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prefix, i do not have beta.
it seems as though blizzard has a slew of new maps ready for hots. at initial thought they seem to be a fair bit more competent that their attempts in WoL. thirds are still rock'd off in some manner, but general design is a step up.
but then as per this forum, i have to bring up community mapping involvement once again. what are your feelings towards the potential lack of community maps ... once again? blizzard managed to include all of two [non-gsl] maps through 9 'seasons' of wol. do any of you feel hots will be more favorable towards the rest of the community ... or just more of the same?
mod edit:
HQ images courtesy of Timetwister22
Howling Peaks
+ Show Spoiler +
Akilon Wastes
+ Show Spoiler +
Star Station
+ Show Spoiler +
Korhal City
+ Show Spoiler +
Fractured Glacier
+ Show Spoiler +
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Honestly I feel the opposite, I feel like these maps are a massive step backwards. The naturals are hard to hold, the thirds on some are almost impossible. There was one (maybe star station?) where the third was shared between long distance spawns. The maps really don't look that great. 
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Looking through the minimap or through gameplay is not enough for me, can anyone with a beta invite can go to the editor and extract the maps so we can see their overview?
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the most played maps in wol are based on the current meta game in wol and maybe the hots maps could be used as a stepping stone in the hots map pool? The same way the horrid wol beta maps was pushed away from the wol map pool.
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The 2p map with the backdoor rocks to the third is the best I've seen so far. The 4p rotational map with the inbase natural and the new type of rocks at the third is terrible imo. The Protoss themed one is probably the ugliest of the bunch.
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All the Rocks are stupid. But, harder to hold Naturals and Thirds I'm okay with. To many maps these day are turtle to 3 base Attack at the 12-15 min mark. I miss all the timing attacks and all-ins people used to do. The game needs a balance between Cheese and Econ Cheese.
Cheese - Early Pressure - Timing Attacks - Safe Standard - FE - Econ Cheese.
Were at a point were maps are so big and Turtley that Econ Cheese is Standard Play. The problem is that people believe any attack before max is cheese or all in.
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I like the new tilesets! I like that they are trying an in-base hatch for a ladder map.
My hope is that the new units allow for more variation in viable, balanced map designs. However, there is bound to be massive imbalances at the outset and it should be fun to see which of the new map mechanics punish each race, and how.
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dezi
Germany1536 Posts
Need pics to judge better - from stream i'm not quite sure what to say so far.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Almost every map has stuff on it that I hate. Tons of proportion issues, weird ramps and other oddities. The maps are no better than the first batch of WoL maps.
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It seems like they have every intention of supporting UMS maps but no intention of helping melee maps at all. There isn't even a melee or "standard" category in the arcade, not even a real category for maps like monobattles or build order testers. Its like they are actively trying to monopolize melee mapping.
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Canada1995 Posts
I would like to see the pics of the maps first before jumping to conclusions. Any links will be appreciated.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0K3Ty.jpg)
This map is a bit weird, the central bases are a bit weird as well. If the open nat works in hots, I'm not too worried, but it seems like it's not, so I'm not so sure.
3rd design is awk as well, lots of airspace too
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oVKVz.jpg)
Aesthetically, it's actually very beautiful - it seems like they improved on their ulnaar idea but better. It seems like it wont go well with other textures I think, and some of the tiles are off-theme also.
But... 4p mirror map T.T I dun know if all the spawn work.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GaYJB.jpg)
HOLY AIRSPACE MAN
if they just rotate is 45 degrees, the map would be tight and be ok...
The inbase expo is interesting. The rock at third doesnt block expo, but the opponent can break it to make it so.
The textures are also very boring i think. No new cliffs T.T
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iQgWs.jpg)
Mmm I like the cliffs. I like the choosable third, it's their best map so far. But, airspace.. space efficiency.. they're all gah. The choke to the third is also too small i think. dunno if it'll work.
CONCLUSION:
some textures are good, cliffs are good as well.
Map design: they're trying new things, but not well. HOLY AIRSPACE BATMAN also.
Map pics courtesy to Ragoo
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On September 06 2012 06:27 Plexa wrote:
Almost every map has stuff on it that I hate. Tons of proportion issues, weird ramps and other oddities. The maps are no better than the first batch of WoL maps.
I don't think it's fair to draw a connection between maps like Howling Peak, Star Station, and Akilon Wastes, with maps like Incineration Zone, Steppes of War, and Metalopolis. Hell, even Shakuras Plateau was a fluke, since it was originally a 2v2 map(which it's terrible at being). These maps are a large improvement to be sure, whether you like them or not despite that is up to you. My only beef personally is with Korhal City. The. Most. Generic. Fucking. Name. Ever.
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The korhal one has a double wide ramp and close spawns enabled...
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On September 06 2012 18:29 Yonnua wrote:
The korhal one has a double wide ramp and close spawns enabled...
How was it not going to have that? It is rotational. Blizzard doesn't design 4p maps with cross spawn. At least you can't Pylon block on it.
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I don't know much about map making, but we need to keep in mind that Hots havec a different balance, so "good maps" won't exactly follow the same idea of wol good maps.
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interesting maps atleast, they tried new stuff but thats normal for Blizzard and luckily they do. Just imagine if we never had gotten shakuras, wonder if someone would have thought about disabling close spawns, so early.
Maps still need the one easy to ramp block and defend out on the map expansion. Basetrades are just happening a bit to often on the tournament used community maps + antiga.
It is obvious though that they wanted to test out the new units, thats why maps have some specifics that help those units alot. I like the protoss map fighting on a ship in transit hell yeah.
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Some better overviews of the maps can be seen towards the bottom of this article http://gosugamers.net/starcraft2/features/3017.
I wouldn't mind if blizzard came out and said "with these maps we are testing out unique terrain layouts and how they work with the new HotS units, they are not intended to be tournament ready". These maps are clearly shitty in terms of almost all criteria that you would normally judge a map on. The fact that blizz hasn't commented on them makes me worried that they may think they are competitive maps, and even more worried that some tournament admin might think they are too.
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These maps were never made for tournament play.
Blizzard likes to do extreme stuff to make it more entertaining and diverse for casual players. Personally I don´t care, we got more than enough decent community maps.
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well those maps suck 'cept for the tileset (hi star station), but at least they dont follow the 2-player map layout of 99% maps these days
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S6kFZ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/J7y0z.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ioS3j.jpg)
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/44U1v.jpg)
