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Good Maps Only Room?

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5 years ago
we already have an underused elo locked room and limiting number of players gets dismissed out of hand for reasons

since we pretty much are a community run game, why have we not "cleaned up" the map selection yet?
+0 / -0

5 years ago
Help me to understand maps. Many times ppl say that a map is bad but I don't understand why. I often think it is just an opinion but I know there could be specific details about how the maps are constructed that could be a logical reason why it is a bad map. How would you determine if a specific map needs to be taken out of the map selection?

Could ppl post here information about specific maps and the reasons they are bad to help me and other noobs to understand why they are considered 'bad?'
+0 / -0
5 years ago
good map: square, symmetric, dispersed mexes and reclaim, rather flat

bad map: rectangular, asymmetric, mexes concentrated in defensible staring positions, terrain favoring spiders, cliffs etc.
+1 / -0

5 years ago
Not everybody shares your definition of "good" and "bad" map, I expect.
+9 / -0

5 years ago
I would like to see a specific map listed with basic details that makes it a bad/good map. This would be very informative to us players that don't understand the dynamics of a good or bad map.
+0 / -0
5 years ago
do we even have 1 map we can say is 100% good? what is the best 1v1 ladder map?

ie. always appears in a tourney and is considered fair and generally well loved

commet catcher?
+0 / -0
"Good" is a little better defined for 1v1 maps. Adansonia has consistently performed very well in popularity polls. Titan Duel, Eye of Horus, Fairyland and Ravaged (except for the poll taken during flea meta) have also consistently performed well. Wanderlust, Red Comet and Otago generally do not do poorly.

Based on this I would say that the "best" 1v1 maps are:
- Mostly flat, but frequently have enough hills to make bot factories playable (although the balance may have shifted towards rovers as of late)
- 10x10 or larger
- Can be mildly rectangular
- Moderate metal density
- Significant metal sources that are not on or near the shortest path between the two players

"Rotationally symmetric" might have made the list but there are very few mirror-symmetric maps in contention. I thought that Aurelian worked out reasonably well but a mirror-symmetric land map has some issues to deal with that a sea map does not (at least not as much).

I wrote down some principles for reasonable sea map design (1v1-compatible in particular) here.

--

In terms of (large) team maps, there is absolutely no accounting for taste as far as I can see.
+1 / -0
It is just frustrating that Zero-K seems to be perpetually stuck in 16v16 noobgames. I get it, every RTS is like that, but FAF (supcom community) went over that "phase" like, seven years ago.

I mean highly rated players play 4v4 too, but they play with other pros, not the entire active community in 1-2 games, this is madness! (cue DErankAdminmojjj gif)


...also leads to much better replays and metas, "thats how you're supposed to play a teamgame on this map" and stuff like that


Sorry for editing so much, I dont want to doublepost or open a new thread: How about a bad map only room? :D this way the people you always get stuck with if you play in a clan or party and who would not even pass the tutorial can play their Icy Run :D
+0 / -0


5 years ago
quote:
It is just frustrating that Zero-K seems to be perpetually stuck in 16v16 noobgames.

That is somewhat frustrating.
Have you tried hosting a "high elo only" room and occasionally poking people/messaging in chat for an hour or two to get numbers?
+0 / -0
FAF has a competitive image going. balanced somewhat.

zero-k has imbalanced units that are balanced by roles, costs, environment and counters
so it is also balanced kinda.. except its never going to look balanced 100% of the time to new or even old players
its got a sandbox image like urban terror or command and conquer.

my bet is that a balance thread taken seriously by devs will fix that.
its what faf did along time ago. and as soon as the community is convinced that all units are useful options.
if the game is competitively balanced it will get more of a elite following.

also at the moment ~ the pleasure people get from nuking in a noob team-game is OP. you cant nuke 1v1 good players.. you cant even krow rush them 1v1 so this forces people who want to mess about into large noob games where the game is going to go nowhere for 15 mins.

also as a rule players join the room with people in it. ie. only a brave man walks a new path.. the rest follow
+0 / -0
I've nuked ROrankSigero in 1v1. You absolutely can nuke good players in 1v1. And you know what? It feels a lot better than cooking lobsters with gamma rays.

The reason ZK is played so much in 16v16 clusters is that it manages to not fall apart as a game even under such degenerate conditions.

