New Worlds Map Contest: 2nd Edition!

- Since the last NWMC produced mostly standard 4 player maps, we are looking for only 2 and 3 spawn maps this time.

- There is no limitation as to how standard the map has to be this time. Ground, island, or any kind of hybrid layout, pathing design and special game mechanics, feel free to be creative, but keep in mind that players should feel as comfortable as possible playing on a map.

- It’s generally a good idea to focus on one core idea, particularly if it is going all out on an experimental layout idea or game mechanic, and keep everything else pretty standard. Only add or adjust things to address potential balance concerns inherent to the core concept.

- Also take into account that maps should strive for reasonable balance and players should be able to figure out how to play on a map relatively quickly, so do not add more difficulties than is strictly necessary to achieve whatever goal you set yourself to achieve with a map.

- Only mechanics that are fully compatible with melee game modes are allowed, nothing that requires special triggers or modified unit stats.

- Minimum size: 96², maximum: 128²

- The full ranges of 128×[96…128] and [96…128]×128 are valid map sizes that BroodWar can load and correctly display. Don’t make the other side anything but 128 though, or the map will crash the game or scramble the minimap.

- 128×112 / 112×128 is the currently most widely accepted standard format for 2p maps. The “old school” 128×96 / 96×128 format tends to be very space restricted, making it hard to fit everything in properly. If you use it at all, we suggest to only do so for map layouts with low economy / few bases. On the other hand 128² is usually too much space for a 2 player map.

- Except for Installation, any tileset may be used. Installation is not supported by BroodWar’s melee game mode, almost completely lacks buildable tiles and does not allow for Zerg Creep and, making it completely unsuitable for melee maps.

- Bright snow terrain on Ice World maps is disliked by some players. In favour of a wider adoption of a map it is therefore suggested to keep use of terrain types such as Snow, Moguls, Crushed Rock or Ice Ramp to a minimum.

- On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ash World is sometimes considered too dark and low contrast, making it hard to recognize terrain features in brighter lighting conditions. So be mindful and try to use nicely contrasting terrain types as much as possible.

- Generally all tilesets have limitations in the potential map features they can offer, or, conversely, the concept of a map may determine or at least narrow down tileset choices. The following table gives a rough overview over some of the most important points to consider beforehand:

- Terrain needs to be isometric or completely blended in, using proper tile transitions (sprite use is acceptable, but should not be overdone or relied upon).

- Terrain must be easily readable for players, meaning that terrain levels, unbuildable and unwalkable areas need to be clearly distinguishable by their textures (see “other tips and common issues” section for some ideas).

- Areas where special tile effects (cover, vision blockers) are used outside their normal doodad context should be clearly indicated, usually by using appropriate sprites as demarcation. Avoid visually obscuring units on the screen too much though.

- Neutral units, buildings or spells may be freely used, but should serve a discernible purpose with regards to a map’s concept, gameplay or balance.

- Wandering Critters must be placed far enough away that they cannot interfere with a player’s taking an expansion and/or have reduced HP to make them easily killable. Use good judgement.

- Use of clickable units for general bugfixing purposes, such as plugging drop holes, is discouraged, as they can interfere with player inputs.
Use of powerup objects, that can be picked up by workers, is discouraged, as their presence generally does not lead to favourable gameplay…

- The minimal amount of bases required is 4 gas bases available per player. Around 15 to 17 bases is probably the upper limit of what you can reasonably put on a single 1v1 map.

- Mineral-only bases should be limited to one per starting point, unless double gas bases are used to balance them out.

- Standard Mineral amounts per base are 9 patches for mains, 7 for naturals and 6…8 for other bases around the map. The risk-reward trade-offs in taking a certain base should be taken into consideration when determining the appropriate resource amount a base rewards the player with.

- Resource yields of Mineral patches and Geysers can be altered, but this should remain within reasonable margins (no money maps) and serve a clear purpose with regards to gameplay or balance. The amount of resources in mains and naturals is best left standard, with the possible exception of additional reduced Mineral patches for racial balance adjustment.

