[G] Judging a Melee Map

If you're wondering, I'm doing UMS/Arcade mapmaking now

On September 25 2012 02:47 BongChambers wrote:
Maps are quite frankly top 3 most important things about SC2 or BW or quite frankly any RTS, its the battle feild in which all your battles take places, just ask any General or commanding officer how important knowing the Terrain and layout of the battleground is.

Gotta love MapMakers that really put time and effort into everything about thier map rather then just "ooo 4 base map and pretty doodads all over the place "

On September 25 2012 13:37 monitor wrote:
The only I think you've missed is- What makes this map special? What maps the map different from the other maps in the map pool? What was the motivation behind making it? What gameplay does it feature?

All of these questions are asking about the map concept. Its what kind of gameplay you are trying to emphasize. Maybe the map addresses something in the metagame, like early Protoss third bases. Or the static three/four base layout that we see so often. Basically, there should be some purpose to the map, even if its something as simple as a learning map (developing editor skills) or to be perfectly balanced.

On September 25 2012 14:52 EatThePath wrote:

This might be the most important thing for mappers to consider once they are confident in their basic competence.

On September 25 2012 11:47 Plexa wrote:
tldr; play the map before judging it


good job barrin

On September 25 2012 16:15 Samro225am wrote:


The main problem I see with this attitude is that people think they just have to try to get some cool features together and forget about tweaking all the small think, adjust chokes and spaces , consider flow.

But yes, it is a smart strategic decision to make something cool, conceptual that stands out and looks like it will play different (just hope that people go beyond the two/three bases that you made standard

And these two points:

On September 25 2012 16:49 EatThePath wrote:

Well you know I favor novelty.

However I was seconding (what I understand to be) monitor's standpoint, which is that the best state of mind for mapmaking is where you consider the holistic experience of the map, the total outcome of what you've made. Having the vision to access that during the creative process and not in retrospect is the hardest thing there is about mapping; I'm not sure anyone is consistently at that level yet.

we could call ourselves lucky if we all were on the level to make solid maps consistently