Outwitters Map Creator 1.2

[ImperialSun]

If you hit the description max and save, you aren't able to delete and change the description.

(01-13-2013 06:58 AM)Harti Wrote:  Also wondered what criteria appears to be important for the voting impulse people do or do not have when viewing a map. Personally, I also thought that my "deserted desert" fun map was actually pretty funny. However it ended up in the mediocre area.

I think for Outwitters it is even harder to judge a map. We had a (really bland) map editor for AWBW and we were quite able to tell where the frontlines were going to be just by looking at them. Interestingly enough this is not the case for Outwitters as there barely are frontlines and if there are any, it's usually a bad stalemate map.

When I judge a map I look for a few things.

1. Preliminary map-breaking scan: Bombshell OP spots? How hard is it to deal with mobi sniper?
2. Aesthetics: at the end of the day this isn't very important compared to gameplay, but I adjust my rating +/-0.5 based on the appearance.
3. Play-testing: If a map seems worthwhile (no red flags in step 1 and looks interesting) then I'll play test games. I do this especially for any 1v1 map I make to try to weed out any broken strategies, but also to a lesser extent for the maps I rate. Usually this involves a few steps.
- try to find an exploitative rush
- try to find the best line of attack
- try to find the best bombshell defense to see how turtle prone the map is

Anyway, here is a map I made. I played ~10 test games on it. I think it turned out well, but I'd like any to know any concerns there may be with the map.

Arctic Cavern

This map is meant to deviate from the normal layout. Here all the wit spaces are congregated in the cave on the right side of the map while the two bases are situated in the snowy area outside. Only one of the two spawn spaces has easy access to the wit cave.

Basic Layout
- Right (wit spaces): don't get caught off-guard with a numbers disadvantage as it will be hard to recover with only 1 spawn to readily reinforce.
- Center (open): not easy to turtle here. If your opponent focuses too much on the right or left you can move up and threaten the relatively exposed base.
- Left (choke point): can be defended with a bombshell/sniper or used to slow-push. There is also a slightly longer alternate pathway on the far left you can use to sneak around and hit your opponent from the side.

It's hard to say without really being able to play it, but my impression from the test games was that at the high level the play will mostly be focused in the snowy region outside. However, since there is only one spawn that can readily reinforce the cave, it's hard to defend if the enemy catches you off-guard with a numbers advantage. I found that this created an interesting dynamic. On the one hand the enemy wit spaces are far from your spawn and you don't want to overextend by marching all the way over there. On the other hand, your opponent can only reinforce with one unit per turn into the cave so if you do get a numbers advantage without them realizing you can win the fight inside and take one or even both of their wit spaces.



I tried rushes in the cave for the wit spaces and found that if p2 gets a soldier and moves it into the cave on their first turn it shuts down the rush pretty fast. I also tried to rush out a bombshell and position it to splash the opponent's base but I found that wasn't really viable due to the starting heavy and the barrier in front of the base.

[Ryzuma]

[Piko]

Hey, waita... What do you mean by "playing test games", Imperial?

[Necrocat219]

Ryzuma I think with your map you should just remove those gaps next to the base altogether; it instantly gives adorables access to 3 damage to the base, and player 2 could just go mobi and capture the wit space straight away, getting ready to use the pre deployed sniper for an easy kill on the base.

I like how the bases can only be reached after gaining a good amount of control on the opponent's side of the field. However I think that it's impossible to attack through your own witspace side which could restrict play; maybe having 2 wit spaces each instead of 1 to encourage attacks could work?

[Ryzuma]

How's that

[TheGreatErenan]

The Micro Strategic Starting Unit Tournament got me thinking about whether having no spawns might really be a viable game mode for Outwitters, so I tried my hand at a map for it:

Bunker Lagoon



I didn't think super duper carefully about how much fun it would be to play on this map. I just kind of followed my instincts based on how the tournament went. Maybe the map is too big? I dunno.

I also made a 2v2 version and a regular 1v1 map based on the same design.

[Harti]

Changes (1.2):

UI Improvements

• Navigation bar now spreads over whole screen width
• Navigation bar is now sticky to the top
• Navigation bar uses icons to distinguish labels better
• Table header is now sticky when scrolling down long tables
• Table captions are now left-aligned instead of centered (so that it doesn't look odd with the wider navigation bar)
• Dropped "Last Edited" column in tables
• Added link to the OMC forum thread to the navigation bar

Performance Improvements

• Tweaked database performance - tables should load a lot faster now
• Tables only load in more results when necessary (standard amount is 50)
  

As always, if you run into issues please let me know.

[Piko]

I have to say that it's really faster. Maybe not a lot, bcoz bigger maps still loads a while, but it's better now. But the "last edited" column was useful. :/

[Harti]

(01-21-2013 03:54 AM)Piko Wrote:  But the "last edited" column was useful. :/

How so? I always figured it was information overflow. :O


And yeah, the performance tweak refers to tables, not to maps themselves. Unfortunately I can only deal with the image loading performance with preposterously difficult changes to the application which I'm unlikely to ever address.

[Piko]

So... It's not veeery useful, but always a bit. And tables looks empty without it.