Melee Map Exhibition

My Starcraft 2 Related Musings

[sc2maps-blog]

Derelict Watcher - New Ladder Map Analysis

So I figured I'd go through all the new ladder maps being added for this upcoming season, and give my analysis of them.  I'll start with the first, and, I think, the best of the new maps, Derelict Watcher. Derelict Watcher reminds me a lot of Antiga Shipyard in cross-spawn positions.  It has what looks like a very similar rush distance, similar third design, and a similar central area with an open box shaped area in its center and two side paths around the central box area.

Let me start with an illustration of standard army positioning.

The natural and 3rd are split by a wide open area that Protoss and Terran armies want to avoid, but where Zerg will want to engage in.  Both Protoss and Terran when faced with a Zerg attack would likely want to wall off their natural, and engage from the 3rd's choke point while doing their best to avoid allowing Zerg to run into the natural.  Protoss would leave a sentry or two at their natural to defend that area.  The Terran would use widow mines or siege tanks.  If they had marines, those would start out by sitting in between the two bases and then pull back into their 3rd where widow mines and siege tank fire could be concentrated to achieve maximum damage.

By the time players get to 4 bases, both armies are either maxed or very close to it.  In such situations, the most important issue is the distance of the 4th from their opponent and the distance of the 4th from their 3rd.  Relying on choke points is of diminished importance because the armies are so huge.

Antiga Shipyard had a very difficult, in many cases, impossible, 4th for both Terran and Protoss against Zerg.  The gold expansion was very wide open, too far forward, and with high ground overlooking it.  The expansion to the player's left was towards their opponent, guarded by rocks, had a wide open secondary entrance leading into it, and on the opposite side of the map from their 3rd.  This lead to a lot of 3 base all-ins on that map.

The 4th on Derelict Watcher is much more reasonable.  As you can see from my illustration, the backdoor into the 4th can be closed off, and an army can easily move back and forth between the natural, 3rd, and 4th to defend any of them.  I'm a little worried about ZvT.  If a bunch of siege tanks are positioned on the high ground above the 4th, then a Terran army can swoop in to kill it, and it'd be very difficult for a lair tech army to defend because they'd have to run past the siege tanks, which would be well-defended by the high ground.  However, there are two reasons why I don't think this will be a major issue.

For one, if a Terran player is heavily favoring siege tanks, then the Zerg can always expand to the 1'o'clock or 6'o'clock bases as their 4th instead.  This is because Terran mech is highly immobile, so taking a base that is further from you and your opponent can in such cases be advantageous.  The second is that such an attack leaves the Terran completely exposed to a counter at their 3rd or natural.  Since the Zerg army is more mobile, they can abandon their 4th, do such an attack, and then pull back to defend their own 3rd.

So I think this is a pretty good map.  My main concerns are the rush distance, and the lack of good choke points towards the center of the map, but overall it seems quite well balanced.

[sc2maps-blog]

This build is definitely worth checking out.  It's very micro-intensive, but I think it's a great departure from traditional WoL strats into more HotS-oriented strats.

[sc2maps-blog]

This is just something I've been working on.

[sc2maps-blog]

The 10 Things You Need to Learn in SC2: No. 3 - Use Your Control Groups

See the above graph?  It's from a study called Skillcraft on what sort of traits separate players of different skill levels.  The number one difference was either APM (actions per minute) or Action Latency, neither of which is really useful since they're just fancy ways of saying play faster.  "Gap between PACs" and "Number of PACs" are unique metrics incorporated into the study.  PAC stands for perception action cycle, and long-story short, it's just another fancy way of saying play faster; again, not very useful.  But the 2nd and 3rd biggest difference between diamonds and professionals were metrics called "Select by hotkeys" and "Assign to hotkeys".  Now that is useful because it's a very specific thing that you can work on during your games.  The reason control groups are so critical is because they turn a 3-mouse click action into a single keystroke action.  Without a control group for an object, you have to first find the object, then position your screen over the object, select it, perform your action, and then move your screen back to wherever you were originally.  If you already have a control group for it, you just have to hit your control group and perform the action.  It dramatically simplifies everything.  The two most critical control groups are for your bases and for your production facilities.  You'll be using those two to build workers and army units.  Later on, you can add in control groups for your main army, harass units, scouting units, and specialty units.  While you're at it, you can also practice cycling subgroups (the tab button in standard hotkeys), which lets you use abilities from multiple units from the same control group.

[sc2maps-blog]

Some stuff I was testing out to decide on my design style for my next map.

