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You want the best Training Ground?
"The Sandbox" should do it for you. All SC2 units, upgrades and buildings are instantly available on a wide open sandy terrain with ramps and bases. Also 30 predefined micro challenges awaiting you. Relatively few buttons grant you a great variety of possibilities.
Play in The Sandbox solo or 1v1 with a friend:
* Find hard counters to any unit composition
* Test different upgrade variations
* Practice new unit compositions against random armies
* Micro against a working tactical AI
* Outmicro mirror armies
* Hold ramps of all kinds
* Plan your base build
* Defend your mineral line
* Practice drops
* Play 30 predefined micro challenges
* Invent your own challenges
You are not in the mood  for competitive starcraft? Go play in The Sandbox, explore and improve.
What is better in The Sandbox?
I know, there are some good Unit Tester and Micro Trainer around, but "The Sandbox" is the next step in the evolution of the training grounds, I think.
* The terrain has some real base locations with natural expansions (extracted from actual ladder maps).
* You can display not just the army cost, but also the upgrades cost and the buildings cost.
* You can build anything instantly with tool units or like usual (build a worker...)
* I put a lot of work in the random armies, so you just press the random button and have fun.
* The tactical AI uses abilities and is not that bad.
* You can create and save your own challenges.
* And I hope you like the style 
Introduction Video:
Server Uploads:
EU: "The Sandbox" (uploaded myself)
NA: "The Sandbox [by dingoo]" (upload by phoenix)
SEA: "The Sandbox (SEA)" (upload by Akinokaze)
KR: ?
Download:
http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/sandbox/
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ha im already using this
I just want to say a big thankyou to you because i always used your map Hard Counter to test certain unit engagements and now since a few days i use this one as it said check out The Sandbox when i loaded Hard Counter. Really cool you made a new map. The way you can handle the upgrades is much better now.
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Sigh right this problem is in all of the tester maps but since you are the one taking feedback i might aswell tell.
WHY OH WHY is there no construction time. I am sure you all wanna be nice and not bother us with the time it would normally take to set up a simcity but really stop. Alot of testing involves construction buildings. I have been trying to find out stuff about contaminated construction buildings and all of these unit testers are bloody useless for that.
At least give us a choice that enables it.
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Any plans to get this on NA? I've been looking for a good unit tester...
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@Sumadin
Thanks for the feedback. I am working on a solution. Check the map tomorrow
@RumbleBadger
I hope somebody will upload "The Sandbox" on NA soon. You could do it, if you know how.
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Test the new Phoenix upgrade: Anion Pulse-Crystals
The Sandbox is up to date
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In order to promote this map a little, I will make short weekly videos about my investigations with The Sandbox.
Here are the first Sandbox Lessons:
1. Sandbox Lesson 01 - Phoenix vs Mutas Anion Pulse-Crystals
2. Sandbox Lesson 02 - Hydras vs Carriers
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Interesting, but where you battle, it would be good if you had more space otherwise this map is pretty good, I might use it.
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Seems pretty nice. Is there a way to toggle the UI? As in, hide the boxes with all the buttons. Because they are a bit in the way when it comes to micro. It would be nice if you could temporarily hide them.
I can upload on NA for you.
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Yes that´s true, I will make a minimize button in the next version. Thanks for feedback. And there is already someone uploading it on NA afaik - if not feel free to upload it yourself, just tell me so I can put your name next to NA.
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EDIT: Has been correctly up'ed to NA, see below^^
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Looks great. Love the flexibility and the probe on speed 
Thank you very much!
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Thank you phoenix, I was just about to say something about this. But you had already fixed it so awesome. I'll go check it out.
And kudo's to you dingoo.
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Perfect! I'll edit out my post! Thanks, wanted to try this rly bad :D
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I really liked how in the hard counters map there was a "game mode" I liked it's simplicity. it helped me alot, especially if I stuck to using only my prefered race. Also there needs to be a single button for de/activating both the AI with a single click. As well as I really liked the option of being able to spawn each side with seperate buttons, that would keep spawning units instead of replacing them. As far as buttons go the more the marrier, especially if you're going to make them minimizable.
