Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine have been removed from the 1v1 ladder pool and replaced with Jungle Basin and Shakuras Plateau, respectively. While Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine are no longer available for 1v1 ladder games, they remain playable in custom games.
We got some new maps coming into play. I am glad Desert Oasis has been removed. I like using primarily ground based units and the distances between the base as well as the multiple avenues to each others bases was very problematic. Kulas Ravine I was just getting use to, but one thing I noticed that was so much of a huge change, was ALL THE FRICKEN XEL'NAGA TOWERS. Most maps have 1-3, this one had at least 8! The expansions looked to be creative to take and convenient in places, but for the most part, in 1v1, it was just too big of a map.
I still plan on doing a series about the different maps and matchups in the game. I cant wait to start it, but I am also super busy with work and life, this week especially. My computer will probably be in in about 2 weeks, it still has not shipped. I am still practicing in AI games, but for the most part I haven't played a ladder game in about 2 weeks.
One thing I want to seriously practice is my macro. I'm starting to see what causes pro players to decline in certain games and what the purpose of your strategies should be. These little attacks and harassments into each others bases aren't for a win early on, its to mess up the other players macro to a point where his money overflows or his income is so low he has to take a step back to continue.
So this is what im going to do, I am going to concentrate on macro, and only macro. Ill build an army, but only after I am making sure I am building probes, I am expanding, and building Pylons. If I get supply blocked, or miss building a probe, That is a leak I need to plug, if you are making one of these mistakes within 2-3 minutes of the game, chances are your making a ton more later on. The chances for you missing something grows exponentially as the game progresses. Work on those little things, treat looking at your HUD (Minimap, Supply, Resources) the same as checking your mirrors while driving. Its the same concept.
Personally, I think this is awesome news from a Zerg perspective. :P Kulas Ravine was an abomination of tank drops and other shenanigans for Zerg players and I'm glad it's gone.
ReplyDeleteDesert Oasis was kind of iffy though.. they just finished putting those destructible rocks in and now they're removing the whole map? Figured they'd have tested it a bit more first.
Wasn't one of my favourites by any means, with the two closest expansions being.. not close at all.
Can I ask where you found out about the map changes? I didn't notice any Blizzard announcements on the site.
It was on their facebook page. it was announced about 16 hours ago i think.
ReplyDeletehttp://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/761328
ReplyDeletetypical that the site is down right now, but it gives me a place to look.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/StarCraft
ReplyDeleteis the facebook page you can read the short version there.
I LOVE these new maps, kulas was just a no go for most zerg, and i hated oasis. I had my first go of shakuras today and its a real fun map to play, i also played a few games against the ai on jungle basin too and it seemed sooooo much better then desert oasis, really looking forward to playing alot more on these maps. The best part is that its freed up 2 more map votes, so ive been able to get rid of delta quad and steppes, 2 maps which really rub me up the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteThe one map i want to see more in the ladder is Terminus RE, the one that is frequently used in the NASL. I really like that map and it can lead so some very interesting games.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to do a writeup on the new maps
ReplyDeleteprobably not. I currently dont have enough time with life and work to even play starcraft 2. But i do keep up with some of the esports tournaments. Thats currently all the content I can provide right now.
ReplyDelete