Adaptability, Creativity, and Randomnized Map Generator

[Benthum]

Some say men think about girls every five seconds. For me, this is also a good approximation of the rate I think about Starcraft. So when I re-read the book "Ender's Game" last week, I couldn't help but relate the story to our beloved RTS game.

If you're one of the two people who has never read or heard of "Ender's Game" (read it), it's about a boy military genius, Ender, and his struggle to win simulated battles. Even when the odds were unfavorable, Ender beat his fellow trainees through adaptability and creativity... elements I say is lacking in modern Starcraft.

"But that's blasphemous! Haven't you even heard of Boxer!? OMFG BBQ!"

Let me explain:
Clearly, early Starcraft was very different. Players like Boxer used new strategies to catch their opponents off guard. But as expected with all games with static rules, the obvious strategies were soon figured out, and overtime, new ideas appeared less frequently.

To be sure, the game is still evolving (i.e. mech-build vs Zerg), but these new ideas appears very, very infrequently and once the dust settles, the new quickly becomes the mechanical. Forge fast expand, for example, wasn’t always the norm for PvZ.

The result? Modern games follows a repetitive pattern of player A doing an opening and player B reacting by choosing a known counter (I see you 9 pool, so I’ll put down 2 canons before nexus). So rather than a game of "who can out think the other", the weight has shifted to "who can click the fastest".

"So what? Clicking requires skill, and even if the strategies are repetitive, it’s fun to watch players macro and micro to those set patterns!”

But ask yourself this, why do so many people still like Boxer these many years after his prime? And why are so many others from the old days never heard of again? Simply, Boxer did the ridiculous, and his creativity is exciting to watch, and we prefer innovative players over the mechanical ones. It’s the players who innovate – Savior (use of swarm), Bisu (Bisu build), Flash (Dual Armory build), Fantasy (Fantasy build, mech build), July Zerg (Mutalisk Stacking), Jaedong (2-hatch muta, queen usage) etc… we remember and like to watch.

But modern players face a serious problem when it comes to creative play. The game has been so played out, that viable strategies are already known by everyone. Even Battlenet noobs like myself know the basic openings for each race. But who can blame the players? Repetitive strategies are repetitive because they work. Deviate from known counters, and you’re sure to lose. So in a sense, the players have become slaves to overused, over-studied strategies. Strategies that, I say, ultimately have their roots in the maps.

The map is a huge influence, if not the sole culprit in shaping strategies. To give an extreme example, Zergling rush works EVERYTIME on the old map Blood Bath. And in modern games, some maps heavily favor certain strategies. For example, we only see ZvZ on Battle Royal. No team would send P or T players because Battle Royal favors Zerg players so much that no P or T strategies works. Besides these extreme examples, modern maps all have very similar layouts: A main with a ramp, a natural expo or two, and the size of the maps are also very alike. So expectedly, strategies remain largely the same from map to map.

Maps effecting stratagies are expected, but it becomes detrimental to creativity when players enter a match fully aware of the terrain. They no longer have any reason to deviate from the tried and true build orders. So even before the match begins, creativity has already become a minor element during gameplay.

The solution? Randomize the terrain for each game, and force the players to adapt. Force them to scout aggressively (not only the other player, but also the battlefield), force them to analyze the terrain for the best build order, force the players to decide where to position their units. No longer will players enter a match with a playbook. Instead, they’ll have to outsmart the enemy with novel strategies to best suit these novel battlefields.

Only then will each match will be truly unique. We’ll see victories resulting from maneuvers and adaptation rather than macro and static build orders. Gone will be the days when commentators use the first few minutes of the VOD to give shutouts. Important decisions will begin from the start.

Here's my point: include randomized map generator in Starcraft 2, and make adaptability and creativity a bigger part of the game!


Edit: On Balance of randomly generated maps:

Something to keep in mind is that maps we already have are imbalanced and they're made by PEOPLE. So nothing less should be expected from randomly generated maps.

In non-mirrior matchups, it's inevitable that some imba will occur. But ultimately this is a problem of small sample size. In a best of, chances are the players will get lucky or unlucky equally. The uniqueness of each map also means that players won't automatically know if a map favors their race, much less the specific things they can do to take advantage of the terrain. In other words, an imbalanced map does not automatically grant a win or loss because the mystery of the battlefield gives extra room for the underdog to win - a balancing element that repetitive maps lack.

Finally, imba can also add excitement to the game. It’s admirable when a player wins, but much more so (and more entertaining to watch) if he wins despite the odds.

