Persistent Maps and Rotation Maps

First topic message reminder :


Global League is going to be going through some major changes in the coming weeks. This post should help to explain how and why.

Global League maps will be classified into one of two categories. Persistent Maps and Rotation Maps.

• Persistent Maps - These maps will rarely be changed, edited, added or removed. These maps are for those who appreciate a consistent feel to the meta over 10 years of play, and have been designed generally to withstand the test of time. They have all stayed interesting and dynamic despite multiple massive meta shifts since their original releases. All of them offer a variety of strategy, but are tailored towards fast, competitive games. They offer a significant variety even between only 11 choices in maps between multiple commanders, multiple tiers for commanders, and multiple viable strategies even when using identical commanders. They are generally considered to be some of the best AWBW maps in AWBW history. This list will be changed very rarely, similar to how Ladder maps in Starcraft may stay the same for a year or more before changes are made, or how large changes in games like DotA 2 or League of Legends take place once every Season.
  
  
• Rotation Maps - These maps will constantly and regularly be rotated into and out of the Global League. This list will likely be far larger than the Persistent Maps list at any given time. Some of these maps may never see the Global League. Some of these maps may be rotated into the Global League for months at a time. Rotation Maps will change on a regular basis.
  

The idea is to have a selection of Persistent Maps for a solid, consistent meta on those maps, but to additionally have more variety in Global League maps (within reason) to keep players on their toes using the Rotational Maps.


The current preliminary list of Persistent Maps, which is subject to change, is:

All Roads Lead to Sol
Aphotic Arena
Bel'Shir Beach
Beyond Eternity
Bible Black
Black Patch War
Blood on my Hands
Highway to Hell
Iconic
Shadows chase you endlessly
Shangri-La

This is a solid list of 11 maps that will likely not be removed any time in the foreseeable future. Again, it is currently subject to change, but will solidify over the next few days.


Any maps that were not mentioned on this list are currently on the Rotation Map list as we speak. Any of the other maps can potentially and will likely be added, removed, or re-added to the Global League in the future.

Any feedback is appreciated. This is a project I have been working on for the last few months on and off. This project is an effort to both appease parties who like the current Global League and those who want to see regular new content in the Global League.

Edit: Quick note for any newcomers, Best Sakuya NA and Mori2 from AWBW are the same person.

Blanci wrote:I guess a detailed discussion of crossed sparkles should be in design map forum and also I want to play it and get some feedback from others too first before giving probably more subjective comments.
But I think we can give maps a bit more leeway, give them a bit longer before dismissing them. Especially maps which have some originality and possibly new or even wierd game strategy requirements.

I would rather remove a good map too hastily than leave a bad map in the League too long. I don't mind giving leeway for interesting or original maps with minor balance issues, but I don't think that's the case here. Anyways, removing from the League doesn't prevent anyone from playing on the map. And anyone is free to suggest maps for use in the League (bringing up games or analysis as evidence is helpful) - but that has yet to happen.

Blanci wrote:Related but separate issue which really belongs in this thread is that  only one month for rotation maps seems very little opportunity to play on them. I only got to play one of them from the last bunch even though I was running with 4 games simultaneously... Even temporary rotation maps need to hang around for 3 months or more. That's little time at awbw.

I agree, I brought this up to the Map Committee a couple weeks ago. 3 months is maybe a little long, but I think at least 2 months is needed. We're planning to add 5 new maps for February and won't remove any of the current Rotation maps until March (so effectively 2-month rotations). And keep in mind that we may reuse Rotation maps too, so you might see it again in the future. If we find that some of the Rotation maps work very well, we may add them to the Persistent category so that they stick around even longer... It's a fairly flexible system.

Blanci wrote:Can't we wait for feedback from players before getting rid of them?...  It would be good to hear other players experiences regarding this.

I just wanted to note that no, we can't wait for feedback from players. It is incredibly rare to get any feedback from players these days regarding League maps, much less helpful feedback. If we waited and relied upon feedback and communal discussion to make decisions, nothing would ever happen, quite literally. Therefore we do the best we can with our (admittedly limited) experience from playing/watching games on the maps.

In an ideal world I would love it if we could get players to run play-tests of maps and give helpful, insightful commentary of their games and how they think the map works. But this is not the world we live in.

The February Rotation Maps are added, and we will be moving into a 10 map rotation from a 5 map rotation. That means that all Rotation Maps will now see about 2 months of play instead of 1 month on average before they are rotated out. We will still be adding 5 maps a month and removing 5 maps a month under this new format, but this should allow for more opportunities for games on Rotation Maps, which was a commonly asked for feature with the Rotation Map system.

February map rotation additions are as follows:  

http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=53960
Stormiest Glen (Design Map by bohwalker)

Banned units: Stealths
Bottom Tier - Jake, Jess, Koal, Sonja (1299)
Mid Tier - Andy, Kindle, Drake, Lash, Sami (1298)
High Tier - Eagle, Olaf, Max (1297)

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http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=27472
Haipah Biim (Design Map by Hellraider)

Mid Tier: Andy, Kindle, Drake, Lash, Rachel (1303)
High Tier: Eagle, Olaf, Max, Sami (1302)
Top Tier: Hawke, Javier, Sasha, Von Bolt (1301)

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http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=58352
Sandland (Design Map by mori6)

Low Tier - Adder, Rachel, Grimm (1306)
Mid Tier - Andy, Drake, Lash, Kindle, Sami (1305)
High Tier - Eagle, Olaf, Max (1304)

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http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=62617
Enuma Elish (Design Map by mori420)

Mid Tier - Andy, Drake, Kindle, Sami (1310)
High Tier - Javier, Lash, Eagle, Olaf, Max (1309)
Top Tier - Von Bolt, Sasha, Hawke, Sturm (1307)

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http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=59021
Where Giants Have Fallen (Design Map by mori8)

Bottom Tier - Jake, Jess, Koal, Sonja (1313)
Low Tier - Adder, Rachel, Grimm, Kindle (1312)
High Tier - Eagle, Olaf, Max (1311)

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And to replace Crossed Sparkles, Masked Fury returns, and will likely be rotated out in March along with the other January maps.  

http://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=56661
Masked Fury (Design Map by Walker Boh)

Low Tier - Adder, Grimm, Rachel (1314)
High Tier - Eagle, Max, Olaf (1218)
Top Tier - Hawke, Javier, Sasha, Von Bolt (1217)

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The March 1st Global League Patch Notes Preview is currently posted on the AWBW News section of the site! Please go there for updates on Rotation and Persistent League maps.

https://isndev.forumotion.co.uk/t776-march-1st-global-league-patch-notes-preview