Ladder Map Changes

[TheProgramer]

I don't know if anyone noticed (Blizzard site hasn't posted it yet**, and no fan site I have seen has said anything) but there was a patch earlier today and it said something simple like "improved StarCraft 2 Updater" or something like that.

Then hours and hours later all of a sudden my game did a weird jump where There were no buttons on the Multiplayer screen. It fixed itslef and I ran a 2v2 with a friend. Lo and behold we were on a map we had never seen (and we had just messed around with map preferences).

So the patch must of had code in it that would lay quiet and then later exchange some of the old maps with the new ones. That's my guess anyway.


So here are the new map pools:

1v1

Scrap Station
Xel'Naga Caverns
Backwater Guch
Delta Quadrant
Metalopolis
Slag Pits
The Shattered Temple*
Typhon Peaks


2v2

Gutterhulk
High Orbit
Khaydarin Depths
Monlyth Ridge
Omega Sector
Red Stone Gulch
Scorched Haven
Haven Tempest

3v3 (No new maps)

Arakan Citadel (and if the Citadel's a-rockin' don't come a-knockin' if you know what I mean ^_^)
Colony 426
Dig Site
Frontier
Monsoon
Quicksand
The Bio Lab
Typhon
Ulaan Deeps


4v4

District 10
Extinction
High Ground
Lava Flow
Megaton
Outpost
Sand Canyon
Toxic Slums


FFA

Metalopolis
Slag Pits
The Shattered Temple*
Quicksand
Tectonic Rift
Abyss


If you guys know which maps were taken out please let me know I don't remember which ones were replaced.

If you guys know anythign about these maps like if they were made by others than Blizzard (it says Author Blizzard) like ICCUP transitions.


*This is Lost Temple but with a few difference the most noticible being no more high ground near the naturals, and the islands are no longer islands.

**JUST FOUND THIS WHEN I COMPLETED DOING THIS THREAD: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2140446299

[JackhammerIV]

Can't believe they took out Shakuras. Guess I'll try out the maps since I had no PTR.:P

[Blazur]

Oh f'ing sweet! Signing on now to check 'em out.

Thanks Blizz!!!

<3 the new 4v4 map

[JackhammerIV]

Damn.....still not on EU server. Guess i'll have to wait.

[MulletBen]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

They made the map pool... worse?

I don't understand. Now I have to downvote BWG, Slag Pits, and DQ.

I suppose it's better than downvoting steppes, BS, JB and DQ, but it really comes down to Typhon Peaks instead of Shakuras and a better LT.

Perhaps they found another glitch on Shakuras? They really need to give more justification for their decisions. Shakuras was easily between the 1st and 3rd best map in the pool (competing with XC and Metal).

EDIT: Arid Wastes too? Do they even play their game?
Although, it did have that backdoor that was way too easy to proxy, so I suppose I might be able to understand.

[JackhammerIV]

Axslav on the new maps:
Basically 4 gate every game. Especially against zerg since other styles not as good. PvT and PvP is pretty much same.

[JackhammerIV]

Comments by catz and other pros on the maps
Backwater gulch:

Hidden Content:

PvZ: Definitely 4 gate good. Feels like delta quadrant. 3 gate expo as protoss not good due to the large ramp. Can only take gold on close positions. Mostly leads to protoss cheese due to the rocks etc. Roach ling can be good. Hard to hold gold since so many entrances. Can be the new jungle basin cos it encourages protoss cheese so much.

TvZ: might be a good map for this. but ledge on third expo has a ledge with two ramps might be advantage for terran to attack. siege tanks on watchtowers can be very strong to block golds. Might be too many exploits on the map. A lot of cliffs everywhere for tanks. catz calls it a worse shakuras but with a lot of random things put in. can't really defend natural with siege tanks.

ZvZ: Basically always ling/baneling. Stay on 1 base for long time. Roaches don't work so well.

Overall: Least liked map. Pretty bad map for every race. Can't really fast expo as any race.

