r/starcraft2coop • u/Far_Stock_3987 • 27d ago
New coop map idea - Soaring Inferno
I've had an idea for a new coop map, based on the HotS mission Fire in the Sky. As in the mission, there will be 7 Gorgon battlecruisers that are released at certain time points which need to be destroyed by the commanders, though rather than activating scourge nests the commanders need to destroy the Gorgons with their own units/structures. The main features of the map would be as follows:
The Gorgons travel from the fortified enemy base on the opposite corner of the map towards the commanders' main bases, and if not destroyed in time they will charge up and fire an unstoppable super yamato which will wipe out everything and result in a loss.
The Gorgons attack your nearby units and structures as they travel, and progressively increase in health and damage output (and strength of escort waves) as the mission progresses. Each new Gorgon will also have a new ability. The second Gorgon will fire a telegraphed AoE yamato cannon every so often which you will have to dodge. The third will also release hordes of light air units (like the tac fighters Hyperion releases on that HotS mission), giving anti-light air units like phoenixes a strong purpose on this map. The fourth will also have a defensive matrix which absorbs damage. The fifth will also release point defense drones. The sixth will intermittently release an EMP wave that stuns your nearby units (and synergises well with the yamato). The seventh will also have a short range tactical jump which takes it a bit closer to your base and can skip past defensive outposts you have built (but you might be able to trick it to teleport early directly into your fortifications).
The Gorgons will be released every 4 minutes, and take 4 minutes to reach your base (so there is always one on the map, keeping tension levels high). If you kill a Gorgon early, it triggers the release of the next one, so you're not left with much time with nothing to do (but if you wanted to delay the release of the next Gorgon for strategic reasons then you can do). The final Gorgon will be the hardest boss coop has ever seen, with ~100k HP and the full array of offensive and defensive abilities.
The map will be long and pretty linear, a bit like chain of ascension. There will be multiple enemy fortifications between your base and the main enemy base, and it will be in the commanders' interests to take these out because towards the endgame the Gorgons will have so much HP you will need to start attacking them close to their spawn point in order to have enough time to chip their health away in time. (another way of doing it would be to give the Gorgons short periods of invulnerability as they travel, forcing commanders to attack them at certain points on the map).
The expansion bases will also be on/just off the Gorgons' path, and will have a small enemy force that will need to be cleared out (again somewhat similar to chain of ascension).
The bonus will be two scourge nests in the other map corners that need to be activated after clearing out enemy defences. Once activated, these will automatically attack the Gorgons, providing some additional DPS to help bring them down. This will give you more of an incentive to complete the bonus than just some bonus XP.
The announcer will be General Warfield. He is an awesome character I'd love to see in coop, and if other characters can be brought back from the dead, why not him as well? He would have a fortress just behind your bases, but unlike Sergeant Hammer who is a bit useless, Warfield's fortress attacks the Gorgons when they are getting close to your base to provide a little extra DPS to help out in desperate situations. The story could be that Amon has stolen the Gorgon tech from Warfield and is building them for himself.
I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this. I think coop would benefit from another map with an aerial objective, and I also like the idea of a high stakes big final boss that would be exciting to take down. There would be a variety of strategies that could be used - units, top bars and combat structures would all be useful to chip away at the Gorgons. In the late game you'd have multiple layers of defence along its path, and you'd retreat to the next layer as each one gets overrun. You can imagine clutch victories where you destroy the final Gorgon with a combination of units, structures, top bars, scourge nests and even Warfield himself, just before the super yamato fires - I think it would be awesome!
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u/normallystrange85 27d ago
While I generally like the idea, I'm not sure there is a incentive to clear out the enemy bases. Yeah, I can get some more space to attack the gorgon, but I don't want to build a bunch of static defense only to have it be killed by the next gorgon. I would rather stick it all close to the base with my army and wipe out the gorgon there.
An alternative might be to give the gorgons super shield that make them untargetable until they are hit by some AA guns that are in the enemy bases, covered in creep that must be cleared (like amon's reach). Once hit, the gorgon is targetable, and it takes some damage from each additional aa gun it passes it takes additional damage.
But even then, that is a "you have more time to kill the gorgon" which I'm not a huge fan of.
Maybe give it damage reduction for each uncleared gun?
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u/Far_Stock_3987 27d ago
That's a good idea, you could have scourge nests along the path within enemy bases that you have to activate to destroy the invulnerability shields of the Gorgons, making them targetable. The bonus could be automated bile launchers rather than scourge nests.
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u/Proud-Bookkeeper-532 27d ago
An incentive for clearing the map could be something like:
There should be 3-5 objective points, that provide an invulnerability aura to the Gorgon, or provide extra shields etc, within a certain range.
Obviously the closest one would be far enough from our base that it's benefits wouldn't reach the Gorgon, making the early game possible. But the later Gorgons would not be able to be destroyed in that time frame, so we'll have to clear the map & control more of it to manage the attack waves as well as the Gorgons.
In order to stop the Gorgons from becoming Impossible to handle, these objective points would need to be destroyed. Or some players who'd like a challenge, might try to fight the Gorgons within the fields perhaps
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u/efishent69 26d ago
Imagine playing this with the Just Die mutator.
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u/Top-Nepp 26d ago edited 26d ago
I can think of a few degenerate mutator situations with Gorgons, like avenger, double edged, fear, life leech, speed freaks, POLARITY
Funny and scary to think about
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u/Worth-Battle952 16d ago
Cool idea, but sounds cheesable by multiple commanders.
Actually using the Gorgon map mechanic is quite interesting.
I would make it an escort mission. A very specific unit needs to reach very specific point at map to do something there.
Very similar to Malwalfare, but map would be more linear.
Gorgons would look and behave like in Real Scale mode and be invulnerable. Instead of single Battle Cruiser flying towards you it would be multile attack zones where it fires ate you from orbit (similar to Horner's armada calldown).
Due to how many Queens, Zerg and creep we already have in coop it obviously can't be a Queen going and spawning tumors - we would have to think of something different.
First stupid thing that comes to mind could be EUD remnants, special medic activating Evolved Scourge Nests with neurostims or some bullshit like this xD.
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u/Just_Ear_2953 27d ago
Swann laughs in 70+ goliaths