- Make sure the map offers appropriate expansion choices for all races early on. Ground maps should have an easy to defend 3rd gas base, either close by ground and/or with an easily defendable choke point. Island maps must offer access to at least 2 Geysers initially without the need for drop tech (3 is probably better for Zerg).

- Mains and/or naturals should offer enough building space for all races to place most of their required structures down. Mains on 2 and 3 player maps should be a bit bigger, as players do not have another main to take for additional building space. Additional building space in bases other than the mains and nats can also help to mitigate this problem.
On “reverse” maps, where the main is on a lower terrain level, it tends to be more exposed to attacks from outside and should offer proportionally more space.

- For late game a map should offer neutral bases that both players can about equally take and fight over (also see the point about map splits under Layout). For 3 player maps the free main and natural automatically serve this purpose, but you should make sure that this does not become too pronounced and other choices are available to players (also see the layout section about map splits).

- Unless explicitly intended otherwise, bases should have proper Tank spacing, meaning that resource depots, Geysers and any workers gathering Minerals should be at least a full Tank range (12 tiles vertically and horizontally, about 9 tiles diagonally) away from other bases and other not directly accessible areas (naturals and middle bases directly adjacent to a main are common exceptions).

- To avoid too turtle-heavy gameplay avoid clustering too many bases close to each other or putting multiple bases behind a single choke. As a general guideline, try allowing one additional access path for each base a player can take in succession.

- Consider where you want armies to be able to be moved around the map. You need sufficiently open and continuous areas for big armies to move in the late game. Restricting the shortest rushing route is a tried and proven design principle, particularly for 2 player maps. 3+ player maps tend more towards an open centre design to allow even access to all possible spawns, but strategic choke points are still desirable.

- Make sure automatic pathfinding (worker scouting) between all starting locations is symmetrical. On maps with an even number of spawns, avoid putting a single, unpaired unwalkable obstacle in the very centre to avoid asymmetrical split pathing.

- Avoid terrain features that make it too hard to move out against a containing opponent, like tight bridges as a natural choke or a single high ground access point leading into the natural.

- Place expansions out of the way of the main pathways to avoid units getting stuck on buildings and workers.

- When using neutral units to block paths, unless you specifically intend players to start out completely separated from each other by land, keep the most direct routes free or make sure that units can find their way around the obstacles on their own to avoid uncomfortable pathing issues.

- Avoid easy even map splits. Keep the middle of the map as wide as possible and allow armies to take multiple pathways around the map and have some “neutral” expansions that do not clearly belong to either player.

- Ramps and other choke points should either be wide enough to allow relatively unhindered movement of all unit types (avoid most of the new patch 1.22 ramps) or intentionally restricted to only allow smaller unit types through (e.g. Blue Storm or 815).

- When using the new ramp assets from patch 1.22, convert them to terrain and manually replace cliff tiles with standard cliffs to fix terrain level/vision bugs.

- Bridge and ramp edges often make for good textures to create unwalkable terrain with a distinct texture.

- Make good use of ScmDraft’s tile flag overlays to make sure everything you do is mechanically sound (in particular, make sure terrain levels are in order everywhere)

- It is generally a good idea to disable the Map Load/Correct Doodads option in ScmDraft before opening up any of your own or other author’s maps to avoid unintended doodads and sprites appearing.

- Making pen and paper drafts of a layout can be of great help figuring out the correct symmetry and space distribution for a map. Here’s a link where you can download graph paper specifically designed for map design. The tile grid corresponds to a 128² map space with subdivisions of 8×8 and 32×32 tiles (you can use custom grids with 256 and 1024 pixels spacing respectively to get the corresponding grids in ScmDraft).

128² Grid:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/bjnz8n89159ad/mapping_tools

3 Player Map Grid: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/887671355632406588/887672247421136896/BW_map_graph_paper_128128_3p_stretch_grid.png