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PREFACE
In the past couple months, there has been quite a dilemma brewing in the SC2 community.
Both tournaments and players are beginning to become tired of using the same old Blizzard maps ... Metalopolis, Xel'Naga, Shakuras, and so on. Indeed, these maps have seen use for a long time - Metalopolis is still in use since the beta!
But is that really an issue? Well, technically no.
These maps can be considered [almost] perfectly balanced, as SC2's balancing (patching) relies directly on the results from these maps. All the countless hours and strategies players have put into these maps have shaped SC2 to what it is today.
So, what are tournament organizers to do? They want new maps, new gameplay, new experiences to freshen the scene, but surely they cannot rely on some newb gold-league-ladder mapper to make maps for them, right?! No, instead they'll leave the work the Koreans, import their work, instead of selecting from the local produce. But even then, one addition here and there, we still see Metalopolis being played.
And so we have a dilemma. We want to see new maps, but the players and organizers don't want to risk it.
I want to write a little bit and explain to people why there is no risk, and that their fear is unfounded.
SECONDS & MINUTES
At the heart of SC2, and virtually all RTS, is the concept of the timing. Timing can refer to any number of things but at its most basic definition, its the concept that things that time to build, things take time to move around. You use these times to strategically plan attack and defence, and thus, a game is born. And, as I stated above, Blizzard has balanced the game - its timings - based on the maps in the ladder pool.
So we come to custom maps. Some people seem to believe that custom maps are 'untested', will introduce unknown variables into the gameplay, and are generally unacceptable for tournament use.
This is not true.
It all relates back to the timing. Take example A,
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5HNlh.jpg)
This is Metalopolis. A player has a strategy that involves this attack and he knows how long it will take to get there so he can strike his enemy at the best time. Blizzard also knows, well, not intrinsically, but they've understand that some strategies that use that attack path might be too strong or too weak and so they've adjusted their game as such.
Example B,
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EiWKc.jpg)
This is a recent map that's popped up, Xel'Naga Avenger. At face value, its a completely different map. It looks pretty cool, but gameplay? Who knows. Ask someone to put this into their tournament? LOL, get real.
What if I were to do this though ...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7RNq8.jpg)
What has happened here? The arrow represents the attack, the timing. The same attack and timing that is present on metalopolis can also be done on this map. The same strategy that could be executed in a finals at a MLG would be completely viable here.
THE REAL DEAL
Ok, please don't begin to argue semantics and nuances, and don't take the above example to be 100% to-the-pixel accurate. The distance is actually just a tad smaller on the custom map. And of course maps that obviously favour, say zerg with super wide open areas would never be in the consideration until fixed. But that is moot, the point of the matter still remains:
Custom maps are a completely viable option for everyone. Most of them, at least.
Mappers rely on these distances and timings as the basis of all their maps. A map will never pass through community scrutiny if it doesn't adhere to the templates already set fourth by the current Blizzard pool. Everything - main to main distance, natural to natural distance, air distances, distance to expos, even the size of the main island and the width of the terrain, it is all a finely tuned science that nearly all mappers must learn and design to within limits in order to create a map.
You can have maps of all different shapes or yes, even sizes, as long as these distances between these specific points of the map and the spacing of the terrain fall into those already established. And most of the maps released by the community fulfil this requirement. They are already intrinsically balanced.
THE GOAL OF MAPPING
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/IyUKX.gif)
What you see above is what I like to call 'safe map syndrome.' These maps are acceptable by Blizzard and by tournaments because they are versions of the already tried and played Antiga Shipyards. I call them 'safe' because this what mappers refer to the style as, something that you can safely use for design in order to be accepted by the community and reduce the sense of 'risk' and 'unknown' for players and others that judge it.
But this is actually a problem. A huge problem. Mappers who originally wanted to create works of art and designs of wonder have been given the cold shoulder. Instead, they dumb down their creative intellect to create cookie cutter maps for the sake of Blizzard, for Blizzard asks, how many different 12-base layouts of Antiga Shipyards can ye create?
It is unacceptable. Why? Ask yourself - just how many different versions of Antiga will SC2 players have to play over the lifetime of the game? How long really will Metalopolis stay in tournament map pools?
Will the community ever be weaned off of Blizzard's bosom?
THE INSULTS
+ Show Spoiler +The following is not addressed personally to anyone in the community.
I write this blog with every competent mapper out there in my heart and mind. Having your map, essentially your art, your heart and soul, rejected, is one of the worst feelings ever.
Mappers have had to suffer through many rejections. You put in the time and effort to create something you believe the community will adore, and it vanishes with time into the back pages of TL.
Blizzard itself has paid zero attention to the custom map scene. They spew promises, but nothing is ever done to improve exposure for custom maps. HotS is almost at our doorstep and only now have they approached TL to run a kind of contest. HotS itself presents another huge problem for mappers because it is virtually unknown how the game will change and evolves and whether current map designs (timings) would be even viable anymore.
The community has tried to create their own solutions to the problem with the MotM organization, but even that has been reduced to the playing-it-safe route as well. Then there are the mapping teams, ESV, TPW, LoS, who's collective presence can help market their maps, but they account for only a small handful of the talent here, leaving many quality maps long forgotten.
