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MOTMs galore!29 2009f May 2009 07:59 AM
Posted by:Nightmarjoo
Alright, here's the MOTMs since I've decided it's more disapointing to have no MOTM than to have a disapointing MOTM.

For January, we have an almost good map by Jamssi. Now, this is actually quite extraorinary, he actually used more than 30% of the map space this time! So let's give Jamssi a big congratulations for that accomplishment. He's proving that you can't make be a horrible mapper forever as long as you keep making maps!

The map in question is (4)Destiny, an almost well-made Byzantium clone. The map features a fair amount of altitudal variety using good shifts in high/low terrain. The mains being lowground and the nats being highground is fairly unusual, and somewhat increases the ability for players to harass one another early on in the game. The map uses the standard expo layout of 4base, 3gas per player. Directly between the players if you travel horizontally or vertically are a highground min only and a lowground gas expansion. The expansions are both close to you and to your opponent, and easily function as neutral expansions: making them ripe for fighting over.
The map has an open middle which gives the players a lot of room to fight and maneuver, and the expo layout makes the sides of the map very useful without switching from the standard central orientation. The map boasts solid decoration, and good use of rotational symmetry.
One neat thing Jamssi uses in the map is he stacks minerals in horizontal mineral formations. Normally it's hard to get horizontal mineral formations to mine well since they have the potential to stick out so far since they're 2 tiles wide, but by stacking them halfway over eachother he can have a narrower mineral formation which should mine very well. A neat trick also seen used to a different effect in (4)Hannibal. Definitely something mappers want to keep in mind should they use horizontal formations in the future.
Now, everything I've said so far makes the map sound pretty darn good, what is it that I have against the map, aside from its author being a douche? Well, the naturals are pretty awfully made despite appearing "ok" at a glance at the picture. It's pretty clear Jamssi either didn't bother opening the map in sc to test them, or simply doesn't play sc at all. Aside from that flaw, which can be quite detrimental to gameplay depending on the situation, the map is quite well-made, even if it lacks anything "special". Overall the map is definite good, and I would say worth playing, except the natural expansions are terrible, go play Byzantium instead.

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No obs version at this time. Not that anyone would want to observe you flailing about in a map with shitty nats, so oh well.

As I don't reward being the 2nd place of 3 maps, I won't post on the other maps in this competition. You can see them here if you so desire.

For February we have another face new to MOTM. Please congratulate JungleTerrain (I kid you not, that's his ID!) for his map Amonsterdildo, er Amonta... Amontsomething! (With a name like this, IceTerrain is probably Protoss4ever on a smurf name!).


Amontillado is a fairly standard but fairly well-made 4 player map. With standard mains and nats, the map starts to deviate from the "norm" in its expo layout. While the layout itself is standard, 4 base/3gas per player, the position of these expansions is fairly unique. The gas expo is on the other side of the main from the nat, with a large bridge choke. The distance of these expansions almost make them neutral expansions, at the very least making them easy to fight over. The mineral only expansions are not much closer, in fact they're about the same distance away from the nats. However, by being on highground plateaus they are arguably safer, or easier to defend. This expansion layout is interesting as no expansion aside from the nat is "free", and makes the gameplay more in-your-face as you must expo towards the enemy. DesertTerrain must have played Othello, and decided the free expos + too-many-cliff-harass-potentials was a boring way to make a map more fun.
Since TwilightTerrain is lazy and won't update the map it is awkward in places, lacks some of the finer execution touches, but is still quite well-made, particularly in its use of rotational symmetry, and fun to play on. If you're going to play on any of these MOTMs, make this map the one you play on as it is well-enough-made and has a potentially more "fun", more aggresively oriented feel to it. And be sure to upload replays, because I'm sure BadlandsTerrain, would appreciate them!

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I might normally reward the 2nd place of 5 maps, except that it seems fairly obvious Protoss4ever's Chickensomething was just the map people picked as their 2nd place because you have to select atleast 2 maps while voting (only LastCurse voted the map 1st place, and no one likes him anyway). You can see the other maps in the competition here if you want to vomit you so desire.

March's MOTM is a great improvement atleast in the amount of maps present and division of the votes (not all to one map zomg!). However it does not deviate from the theme of having some guy you've never heard of win MOTM! Congratulations to Freakling (not Crackling, though he was probably on crack when he made this map!) on his map (4)Everflow!



This map is actually pretty neat in how similar it is to the other two MOTMs in this post. If you took the lowmain/highnat and side oriented expo layout of (4)Destiny, merged it with the expo layout of (4)Amontsomething, and added a big fucking spiral in the middle, you'd pretty much get this map.
The expo layout is pretty similar to amontsomething's in how the gas expo has a large bridge choke and lies along a seperate path from the min only, but the expos are much closer to you in this map. The min only is arguably less defensible and the gas expo considerably more defensible. The map is pretty basic, there's not a lot going on here, but what there is lies in the center. That's right, as I said before, there's a big fucking spiral in the middle of the map. Personally, I wish he would've remade every single map in our database, as it would've been more productive and probably have taken less time than required to make this spiral, but whatever. This spiral is for more than decoration though (it's pretty ugly anyway, let's hope it's not made only for decoration!), as it puts a sharp cliff/altitude transition in the middle of the map. This is definitely something players will keep in mind, as they'll want to maneuver their forces so they're on the highground of the spiral rather than the lowground cannon-fodder zone.
Broodwarmaps.net mappers must have learned something I didn't, as this map also features good use of rotational symmetry. It also features author-didn't-open-map-in-sc-to-test-the-nats syndrome, but maybe that's just a gosu trend I won't understand for years to come.

