Simple Questions/Answers - Page 104

On November 10 2012 00:51 Wiss wrote:

Still nothing, thanks though.

On November 17 2012 09:03 Fatam wrote:
Since I'm a bit bored, I guess I'll give my first impressions (in order of how the maps are listed on http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=382258) -

1) Gaema Gowon + Show Spoiler +
- highground above the nat could be pretty problematic, I think it's better to do a similar highground above the 3rd instead (see http://imgur.com/8M4wf, granted I'm a bit partial since it's my map). But given that you can actually walk up there as a defender quite easily, vs. the situation we had on Lost Temple w/ thor drops, it might be manageable.
- all expos are 6m1hyg from the looks of it. Which could be cool to encourage people to expand more aggressively. Getting past 3 or 4 partial bases looks basically impossible, which might be bad.

2) Bifrost + Show Spoiler +
This looks like a train wreck. You can't look away out of curiosity, but it's pretty bad. To be fair, the map is incredibly interesting concept-wise, but I don't think the ideas translate to SC2 very well.
- the very long highground harass/alternate attack route is too circle syndrome-y with its current implementation. You'll have to have something up there (a pylon/supply/depot/overlord), so if someone is up there with any amount of army you'll spot it with plenty of time to spare and be able to just attack their base with your bigger force since theyre so incredibly out of position. It should be noted that Protoss has an unbelievable advantage on this map - the ability to warp in from the highground is really strong. Not only that, but if it does become a base-trade scenario where you spot the opponent coming through the back passage, you can leave/warp-in a few sentries and just FF him there forever while you kill his base. Given that the third is very difficult here, the games will rarely go past 2 base, so it's possible he will have nothing to break or get around your forcefields.
- no main ramp needs to be fixed
- all that said I think with some tweaking this map could be great.

3) Guillotine + Show Spoiler +
- if you elevated the main so it has a ramp and made it horizontal and cross-spawns only, this might be decent. Vertical spawns are prettttty awful here - your 3rd is literally right next to your opponent's.
- the choke on the nat is probably too narrow.
- horizontal spawns looks like it might be pretty fun here.

4) Arkanoid + Show Spoiler +
- Pretty hard to comment on balance here since this is so different than anything that's been played before.
- I can't tell if those are just decorations on the expos, or if theyre some sort of blocker.
- inb4 "this will make it on the ladder b/c of dustin browder" jokes
- Everyone always criticizes rocks, but I always thought a rock-heavy map could have a lot of replay value and be very entertaining. Each game can play very differently because passageway A, B, and C might be opened in one game, while another you might have B, E, F, and G. I hope some sort of rock-heavy map makes it into the pool (in all seriousness) at some point. This might not be the best implementation of it, though.
- Blink stalkers and pylons warping in over rocks might be super OP here.

5) CalDeum + Show Spoiler +
- This map was actually released by Crux a few months ago I believe, so this isn't really "new".
- I don't like the gold bases in the middle, it's been discussed (even by pros like qxc), and most people agree that middle golds are bad. They should be in corners or hard-to-reach places where you have to give up map control and/or break up your deathball to defend them, and also so that they aren't "winners bases" where whoever is ahead gets MORE ahead and the game quickly ends.
- the mineral blockers and los blockers should prove interesting.

6) Transistor + Show Spoiler +
- the whole "nat towards the center of the map with airspace behind it" thing has been explored by a number of people including myself, but never exactly like this. Usually one of the side ramps is covered with destructible rocks or leads to a dead end that only the defender can access easily. And usually the main is full-sized and not tiny.
- I think the obvious concern is siege tanks sitting below either ramp completely screwing you over.
- But also walling off might prove tricky. If terran tries to depot+barracks+depot wall on one of the ramps, he definitely won't have room to do it on the other. Heck, I don't know how much room he has to walk into his natural period once there are buildings there. The passage between the main and nat needs to be widened by 4-8 squares.
- The main probably needs to be bigger so players have somewhere to place their buildings.
- If you made those changes I think the map might be pretty fun.

7) Desert Flower + Show Spoiler +
- the bases in the middle will probably never be taken unless the game is already won. And if someone is able to take them, they will be able to take BOTH of them which would be super OP and the absolute definition of "winner's bases". This is ignoring the fact that they're gold bases, which just makes it worse.
- Map might be good if the bases in the middle were removed and the other bases had slightly better placement. I like some of the pathways and the backdoor to the third.

All in all I would give them an 80 for creativitiy, but a 50 for execution.
It's possible that these are rough drafts and someone will clue them in on some things, so maybe they will get better.