So I'm not really sure what else to say. Or do. TPW has almost closed up shop saying they're not going to bother anymore until HotS. Some of the more prominent mappers have tasted the sourness of rejection and the straw finally broke. iGrok who helped to bring about MotM, tried to give SC2 a chance, but eventually got fed up as well.
I tried my hardest myself to inject some fresh map concepts in the community here, but there isn't much more point to me continuing with mapping. I mean, contests are run and the opportunities exist for exposure, TL & IPL's map selections are a good start indeed, but going 2? 3? 5? maps out of hundreds of submissions is still far from the solution the community needs. You would wonder, as with the blizzard maps, just how long these maps will stay in their pools until other contest and such are run.
Indeed, we can only make the map. Its up to you to play them. Its just sad that for most of you, you're unable to even take those baby steps, and still need others to hold your hands and show you what to play.
Thank you for reading.
 
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It's very odd that you chose this moment to make this blog. IPL AND TL having map making contests- the TL one feeding one map possibly into the ladder and one of the submissions already being used in GSL; IPL requesting new maps for the possible use in IPL 4?
I think it's a good time for map makers! <^_^> but that's just my opinion!
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or just read the symposium
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I'm with you, I wish that old maps would get cycled out regularly, I don't want sc2 to end up like bw, with almost everyone hosting python or fighting spirit. I know it's different because of matchmaking, but the point is that I don't want to see the same maps over and over and over in tournaments, it gets old imo.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
If you think those maps are all the same as Antiga Shipyards then I don't know what to say.
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United Kingdom16710 Posts
On November 11 2011 14:52 Plexa wrote:
If you think those maps are all the same as Antiga Shipyards then I don't know what to say.
I do.
OP, you're clueless.
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Stim.tv, as well as others, have mentioned that they just want to play on something that *looks new and different.* They are not so much concerned about the general layout, but that they want to feel like they're playing in a unknown, different, epic environment. There are too many shakuras/city/space maps right now. People will accept snow maps because it's snow, not because the layout is the most balanced.
As far as base layout/positioning goes, those maps are generally the same. But you need to pay attention to the actual layout (where the ramps are, how much space is at each base, how many ramps go up to the base, are they blocked off?) etc. Those change your strategy and tactics and thus separate them, regardless if the mineral nodes are in the same locations.
That's why HotS will most definitely open the door to more mapping abilities and acceptance by the community. Will the layout continue to be relatively closer to antiga shipyards? Mabye. But you have to understand only a small percentage of maps are identical to it. On the other hand, it's not that blizzard wants it like that, it's just the way the game is as far as timings, balance, and base-layout concepts go.
The TLMC, IPL, and NASL using community maps and hosting map contests is a terrific start, and I don't think the judges are the problem. The problem is that there isn't enough time to really choose a map. They hold one, mabye two tournaments and then take the so-called "best" map, or the one that was most enjoyable in the 10 games that were played on it.
A true mapping contest should follow a layout more like what NASL uses. Let's say there are 150 submissions. Take the top 14 let's say, then run a tournament for a couple months, knocking out a map each week. Finally, you'll eventually boil down to a handful of maps that are much more worthy and that have had more playtime experience. This is something that should be considered. It is time consuming but well worth it in the end if you're really trying to find a great community map.
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nice feature, bad bad example amps selected here. lefix map and mine have pretty much nothing to do with Antiga Shipyards. 4spawn-rotational is much older than Antiga. Antiga has additional golds. Antiga has rotational imbalance...
Also daedalus (by lefix) and Burning Altar feature quite different middle areas, especially Burning Altar is quite unique and makes very good use of destructable rocks.
please change your example maps or take my map as an example for doing something new and interesting within a well known format 
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i agree it is a bit of a problem that the current metagame and the way it is balanced around distances and other standards leave not as much room for creativity as we would like. some mapmakers express their creativity through the map visuals while some others try to kinda of reinvent the gameplay by adding funky features.
but unfortunately most of the time doing something new and different doesn't equal being better, maybe it doesn't even work at all. alot of mapmakers try to redesign the gameplay, which isn't actually our job. it's blizzards job to improve the gameplay and balance to a point to allow for more options in map design. but still i am happy when mapmakers like lsprime successfully introduce new things like 3gas bases on his last map. such feautures probably wouldn't be accepted by the community of some random mapmaker tried the same.
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On November 12 2011 01:22 Samro225am wrote:nice feature, bad bad example amps selected here. lefix map and mine have pretty much nothing to do with Antiga Shipyards. 4spawn-rotational is much older than Antiga. Antiga has additional golds. Antiga has rotational imbalance... Also daedalus (by lefix) and Burning Altar feature quite different middle areas, especially Burning Altar is quite unique and makes very good use of destructable rocks. please change your example maps or take my map as an example for doing something new and interesting within a well known format
the little details and nuances isn't the point im trying to make regarding the entries.
its the fact that i know lefix has great creative intellect (Maps by lefix), and Daedalus simply doesn't fit his style. its the fact that he probably made the map to satisfy the requirements for the contest - something acceptable to blizzard. its the fact i know lefix can make truly original maps rather than just-another-4p-rotational.