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March's MOTM saw fit to give us a decent 2nd place map too! This time by a familiar face, we have (4)Enarey 1.3 by Morrow!



Same expo layout, different map! This map's expo layout is nearly identical to that of AshTerrain's map, with some differences. The gas expo is in its own little niche rather than having a nice bridge to camp on, and while the min only is closer to the player's nat, the ramp chokes leading up to it face away from the player, making it easier to attack and harder to reinforce. It's hard to fully see the implications of these differences, but I think it's a safe bet to say exactly how they'll work will change depending on the matchup.
This map has a wider center than the last two maps, and has a little more going on conceptually. Enarey uses the egg wall + min blocks featured in (3)Plasma to block the area behind the nat minerals, and to block a secondary entrance to the main. This creates a temporary "cliff" of sorts "overseeing" the nat, but one whose minerals can still be defended with static defense, as you can use the mineral block to easily send a worker to the other side of your minerals until the egg wall is destroyed. The secondary entrance is not too insidious as you might expect, as the main ramp choke largely defends it. Mostly its existance's implications are that it's easier to scout your opponent should he block the ramp before you are able to scout, somewhat removing the luck factor in many situations.
There definitely is something I missed, because yet again we have a map doing a good job at implementing rotational symmetry. Another important thing about his map is that it made it into iCCup's Mappack! So if you really want to show off your broodwarmaps pride and fandom, play ladder games on this map!

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Zomg a third place map too! Made by a mapper you definitely ought to recognize, one of our older mappers who's won countless MOTWs and gotten maps into blizzcon, wgt, and pgt, trcc!



This map has a lot going on! (4)Adrenaline Rush is very different from the other maps above.
I don't even know what to call the "nat". Within your main you have a min only, which is a gas expo on the other side, on a highground path leading backwards from the lowground expo in front of your main. If it sounds complicated already, it's because it is. On the lowground of the main we have a fairly normal gas expo, but one that does not cover the main ramp, nor the ramp leading to the middle of the map. This ramp also leads backwards to the gas expo whose minerals can be mined from your main I mentioned earlier. A neutral sits in the way of this path, but I have no idea if it fully blocks the path or not to be honest. If we keep following this ramp we quickly run into a ramp leading downwards into the wide lowground battlefield that is this map's central area. Leading from the center in the compas directions are fairly defensible gas expos directly between the players. Defensible and neutral? Definitely expansions you'll see being fought over.
Basically, this map takes a bunch of standard features and concepts, and throws them together in absolutely the most complicated way possible without actually using anything bizzare in and of itself. Only a mapper as experiened as trcc could possibly pull this off.
And, like Morrow's Enarey, this map also has found its way into the iCCup mappack! Congratulations trcc, we hope to see more maps by you in the near future!

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Apparently the mappers took a leaf from the January MOTM book and failed utterly, but atleast Freakling took a leaf from trcc's book and made a crazy map to win MOTM.



Freakling makes another appearance with his map (4)Mystique! This map takes another leap to the past, with what is ostensibly a more micro oriented map. The natural expansions are mineral only, and very vulnerable from the island the formation's presence creates behind it. If this and the presence of a very close-to-the-mains gas island expo doesn't encourage 1base play and more aggressive, micro oriented play, then I dunno what does. Then in the compass directions is your standard 3rd gas expansion. It is however much farther from the players than is normal in this age, and they possibly function as neutral expansions which players can fight over. The map's pathing is pretty direct, though the distances aren't bad. The expo and pathing layout definitely creates in-your-face type gameplay, certainly making this map appeal to a micro-intense favouring crowd. And of course, the map uses rotational symmetry well, per the usual MOTM.
If you want to play a neat map using the 1base and possibly semi-island tactics showcased years ago, this is the map for you. If you want to play a standard macro map, go play the last few MOTMs. This map may not appeal to as large an audience as a more standard map, but it definitely is fairly well-made and worth checking out, especially if you do enjoy this style of gameplay.

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I won't reward 2nd place out of 4 maps. The map which did get the 2nd largest amount of votes wasn't very good anyway. You can see the other maps here

For May's MOTM we have... wait, May? Isn't today still May? IS THIS MOTM ON TIME? WHAT THE FUCK RAGNAROK APPROACHES!
For the 5th MOTM of this year we have a much better competition than the 4th in that we actually had 2 maps competing with eachother for votes!
Freakling makes makes his third consecutive MOTM appearance (once could be luck or coincidence, twice could be a fluke, but thrice? In a row!? I'm beginning to think Freakling is the real deal, how about you?) with another weird map: (4)Unreality. With a name like that, I think you should already be prepared for a fairly weird map.



