Oneiric Hopes

Oneiric Hopes was first developed as a Map for the Map Jam Contest #21, but because I found the map and his concepts very interesting, I decided to follow the ideas and make the map a real thing instead of just bits on a Hard Drive.

The map features many very interesting features such as Neutral Assimilators on top of Rich Vespene Geysers with Collapsible rocks that can be destroyed to deny the geysers permanently.

Collapsible rocks do 500 flat dmg to any building or unit that’s right below them, and in the case of resources the resources will be erased from the map, as it happens with gas gathering buildings, because Protoss gas buildings have more HP than their counterparts (900 vs 500), if a player wants to deny his opponent of his rich vespene geysers he will first need to take down both Assimilators only to then be able to take down the rocks, otherwise the rocks will fall and only do mild damage to the Assimilators.

To avoid players from possibly losing their entire gas income from their Third bases, the map has been designed to have optional Thirds, meanwhile the base with the Collapsible rocks is safe and has a smaller amount of mineral income, the open Third base is a standard Third, but more open to big attacks.

Oneiric Hopes also features a very curious and tight central bridge which greatly slows down big armies trying to pass across, but at the same time because of the relatively open areas around it, the bridge may be a very viable pathway if one does not want to want to find himself walking straight into a huge surround.

One interesting yet predictable turn of events in HotS have been the use of Gold bases in maps, now days it is quite commonplace to see Zerg players take central Gold bases vs Protoss and defend them successfully which puts Protoss in the back foot all game long because of income disparity. This sharpening of the metagame, even when was very predictable, coupled with WCS mapmaking constrains presents very real limitations for the use of said bases on high level maps, to get around these limitations the central bases on Oneiric Hopes which in the past would have been central Gold bases, now have become Blue-Gold mineral mixed bases with Rich Vespene geysers. This way Zerg players can’t simply overcome the over-extension of taking a central base with the mineral advantage gained from it, and because in early to midgame for Zerg gas is not a resource that has immediate application when trying to defend a base, Zerg players will not have the extra disposable income to be able to hold that base until lategame when the high ground above it has been secured.

The aesthetics of Oneiric Hopes are as the name implies heavily influenced by dreamy features, coloration and feelings.

Thanks to -NegativeZero- for the feedback on the aesthetic theme!

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Useful Links

SMA Mappack TL Thread: SMA – KTV Oneiric Hopes
SMA Mappack Reddit Thread: SMA – KTV Oneiric Hopes

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Changelog of the map

V 1.00
♦ Published.