With the new Ladder season comes a new map pool! But before the maps enter the fray on Ladder, they will be available for testing in Custom Games starting today. Read on for more of our philosophy on maps.

1v1

Thank you everyone for working towards pushing map diversity through really distinct maps. As we’ve discussed many times before, the primary goal of map diversity is to mix up strategies and build orders—when playing online as well as when viewing tournaments. It’s a much better experience to be able to explore various strategies by making each map as unique and different as possible compared to other maps in the pool. For map cuts, the obvious three to cut are the oldest maps, Orbital Shipyard, Lerilak Crest, and Ruins of Seras. The last map we decided to cut was Central Protocol, the weakest map out of the remaining four.

With that said, let’s talk about the unique features of each new map going into 1v1.

This is one of the map layouts that we discussed with the community a couple months ago. This map features an easily defended main attack path. A small ramp leads down to the center path that players can easily build structures and send units to defend. Once this is taken care of, the main avenues of attack will be the farther ground paths. We’re hoping to see a good mix of positional play around the center of the map as well as mobile or air units being a bit more effective in utilizing the far paths.

This is the second map that came from the many community discussions asking “Are there ways to slowly push a more island-like map, without making an actual island map?” Destructible Rock Towers right outside of your natural expansion can cut off all ground paths to your base, and provide up to four bases that you can secure while watching over the blocked-off paths. We will evaluate how something like this works, and then maybe push the idea further in the future.

This is the map we also discussed as being a potential replacement to Central Protocol. The main similarity is that the third base is much more difficult to take than other maps. The improvement we believe Invader has to compensate for this disadvantage is that the fourth base is much easier to take once the third is secured. We’re excited to see how this map turns out.

The main cool factor of this map looks to be the fact that Destructible Rocks and Rock Tower usage will be critical both on offense and defense. For example, if the back door rocks to the main base aren’t broken at the correct time, it could be very difficult to stop harassment attacks. On the flip side, we liked the fact that there is a Rock Tower that can be broken very close by, so holding that location is much easier. Overall, this map really pushes the boundaries of heavy strategic usage of Destructible Rocks and Rock Tower mechanics, so we’re very interested in seeing how the maps turn out.

Team Maps

For team maps, our main focus was to create overall good diversity on a per format basis, and we also wanted to make sure that each map doesn’t become too complicated, especially if the formats were bigger. There are so many more variables in team games due to more players being involved, so we feel that it’s important to not overdo the complexity.

2v2

This map is a close quarters air fortress style map where players will have a fairly easy time coordinating with their allies. We expect that players can play a straight forward macro game on this map.

By introducing multiple spawn points, we hope to bring in the importance of scouting and reacting gameplay that we have on 1v1 to 2v2. As there is a lot of fun to be had in terms of scouting the opponent’s location before committing to a strategic decision, we wanted to create a bigger map again.

3v3

This is a map where all players start separated, and more aggressive play will be rewarded. The center of the map is the main (and only) attack path, so gaining control of that location will be important. We feel that we were a bit low on this type of map for 3v3, so we wanted to create a fun map that can fill this slot.

This map features one of the players gaining easy access to a High Yield base as the natural expansion, and other players have potential High Yield bases that they can utilize. We hope to have a lot of interaction and engagements at these key locations.

4v4

This is a 4v4 map where two sets of two players start together, and the other teammates start separated. Depending on which teammate started next to you, players will have to plan their strategy accordingly.

This map is unique in that three of the players start in the same fortress, but the rush distance to the opposing team’s three players is quite close. On the other hand, the separated players per team have a really far attack path. What makes things more interesting is that the main path leading to allies can be blocked off by breaking Rock Towers. We hope to have some cool situations that arise from such a unique map.

We look forward to seeing what kind of unique strategies players are capable of on these new maps. Thank you for your time and we’ll see you on Ladder!