Written by KDraconis |
Tuesday, 26 July 2011 21:26
News -
StarCraft II
The upcoming changes to the ladder map pool have been posted on the Battle.net forums, with quite a lot of maps being removed and added.
The following changes are being made to the ladder map pool when Season 3 begins on Tuesday, July 26:
1v1
Removed:
Scrap Station (2)
Slag Pits (4)
Delta Quadrant (4)
Metalopolis (4)
Carried over:
Xel'Naga Caverns (2)
Backwater Gulch (4)
Shakuras Plateau (4)
Tal'Darim Altar LE (4)
The Shattered Temple (4)
Typhon Peaks (4)
New:
Nerazim Crypt (4)
Searing Crater (4)
Antiga Shipyard (4)
Abyssal Caverns (4)
One curious change is the removal of Metalopolis, which has stayed in the map pool since the beta times. This removal is explained in detail in a separate post:
Still, there are reasons why we decided to retire Metalopolis for now:
Metalopolis has been around for quite a long time, over a year including beta. We felt that taking it out of the rotation would make some room for variety in the map pool.
Metalopolis suffers balance issues when close spawn positions occur, but becomes too predictable when they are simply disabled. Close positions have been under a lot of discussion lately, and we’re definitely examining better options to allow for random spawn positions across the map pool without also creating too much predictability and vulnerability to proxy rushes.
Overall balance has also proven to be an issue on Metalopolis -- even factoring in close position spawn issues. It’s among the least balanced maps currently in the ladder pool, and along with Scrap Station (also being removed) and Tal’darim Altar, has a heavy (60%+) bias toward zerg at the highest levels of play.
These map pool additions and removals will be in effect starting Season 3, on Tuesday, July 26.
Sources:
Battle.net - Season 3 Ladder Map Changes
Battle.net - Metalopolis Removal Explanation
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