Fixing the Map Situation: Bring in Old BW Maps

- Neutral Critters everywhere.
- 6 player map
- Most expansions are islands, except other mains.
- Fairly small.

- It is very hard to place buildings. Most units, if not all, that many people consider imbalanced come out of buildings. Less buildings = less imbaimba
- Some complain that sc2 is “too easy” compared to BW. Having to clear out Critters could raise the skill ceiling and widen the gap between pros and Joes.
- Many zerg players are often very sad about how hard it is to scout and pressure when there’s a wall. Not only do the critters make walling very difficult, the choke is quite large and it takes a lot of buildings to block.
- Would encourage exciting air play because there are no air critters and air units mysteriously don’t collide anyway. Air play would also help secure the island bases.

- Can’t place rocks because they would interfere with the Critters.
- Sc2 critters are considerably easier to kill than BW Critters.
- Hellion might be too powerful at clearing Critters.
- WC3 players and their sick creep clearing skills might have an unfair advantage. Conversely, they might become too focused on killing the Critters, thinking it will make their units stronger.

- Many mineral patches all over the map, but without many minerals per patch.
- No easily reached gas, you have to clear yourself a path there.
- You can’t get access to your opponent without clearing enough patches.
- The map is very small (64x64)

- Most units that people claim to be imbalanced are gas heavy, like Colossus, Banshees, and Infestors. By making gas just about impossible to get, it is much harder to get these units. This may make the game more balanced.
- People often complain about being cheesed. If you cant get gas or reach your opponent for 15 minutes, it will be much harder to cheese them.
- Many current sc2 maps are criticized for making it hard to take bases. This map, however, is essentially one giant base. You can make a Command Center, Nexus, or Hatchery basically anywhere you want.
- Depending on how many paths are cleared out, there can be many opportunities for counter-attacking and general aggression.

- There’s not much room to place destructible rocks. I suppose some floating rocks could be put up to inhibit air movement.
- Could potentially be Terran favoured for the following reasons:
1) Command Centers fly so you don’t have to keep making new ones.
2) Marines don’t cost gas and I hear they’re pretty good.
3) Mules provide an advantage in path-carving.
4) After some gas is reached, you can drop SCVs or mules to clear out a small hole in the minerals. Then you could drop a tank in there and freely siege whatever the hell you want to.

- Covered in trees.
- Trees block sight and inhibit movement.
- Backdoor expo with cliff over it.

- Some people have complained about Watch Towers possibly giving too much map awareness. The forest is essentially the opposite of a Watch Tower.
- Mules have historically been called imbalanced on occasion. The forest might force Terran to spend more energy on scans than he might otherwise want to.
- On current Sc2 maps, it can sometimes be hard to hold expansions. The backdoor expansion combined with the increased risk of applying early pressure through the forest might make the expansion more safe.

- Colossus don’t care about the trees because they’re so tall and have telescopes.
- Baneling mines might be too powerful.
- Can’t put Watch Towers because it would defeat the whole purpose of the map.
- Getting surrounds is very hard. You have to surround an area of the map randomly and hope their army is there.

- Obscenely long rush distances.
- Second gas base is very very far.
- Cliffs over all the expansions. Also the main.

- The walking distance from main to main is roughly two days. This allows for longer, more macro-based games.
- Since your second base will likely be gasless, zerg is encouraged to get more queens. This will help with the seemingly impossible task of creep spread.
- Although the long distances make direct attacks difficult, the cliffs encourage harassment and ensure the game is action packed.
- The many tight chokes, often overlooked by cliffs, provides a nice defender’s advantage.
- There are many locations on the map that look like they desperately want destructible rocks.

- So big that Watch Towers might not be that useful.
- Planetary Fortresses might be too strong, especially on the gas bases in the middle.
- Possible Zerg imbalance for the following reasons:
1) Zerg units are really fast and are therefore the least affected by the size of the map.
2) There is really only one lane that you have to spread creep on. If you’re really gosu you can spread around both sides in the center but is isn’t necessary.
3) Infestors are (obviously) the scariest unit that could be dropped on a cliff.

Ok basically I just wanted to show that not even BW was perfectly set with regards to maps. This was especially true in its earlier days (like we’re in for Sc2 right now) when Showdown was totally a legitimate pro map. Demon’s Forest was a real pro map as well, in 2008 no less. Though to be fair it only lasted 8 games. In short: Shitty maps happen.

Images taken from TLPD or Liquipedia. Some of the “Notable Features” were taken from Liquipedia as well. <3 the Liquipedia people.