The Current Ladder Poll

[Arkansas]

I'm a little concerned by the current trends (they haven't changed at all the last couple of days so seem a good indicator) in the latest ladder poll which seem to be generally the removal of many larger maps in favour of smaller maps. Currently there are 14 ladder maps which are true maps with a generally playable area larger than 5x5 (out of 25).

These are:
Badlands
Canis 4v4
Dry Canyon
EOTS
Isis
4 leaf clover
Loki
Melancholy Hill
Open palms
Sera Glaciers
Syrtis
Tag Craft
The Cold place
Twin Rivers

Right now the polls indicate the following will be voted out
Sera Glaciers (20x20)
Isis (10x5)
Syrtis (10x10)
Eots (10x10) or Ambush Pass (5x5)
Badlands (10x10)
The Cold Place (10x7ish)
Melancholy Hill (10x10)
Canis 4v4 (10x10)

And that these will probably come in
Winter Duel (2.5x5)
Moonlight mesa (5x5)
Serenity desert Small (5x5)
Titanus (10x10) or Waters of Isis (10x5)
Williamsons (5x5)
Saltrock (playable 5x5, technically 10x10)
High Noon (5x5)
Perhaps White fire (10x10)

Now I have no objection to people choosing maps, but what I do take exception to is the ladder losing its diversity. I think its fair to say that 5x5 maps leave little room for manouver and hence victory becomes hugely reliant on build orders and spam rather than longer tactical games involving tech progression, multiple fronts etc. I know the reason I bought supcom was to have huge battles and 5x5 doesn't give me that feeling its all too ofter over when you lose one push as the distances are to small, it isn't always, but often it is. A few people I have spoken to in Aeolus share the same sentiment.

Hence I would propose that instead of splitting the maps between GPG and custom (which feels somewhat arbitary) the maps are split by size.

For example in 25 maps it could be good to have 10 5x5, 13 10x10 and 2 20x20 each with a map in/map out vote each season. This in my mind would help preserve the ladders diversity while still allowing people to choose the maps they wish to play.

[Ze_PilOt]

White fire is 10x10.

[Arkansas]

Whoops, my mistake there. The point that the majority of maps going out are larger than 5x5 and the majority (likely) coming in are smaller still stands though.

[ColonelSheppard]

let's be honest: isis sucks, it does not count
It's not easier to win on 5x5 maps, it's something else, and, personally i like 5v5 maps, becase when i automatch i dont want a 1h game on isis or sera glaciers, i want a nice little game on Theta, Moonlight or even WD, and it seems like i'm not the only one

so as loud the WD haters cry now: you are in minority

[Ze_PilOt]

That's sad to resume FA to maps starcraft-sized that only show 10% of the game :-/

[FunkOff]

I agree with Sheppard completely. Also, fa isn't balanced well for maps bigger than 10 x 10 for two player games. Is simply too tough to build any large number of units between t1 and t4.

[FunkOff]

That's sad to resume FA to maps starcraft-sized that only show 10% of the game :-/

20 * 20 maps would be fine it the were designed for just 2 players... but they are all 8 player maps and that makes them terrible for 1BBC 1

[Ze_PilOt]

So basically, people are crying over not turning the game into starcraft and how it's not about micro, but they still want 5x5 maps only for the ladder ?

That's weird.

Seraphim glaciers works very well in 1v1. That's the only 1v1 map in the pool that show what FA is about (air, land, naval, and 3 tiers each).

[Zock]

First post is exactly my opinion.

[Arkansas]

let's be honest: isis sucks, it does not count
It's not easier to win on 5x5 maps, it's something else, and, personally i like 5v5 maps, becase when i automatch i dont want a 1h game on isis or sera glaciers, i want a nice little game on Theta, Moonlight or even WD, and it seems like i'm not the only one

so as loud the WD haters cry now: you are in minority

Isis and Sera are exceptions, and only take an hour if you make them take an hour. I find the maps with the best gameplay are those like Palms, Syrtis, Badlands and the Cold Place which give you tons of room to manouver and outplay your opponent in more ways than simply smashing spam into one another. It strikes me that if you don't have an hour or so supcom probably isn't the game you should be playing as almost any game can go on a suprising amount of time. Sure 5x5 limits that but it also seriously limits the play styles you can adopt.

Its also worth Noting that 5x5 maps tend to be very anti cybran as the lower HP units and Mantis really don't hold up so well vs other factions without room to move.