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So I wanted to write 'couple' of words in a form of kinda-guide. I'm not claiming to be an expert but made a few and I also like experiments so maybe something I'll write could be a kind of inspiration to someone who reads it Allright let's get it going!

"Hey Angkor, how to make a perfectly balanced map?"
http://i.imgur.com/ya3HZ0P.gif
"Well, frankly, I have no idea. But I tell you what...?"


/edit/ Explaining couple of things:
- I'll treat borfly as an aerial unit, not anti-tank (mapmaking standpoint), unless written otherwise
- hit n' run tactics - what does it mean? It happens when you strike your enemy and retreat safely, taking some nice damage. I will focus more with the current meta on this because it became significantly more important than before
- DO NOT READ POSTS WITHOUT /new meta/ editing, it's probably bullocks and lies now

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Aug 04, 2017 12:31

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TILE DESCRIPTIONS

SECTION A - MOVEMENT TILES
/updated for amphibious meta/

## THE PLAIN.

The most important and basic tile of uniwar. the easiest to-balance maps happen where more or less 30-50 percent of all tiles is THE PLAIN.
Of course there's no need for having your map half-empty, but it's usually a good start to form some shape made of these (and water areas), then placing bases, and adding more complex tiles at the end.
/you get it, Bob Ross way/
http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/bob-ross-320x240.jpg

general tile description:
- no penalty makes it perfect for marauder/speeder for hit'n'run tactics
- large open fields should be generally avoided by low defence units, making it tough for khraleans to hold
- treat it like a no-mans land, dangerous to enter, but once on it, your way to strike the enemy is usually open.
- make sure there is a reasonable distance towards hostile bases ESPECIALLY if there isn't any significant obstacle between them. 5 tiles at least usually, sometimes 3-4, never less

Some fine casual maps with a 'bunch of plains and happy little trees and happy little mountains here and there':
https://s24.postimg.org/i09dkszit/map1.jpg

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/updated for amphibious meta/

## THE DESERT.
Now here's the tricky one. It has a very significant fighting penalty for light infantry and amphibia. Plus very important penalty in SPEED (besides aerials of course). That makes them quite dangerous, especially in narrow passages when plain/road tile suddenly goes full desert. It can block a whole package of tanky units, make hit'n'run-free areas, not mentioning being a complete nitemare for amphibia. Infantry must wait before it to tresspass, until safe from hit (meaning AGES).

General tile description:
- they can favor both defensive and offensive game.
* Offensive - if they are near bases (units maneuver harder, infantry shield unavailable, counter attacks - limited).
* Defensive - if they are put closer to centre, in a 'no-mans land' or in narrow spaces, so they could slow down sudden strikes, make passage for anti-tanks, infantry and amphibia much tougher
- always remember 2 things about movement on desert:
* plasma usually gets 2x slower than other tanks in area with lots of desert tiles
* underling can cross it and jump to safe zone in 1 move. Mecha cannot, as well as marine (in most cases)
- hit'n'run-free zones around desert may be arguably its most important feature. Make sure you won't overdose it, some match-ups need a bit of this strategy to make it fair.

Defensive and offensive usage shown:
https://s24.postimg.org/ycqhtfpl1/map2.jpg

A leaked screenshot from the movie about this tile, dir. Simsverd Xavinsky, approx. 2027 (2 weeks tm).
http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/053/2890_073.jpg

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/updated for amphibious meta/
## THE MED BAY.

One of the most important tiles, because if placed between enemies, it always becomes the focus point of the battle.
https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/01/32/69/68/240_F_132696814_ViNj2ykozKZgx5CmwxgHb2B4RqbbMn1i.jpg
...it regenerates the insane amount of x3 health (meaning if the unit has 2 healing/turn, it will heal 6 on it etc.). In a way it's sorta the opposite of the desert tile 'cause it also can be used to boost both defence and attack sides, depending on where you'll place it (closer to bases -> defensive, closer to middle -> offensive).

General tile description:
- boosts maneuvering units, most importantly marauder, but helicopter and speeder as well
- boosts units that don't usually die in one turn, so tanks/plasmas/pinzers, helicopter in svk
- apart from healing fuction it's the regular plain tile and should be treated like one (with a 'bonus')
- don't make too many of them. Some matchups like khralean vs sapiens depend heavily on damaging units rather than killing them, you don't want to ruin that strategy
- 0 healing bays on your map is absolutely acceptable, but if you don't want to pave any in the middle, think at least of making in the back. Especially if your map has troubles with 'too intense' action.
- don't overthink it. It IS significant whether some specific units heal 6 or 3 there, but more important is and will be what will happen after it stays there. So, for example, you may want to add some mountain near it to allow mecha/marine hit retreated helicopter, or just make it harder to reach for it, placing chasms, mountains, swamps, trees nearby

https://s30.postimg.org/5tts7q2gx/map3.jpg
Same map examples as in desert section, same placing, totally different results (in terms of boosting offensive/defensive gameplay).