Slag pits:

Hidden Content:

PvZ: hard to take fast expo as toss. toss might never be able to take a third. But 2 base all ins not good on the map. Taking natural is very hard. Zerg good to go ling/baneling or ling/roach. Makes for a pretty bad match. Can exploit the hole in the floor near ramp to main to 4 gate using sentries. Talk about minigun's 4 gate which builds up sentries and stalkers then only attack with a big army. Seems like only thing protoss can do on this map is 4 gate. Maybe phoenix openers good. 3 gate expo seems impossible. Maybe 1 base phoenix will be popular.

TvZ: hard to take fast expo as terran. similar problem of terran finding it hard to take a third. Hard to defend natural. Tanks good in close positions with the rocks blocking the hallway (similar to shakuras). terran has few options. tanks on the bottom of cliff to hit the main.

Overall: Zerg is very good on the map. Just needs to survive early game then really good for zerg in mid-late game. few expos but very big. close spawn not as bad. No third base between you and opponent on close spawn. protoss and terran might not be able to take a third if not closer to zerg. cannon rush might be good because of cliff near main. but might only be good in PvP and PvT due to creep scread.

The Shattered Temple:

Hidden Content:

PvZ: Helpful since protoss doesn't have to worry so much about the islands. Hard to take the natural expo fast. Hard to get enough sentries. Might need to block off the choke near ramp as toss. Can still block off with just forcefields.

TvZ: hard to take fast expo as terran. Don't need to worry on thor/tank drop on ledge. Close positions plays as usual. Small position to put tank behind gas to cover rocks. Better than shakuras horizontal positions. roach/hydra/infestor might be very good. Small raised platforms at the side paths pretty useless to put any units there. Hard for terran to take natural.

Overall: Improvement on lost temple. Middle of map too good for zerg. xel naga is now useless unless on cross positions. Makes it worse for scouting. Between "island" rocks and natural is a cheese hotspot. Gets wider going into natural. Can use it as a place to set up concave for defense. Cross positions against zerg can favour zerg a lot.

Typhon Peaks:

Hidden Content:

PvZ: hard to fast expo as toss.

TvZ: hard to fast expo as terran. destructible rocks between naturals makes tank push through the rocks good. reapers can be good because the rocks between naturals is on low ground. Marauder hellion good.

Overall: terran and protoss can take a second then third quickly. Third probably the low ground as terran/toss. But taking third is dangerous since it's spread thin. Lots of attack paths and expos are far. Harass style works well. not good for terran/toss in mid-late game. Least worst among the new 3 maps not counting the edited lost temple.

Overall all maps:

Hidden Content:

Very very good for zerg. Terran can have some positional advantages with tanks. Protoss basically can't fast expo easily at all. Good maps for 4 gate, harass styles. Saying 1 base or take 2nd base late. Not really macro maps. Protoss will be negatively affected by all the maps. Gretorp predicts TvZ will be 2 base all-in. Protoss going stargate openings if not going all-in.

[Hav0x]

So people have had these maps for a few hours and they already somehow know everything there is to know about them?

[JackhammerIV]

These "people" as you put it havox are root.catz, gretorp, egaxslav and egstrifeco talking about the maps. They looked at the maps and said how they think their respective races will play on it. Sure it's not everything there is to know about the map but i understand the points they were raising and looking at those maps i can sort of feel holding the natural vs zerg is as hard as xel naga. The maps need more testing and more people to try them out. I'll try them out tonight and see how it goes. I'll cross off the old maps and try to play a lot on the new maps.

[JackhammerIV]

So blizzard has given reasons why they removed maps and why they like the new maps.
1v1 Maps Removed:
(2)Blistering Sands

Hidden Content:

We wanted to reduce the number of rush maps in general, and Blistering Sands was one of them. On top of that, Blistering Sands matches resulted in too many all-in games due to the rocks into the main base. The frequency of all-in roach/speedling, 4 warpgate push, or even mass marine/marauder stimpack push by breaking the rocks was a bit too high, so we decided to pull this map from the ladder.

