Work In Progress Melee Maps - Page 50

I like this answer. I give full credit to monitor for voicing an appropriate concern. I also almost totally disagree -- though I think we should talk about the features individually. That said this map definitely comes off as "too complicated, unnecessarily". I want to digress a little about this before I address the map itself:

So far in SC2 we've had almost no "weird", "awkward", "icky-feeling" map features as an important part of a map. It's been actively shunned or avoided. It hasn't even really come up. Compare this to BW maps that often have things that are downright disgusting from an aesthetic, pathing, elegance-of-design, or intuitiveness perspective. But these features are what make the maps. I definitely think we're missing out on something in SC2 and it's more because of a present day game design and consumption cultural issue than anything. Kespa maps already made a dent in this with arkanoid etc. and now we have 1gas FS. I think the time is ripe to try some more adventuresome things that might strike the palate funny at first. Even so, you can't just throw weirdness at people and complain when they run away screaming. Which is why monitor has a great point that is crucial for this map to consider even though I don't think we should deal with it in blanket terms, but instead address individual items. ...So, anyway.

I love this map! This is the first time I've seen anything in an SC2 map that screamed BW feel to me. It just hasn't happened to me until now. I absolutely love all the crooks and corners and alleyways. There is no reason we can't have stuff like that these days -- competitive SC2 is mature enough to handle weirdness. This is the kind of terrain that let's players have a martial arts fight instead of a dumb-show ceremonial combat. What I mean by that is SC2 lacks a battle component that I feel showed up in BW more often, where on-the-fly tactical decisions could blow you away. This goes beyond a neat micro trick. It's the kind of wonder-move that flips the whole strategic momentum of a game. Right now in SC2 map routes are pretty basic... so fights over territory, when they even happen, are very "chunky". You have it or you don't. There isn't really any "bishop hidden in the corner revealing check" kind of tactics that happen. It's not that battles are scripted, but players don't really have a lot of choices once a fight is unavoidable. You just perform the requisite action to the best of your ability. Sometimes by a quirk of proximity to mining and reinforce, you get really cool tipping point situations, but these seem to be more freak accidents where forces were balanced and funneled just right, not the result of an inspired tactical improvisation.

What I'm trying to say is, I see so much potential in this map for all those things to happen given far more tactically relevant terrain, which is why this map lights me up so much. In particular, the wicked chokes between ramps and whatnot give beautiful options for engagements and disengagements at different scales, and as a fight evolves the intervening and nearby terrain becomes more relevant.

I will hold off on evaluating the particulars other than "I like all of the map" because I need to look at it more to say something useful and I don't see any major problems after a short look.

I will say warpins are a sticky issue and probably need to be prevented, and the best way is probably checkerboard unbuildable terrain (so you can still push creep) on the back side of the minerals.

To return to weirdness and acceptability, I think the aesthetics on this map will have extremely increased importance in communicating to the player and spectators what the map is actually doing. I think simple will be best here, with strong visual cues and generally good contrast. Although a strong lore/environment can be just as effective as clean visuals to make it easy to get it and to like it.