EPT- This is just theoretical
- My english is not top notch, so you might see some words that look a bit strange, but im hoping that they actually exist and that im just spelling them wrong.
While I was playing the challenges in SC2 I got some ideas on how to expand them into user made challenges. Especially the basebuildingcomponent of the last challenge as Terran, but I'll get into that later.
The first challenge was pretty basic and I liked it alot. It was not difficult to understand and you had all the time in the world to set up decent counters. You also had the extra incentive to try an minimize your losses which meant it had some replayabillity.
The second challenge as terran I found challenging, but it seemed more like a fun thing to do, rather than really usefull to master. Of course it had that multitaskingcomponent where you had to split up your army and the "Ghost" and "raven"-component in learning how to use those particular units.
The third challenge I found to be the best educational part of the challenges. It dealt with macro, but not only that, it forced you into thinking about which order you would build stuff to optimize your production and at the same time defend. In my mind, this was particularly useful for new players.
What I would like to see in some upcoming challenges from blizzard/userproduced content would be this:
When I saw the timed buildinghints for where to put your barracks and depoes it got me to think of a trainingmap where you for example had a timed building order to master. So that you would start of with (if you were terran):
- A commandcenter (and then normal amount of SCV's)
- As the game progressed green suggestions (as in the 3D picture of a building before you place it down) would pop up around the base (lets say that you had complete vision of the map), and these would all represent different timings (to make it less confusing, it might of be best to name the custom map by its buildorder, and have individual buildorders for each map).
In this way new players could practice just building a base and expansions, with an army and SCV's being produced.
Lets call that the Basic challenge (similar maps could be made for each race, and the database of these builds could expand as new buildorders were discovered, but for the copper player, basic and easy to understand builds would probably suffice).
Under the basic-build-order challenge no pressure from an opposing A.I would be present, but that could easily be included (well, I don't know how easy it would be) with the expansion of the map to include an A.I with a preset unit composition (inside that green forcefield you see in the basic challenges) and if they could somehow be timed to be released at times were it would be normal for them to be there. Included into this "advanced" part there would than be room for pressure from an A.I, a timer could therefor be present on the screen for the player, so that you would know when the opposing forces were coming (a function that could also be possible to "hide" if the player wanted the extra suspense).
Advanced challenge:
- So you would basically have the same stuff as in the "basic"-part and then the addition of the timing pushes from the A.I
Now it would probably be impossible to include every build and every scenario into an idea such as this, do to the constant evolution of StarCraft, but I do think it would help alot of new players out like my self, who struggle with multitasking. The idea is to make what you do in the base secondary to what you do outside of the base. For instance if you're adapt at building in your base, you could spend more time on your scout, which would dictate your build. So an "EXPERT" version of what I've just proposed would be to be blind of what your opponent had, and this part would concentrate more on the aspect of scouting while at the same time building.
Expert challenge:
- Used the fog of war
- The "enemy A.I" had commonly used builds which it would randomly produce, and you would have to scout this with your probe/scv/drone at a prefixed location on the map, and then utilize what you had learned in the basic and advanced part together.
Of course you can't account for the humanaspect of the game, where decoys and other strategic actions would take place, but lets say a "Spire" wouldn't be placed at the ramp, but at a more hidden location (same goes for a starport or a dark templar shrine).
There might not be a way to program the computer A.I to do a certain build, but then you could go back to the prefixed buildings (not producing anthing) and a prefixed army for those buildings with hidden timing-releases, to try an simulate it as best as possible.
Of course these sort of challenges would demand a lot of effort to make, and there for might never be considered by anyone highleveled enough to spend time on. But I think it would be a great addition to the game (especially for new players) and the reward could be a growing community (or perhaps the person who made them would be able to get donations from users who found them usefull). Either way these are my ideas and suggestions for custom challenges.
Input?