(2)Jungle Basin

Hidden Content:

Jungle Basin has a few traits that make it extremely favorable for Terran, so we decided to remove it from the ladder. These include:

# It's possible to set up siege tanks right below the main base of your opponent and harass his natural expansion while preventing his forces from leaving his base.

# Too many choke points everywhere on the map made it difficult for Zerg to deal with marines, marauders, or siege tank-based skirmishes.

# Difficult access to second expansion

High ground right in from of the ramp leading down to main. Setting up units at both this high ground as well as part of the low ground was too powerful, especially for Terrans that use siege tanks.

(2)Steppes of War

Hidden Content:

Again, we wanted to reduce the number of rush maps, and Steppes was the most rush-friendly rush map we decided to cut. It's not that we don't like rush maps, but we have learned over the course of season 1 that two-player rush maps are generally more one-sided than four-player rush maps. For the ladder map changes, the rush possible maps we'll have will be four-player maps only.

(4)Lost Temple

Hidden Content:

Problems of Lost Temple:

# If one side controls one of the center watch towers, there's no alternate ground-based route to half of the map, meaning it's too easy for the game to become a stalemate with each side taking half of the map.

# Small islands in the corners were problematic in that they were difficult to assault as each of the three races. We noticed it's possible to hold out at one or both of these islands and drag on a game for longer than needed. It was also problematic in that in some matchups, these islands were just free expansions that almost never get attacked, which is not what we wanted in an expansion.

# The choke point by the natural expansions were too small; it was possible to block them off easily using only a few buildings.

(4)Shakuras Plateau

Hidden Content:

This map we decided to remove for a different reason. There isn't a huge problem with this map, but we felt there aren't enough interesting features of this map. The natural expansion is easy to take and defend; there are only two possible attack paths only one of which is generally used, and main bases aren't easy to harass. For a change, we wanted to replace this relatively plain map with something new.

1v1 Maps Added:

(4)Backwater Gulch

Hidden Content:

Backwater Gulch has a familiar main to first expansion layout. Early game play on this map should feel familiar and there probably aren't too many early game threats or difficulties in terms of gimmicky strategies you need to worry about. The second expansion, however, features a high ground area that is accessible by two ramps, meaning it can be easily harassed. The center area has two watch towers as well as two high yield expansions that will be difficult to maintain, and the key to victory in some games could come down to how long you hold one or both of these center expansions.

(4)Slag Pits

Hidden Content:

Metalopolis was one of two favorite maps across the different skill levels of players. We decided to introduce a very similar map, but slightly more macro heavy. We took out Shakuras Plateau, which was a very plain macro map, and added this map instead. Some of the key features of this map are the low ground high yield expansions, the 2 lines of shrub area that can be used to position units, as well as the low ground watch tower that watches over all of the low ground center.

(4)The Shattered Temple

Hidden Content:

The Shattered Temple is a newer version of Lost Temple that's more balanced. Improvements to Lost Temple found in this map include:

# Wider center area

# Watch tower changed to only cover a part of the center of the map. It's possible to sneak units around the corners of the central area without getting detected by the watch tower.

# Rocked off islands. This creates an alternate attack route, and reduces stalemate situations that islands cause.

# Larger choke point by the expansion makes it more difficult to block off.

(4)Typhon Peaks

Hidden Content:

This map has a lot of the fun traits of previous maps. Rocks by on the sides of the map are positioned similarly to Scrap Station to reduce rush distance in vertical start locations. The center has two watch towers and provides the main attack path like in Shakuras Plateau, and the second expansion is similar to the setup of Xel'Naga Caverns. Even though this map is brand new, players will be able to utilize some of their existing strategies that have been used on other maps, and potentially combine them to fit the unique play style of this new map.

Link here:
http://www.shacknews.com/article/676...ds-and-removes

Pics linked from here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=196358