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On November 12 2011 01:35 lefix wrote:
but unfortunately most of the time doing something new and different doesn't equal being better, maybe it doesn't even work at all. alot of mapmakers try to redesign the gameplay, which isn't actually our job. it's blizzards job to improve the gameplay and balance to a point to allow for more options in map design. but still i am happy when mapmakers like lsprime successfully introduce new things like 3gas bases on his last map. such feautures probably wouldn't be accepted by the community of some random mapmaker tried the same.
well that's the other point im trying to make. the thought that maps radically change the gameplay is a fallacy. it still takes the same amount of time to move across the map. whether you do that in a straight line, winding around corners, up and down ramps, the builds and timings still exist. what these maps do is provide different terrains to change up the engagements and battles. the 4p rotational maps do this, and i have no qualms about them here or in the thread, but my point is there are many other unique layouts to tried.
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I think there are a lot of people who put all efforts into making amazing maps that look totally kickass with amazing ideas to make playing on it an adventure and thats what it should be. Playing new maps should be a waayyy bigger part of Sc2 since the whole sense of the game is 2 Commanders claiming land in the sector and battleling it out.
I could not agree more to just letting players play way more new maps on the ladder and in tournaments.
Fuck you pro gamers with your: "Uhh i gotta study every bit of the map to show my endurance skill on analysing the same landscape all day"
Just get rdy to play on maps youve hardly played before and show your skill thinking on your feet!
Its more interesting for the community to watch and they basicly pay you inderectly.
Same goes for ladder which is just the mirror of Esprots for casual gamers.
I want more new maps! I want adventures and enjoy the game surprising me! I would love to go on ladder and spawn on maps ive never seen before daily. The progress is way too slow I think. Way too much doubting about balance before maps getting added. And I bet a running gold base that there are more people who would just love it.
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Great, great post. This needs to be said. Blizzard really needs to step in and make some community maps official. They need to make "unsafe" maps official just as much as they need to make "safe" maps official. There's no reason for them not to, and if they keep waiting it's like they're flipping the bird to the mapping community. The past 18 months should have seen 30-50 maps rotated on the ladder, at least. And at least half of them should have been community maps. It's absolutely ridiculous that they've waited so long and they're so scared to incorporate them. It's like Blizzard didn't even follow the pro BW scene at all.
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On November 15 2011 18:54 Meta wrote:Great, great post. This needs to be said. Blizzard really needs to step in and make some community maps official. They need to make "unsafe" maps official just as much as they need to make "safe" maps official. There's no reason for them not to, and if they keep waiting it's like they're flipping the bird to the mapping community. The past 18 months should have seen 30-50 maps rotated on the ladder, at least. And at least half of them should have been community maps. It's absolutely ridiculous that they've waited so long and they're so scared to incorporate them. It's like Blizzard didn't even follow the pro BW scene at all.
Of course there's that whole other issue of trying to get the community to even play the maps; as if you read most threads like this, many are perfectly happy to play on metalopolis for the rest of their lives. Indeed, it seems only if blizzard forces it down their throats through the ladder will they only even begin to try them.
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On November 11 2011 15:29 Telcontar wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 14:52 Plexa wrote:
If you think those maps are all the same as Antiga Shipyards then I don't know what to say. I do. OP, you're clueless.
looks the same to me
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OP never said these maps are the same as Antiga, what he doesn't like (and frankly, rightly so), is that major design elements are nearly identical between the maps. Things like ramps between main & natural, distance and 'defensibility' of the natural, attack distances between mains - there are very few 'typical' patterns, and any deviations from these are viewed as blasphemy. There was (and still is) quite a bit of negativity about Tal'darim, for example, because it doesn't have a standard ramp; likewise, a lot of hate is given to Metalopolis and XNC because of the open naturals, etc.
I have to say though, in a way this is not even a problem of community's perception of maps but the game balance as a whole. While I would absolutely love to see more varied maps - don't even have to go far to look, BW maps are much more interesting - I feel like SC2 right now is pretty much balanced around having a single space ramp to your main and these specific natural layouts / rush distances, in no small part thanks to force fields and the way building walls work now.
With the amount of tournaments currently ran, and how important for them is to attract best possible players (and it's not like pros would be interested in trying out new maps, I don't think), I don't really see any major changes in this department. GSL is pretty much the only league that can afford to experiment with maps, simply because no matter what they do with their map pool, nobody will pass on playing there, nor will their viewers leave. Everyone else just has to play it safe.
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On November 16 2011 09:18 Zombie_Velociraptor wrote:
With the amount of tournaments currently ran, and how important for them is to attract best possible players (and it's not like pros would be interested in trying out new maps, I don't think), I don't really see any major changes in this department. GSL is pretty much the only league that can afford to experiment with maps, simply because no matter what they do with their map pool, nobody will pass on playing there, nor will their viewers leave. Everyone else just has to play it safe.
'Foreigners' following the koreans ... history repeating itself ... ? 
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EPT