[sc2maps-blog]

OH MY GOD!

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=408416 Are you entering?  I'm entering!  You should enter.  You should get your friends to buy Starcraft just so they can enter.  Everybody should enter because we need a better map pool and this is the only way to get Blizzard to pay attention to a map not made by one of their staff or somebody from Korea, probably on Team Crux.

[sc2maps-blog]

PvT - Big Economy Zealot-Archon Build

Back in WoL, I used to do early DT harass into 10-gate zealot/archon as my main build.  When HotS introduced the widow mine and fast medivacs, for a while I thought my build was dead. But I think I've finally solved how to do it.

Gate-core expand (specific timings 9 pylon, 13 gate, 14 assimilator, 16 pylon, 18 core, 21 stalker, 23 assimilator, 24 pylon, 24 MsC, 26 Nexus, 27 Warpgate)

Sentry-Pylon-Double Forge-Twilight Council-Stalker 1/1 upgrades 2 Photon Cannons-Dark Shrine-Nexus-Stalker 4 Gateways-4 Gas-Robo Blink-2/2 upgrades-More Gateways Use the probe that builds the Nexus to check for any proxy buildings, then send it to a watchtower to watch for early pressure.  Scout for their base if it's a 4-player map.  Send it home when the stalker is out on the map.

The first stalker should head for the opponent's base as soon as the MsC pops out to check for their expansion.  The MsC can also do a mini-scout along the back of the opponent's main, but make sure to send the MsC core home by 6:30 in case you need to photon overcharge for defense.  The 1st stalker can stay out on the map to watch for pressure.

Your 3rd stalker and 2 cannons should finish around 7:15 which is the time when the standard widow mine drops occur.  You'll have 2 stalkers (a 3rd watching for front pushes), a sentry, MsC, and the 2 cannons, enough to defend with, and he won't have any more than 1 medivac. This drop will either delay or severely weaken any follow-up timings, so if you defend it, you'll likely be safe until at least 10:00.  The 3rd nexus can be delayed by up to a minute if it has to be.

If you see any big ground pushes between 7:00 and 9:00, then the opponent is most likely all-in.  Cancel the 3rd and get lots of gateways, a 3rd gas, plus a robo.  You;ll have two photon overcharges available by 9:00, so the natural can be done twice starting at 8:00.  Try and sneak a probe out for a proxy pylon for a potential DT counter during their push.  They most likely won't have turrets at home to defend it.

If they haven't attacked yet, it's a good idea to use a hallucinated phoenix or oracle from your sentry around 8:00 to see what they're up to.

9:00 are the earliest medivac timings if they don't put on any early pressure.  For this you'll have 5 gates with more on the way, 1/1, and 2 photon overcharges, plus the ability to do DT counters.

You'll want to try and go up to 8-12 gates before going for your splash damage units (colossus, high templar).  This is because you'll need to rely on a bigger economy and therefore army size to win your early engagements.  Zealot-Archon is really good against MMM without ghosts, and blink stalkers aren't bad either for sniping stray medivacs.

I think I'll leave SCFusion running a little while longer to see if it comes up with anything better.

In PvT, I think the long-run direction is either going to be towards fast thirds or phoenix builds.  The fast thirds will rely on bigger economy to deal with medivac harass in the mid-game.  The phoenix will shut it down entirely, and force direct engagements where forcefields can be used.  I think it was MC who was quoted as saying that the reason he was doing so well in PvT is because he's playing HotS while all the other protosses are still playing WoL.  A lot of tosses are still doing 2-base tech plays where they go for fast double upgrades and colossus or fast storm before expanding.  The new medivacs are forcing those players to waste a lot more army than they're used to for defense, take super late thirds, and then play catch up the rest of the game.  That's not going to work long term.

[sc2maps-blog]

The 10 Things You Need to Learn in SC2: No. 2 - Don't Get Supply Blocked

When you get supply blocked everything stops until you unblock your supply.  It's a critical component for following rule number 1, constant worker production, but it also prevents you from building up your army, sometimes at key moments like when you're about to be attacked.  Keep a constant eye on your supply, so that you're always upping it at the right times, not too early and not too late.  It's also handy because it's right next to your money, something we'll talk about later.  So you can glance at that at the same time.

[ktvmaps]

[sc2maps-blog]

This is probably the only other sc2 mapping blog on tumblr so I should probably link to it. Fotra Kepuka

The low-ground main is interesting.  The center feels a little too open.  But the expansion layout seems to work, even if the 4th doesn't flow perfectly from the 3rd. His portfolio is here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=405653

[grandterminus-deactivated201609]

[sc2maps-blog]

via nazerath.

