Bases now cost 200,200,150 (terran,protoss,zerg) but they only produce workers in X seconds (let s say 18 sec), bases have no spells, it only produce workers slowly. Their building time is reduced to 50 seconds (approximately), you can upgrade bases to their original in paying difference :
Terran : orbital command cost now 300, forteress cost now 300/150 (build time : 45) Zerg : If queen inject, this starting base only produce two larva (and no automatic production of larva). Hatchery upgrade cost 150 minerals (it can produce queen for 150 mineral as usual), (build time : 20) Protoss : Advanced Nexus cost 200 mineral (build time : 20)
With this tweak and in creating small bases with 4 minerals field (and maybe with 1500 / 900 minerals amount) i think you can improve :
- Speed base developpement (original idea of 12 workers) - Avoid boring repetitive shape of three bases patterns - Vary build orders - More freedom for mapmakers - Small bases (you can even create mineral field which are nearest distance to the base by two cases instead of three, at this moment small bases are done with three minerals field instead of 4)
I m sorry, i haven t time to do such mod, in the best world you have to reduce workers start at 10 and give 100 minerals instead of 50. You will also have to revert the modification of supply in bases which have been the consequence of 12 workers.
Kinds regards,
Idk why you're posting this here. This is a thread about a starcraft melee map contest, not the balance of the starcraft economy.
Balance is not concerning by my suggestion, it s a question of flexibility, improve repeatability in giving more tools to mapmakers for adjust economy speed depending on how mineral fields are setup (numbers of minerals field would be an option to mix gameplay and variety on map)
Why shouldn t i post here if my intention are to suggest variations in SC2 ? I guess mapmaking become repetitive with this 20th map contest, and i have freedom to suggest in this thread something new (which can become positive if some of members have time to work on).
As long as it s not a full redesign of features with a tons of values modifications i think it s not a problem if i talk of this here.
I know you can answer that it would be a part of modification of the game but i m pretty worried about SC2 future so i want to post the idea if some members are interested and where there is more viewers concerning the suggestion
"Balance is not concerning by my suggestion,... Bases now cost 200,200,150 (terran,protoss,zerg)" Whether you want to admit it or not that changes that balance of the economy
Ideally if you are playing a race it s because you think the race is competitive and efficient. In term of balance it means that if the game works out so every unit is worth it, and if every unit is worth it so the mining rate doesn t matter.
I wonder what you are going to argue now.. (then as all bases are affected, there is no effect on balance )
As you said there s data modification and so there s no place for this kind of map but if i m talking of this here it s only because i can ask to community to think about this idea.
I agree on the fact data modification could prevent the map of being part of the contest, i m sorry if people haven t understand the goal of my post.
At best I honestly think this just isn't the thread for the people you want to see it to see it, and at worst it's just offtopic for the thread.
"I wonder what you are going to argue now.. (then as all bases are affected, there is no effect on balance )" That is a dumb as hell argument, if every unit cost 1 mineral it would affect balance, doesn't matter if it's a building or an army unit. Sure it's an extreme example, but I hope you see the point. I'm not going to engage this further.
On January 01 2025 04:45 sidasf wrote: So we are just throwing in the towel and saying "SC2's future is done, might as well throw random shit at the game now that nothing matters anymore"?
3+ Starting positions? Really? We've already done this in SC2's history and it was proven to be unbalanced and unfun. Losing to a 12 pool or a proxy because you scouted the wrong corner is not fun, it's frustrating.
Healing shrines? We are turning defender's advantage upside down. This will be abused by terran drops, battlecruisers, and more. Imagine taking a fight in the middle of the map with a numbers advantage after outmacroing and outplaying your opponent-but oops, they get to the healing shrine and now you lose the fight and the game is over. Again, unfun and frustrating.
How does ANYONE propose to balance StarCraft 2 with something like healing shrines? I've never heard an answer to this problem. It's going to make so many balance problems and abusive strategies that will potentially drive away players. And remember we get ONE balance patch a year. With healing shrines, people are going to develop overpowered, abusive strategies, and we will be stuck with it for another year. It doesn't make any sense to introduce such volatile, untested mechanics 14 years into the game's lifespan. At minimum we should give the players one extra veto.