[Blazur]

Here's my point: include randomized map generator in Starcraft 2, and make adaptability and creativity a bigger part of the game!

Dude, I would absolutely LOVE to see a radomize map feature in SC2 and have been fighting for this for years now. There is simply no better way to make this game more exciting than by mixing up the terrain and resources, forcing players to adopt and strategize on-the-fly. Then SC2 is less about click speed and actually about thinking strategically on the execution of a plan based on your surroundings. Plus, the fact that games start with the terrain revealed makes this mechanic more approachable.

They managed to pull this off with Age of Mythology, and personally I felt it was a wondrous feature.

Sadly, I fear Blizzard is unwilling or unable to pull off something like this for SC2. As the days pass this game gets less and less innovative, bringing it to a shadow of its former shelf. It's really disappointing.

[Visions of Khas]

I like this idea. Though I count myself as probably the worst StarCraft player here and known nothing of these strategies, I've noticed that players will stick to a small number of maps that they know like the back of their hand. Hell, I learned this through Halo: when my best friend was tutoring me, he indicated that knowledge of terrain was more than half the battle. "Our team has to secure such-and-such item for strategy X to succede; if the enemy acquires the item, we counter in thisway."

Very mechanical and repetitive. Though Diablo 2 is similar to an extent, randomization of the terrain at least made grinding sessions bearable.

I approve.

[DemolitionSquid]

The problem with random maps in SC2 is the competition and balance. SC wouldn't be nearly as popular today if maps couldn't be certified balanced.

[Blazur]

The problem with random maps in SC2 is the competition and balance. SC wouldn't be nearly as popular today if maps couldn't be certified balanced.

Understood. This mechanic likely wouldn't be suitable for ladder play where balance hinges on symmetry. But jeez if they could pull it off and gave us the option, I'd gladly opt for a random map over the standard maps which will eventually dominate B.NET. You'd have to do so with an open mind, knowing you could possible draw the wrong card.

[Norfindel]

What about including a lot of possible human-created maps which are choosen randomly? Or that the random map creator creates symmetrical maps always? (should be easier to do now that there are ramps in all directions, right?)

[Blazur]

Or that the random map creator creates symmetrical maps always?

That's a sound solution. Kinda ups the ante, but I'm sure they could pull it off given the stunning programming that went into D2's randomization.

Really hope Blizzard reads and considers this...

[trace wm]

I support this idea simply because it's related in some way, shape, or form to Ender's Game.

[Xyvik]

The problem with random maps in SC2 is the competition and balance. SC wouldn't be nearly as popular today if maps couldn't be certified balanced.

While that is true, the Age of Empires series has quite a large tournament setting (no, not as big as SC is) and they play random maps on it.

I fully agree with this, but I know Blizzard won't. Blizzard believes that -anything- random is the opposite of strategy, which is dead wrong.

What is strategy based on? War. What is war? War is all about dealing with the unknown. No matter how good your intelligence service, no matter how much you plan, -something- is going to happen on the battlefield that you didn't expect. Most of the time it -is- human induced, of course, IE the enemy general does something you don't expect. But a good 25-50% of the time the unexpected happens in weather (which blizzard ruled out) in terrain differences, in battles going into areas that weren't explored beforehand and weren't part of the equation, by equipment breakdown, morale surging or falling, etc. etc.

I do not agree with having things like equipment breakdown or morale in an RTS game (morale is my largest hate factor of the Total War series). But having a random map and random weather would force players to improvise.

Since weather is ruled out, random map is the next thing. It would be beautiful and allow for things to be different.

I must applaud you, Benthum. Your views on the subject are almost -exactly- what mine are. Bring back STRATEGY to the genre, not 'who-clicks-the-fastest'.

QUOTE: Blazur / Norfindel
Age 2 and Age 3 have very specific set rules on the random map generators that always make sure the tournament maps turn out symmetrical. It isn't really all that difficult to do.

[RODTHEGOD]

The problem with random maps in SC2 is the competition and balance. SC wouldn't be nearly as popular today if maps couldn't be certified balanced.

well in theory they could design a map generator that one option could be to select the number of players that would be allowed on the map and/or select how the map will be symmatrized. like would it be left-right, top-bottem, the 2 diagonal options, 4 corners or even cross placement. the map generater would then generate a map for one of those areas and then replicate the exact same terrain in the other sections. That would allow the option of symmatry on the maps.