Lastly the AI doesn't really build like it's suppose to, or mine for that matter. It kinda just acts funny like it's set to pretty much just attack. It'd be nice if there were two different kind of AI's. The current, just attack what's alive AI. and the normal build, macro, micro, win/lose.
That's all for now. Kudo's again
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I havn't checked this out yet, but I was wondering if it had something that alot of unit testers are missing, the ability to go down an upgrade (aka 3-3 to 2-2)? Thanks
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@REDgreen
I try to avoid too many buttons, dont know if this is the right concept.
And you really liked the game mode in the hard counter map? I never got any positive feedback for this, so I dropped it. You could still download an older version of hard counter for that.
The AI is just a tactical AI for fighting, thats true. I will think about it.
Thanks for feedback, thats very useful for me (and any other modder)!
@Corrosive
Yes, you can unlearn single upgrades. So you can go from 3-3 to 0-0, then you have to build 2-2 again.
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Wow this is really great! Seems like the best unit map out there! Thanks alot for this!
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New version is online. I added some Challenges for the Micro Training. More coming...
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I've downloaded it to check it out and I am very impressed. Great work.
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I made another video about my Sandbox investigations:
You made a wall in and still units could pass? Here are the rules for all different kinds of buildings to make a tight wall. (Sorry for my english.)
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Hey, this looks pretty amazing, just two suggestions/questions from me:
1) Is it just me or is the camera angle slightly off? Seems too far away or not in the right angle.
2) Can you add the challenges from Dargleins micro trainer as well? (particularly, marine vs. ling, 4 sentry forcefield challenge vs. ramp with different widths + banelings etc)
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Love it so far, I have some suggestions / bugs to report!
1) Protoss Building: Probe and Sentry are both assigned to E (I'm using Map Editor so no custom Hot keys applied). You could change probes to P. Hitting E sends out a Probe always currently.
Edit: Seems Dropship and Marauder share the same D key as well, Zerg Overlord and Overseer
2) After a fight is won/lost, and AI is enabled for one side. When I reload the saved State the AI instantly attacks giving me very little time to re-position / hot key my units. Would it be possible to add a "Start Fight" button like the other Unit Tester Map has if AI is enabled?
Alternatively, you could just toggle the AI buttons to Off when it detects all of one sides units being defeated or reload state is hit.
3) Not sure if it allows this, but could Shift Clicking units from the Building Structure build 5 at a time? Lets me control how many come out a bit easier. Holding the button spawns them at a nice and fast rate, but I still end up making too many / too little.
4) Could the Remove Selected units Button be mapped to Backspace or Delete? It's a tad cumbersome to select the units then click the button. Would be much faster if I could hit Delete
5) Reloading a Save State doesn't return units to full energy. Seems only about 50%. You could add a Give units Full Energy button.
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Very helpful feedback, thanks. I will work on it.
@Kelwyn
1) You can zoom the camera further out than usually for better building placement overview etc. use the mouse wheel to select the standard camera.
2) I will add more challenges over time. Will take a closer look to Dargleins excellent map.
@Monoxcide
1) I have no clue why your hotkeys are mixed up. Maybe its a localization problem? I use enGB editor. Anyone else having the same issues?
2) Good point
3) I dont know if it allows this, maybe not.
4) No problem, backspace should be free (del is already rotating the camera)
5) Yes 50% seemed to be a good choice to me. I like to reduce the button count as far as possible.
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@Monoxcide
1) I have no clue why your hotkeys are mixed up. Maybe its a localization problem? I use enGB editor. Anyone else having the same issues?
The default (Standard HotKeys) enUS key for Probe from Nexus is E, and Sentry is E from the Gateway. The Terran issue is the same as well, Default Key from Barracks is D for Marauder and D for Medivac from Starport.
If I change it to Classic Hotkeys, the problems go away as they change key assignment.
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If you want, you could just switch to grid hotkeys, that way you don't need to learn new hotkeys should you choose to try an off-race either (though you might have go to custom games, while I think in one of your previous you said you were just using the map editor. I have it uploaded on NA, see the OP )
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@Monoxcide
Ok, now I understand the hotkey thing. I always use grid. So, I could change the standard hotkeys and you can decide what you want for Probe, Sentry, Marauder and Medivac - let me know, ok?