Is it ESL making these decisions? Feedback from the community about the previous map pool (with amphion, ghost river, etc all the freestyle maps) was very negative with large amounts of people quitting until the map pool was changed. It's clear people don't want more chaos, madness and freestyle maps in this game.
I'm sorry if this comes across as overly negative but I care about SC2, and putting in changes like this will drive away more players than it will attract. It's simply irresponsible, and it's something absolutely nobody is asking for (aside from a handful of vocal people in the mapping community who don't even play the game).
If something as absurd as healing shrines make it into this game, in combination with blizzard breaking replays and dropping tournament support, this will be the breaking point in that I'd be quitting, and I certainly won't be the only one. Just take a look at dota 2 implementing healing shrines (basically the same thing): After Dec 2016 the playerbase took a nose dive, and some years later Valve decided to remove healing shrines.
I'm grateful for everything Monster and Team Liquid do, and appreciate this post. I hope they can modify some of these rules in the interest of the playerbase and game quality.
Say what you will about maps being "imbalanced" for having creativity. 12 pool is an annoying strat, but some of my favorite games played have been on creative or 3p maps like Catallena, King Sejong Station, and Golden Wall.
A unique map pool would bring me back from AoE2 and BW. The state of maps being clones of each other is just as concerning to me as having imbalanced maps is to you.
Yeah, Catellena, the map with asymmetrical creep spread so spawning in certain bases is automatically better than spawning in the other spots (refer to Rogue vs soO at Blizzcon 2017).
Fair enough issues like that should be addressed. 3p maps certainly have their issues, I do believe SC2 sadly got balanced to 2p maps starting with Daybreak and Cloud Kingdom. This is when 4 player maps started to become issues, while before they were commonplace.
If we want creativity in maps maybe then as I listed above King Sejong Station and Golden Wall are the way. Experiment with natural locations, and backdoor entrances. Instead of additional spawns
Bases now cost 200,200,150 (terran,protoss,zerg) but they only produce workers in X seconds (let s say 18 sec), bases have no spells, it only produce workers slowly. Their building time is reduced to 50 seconds (approximately), you can upgrade bases to their original in paying difference :
Terran : orbital command cost now 300, forteress cost now 300/150 (build time : 45) Zerg : If queen inject, this starting base only produce two larva (and no automatic production of larva). Hatchery upgrade cost 150 minerals (it can produce queen for 150 mineral as usual), (build time : 20) Protoss : Advanced Nexus cost 200 mineral (build time : 20)
With this tweak and in creating small bases with 4 minerals field (and maybe with 1500 / 900 minerals amount) i think you can improve :
- Speed base developpement (original idea of 12 workers) - Avoid boring repetitive shape of three bases patterns - Vary build orders - More freedom for mapmakers - Small bases (you can even create mineral field which are nearest distance to the base by two cases instead of three, at this moment small bases are done with three minerals field instead of 4)
I m sorry, i haven t time to do such mod, in the best world you have to reduce workers start at 10 and give 100 minerals instead of 50. You will also have to revert the modification of supply in bases which have been the consequence of 12 workers.
Kinds regards,
Idk why you're posting this here. This is a thread about a starcraft melee map contest, not the balance of the starcraft economy.
Balance is not concerning by my suggestion, it s a question of flexibility, improve repeatability in giving more tools to mapmakers for adjust economy speed depending on how mineral fields are setup (numbers of minerals field would be an option to mix gameplay and variety on map)
Why shouldn t i post here if my intention are to suggest variations in SC2 ? I guess mapmaking become repetitive with this 20th map contest, and i have freedom to suggest in this thread something new (which can become positive if some of members have time to work on).
As long as it s not a full redesign of features with a tons of values modifications i think it s not a problem if i talk of this here.
