Discussion: Ranked PVP Maps

What started simply as 'grabbing ranked maps for the wiki' spiralled into 'writing a guide for each map' and then finding the guide woefully indequate and/or simply biased due to my playstyle. After conferring with some veteran testers and regular pvpers, I've decided to start this thread to discuss (dismember and dissect) ranked pvp maps. The good, the bad and the ugly...so to speak.

Usual forum rules apply. In addition, constructive tips and strategies are going into the wiki guide credited to the poster. Feel free to ask for tips here. If you don't like a particular map, state why and how you think it should be improved/modified. For fanatics, go ahead and grab the map images from below and doodle to push your points across. Isometric maps are available from the wiki here.

Ranked PVP maps (accurate as of 23rd July 2012)

Streams of Blood​

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Temple Tussle​

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Dungeon​

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Forest​

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Bridge​

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Cave​

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A very good job.
As stated before, I think we need some MP PVP maps with victory location far from each others, to help "swift" decks.

 

Agreed, alto I hate it when I face your phalanxes in forest/bridge. Those are the maps which I think need rework.

edit:
a) My gripe with Forest: stone at F9 and the patch of difficult terrain from H8 to J8. Bottom starting position is screwed early. Haven't thought of a good fix yet...

b) My gripe with Bridge and perhaps everyone else's as well: The bush at H8 !!! This map is a dream for terrainers and a nightmare for everyone else. A simple fix is to break the bridge into 2 narrow paths, shift to F4G4 and F9G9 and give them 1 VP each.

 

I agree that a map with spread out victory locations would be nice, but i think it should be an odd amount (e.g. 3), to prevent standoffs at distance.
The map I dislike the most at the moment is the dungeon, just because of how random you spawn in the beginning. I know it's supposed to change things up a bit, but in my experience, the game is often decided by how you spawned. I would prefer if one team spawns in one corner and the other in another one.

 

How was i not consulted about this i feel sad now

That said the only map i really like is streams of blood.

 

There HAD been a map with widely-distant victory squares, but it just wasn't any fun and they removed it. The issue is that you only have so many characters relative to squares, making actual fighting over squares difficult. Yay, a single character spends multiple rounds crossing the map only to fight to a standstill against a single other character!

However, Peseto, we discussed your suggestion at the time: this map had four squares, not three, so it was really slow and unfortunate. They have not tried one with three yet.

 

Sir Knight, I know that a widely-distant victory squares map could be annoying (even if I don't know how and why), bur with an even number of victory squares, or maybe without victory squares, you could give more chances to a "wizard party", or a "long-range attack party", without make it to go close range because all the victory squares are occupied by warriors/healers waiting only to be able to use their melee cards.
My opinion.

 

Someone tell me where the spawn points are !
edit: I'm going to go ahead and add in the spawn points in the OP. If Im not wrong, forest and bridge don't have consistent spawns ?

Sorry It seems like you've stopped pvping for a while...maybe your residence is now the test server ?

I recall a map (monkey adv) where there were only 2 vps right at the corners. It was BORING cos 1 monkey will always go and camp a VP when you go for yours. Might have been a different story had the VPs been closer.

 

Actually i just had to take a small break not to burn out on the game as feeling the game is overplayed once it is released would make me sad.

 

You should probably mark difficult terrain with a different shade if you have the time to do that.

 

Difficult terrains have already been marked with a different shade. Lemme know which map is inconsistent, I'll fix them right up

 

At first blush, I didn't see the difference between the shades of grey in the dungeon level. Good job!

 

I´ve never seen a A9 or K7 on streams of blood. Very frequently it´s A7 and K5. Have I just been hit by the wonky side of random or is there something wrong with the map placement=

 

I've had it happen in my own games and while spectating others (which was a month back). So unless, there's been some recent change...I think it's still accurate.

 

I still see k7 and a5 frequently, yet have never seen k5 and a7. Another 5 games added to my count. Still, someone somewhere is always screwed by rng's. On the other hand, I still suspect there may be some error somewhere.

 

Suggested changes:



The Starting point on the mid right (k9) is a really weak location. With a single dash, the character from k4 can trap the character with no easy way out.

Also there are simply too few choices for k9 and this helps it a little.

I also think removing one of the pillars would give wizads some diagonal power over the center, since wizards seem to be quite weak on this close range map. This way, non-wizards would have to choose between hiding, taking damage or chasing wizards, instead of just dancing on the victory point.

One change that I forgot to mark with a red dot, is changing B4 to C4.

I think having those two start in sight range adds quite a bit of luck on which two characters start there, and especially, which player begins.

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I expect that this will:

* Slightly increase the power of wizards on this map (while they're still at disadvantage)
* Reduce starting turn luck
* Add more tactical options

 

This is a great map with only two weaknesses:

1. Starting locations
2. Lack of options in corner

A7 / k7: Why have a starting location in full view of the whole enemy team?
Sometimes I have my dwarven warrior start there and I won't be able to retreat to cover in one turn. Sometimes I have my elven wizards start there and get stonewalled from the rest of my team immediately. Sometimes I get 'halt' from one of their priest attacks immediately. It seems such a randomly punishing thing. I prefer to lose to my own stupidity or bad card draws, since I have some influence over those.

J1/ B13: For any character this is basically a boring starting position. No choice given on your first move, especially if you're a dwarf. And after that first move, probably never used again, unless you're whirlwinded there.
To make the map slightly more interesting, add some difficult terrain. This will remove two dead-ends and give a new interesting starting option (a slow route that doesn't lead to the center as quickly, but gives some cover)

 

I think Temple Tussle and Streams of Blood are the best two maps for multiplayer. Many interesting choices.

I kinda like forest, even if it feels a little bland/flawed. I think moving the whole of h6 to j8 one step north would equalize the positions, instead of the current northern advantage.

I have a love/hate with dungeon. It's nice to have a close-quarters deadly map where you start right in the action. It's also tremendously unfair and anti-wizard and even anti-cleric.

The cave map is kinda cool. Interesting start... it can become a bit dodgy when you both have 1 character left and you both have one point to go. I kinda wonder what it would be like if the very center was a water tile, but I'm not sure if this is a good or bad idea. I like it, because it would make the victory points a little closer to each other, without losing their unique fragmentation.

I love the idea of the bridge map, but I hate the execution of it. I can't even begin to think how to salvage this trainwreck of a map.