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at Aug 07, 2017 18:01

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yo ho, a pirate life for me

## THE PORT TILE.

Yup, we're still in section A of movement tiles. But this is where it's going to get more and more crazy.
THIS IS AN ACTUAL UNIWAR BRIDGE TILE. When you think of ports, imagine a beautiful stone bridge, tall enough so ships could pass-by (with a little defence minus, probably it's a hard one for the captain. Or hard-on, not really sure. Oh, and you can CREATE UNITS here. Sometimes it is the most important feature, sometimes not. Light infantry love ports, a very nice attack+defence bonus here. Heavy units love ports too, because this is the most simple way to cross a river here, even if they get a tiny defence minus as well (probably the drivers get the same hard-on as captains when they look at that beauty, not so strange at all).

movement function: It favors infantry, so the side which uses more of it, gains more profit (khraleans over titans, sapiens over khraleans, SvT quite equal in that matter I believe). And so, as usual, if something is good for infantry, it can be really bad for aerial units, because these two hate each other. Mind that tiny minus for both heavies and ships, because it's very important when you make A LOT of ports. And yes, you can do that.

ship creation (soon amphibious too, I think?): It depends really, in most cases it probably favors khraleans especially when there's low credits, but can as well boost saps or titans, depending on the specific setting.

Other important stuffs:
- it can't be teleported on. So if you want to have some central base on your map, in team or solo, it may be a good idea to surround it with port tiles to prevent titans from being too superior.
- it DOES NOT generate income
- if you have bunch of them, it lessens the probability of heavy units clash (tank battles etc.), so make sure the map is ready and fair for infantry/aerial/naval battle for both sides.

https://s23.postimg.org/tdijmiffv/map4.jpg

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/805-26015_2664.gif

left - clever and risky usage of ports instead of plains
middle - long bridge, fastest way but dangerous

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/broken/ road tiles - will be back

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SECTION B - OBSTACLE TILES


## THE FOREST

The 'softest' of all obstacles. Like level easy.
To understand better that tile you can imagine it's just a highground (upland). Heavy units can cross it, but much more slowly and are of limited usage while on them. Light infantry works always better on the highground: easier to take aerials down, other infantry... all units really. The higher = the better*. The best - in the mountains.
It can boost all races, depending of how you'll use them.
http://i082.radikal.ru/1302/a3/995e470d105a.gif

- it limits the usage of heavy units, but still makes it possible
- for titans (against sapiens) it's a great half-cover, behind which your army is better protected. Just remember that one thing that mecha as the only infantry can't 2x cross the forest. Against khraleans - watch out for them, underlings love to jump out of it dealing major hits to walkers or plasmas or stuffs. A large area of forest is usually occupied by khraleans, not much titans can do about it.
- for sapiens (against khrals) it's an opportunity to set their marines in a position for killing aerial units. It doesn't mean a lot of forests boost sapiens over khrals, it's all about specific configuration. Underlings love it too because of their speed and overall advantage against marine. If swarmers and garudas can deal damage without much suffering later on, it will boost khrals more.

Some exagerrated samples with trees and plains only setting (I'll skip marauder usage in SvK because it'll complicate things):

https://s23.postimg.org/k8pj05ewr/map7.jpg

- top left: S > K, movement advantage of underling doesn't matter there
- top middle: K > S, marines to strike are forced to move through plains uncovered
- top right: T > S, a large area of trees makes it a perfect cover.
- bottom left: S > T, it may seem that forest creates few narrow passages, but in reality it's not a cover at all, singular trees are easily passed through heavy units
- bottom middle: the deeper you walk into the forest, the weaker saps/titans are
- bottom right: who has faster infantry, rules

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use me, use me! I don't mind. Noone uses me ;-(

## THE SWAMP

Swamp is an alternative for a forest tile. For heavy units they aren't much different (-3 defence for trees and -1 at. -2 def. for swamps, so basically it's a littlle more deadly and fragile on the 1st one). But if you want your tile to be hardly crossable for LIGHT infantry too, here is an answer. Slowed down, weakened, the swamp loves no unit except the flying ones. In general you can say it boosts khralean race.
You can both support the defence with the swamp (just place it between the 2 players and watch the world burn!), as well as the offence... a bit. Well, actually you may surround some base with it, making it very hard to defend without aerial/ranged units. Or you may add some at your side of a battlefield to make a mass build-up harder. When 2 players won't attack and will gather bigger and bigger army instead, soon both of them will be forced to place more and more important units on it, artillery included.
So if you like a long-term games, invest in some swamps. It surely makes things more interesting.

Very important: underling is the only one of 3 who can cap the base from behind it. Or jump into the highground.

https://s24.postimg.org/48ihn24qd/map8.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/4c/a7/43/4ca74340eec63ba7aa1321bb323aa354.jpg

left - 3 types of swamps: *between 2 closely set bases, *between own bases to make it more difficult to maneouver, *north/south near forests and mountains to make a light infantry rush more complex.
middle - a classy usage o swamps as a defence line of a more central base. Plus for making it reachable from the highground.

