Adaptability, Creativity, and Map Generator - Page 5

Here's my analogy for you guys. Starcraft has often been compared to chess, so this might be an appropriate comparision.

Chess is a game whose board and rules never change. The only variable is player choice. The result of this are dozens of "standard openings", not unlike the kinds we see in professional Starcraft. Each standard opening has a rather standard response, though deeper into chess games you can see how creativity can affect the game. However, some chess games can be played rather mechanically, as well, several moves deep into a game.

There is a chess variant called Fischer Random Chess, or Chess 960, which randomizes the starting position of the nearest row of pieces (the non-pawns) except for the position of the king (must be between two rooks), and the two bishops must start on opposite colored squares. This results in 960 different possible starting positions of those 8 pieces (mirrored on the other side, but notably not reversed). It's named after Bobby Fischer because he prosposed it, as it allowed an individual's maneuvering and tactical prowess in the game to shine, rather than standard play (or more specifically, standard play is what the smart people created and everyone else copied when it was proven to work). A true depth of chess understanding is required to know how to do the best with your units and their starting positions, rather than knowing exactly how you're going to open weeks beforehand (as I'm sure Fantasy knew exactly what he was going to do to Jaedong on a map like Neo Medusa well ahead of time).

There's no reason this can't be true of Starcraft II maps, as well. No one is saying the map should be completely randomized (just as Chess 960 is not). What should be randomized in this scenario are distances between starting positions, arrangement of expansions, presence of islands, inter-base terrain features (chokes, high ground, watch towers). The computer can of course be told to generate these maps based on simple formulas like "starting base requires 9 mineral patches and 2 gas, with adjacent natural expansion with 9 mineral patches and 2 gas", and what is random is the way they open onto the map, the elevation and the choke (defensibility), and destructible features around the map.

What if the map has randomly generated a vulnerable backdoor cliff that a colossus or reapers could exploit? That means all of the bases have it. Scouting and adapting to the map as play unfolds requires skill, and exploiting it requires on-the-fly creativity. These are aspects of competition that should be more rewarded than running a build you've practiced thousands of times. Sure, after the match you could say it was imbalanced, but you can also ask yourself "What could the loser have done to prevent the exploit of these features?"

Anyway, random maps would of course be mirrored and modular. That is to say if a base spawns with a nat and mineral-only third, all behind the same choke, then so do the other starting positions on the map. Does this provide a distinct advantage to one race? Maybe. It's your job to figure out how to crack it before the other opponent can figure it out of exploit it. This can only increase the level of competition in Starcraft.

Taking away standard maps at least allows for some players to prove and win based on their adaptability. I'm kind of surprised that KESPA doesn't introduce "surprise" maps, one that the players don't know about ahead of time, but are familiar with and have practiced on. Would Fantasy have done as well against Jaedong if he had not known the map would be Neo Medusa for the ace? What if it had been hidden from the players until game time? Would've been interesting.

On August 11 2009 04:54 PH wrote:
This is not a good idea. If you don't like what SC has developed into, that's just fine. I think there's plenty of variety in gameplay, and I don't need to see Boxer-esque play every game to be entertained/satisfied. It's hard enough learning to properly execute the "standard" build order, and I don't think you appreciate the meticulous preparation that progamers put into every televised match in order to counter what they expect their opponent to do.

Beyond that...randomized terrain? The positional imbalances would be ridiculous. How would you guarantee that the main only has one entrance? How would you guarantee there's a natural? How would you guarantee the bases are distributed fairly?

Not many seem to understand this, but even mirror matchups can suffer from map imbalances if they're positional and terrain-based ones, just like on old Medusa at the 6 o'clock base with the main gas being tankable from the back ridge.

There'd be no point in preparing build orders anymore if you had no idea what the fuck the map you were going to play on would be. Actually...really, how the fuck would you practice in the first place?

I can't believe how many people actually LIKE this idea.