom left strong spot is now connected more directly to the bottom mountains' ore center.

So the left team is stronger now in generally. But I didn't want it to become too strong, so there is not too much ore on top left. If the left team has 4 players, they must share the ore and might have a harder time, while it is quite a good amount of ore for 3 players.

Also the bridges are fixed now.

The battlefield is frankly moved to north now, but both bottom players must still watch the little pass at the bottom edge.

Hope you enjoy and feel free to criticize!