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Yeah, I tend to use these maps via Map editor to avoid having to log in to battle net and punch in my authentication code (I refuse to enable that remember my IP crap, violates the security guy in me). I'll PM you re-binds that will work for the standard setup hot keys dingoo
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Hey dingoo, thank you very much for this. I have found it very useful for when I don't know how to counter certain units/army's. One thing, which really isn't an issue, the minerals are set as hostile. Like I said, no biggie.
A quick suggestion for the buttons, have different dialog boxes, not just one. That way we can minimize the ones we aren't currently using, and have just two smaller ones open, IE have only the "AI" dialog open and the "Respawn/Remove Unit" dialog box. And depending on what we're doing we can open more dialogs(that are considerably smaller because of the fewer buttons per.) or less.
What I wanted to ask of you though is can you also have a "Neutral Builder" that can make certain things that the races wouldn't have. For instance, build minerals/geyser/xeltower/destructibles/doodads or spawn critters, ect, ect.
thanks again for this map, kind sir.
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Neutral Builder sounds interesting, I will keep it in mind. Though in the near future I wont have much spare time for greater changes. The next thing is to build a challenge library.
P.S. Hostile minerals?
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This mod is great but I miss the Option to have units full energy
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New version is online. I added more challenges and implemented some of your suggestions. Have fun!
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New version live on NA. also... I found a bug, when recalculationg the cost of units ( after eg... making some more), it doesn't seem to take into account burrowed units
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Ok, thanks for the upload and the bug report.
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Can anyone post a video or a link to one of the TVP Bunker defense Challenge being successfully done? It keeps kicking my butt, and I often have problems with holding off protoss 1 base attacks on the ladder, so I'd love to work on my micro with it.
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Nice map. One problem I noticed is that when I made a random enemy army with similar resources, I got 5 zealots vs 2 mutas and 2 corrupters. Bit of a problem there. Everything else looks good though.
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Really appreciate the effort you put into this!
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@Grandpa_SC
To be honest, I think this challenge is too hard, at least for me. I removed 1 zealot and now it is ok, still hard. Try focus fire, dance with workers, take care that the workers always repair the bunker. And dont forget the workers at the minerals.
@Moobla
The random army is to a certain degree really random, so things like that can happen. Just press the random button again. To be more precise, some units (around 70 percent) are chosen randomly from a unit composition pool, the rest is meant to counter the existing units.
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New version is online. 6 new challenges added. Hf
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Not sure if I am being stupid, but I search "The Sandbox" on EU, and I just can't find it. Instead blizzard lists about 30 maps with nothing to do with the word sandbox.
God I hate Bnet 0.2!
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Canada13389 Posts
Just started using this today quite fun and good actually. Though that stalker vs marine challenge gives you next to no room to kite so you need to take turns and the marines cut ya off sometimes.
Also, the pheonix challenge without anion crystals is near impossible unless you get the ai stuck in a pattern
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@ZeromuS
Hmmm, the phoenix challenge should be with anion crystals, you dont have this upgrade loaded?
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Has this been uploaded to SEA?
:'(
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I guess no, but if you know how, you can upload it on SEA. Download it on SC2Mapster.com.
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New version is online. 10 new challenges added. Have fun!
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Wow, this is really awesome. Thanks a ton for making this <333
There are a few things I'd love to be added though.
To overwrite a save I have, I seem to need to enable autosave and then save over it. A way to overwrite a save in one click would be appreciated :D
Multiple saves in one game would be helpful for switching between different micro battles quickly (for example if my friend and I want to practice marine tank pushes, being able to switch between large armies and small armies back and forth would be cool.)
Control groups being saved as well would be a nice addition too but not really needed much.
Again, thanks for making this :D
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@Wherewolf
The thing is, I try to avoid additional buttons to keep the interface slim. But I am not happy with the save-button/autosave solution too. Right now you have to double click it to overwrite a save.
If you need multiple saves, you could save your states as challenges. You can save endless configurations like that, even for the next days or weeks.
Control groups save would be really nice, I put it on my ToDo list, thanks!
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On March 12 2012 05:23 Westy wrote:
Not sure if I am being stupid, but I search "The Sandbox" on EU, and I just can't find it. Instead blizzard lists about 30 maps with nothing to do with the word sandbox.
