I decided to make this thread a place where I can keep all the things I like.

A long time since I started another topic. Here are my ARTISTIC maps.
I tried to make them as balanced as possible.

1:

Name: Archipelago
Location: Talon Prime

Description:
Islands connected with bridges. Lots of minerals. Lots of space.
An active volcano.
You know what to do.
There are four secret islands to discover - lots of minerals to find on them!

Symbol/color explanation:
Small yellow circles - small sandy islands. Perhaps you can find some minerals on them.
Big yellow circles with green circles inside - Big islands with some plants and beaches.
Dark gray circles with red... filling - Small rocky islands. Quite flat. A few minerals can be found on these.
Very small orange circles - Islands that were formed recently. They have lots of fresh minerals to extract from them.
Black blurry lines - Straight bridges. Very useful for those who tend to stick to the ground.

2:

Name: Dusty dunes
Location: Talon Prime

Description: A few fortresses exist on this map. There are a few craters, too.
The fortresses are great locations for setting up a small base. They're also full of minerals!

Symbol/color explanation:
The brighter a color is, the higher a place is located (at least here, on this concept thing).
The darkest color on this map is the inacessible terrain.

3:

Name: Abandoned test field
Location: Space!

Description: Abandoned space station on an asteroid. Expect to find a few minerals
and a force field generator at the centre.

The forcefield generator will fry anything that touches it. So don't hope to attack your enemies too early - that is, if it's enabled.

There are three possible options for this map:

• With a generator - if you kill it, it'll disable those annoying
  force fields and allow you to pass. The centre will not be blocked,
  though.

• With a hidden generator - force fields cannot be disabled during
  gameplay.

• With no generator - simple enough, no force fields.

Symbol/color explanation:
The brighter a color is, the higher a place is located.
The darkest color on this map is the inaccessible HOLE OF DEATH (or at least whatever it's supposed to be)!
Orange lines - Force fields. Don't expect to pass through one, you'll fry your subordinates to death.
Dark brown... cross? - The generator. I guess you knew that already, though. Note: It does not block you from attacking your enemies completely. It just stands at the centre and makes those annoying force fields work.

4:

Name: NIGHTMARE
Location: SNAKE 13

Description: A big map with tonnes of rocks to crush and many good places to make a HIDDEN base. QUITE DARK.

Lots of minerals and rocks as obstacles. They won't block your way, but they'll
hinder your movement if you won't destroy them. You can also use them to take
COVER.

Symbol/color explanation:
The brighter a color is, the higher a place is located.
The DARKEST color on this map is the inacessible terrain. At least that's what they said.

Special comment: Are you SCARED? Well, YOU SHOULD BE!

yay.gorilla

I could attempt to do topographic maps with these, draw the contour lines and paint them!
I like the nightmare level mostly. The colour pallette is interesting, as well as the rocks as obstacles or cover from enemy fire.

@Pisarz Well, it's just a concept art, and I like to make these, so maybe... why not?
And remember, it's the NIGHTMARE level.

Anyway, here's a concept for a turret. Renamed this topic 'cuz I'm gonna keep my concepts here.

Basically, this energy gun fires bolts of condensated electricity. No, I don't mean typical bolts.

Don't even dare to call it an energy ball! It's a bolt! It's long! It's blue! And it does not resemble an energy ball. At least not for me.

This turret has the firing range of a Reaper and deals a lot of damage. The turret itself has no barrel because I forgot to put it anywhere and I don't have any idea where would it be located if it had one. I don't think it's a problem, though, since the turret does not need a barrel. I think.

yay.gorilla

P.S.: Thanks to @Ddc_Cl for making a model of this turret! It even has a barrel at its top.

Archipelago (topographical):

Surprisingly enough, it took me more time to make a colourless version of this map!
I removed bridges - they're not a part of this map, anyway. I drawed them on the "colorful" version of this map to give some idea on how "grounded" units could move around without diving into the sea.

Very interesting idea of force field generator. I imagine you have to first break through somehow (by destroying it and turrets protecting it) before you can face another player. By that time you should have at least medium tech to be able to break through. It would make it more interesting and giving you some time to evolve at the same time.

@Byrgius Yeah, that's kinda sorta what I thought it could look like. Some people might not want to have this generator destroyable, though, so I added three ideas for special options of this map.

Wow, that looks really good! Would love to play this map one day.

@Byrgius
Thank you! I simply put @Encrypted's map into perspective and modified it. I added those purple rocks, which are what he described as destroyable. Notice that there are large structures to be defended. The ones at the "left" are easier to defend, while the one at the "right" is in an open ground (probably an antenna to send the enemy's exact location and destroy them from orbit), and hence, more vulnerable. The one at the bottom is a beacon, which has reinforcements to help you (either civilian or military units). It would be fun to be able to assemble your squad before the mission according to your preferences and the units around the beacon. I also added some spiky mountains and discarded the inaccesible terrain (because of the mountains; now it is lower terrain).

Wow, that looks impressive! My 2D drawings are being transformed into three dimensional maps!

Anyway, here's my fifth map concept:

Name: Frozen Stone Desert
Location: Cryo-geos 37 Moon

Description: A frozen stone desert with lots of ravines and a high mountain called after the greatest of all philosophers.

This barren, flat landscape is almost dry. There are little minerals on this map - that is, the minerals are almost nonexistent, unless you traverse up to the mountain and its sides, of course. Also, this place is cold as hell... err, hot as- nevermind, it's just frozen, so rocks here can be broken with incredible ease. And remember, the higher you go, the colder it gets!

Symbol/color explanation:
The brighter a color is, the higher a place is located.
The darkest color on the map (discounting the ravines) illustrates the borders of this map.
Abyss - Ravines. I called them abysses 'cuz it sounds cooler. Note: They are really deep, and the planet is not frozen to the core at all. If you think you can fly over these, your machines will get an answer - they'll be simply pushed away!

yay.gorilla

P.S. I would love if someone could add the... uh... how's it called? Oh, yes, signatures! Ya get it.

:)