EPTTo address some points that some one might want to bring up right from the start:
Would fixing these change gameplay?
No. Not really. This is simply a matter of fixing some (or rather quite a lot of) faulty terrain level flags in the terrain palettes. No core aspect of gameplay would be even touched by this, but lots of map-specific bugs and exploits would automatically be fixed by fixing these issues.
But will this not change our legacy maps?
Well, yes, but mostly in completely insignificant ways, and where changes would be noticeable it is because some bad bugs would be fixed. The worst that might happen is that some random mining bugs (i.e. bad worker pathing) pop up on some maps, but most maps have a few of them to begin with, and these could subsequently be fixed without a problem. Map balance as a whole should not be affected, as bugs like these usually have rather small scale effects (enough to potentially screw players over in a single game, but not enough to really tilt balance on a larger scale)
Would changing these be much work?
No. As I said, it is purely about changing flags in the terrain palettes, which for the most part could be done via simple search and replace routine.
Sounds all very technical so far, why should I as a player care about this map stuff?
Let me give you some examples:
Exhibit 1 (map: Tau Cross):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HI4aWRi.jpg)
Is that a Siege Tank playing peekaboo over the southern main wall? Oh yes, it is!
Exhibit 2 (map: Blue Storm):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8zRcL8L.jpg)
Blind tank?! Blind Tank! And it has bad aiming skills as well (in other words: low ground disadvantage....)
Exhibit 3 (map: Return of the King):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mBf64RX.jpg)
Another truly sad tank, blind and missing shots half of the time...
Exhibit 4 (map: Grand Line):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DHqVQ3L.jpg)
Red circles mark where there should definitely be no high ground vision.Sniping wallins without having to go up the ramp is a fun sport, though.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RULsdGw.jpg)
Same here ; Also take notice how vision of the ramp itself is less obstructed here – that is because the high ground does not extend nearly as far down the ramp on the left cliff ramp as on the right cliff one, for whatever reason (reason probably being they needed to get the expansion done and did not really have the time to spend on such details, back in the day).
But wait, it gets even better!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WkdmxH2.jpg)
KABOOM, baby!
Exhibit 5 (map: Vårens Töväder):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oNLTYSg.jpg)
While we all know that Zerglings have magical powers, looking over walls is actually not supposed to be one of them...
Exhibit 6 (map: Bloody Ridge):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YHO9LHQ.jpg)
A very interesting spot in deed. (Sidenote: dropping two Hydralisks in this spot and morphing them both to Lurkers is an interesting map exploit, have fun experimenting with it, fellow Zerg players :D)
Exhibit 7 (map: Chain Reaction):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lCIkfo1.jpg)
Some more cliff vision...
Exhibit 8 (map: Outsider):
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wvx0IBQ.jpg)
Let's just dub these peripheral fringe cases.
Some examples as viewed in CHKDraft*:
(*CHKDraft is a WIP map editor by jjf28, which was projected as an eventual successor of SCMDraft and is already invaluable for its ability to directly display terrain elevations)
Demonstrating all bugs in pictures would be far too much work. It is also not really needed. But I thought that it might be interesting to see for people not up to the ears into map making how these bugs present themselves in an editor.
Ash World terrain has only a handful of terrain elevation bugs, but makes up for it by having some very common tile affected, so an average map actually ends upwith quite a few of these:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7qe1BZO.jpg)
And these are among the most nitpicky ones in my list.
Let's have a look at the infamous Desert World ramps:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5EBJUXJ.jpg)
Only thing worse are some custom-made ramps ;D (I made a small mistake in creating the picture, the "high ground" is technically speaking all medium ground, of course...)
Just for clarity and to make a suggestion – this is what a (more) ideal desert ramp would look like:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eTbUb6n.gif)
Ice World terrain has some pretty serious – and I daresay pointy – ones:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TCWDUou.jpg)
High Outpost is even worse, at least in quantity of bugs:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JAidZyz.jpg)
Some "highlight" from Twilight:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/k55MNnW.gif)
What a mess! What's up with all that low ground (green)? High Compound and High Sandy Sunken Pit (Desert) have the same problem (may actually be exact copies of the twilight tiles)
Not much objectionable for Jungle terrain, this one however is kind of a biggy:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N5qaZmv.jpg)
This definitely is a pretty nice parking space for a tank.
finally, two bits directly from the terrain palette:
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VwXVJr1.jpg)
Rusty Pit Ramps (Space Platform): All low ground!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jWGJxb3.jpg)
High Sandy Sunken Pit (Desert): Some things are really odd here...
So long story short, I actually went through all the tilesets in CHKDraft and made a list off all the bugged tiles. There are some instances of singular errors, but mostly these are comprised of whole sections of the terrain palette of the brood war specific tilesets, which were obviously very hastily thrown together before shipping the game...
If tiles are notated with an x in between that means that the whole section of tiles in the palette between these corner indices is being refered to.
This is the list for reference.
EDIT: Sorry, did not put the shareable link. Now it should work.
New Addition: Other bugs that can be linked to terrain flags
Let me make clear first that there are a bunch of tiles in the terrain palettes which have not the properties they are supposed to display but should not be considered a bug that needs fixing because they do not cause any malicious problems and more often than not have actual legitimate uses, for which they are often irreplaceable and should therefore be preserved.
Examples would be the buildable doodads for Badlands Structure terrain, which is unbuildable by default. Obviously buildable tiles for an otherwise unbuildable terrain type are a very useful thing to have (even more than the other way around) and, in the mentioned case, maps like Detonation, Plasma or Heartbeat (and many more) would never have been possible without them.
Another good exmple are doodad tiles which are flagged as buildable but also (partially) unwalkable, which effectively makes them unbuildable, but still allows creep to spread over them freely, just like any other walkable ground. this makes these doodads very useful in certain spots: As every (Zerg) player probably knows, creep spreads in a peculiar way where it never covers the bottommost row of tiles over an unbuildable obstacle, creating a nasty gap which is effectively unbuildable for Zerg (except with a Hatchery, which does not require creep to be placed). The aforementioned doodad tiles are simple and effective way to plug that gap, allowing map makers to optimize key choke points for better balanced and easier wall-ins for Zerg.
There are however some things which are simply not right without having legitimate uses (or at least not enough to justify their preserving) but cause unwanted behaviour with the game and are therefore to be considered bugs.
Presenting: The creepy doodad bug:
Any one ever seen this happening? :
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iNsq5gc.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4ciaHoF.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KsuJI70.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oArHMDO.png)
This bug is linked to tile flag 0x4000. This flag seems to have been originally used to indicate flipped doodad sprites (besides the examples shown in the images this flag is only ever set for right-side wall doodads in the Installation tileset [doors, traps, ventilators]), but is probably now deprecated, together with the "flip sprite" flag. It should therefore be no problem to fix these by simply removing the flag from those tiles.
Update:
- Added some bugs pertaining to inconsistent or missing minitile flags for doodad vision blocking in various tilesets to the list
- Also added a rather obscure bug that could prevent Starting Locations from being placed in classic StarEdit because of a faulty tile flag (really more for completeness sake than anything, as no one uses StarEdit any more and even then it's only two tiles which are affected)