Starfoxcraft!!

[sc2maps-blog]

One of the mapmakers who I think is doing some of the coolest stuff out there currently is NewSunshine from Team DreamForge.  His work rate is ridiculously prolific.  He comes out with a new map almost every month on the Team Liquid forums, and although he does make the occasional map that I don't feel quite works, the overall scope of his work is well-balanced and quite beautiful.  To the best of my knowledge, he also, unfortunately, has never had one of his maps included in the map pool of a major tournament.  Check it out:

Cataclysm

Phoenix Cluster

Desolation

Via Benefico

http://dreamforgemaps.net/

[sc2maps-blog]

The 10 Things You Need to Learn in SC2: No. 1 - Constant Worker Production

1) Constant Worker Production

It's just the most important thing you could be doing, almost always.  Whenever you want to know why you lost, the first thing you should look at is whether you maintained constant worker production throughout the game until you reached at least 70 workers.  If there was ever a time when you cut workers, you better have a good reason for it.

Don't believe me?  Let me throw out some numbers.

Let's say at 4:30, you forget to build 1 worker for 5 game seconds.

Then, at 5:20, you forget to build a worker again, this time for 8 game seconds.

At 6:00, your expansion finishes, and you forget to build 2 workers for 15 game seconds.

At 7:30, you forget 2 workers for 6 seconds.

At 8:45, you forget 2 workers for 4 seconds.

At 10:00, 2 workers, 12 seconds.

At 11:00, your third finishes, and you immediately get 3 workers.

But then at 11:17, you forget to do the 2nd round of 3 workers for 22 seconds.

You maintain constant worker production for the rest of the game.  This is fairly typical of a gold league player.

Just how much have you hurt yourself?  Well...

5+8+2x15+2x6+2x4+2x12+3x22=153

A worker takes 17 seconds to build, so 153/17 = 9

You're roughly 9 workers behind where you're supposed to be.  A worker mines about 40 minerals or gas per minute, so 9x40=360 minerals lost per minute or 1,800 in 5 minutes.  That's around 20 units.

So, after watching several of your own replays, ask yourself, was there a certain time in the game where you consistently forgot to make workers.  If so, what were you doing that distracted you?  In the future, focus on making sure you maintain worker production whenever that happens.  That is always your number one goal. This is part of a series of blog posts I'm going to be doing.  You can guess how many posts there will be based on the title.

[deaddolin]

These posts crop up a lot I know but like, seriously ... If Y’all reblog shit such as the FOLLOWING then REBLOG IT AND I MIGHT FOLLOW YOU????: ... STARCRAFT ...

[sc2maps-blog]

Ever gotten annoyed by how hard it is to switch between textures to see what they look like?  Well, this handy list sorts them for you by type, and lets you view them.  Bricks, concrete, sand, grass, rocks, it's all here. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=177832

[sc2dragon]

[sc2maps-blog]

This gives a good overview of a fairly standard method of opening in PvZ.  The important concepts to take away from the video are getting a proper wall-off, scouting, a zealot/stalker/mothership core harass, stargate follow-up, and how to take a third.  Oracle/phoenix can be used interchangeably with warp prism harass or DTs although the latter two are less common.  Nexus-first is standard at pro level, but quite difficult to execute.  You can do the same thing off a FFE, gate-expand, or a gate-core expand to avoid a lot of headaches. h/t to sc2dragon

[sc2maps-blog]

Apparently the ability to stack workers, and let them get out of surrounds by clicking on mineral patches was originally a bug they just never bothered to fix, not a feature. http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-starcraft-path-finding-hack

[sc2maps-blog]

When you're designing a map, please don't use a wide-open natural.  It's just bad for PvZ.  It eliminates nexus-first completely.  Standard FFE builds have to be designed with two cannons and an extra pylon to get adequate defense, which is a 250 mineral money sink.  Gate-expands can't be walled off in time to deal with ling pressure, so are a major risk.  This leaves only gate-core expand as a macro-oriented build, which most players believe doesn't force a big enough drone cut to be worth the heavily delayed nexus if the Zerg reacts properly.  And Zerg can proceed with the assumption that the toss is either going to do a gate-core expand, a 1 base all-in, or else they're going to be able to get way ahead simply by taking a slightly early gas and being prepared to build a ton of lings if they spot an opening.  The sad thing is, most map designers are aware of the convention that you're not supposed to build wide-open naturals.  But many of them don't understand why, so they ignore the rule.