Aquendwato
10-06-2005, 7:04 PM
Throughout my years playing Starcraft, I have experienced hundreds of different maps, each with their own charm and flavour. There are island maps, which put an emphasis on air superiority; meat grinder maps which focus on fast, hard, and early attack; and there are vast sprawling maps where eight players can fight to fund their war machine for the hours it takes to win. With such a large variety of locales in which to do battle, surely you rarely see the same map twice in a day. But one map, the famous Lost Temple, pops up in nearly every game of Starcraft on Battle.net. Not only does this fixation only provide one of the many manners of battle available in the game, but it also narrows players' views on effective strategies and removes many strategical actions from the game.
At first glance, Lost Temple is a fairly large map, but still small enough to make rushing a possibility, albeit not a very common tactic. Play a game on Cycle or Dark Star and that Terran won't be so quick to send his SCV into unexplored territory to build a wall. Blood Bath doesn't only encourage rushes with it's small size, but also it's simplistic layout. With everyone and their dog knowing the exact layout of Lost Temple, the effect is much the same. Siege Tanks, lurkers, and Dragoons reign supreme on this map, however play an island map and suddenly the danger units become Dropships, Shuttles, and Overlords. By limiting themselves to strictly Lost Temple matches, players are restricting themselves to reading one book in a library of great literature.
Furthermore, by assuming the setting to be Lost Temple, many players judge theoretic attack plans based on their effectiveness on that particular map. Ultra-early rushing is generally shunned by the “elite” of Starcraft, citing the danger of failing. Change setting to Blood Bath however, and that 4-pool or offensive barracks isn't so outrageous anymore. Drop units on Lost Temple are generally believed to be Marines & Medics, Siege Tanks, Lurkers, