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What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Alkali Lake)

Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Maybe post another map to discuss?
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

City Park is a pretty popular one

C3G_CityPark.png
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Great example of an awesome map. Great size. A variety of terrain. Love it.
I do mod it slightly by making all the high ground the same height and making the side hills so they can fit a double hex figure on high ground.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Played that for the first time at last year's con. I enjoyed the map, nice and big and open. My only gripe is I'm not a huge fan of single hex height spaces, and there are a couple of them in this one. The fountain itself is hard to get to and ranged fliers really love it.

But yeah, enjoy it otherwise.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Yep, that is why I smooth out the side hills and make sure the fountain is the same height as the hills and the high road.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Sounds like you're playing a different map, then. :p

Should we reassess whether this one should be considered competitive?
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I think it is solid as is.
I just like it my way for playtesting. I do the same for Island Plane Crash, smoothing out the tail section.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Are you noting in the playtests that you're using a custom map?
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Nope. I can start saying just custom map if you want though.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I think in general we should specify what map we're playing on so folks can determine how it might affect the game. If people just read "City Park" they'll think it's the actual one and won't know it's modified. Probably worth a note at least (modified version of City Park) or something.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I think City Park is great. I'll agree with LP that the single hex height can be a real problem though. Those 3 height spots in the center are the biggest control points of the whole map.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I guess a bigger thing I'm asking is that if we don't feel comfortable using maps as-is for playtests, should we consider them competitive maps?
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I think it is still a good competitive map. I just like my version better. :)
Would be cool with tweaking it and some others if that is what folks want.
Not sure who is going to be willing to give up a slot to make that happen though.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I do think it'd be a good project to work to make our competitive maps more competitive, but, yeah, I have a lot of irons in the fire right now.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I guess a bigger thing I'm asking is that if we don't feel comfortable using maps as-is for playtests, should we consider them competitive maps?

I don't think that's as clear cut. I was fine with the map in competitive games, as gaining those high spots was a big deal. In my custom maps for testing I don't typically build like that, so I can get a better feel of the unit I'm testing rather than just bolting for the single hex high ground and have +1 attack and defense for the whole time the unit is alive.

Same reason I don't like DOs in tests, just another variable to play around.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

OK. So if I'm reading you right, are you saying that a competitively balanced map and a good playtesting map are different things?
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

City Park really needs those hills on the side, otherwise all the action is just in the middle.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

OK. So if I'm reading you right, are you saying that a competitively balanced map and a good playtesting map are different things?

Not necessarily that they're DIFFERENT things, but they don't HAVE to be the same.

In competitive, I'm specifically trying to kill all of the opponent's figures. In a playtest, I'm trying to get a feel of the figure I'm testing. If the best play is for my opponent to one-shot kill the tested figure before it does anything, I might fudge the results to actually be able to use that figure, since you don't get any test results out of a dead figure. So I like my maps to be fairly neutral. No massive heights or lava, no huge rivers that block off non-flyers, etc... Single hex spots are also one of those things I don't use. I don't mind playing on it, but those spots can skew results (In my opinion) if you're testing a ranged flyer. (Or the opponent throwing Punisher up there or something is rough to deal with).

Of course that's all very dependent as well, if I'm testing a figure that lives in lava, I'm throwing lava in, etc...
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

City Park really needs those hills on the side, otherwise all the action is just in the middle.

Not really at least for me. About half the time the action is on the side hills otherwise it usually ends up on the road near one of the start zones. It is rare for them to end up in the middle. Usually that only happens if a lone figure is making a final stand.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I end up in the middle a lot (on the official version).
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I like Alkali Lake could do that next.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

Although I think Alkali Lake is a fun map and pretty thematic, I don't think it should be considered as a competitive map. Just the massive height on the one side of the map is enough for me to take it off the list.

To me Alkali Lake is one of 13 out of our 27 competitive maps that need to be reclassified as casual. At least 10 are slam dunks, probably 2 or 3 that would be up debatable.

Of course this is all my opinion.
 
Re: What Makes A Good (Competitive) C3G Map? (Con. Chernobyl

I’d love to see that list, Eric.

Yeah, we can do Alkali next! I generally have the same opinion as Eric. Castle is just hard to work into a map.
 
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