I know you can answer that it would be a part of modification of the game but i m pretty worried about SC2 future so i want to post the idea if some members are interested and where there is more viewers concerning the suggestion
"Balance is not concerning by my suggestion,... Bases now cost 200,200,150 (terran,protoss,zerg)" Whether you want to admit it or not that changes that balance of the economy
Ideally if you are playing a race it s because you think the race is competitive and efficient. In term of balance it means that if the game works out so every unit is worth it, and if every unit is worth it so the mining rate doesn t matter.
I wonder what you are going to argue now.. (then as all bases are affected, there is no effect on balance )
As you said there s data modification and so there s no place for this kind of map but if i m talking of this here it s only because i can ask to community to think about this idea.
I agree on the fact data modification could prevent the map of being part of the contest, i m sorry if people haven t understand the goal of my post.
At best I honestly think this just isn't the thread for the people you want to see it to see it, and at worst it's just offtopic for the thread.
"I wonder what you are going to argue now.. (then as all bases are affected, there is no effect on balance )" That is a dumb as hell argument, if every unit cost 1 mineral it would affect balance, doesn't matter if it's a building or an army unit. Sure it's an extreme example, but I hope you see the point. I'm not going to engage this further.
The cost tweak of base could be reduced to 1 mineral also, as long as there s some balance on other units.
For my defence, i balance the cost in increasing the cost of the upgrade which will improve the "small harvesting base" to the original base,Too bad you don't want to admit that you are falling into false reasoning
If you have friends, you can ask them what they think about this question, as long as you don't ask the question in a biased way they will answer you the same thing as me
On January 03 2025 11:04 sidasf wrote: Just look at ghost river, where the healing shrine spot was about a ten second walk to the enemy base. That map would have been horrifying with healing shrines. Just 2 base all in w/ terran or roaches, retreat, heal, attack again=game over.
?????????? This is an example of a shrine that would've had little to no impact on the early or midgame given the reflection symmetry layout and small rush distance.
On January 01 2025 04:45 sidasf wrote: 3+ Starting positions? Really? We've already done this in SC2's history and it was proven to be unbalanced and unfun. Losing to a 12 pool or a proxy because you scouted the wrong corner is not fun, it's frustrating.
We have found a way to remove the RNG scouting issue, but we need community support to get Blizzard to implement it.
On January 01 2025 04:45 sidasf wrote: 3+ Starting positions? Really? We've already done this in SC2's history and it was proven to be unbalanced and unfun. Losing to a 12 pool or a proxy because you scouted the wrong corner is not fun, it's frustrating.
We have found a way to remove the RNG scouting issue, but we need community support to get Blizzard to implement it.
Saw the "quick ping" demo, simple and straightforward. Funnily enough in my prior post attempting to "lead the charge" on ideas for maps with more than 2 players I had the disclaimer of this concept being the "easy way out", maybe this is just Occam's Razor in action.
Since Blizzard reduced the beginning of the game in adding 6 workers instead of 3, the game lost 36 seconds of possible scouting. As the income is faster, the cheese were more agressive which lead to some issues. While the idea to speed the base developpement is good, the idea of changing the speed of the economy initially was not appreciated by the majority of players.
Does anyone know if there is a (legal) way to lock spawn positions to a particular race? I think that could open up some variety for map styles, where a certain layout for a main and natural would be fine for Zerg but not fine for Terran or Protoss, so two spawn positions on the map could be Zerg-specific and the others could be specific to Protoss and Terran. Or, a 3-spawn map with each spawn being specific to a certain race would be an option (would need to solve for mirrors).
On January 09 2025 11:43 NinjaDuckBob wrote: Does anyone know if there is a (legal) way to lock spawn positions to a particular race?
Unfortunately there is not. This would also break mirror matchups for the first time even if we did find a way, which is a bit suspect.
So I've been thinking about this, and I think the way to do this would be to have objects/units for blocking/creating paths that have a behavior/effect that scans for the nearest town hall building, and based on that it becomes invulnerable or self-destructs.
For example, if you wanted a ramp for a main that works for Zerg but not for Protoss/Terran, you would have rocks on that ramp that scan for the town hall unit, and if it's a Hatchery then the behavior/effect causes the HP of those rocks to fall to 0. If it's a Command Center or Nexus, either they stay as destructable rocks or have a behavior/effect that makes them untargetable/immune to damage.