No, that's not a twilight remake of Arkanoid, that's Freakling's Unreality! Freakling reintroduces the neutral-induced macro oriented semi island concept. Players here can opt to try island tactics, or simply macro out normally, taking either/both of the min only and gas expansion each player can find within his "quadrant" of the map while he begins breaking down the neutrals (or massing 3rd tier air). Near your in-base gas expo are lower hp neutrals, with the higher hp neutrals right by your starting location. Breaking down just three neutrals gives you access to the middle of the map, allowing you to fairly quickly pressure your opponent if you both opted for macro builds. Taking down two neutrals gives you access to a 4th base, representing the map's 3rd geyser. The expo layout here is actually fairly normal in its resource distribution, giving it the potential to play almost standard, should both players opt for it. That's the trick in these hybrid island maps, it really is up to the players to decide how they wish to play, and there are plenty of viable options either way.
Perhaps it doesn't count as much here, but of course the map features flawless rotational symmetry. And aside from suffering from untested-minerals-syndrome, the map should play quite solidly if this kind of map hits your fancy.

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In a close second place we have Morrow's map 1015, not to be confused with 815. Perhaps 1015 is the time (in AM, no less) he went to sleep after making this map? Or maybe the amount of time in seconds spent on decorating the map?



Ok so at a glance this map is an open, gas impoverished, inverted Katrina. Wait, that makes no sense at all :O The map has lowground mains and a highground central area, but has a gas natural within the main, behind the starting location in the corners of the map homologous to that of Katrina. Climbing the main ramp takes you to what you could call your "natural", a cliffable mineral only expansion which makes the map playable for terran! Then near the corners of the map, almost cliffing the internal gas expansion lies your 3rd gas base on a highground plateau barely build-on-able.
This is a very big map, there's a lot of room to manuever and fight. The map takes a fairly standard expo layout and twists it around into something essentially completely different. The map should definitely give players a different gaming experience, without doing anything too radical that players aren't already used to. Naturally, being a 2nd place MOTM, the map has great rotational symmetry. I'd say perhaps the map only recieved 2nd place for being too weird, but then the first place map was actually weirder. Are mappers and gamers starting to head towards more weird maps, the trend come full circle?

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Though I won't write much about it, be sure to check out Swagu's (2)Trial, the map which recieved the 3rd most votes:



This map is fairly standard, but does a good job of incorporating a lot of recent trends and concepts into a fairly normal mold. The map's execution definitely is a little lacking, something the author has room to work on, but certainly isn't awful. Hopefully after fixing a few aspects of his mapping style and understanding sWaGu will be creating MOTM level maps soon!
ps sWaGu you overwrote the map picture for (2)digdag with (2)trial's picture :(

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You can check out the other competition maps here


And thus concludes a MOTM Marathon! Now that we're caught up on MOTMs, we should begin having more competitions aside from MOTM, especially with summer coming up soon!
Comments:

Nightmarjoo
Protoss4ever, despite your predeclaration that you would win MOTM 5, you did in fact, not. Will you win MOTM 6 to redeem your honour?
Nightmarjoo
Mmm and for those who think I was too harsh in calling these MOTMs failures, bare in mind Jamssi had FIVE MONTHS to edit a map with a TESTED FLAW. SpaceTerrain likewise had 4 months to edit his map, I gave him suggestions, and Freakling suggestions on all of his maps. There's no reason those maps haven't been perfected by this time. If I had wanted to post shitty maps in need of edits, MOTM would've been posted on time every month -_-
Apparently bwm standards are going down, I thought Testbug had brought them up -.-
testbug
"Perhaps 1015 is the time (in AM, no less) he went to sleep after making this map? Or maybe the amount of time in seconds spent on decorating the map?"

lol, 10 15 is a PvT build order
testbug
"Apparently bwm standards are going down, I thought Testbug had brought them up"???

lol what?
FrozenArbiter
Hi all, just wanted to mention we'll be using Freakling's Unreality and Mystique for our SC2 Beta Key contest tournament finals - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=94466

Hopefully we get some nice reps from them.

Thanks a lot for making those maps, they are gorgeous :D
panschk[FP]
wow, you are really harsh Joel. Those maps look fine to me, but then again, I did not test them to see that the nats are horrible:P

Congratulations to all winners:D
Nightmarjoo
Yeah congrats Freakling!
Manhattan
Man, I can't believe no one else commented on this thing.

I must admit, I've read this post at least 3 times all the way through, and it's so hilarious and unprofessional each time, that I just wanted to comment that I love the writing style, and I love all the tiny nuances that were put in to make it funny yet truthful.

And the worst part is that most of them are true.
sTY_leZerG-eX
lol i just found out about this comment part, its so small.

:)

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