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## THE MOUNTAIN TILE

Finally, we have reached the 'unpassable' tile. For heavy units that is, which basically means it will affect the most SvT and similar match-ups. The second most important thing it does is limiting the all-mighty aerial units, because light infantry on the highest possible ground is too deadly to deal with it there. I think it's good to mention here something about mobility: mecha can walk into that tile only if he was adjacent to it a turn before, so in most cases they are very fragile before doing so. The way to avoid it is to add some trees in front of mountains... and another reason for doing so: to boost khrals in fight with sapiens, because underlings can't strike air units, so to boost their mobility and make chances a little more equal, we should at least in some places make mountains available only from tiles of movement 4/5 (trees, desert, city, base).
And probably we shouldn't make a whole lot of them, or at least be very careful while doing so. Mountains are very powerful, even if singular.

Also called 'come and get me' tile

https://s28.postimg.org/8gg9dcl19/map9.jpg

https://m.popkey.co/af3460/v0xrJ.gif

A section of different usage of mountain tiles. And yeah, they're uhm... a kind of exagerrated sketch only. Not balanced in any sence, just like the forests section before.
top left - a box. Small hardly reachable area, preferably with honey tile inside. Honey tile is what I call the special singular tile that is a very important strategic point which highly increases chances of winning. A weak honey is the city/medbay. A strong honey is the base.
top middle - this... is... SPARTA! a section of map with very narrow passage(s), favors titans over saps, khrals over titans and pretty much equals KvS. But I don't know it for sure, I must ask someone wiser... Anyway.
top right - a framework. One of various kind of frameworks. It's probably the 2nd most popular behind water tiles framework. This particular kind favors usage of light infantry laterally, and laterally means in most cases a long way around, so it may or may not work.

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bottom left - the towers - singular separated mountain surrounded by the flat earth. Or some bad for infantry tile, like swamp. Super effective for saps who can shoot down garudas from there.
bottom middle - Mordor - compare it with a big forest, what's the difference? No infantry can cross 2 mountains in a row, so the rule the deeper the worse for saps/titans don't work here. Kinda. It's usually a bad idea unless you want 2 parts of map be separated BADLY.
bottom right - a bunker - a cover-up for bases. If you move it 1 tile away the mechas are in trouble, if you won't - the production of garudas, swarmers and heavy units may be limited. But it's still a very effective cover.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

THE CHASM

this image has nothing to do with chasm. But it's a nice image isn't it? ps. xavi please add assets
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25100000/get-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-25180774-500-212.gif

You can say it's an alternative for a mountain tile, in a way I said that about swamp being an alternative for the forest. No heavies can cross it, and most importantly IT SLOWS DOWN AERIAL UNITS. Quite significantly. What is also important is that it doesn't boost light infantry, but the opposite. So who likes chasms? The defenders of course! It feels warm and comfortable behind chasms, you can just stand there and shoot, shoot, shoot...
Not much more to say here, I don't know about chasms that much. I'll just throw some images then I guess...

https://s21.postimg.org/w8j5c2bhj/map1.jpg[/img][img]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TwK3s2Eg87g/SAQOcpJ64GI/AAAAAAAAAU8/L3RI4_uJddk/s320/The%2BEye%2BOf%2BSauron.jpg

left - a nice mixed framework with mountains and chasms. Makes flying move slowe, light infantry - sometimes great, when they reach the 'siege tower', sometimes lame.
middle - chasms make a half-open safe oasis in the middle, harder to reach for every unit.

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SECTION C - WATER TILES
Another, totally different, area of fighting. You can nicely divide all boards into few categories:
L - land map - zero water, or a small lake(s), where usually boats are a bad idea, no matter ports or not. Amphibians recommended if lots of swamps or maybe forests.
M - mixed (pseudo-island with 1-2 tile size water framework, which may have features of the remaining 2)
R - water map - a chain of islands/ a big big lake, generally speaking a map focused on aerial+ship+amphibia fights
Generally speaking more water = more income needed, because the balance of races seem to be more expensive there (aerials, boats are expensive, the cheapest amphibians also compared to 100 units)

https://s14.postimg.org/uekhihvrl/map2.jpg

## standard water tile
not much to say, it's just a plain of the sea world. Does nothing at all.
## ocean tile
The kingdom of large boats. You may consider surround some port tile with these to make a poor titan's hydronaut immune to harsh aerial strike. Amphibians beware, they run out of fuel and should be kept away. Only for passage purposes. Another fine usage for ocean is to 'break' a map with rivers of unpassable from air substance, which makes them less likely to jump from one part of map to the other. That can possibly enable to create a really wide-frontline maps, because speed advantage of some races is no longer so important then.
## a reef
For light infantry quite a chasm, for ships a place to avoid, for amphibians a HEAVEN ON...in space. You should probably think about the last ones each time you make one of these. For all others just a regular water tile. A singular spots or slim chains of these would be probably better than a large 'lakes', because it's quite an obstacle tile.
## the port tile
Quite largely explained before. In the meaning of sea maps it's like a 'shallow water' or a beach or something... Makes vehicles and ships weak, but light infantry and amphibians stronger.

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