SC2Mapster

I know I shouldn't advertise other websites, but the team liquid forum has a large melee mapmaking community and they have a lot of experts over there. I'm sure they could tell you all the facts and you could eventually perfect every map here. Still, I'll give it my best shot, no need to even test out the map until you think you've got it perfected. This is why I dumped melee mapmaking, it's so binary and I like to get creative.

First off, Wild Valley and Destered Bay (I think you meant deserted) use the same image. I'll just refer to this map as Wild Valley.

In Wild Valley, your main looks to be in the most vulnerable position I think I've ever seen. It's not even on an island or anything. There are 2 giant entrances that lead into your main base and there's a thin cliff right behind your mineral line. It can be easily dropped and I imagine this map would almost always be played very aggressively as I don't see a way for the player to survive the onslaught with defense. The bases in the back look like your natural, yet that almost feels like it'd be better as the main. If you kept it as the natural, I think it's a little too safe, at least, compared to the main base. The 3rd and 4th bases to the left and right of each player's main base look a little too far away, but are mostly okay otherwise. I do have a problem with the middle and the bottom left areas. In a 1v1 game, I feel it is unnecessary to give players free bases like that. In a 2v2 or larger match, I think it'd be okay, but in this case, it gives the player who takes them first way too much power. One other note, often cliffs look a lot better when they aren't "flat" which means you, for example, just have a straight series of cliffs facing the same angle. You have a lot of that in the center area with the 2 gold bases. I suggest staggering the cliffs and try to make them look more natural. I can't quite tell, but I think the map's bounds go all the way to the edge. If that's the case, there's a lot of air space on the map, so I'd suggest squishing the map down to be a lot smaller, more concise, and to add back in the map bounds at the default areas.

In Water Station, the natural seems to have a little too big of an area. Also, ramps are almost always diagonal, not horizontal or vertical. There are a multitude of reasons why, but I'll just be brief and say that diagonal ramps are better for walling off with buildings and they also look nicer, give it more of a 3d feel. Look into the ramps on all of your maps. Once again, a lot of "flat" cliffs on this map as well, especially in the middle and bottom. I think the 3rd base (in the center of the map), the opposing 3rd base is a little too close. I would suggest placing the mineral lines against the cliffs of your natural and main. That way, I think players who take the watch tower can still see if you have an expansion there, if that's what you want. Seems strange that you would have a feature like that with the 3rd base, seems more fitting for a gold base or something. I think the small "square" bases towards the left and right sides are unnecessary and can be removed from the map completely. Though I also think the gold bases in the top left and top right are also completely unnecessary too. Keep one of the two bases, remove the other, and if you kept the gold bases make them blue bases instead. The bottom area and the bridge is at least an interesting feature and is worth testing.

Ice Fortress looks massive, absolutely massive. The 3rd is really far away, especially considering the rocks in the way. Then I'd fix the ramps and I'd call it good, again, ask team liquid forums for more advice to perfect it. I think the main problem with this map is just that it's too large, otherwise, I like it.

For Aboretum, I think the base near the main (up on the high ground) is a little safe. I imagine this map being fairly aggressive. Once you take that 3rd base, you have 3 safe bases and the rest of the map is so cut off that you'd never take any of the other bases. I'd push the high ground 3rd base up a little towards the front and make it a little hard to hold if you take it. Another reason for this is a I think your opponent can drop you on the high ground a little too safely and hit your main mineral line. I think the island bases to the left and right should both be accessible via ramps and should be smaller, it looks like the size of a main base. I'd also make the bottom and top gold bases much more accessible as well and I'd turn them into standard bases, a little overkill making them gold. Again, lots of air space on this map.

In Deadly Airport, there looks to be a lot of dead space all over, here's a map of all the dead space that could easily be cut from the map...

There's also a lot of air space around the edges of the map. Overall, the map could be squished down to become a whole lot smaller. I think the main should be swapped with the natural. The main is a little too vulnerable where it is while the natural is a little on the safer side. Otherwise, map looks okay.

Hope this helps, again, check out team liquid for more feedback. Once you've done all that you can, ask here again for testing. Good luck, melee mapmaking is hard stuff. :)

@yukaboy: Go

Well, if you were to look in the TL custom map threads close enough, you would discover that he already has posted to TL

Good to know, I don't check the TL forums anymore. I learned mapmaking over there for awhile but haven't gone back.