God I hate Bnet 0.2!
Did you try to "create game" or are you using the join game list? Cuz that happened to me when i tried to create, but you have to just search it in the join games list. Hope this helps
Also, really great map !
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This is exactly what I need! I was discussing with a friend how we could use a unit tester as part of our practice schedule to improve our micro and army control, but I couldn't find anything that replicated real in-game situations. Although, I could just hop on to NA whenever I want to play this, do you mind if I upload it to SEA?
Edit: It appears to have already been uploaded on SEA under the name "The Sandbox_v0.17 v1.0" by youngmo. Since the uploader hasn't notified you of this, it may have been modified in some way but I can't confirm that.
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@Akinokaze
Sure, I would be glad if you upload it on SEA. Just tell me the name and your ingame nick, so I can put it in my list.
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On March 29 2012 20:12 dingoo wrote:
@Akinokaze
Sure, I would be glad if you upload it on SEA. Just tell me the name and your ingame nick, so I can put it in my list.
Uploaded to SEA under the name "The Sandbox (SEA)", my ign is also Akinokaze
I think a sub-menu (or something similar) for each race on the random army button would be a really nice addition. Someone who plays Protoss as their main race for example probably isn't going to be interested in getting Zerg or Terran units.
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So, thank you all for improving this map. Now I hope for patch 1.5 to get some popularity on it.
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On April 05 2012 05:40 dingoo wrote:
So, thank you all for improving this map. Now I hope for patch 1.5 to get some popularity on it.
I really like the map!
Make more videos! They are really cool!
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As you wish, here is another video. This time I investigated attack upgrades vs armor upgrades. What is better?
And here are my conclusions:
1. Use armor upgrades against many small units like lings and marines
2. Use attack upgrades with many small units like lings and marines
3. For zealots vs lings, use attack upgrade for the zealots
4. Also for roaches vs lings, use attack upgrade for the roaches
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On April 09 2012 23:52 dingoo wrote:As you wish, here is another video. This time I investigated attack upgrades vs armor upgrades. What is better? + Show Spoiler +And here are my conclusions: 1. Use armor upgrades against many small units like lings and marines 2. Use attack upgrades with many small units like lings and marines 3. Except for zealots vs lings, use attack upgrade for the zealots 4. Also roaches vs lings, use attack upgrade for the roaches
Really cool! I really like these videos. I will keep checking in for more
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3. Except for zealots vs lings, use attack upgrade for the zealots
Might want to reword this as it currently suggests that you should always get attack upgrades for Zealots except when you vs lings.
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Thanks, its my english
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New version online, just small changes:
1. workers now correctly attack with AI on
2. carriers reproduce interceptors with AI on
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Great!
Keep up the good work.
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Saw bump, thought maybe new version to upload. Nope :/ Keep the changes coming Dingoo!
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Right now I have no changes in mind. I am hoping for the patch 1.5 to get some motivation. Thanks for your support!
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I desperatly want to have the possibility to switch sides/units when playing the challanges with a friend. Maybe a new button "switch units with opponent" or something...
Beside of that, nice job!
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Yes, I think that "swap units" button is a useful thing. Good idea, thx. I will implement it in the next version.
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I like this map a lot, very useful and smart features.
I do have two very small feature requests. The first is a very short delay when you activate the AI... ideally also with a player notification showing when the AI actually goes hostile.
I'm just thinking like a 3 second courtesy countdown while people toggle off the UI, camera fidgit, and just mentally switch from "setting up" to "go".
Thinking boundary cases, I'd recommend making it work so that when you turn on both AI's, pressing the second switch makes the timer already counting down activate both, rather than have two asynchronous countdowns.
The second request is related... please make doing "activate AI -> toggle UI" not require a cross-screen-into-screen-edge mouse motion. It feels inconvenient and also causes accidental screen scrolling, and the AI has already started at this point... just tuck the UI toggle right beneath the AI toggle on the main block-o-buttons or something, please
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Hi, thanks for your suggestions.
I am not sure if most of the users would embrace a 3 second delay when they activate the AI, I myself would not like it.
Regarding your second request - yes, I think it would be better the way you propose. I will rework it, just waiting for patch 1.5.
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EPT