Basically, if you can't change the area the spawn point is in, then change the area around the spawn point. It's less flexible than race-locked starting points, but it also solves for mirrors.
On January 17 2025 03:56 Cygnus wrote: Oh nice, some 3 player maps! I like how clean the layout is for Windchill, and Sinking Monastery has interesting ideas going on.
3 player maps are like the holy grail of mapmaking. They are SUCH a pain in the ass to make because there is no reliable symmetry tool for it, you're just sort of eyeballing it and counting squares. It's terrible. I love that Charactr put so much work into these :D
Category:Rush/Standard Size: 134x136 39 s Main to Main 32 s Ramp to Ramp 29 s Natural to Natural 16 blue bases
Description:
Three lanes, one through the center, two around. Different 3rd base options with follow up bases nearby. Some are better suited depending on the matchup and race, providing more open space, flank routes or chokes. four Watchtowers in total, 2 are inside the rock wall and can only be activated if the wall is destroyed.
Map Features: -Main ramp can be blocked off by a single depot and barracks. -Rockwalls blocking path from triangle third towards center + Watchtower inside. -Overlord pillars are highlighted with blue lights, share same doodad and terrain texture. -Watchtower between corner bases. -Highgrounds spread around the dead space in the corners, which can be used as cover for air units vs ranged ground. -Building helpers for walls at the natural choke. -Small pathingblocker doodad in the natural choke for walloffs with fewer buildings
Image further explaining the watchtower inside the rockwall:
134x138, Standard Main Ramp to Main Ramp Distance: 37s A backdoor "disco" ramp out of the natural can be traversed by tiny units only - like zealots, adepts zerglings, banelings, marines, marauders. No stalkers, tanks, roaches, or larger. A second backdoor out of the natural is blocked by two rows of HY minerals, 7/ea. Features: - Two backdoors: a disco ramp for tiny units and a mineral wall. - Two semi-island areas: the corners of the map can only be accessed by the defender via the tiny unit disco ramp. Once rocks are broken, both players can access.
146x136, Standard Close Positions - Main Ramp to Main Ramp: 32s Cross Positions - Main Ramp to Main Ramp: 37s A four spawn map designed for 1v1 only; the opponent’s spawn location is pinged immediately at the start of the game. No need to guess where to scout! This rotational symmetry map creates a variety of scenarios, including asymmetrical but balanced close spawns. A backdoor can be accessed by mining the gold minerals. Features: - The opponent’s spawn location is pinged at the start of the game. - No RNG with scouting. - Asymmetrical but balanced spawns create many interesting scenarios that are unachievable with a 2 player map! - Backdoor can be accessed by mining the gold minerals (two trips opens a path).
136x128, Rush Main Ramp to Main Distance: 33s A small, winding rush map featuring a clockwise expansion pattern. As the game progresses, players must adapt to changing terrain and shorter distances to the opponent. Features: - No triangle third: both players expand clockwise and can choose between forward or defensive expansions.
126x142, Standard Main Ramp to Main Ramp Distance: 36s A central Xel'Naga Tower splits two central high ground pods. Gaining control of the tower provides vision of the primary attack paths, with only the outer paths out of vision range. Collapsible rocks block off strategic pathways. Features: - Two center mineral-only expansions contain 10 blue minerals. - Corner expansions can be walled with collapsible rocks, becoming a semi-island.
140x120, Rush Main Ramp to Main Ramp Distance: 32s A backdoor out of the natural, which leads to a pocket third, can be walled off with two pylons or widened by mining the four gold mineral patches (7 each). The pocket third can be accessed by the opponent once the zerg rocks break. Features: - Backdoor that can be walled with two pylons or a gateway and zealot. - Backdoor path can be widened by the defender by mining the gold minerals (7 each). - Pocket third base is blocked by ground with zerg rocks. Once opened, the opponent and defender can travel in and out. - Many expansions are positioned defensively, with exposed minerals.
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