I'd love me some more competitive teamplay though. I have hopes for DErankManu12's initiative.
+3 / -0
TROLLOLOLOL
HORSE
COW
DUCK

These are the only maps needed.

EDIT: I forgot DUCK .. now we have 4 horsemen of the ZK-pochalypse.
+3 / -0
5 years ago
Thats exactly where maps enter the equation, what kind of maps get picked every second saturday? 16v16 is one thing, playing them on icy run or storm siege every time another, and those are atleast symmetrical and a e s t h e t i c
+0 / -0

5 years ago
quote:
you cant nuke 1v1 good players..

Tell that to GBrankPRO_rANDY Multiplayer B492744 2 on Desert Needle Small 3.2
+1 / -0
5 years ago
"HORSE
COW"

??? omg why you left out duck ???

anyway the duck map is the true lie of Z-K.. its a goose
+2 / -0


5 years ago
Who is saying that Zero-K isn't competitively balanced?
+0 / -0
you said once yourself that factory match-ups can be a bit unbalanced

even so its in my opinion that zk is factory balanced more then unit balanced
and some factory riots/skirms/arty are just stronger then others in most situations
this helps to balance a factory as a whole but does nothing to balance the units role. ie. Minotaur is a better riot cost for cost then leveler or atleast i think so.

IMHO units are all so different that it cannot be that they all are as effective as each-other in each role.. they are balanced by the unique specialized situations they excel at. ie. leveler is cheaper then Minotaur so you can cover more ground with more of them.

making some units just feels like they are the best option the factory has and not as strong as other factories options

with each factory having some OP units to cover the weak units

so it is kinda balanced but its balanced by situations and some factories strongly counter other factories. sometimes a factories best unit is hard countered

i prefer Z-K for having better strategy then other rts that often have 2-4 factions and almost identical unit roles.

allot of players who are for example 'playing amphibians may have no idea what to do vs a recluse ball and will feel like the counter skirmisher options they have are weak or too expensive
+0 / -0
Hmm, then I have been a bit unclear. In general factories are not meant to be unbalanced or counter each other. To help explain this, I'll say a set of factories, X, is 'balanced' if:
  • The matchup between any pair of factories in X has a 50% winrate.
  • The matchup between all pairs of factories inX and notInX is never in the favour of notInX.
In practice no game is going to look like this, but it is a useful ideal to have in mind. A map has three balanced factories if, when playing on that map, there is a balanced set of factories that includes at least three factories.

I'll state my minimal aims for factory choice in 1v1:
  • Land maps should each have at least three balanced non-air factories.
  • Every non-air factory land should be a balanced factory on many common land maps (say, at least 40% of maps).
  • Both air factories should be viable secondary factories in many situations.
  • Making a land factory as your second factory should be good in some situations.
  • Sea maps should have a set of balanced factories that include ships.
  • Each of the other four sea factories should be viable as secondary sea factories in many situations.
Keep in mind that these are my minimal aims. More is generally better. I would prefer for there to be at least four or five balanced factories on land maps, and this is perhaps my strongest deviation from these aims. Being able to start non-ships in a sea 1v1 is fine, but not required. More viable options for second or third factories is preferable.

The 1v1 goals are fairly easy to extend to larger games. If there are many viable start and secondary factories then there are many options for players to pick.

How does this all relate to unit balance? It doesn't really. Factory balance is the real important factor for competitive balance. Some factories may have holes or great units, and it is generally fine given my factory balance goals are satisfied. This is all diversity that doesn't have to conflict with competitive play. That said, I have some aims for units that are similar to what I wrote for factories:
  • Every unit should have a situation where it is the best unit for the job, across all factories.
  • At least four units from each factory should be fairly common in all matchups.
  • Non-specialist units (not AA, bombs, weird scouts, utility etc..) should have a matchup where they commonly occur.
+2 / -0
5 years ago
http://zero-k.info/Forum/Post/206597#206597

I fail sir. Editing immediately !
+0 / -0
5 years ago
your probably right it might be much more balanced then it feels to me.. i was wrong about not being able to nuke 1v1 =D so i could be wrong anyplace.

factory with all units in it would beat any factory match-up i dont know what that means its just that some units are very good and new players cant deal with them well.

crab spire for example: i showed my friend the game he has played ta/ba for years but i crab spire him and he lost so bad with light vehicle he rage quit and never played again.
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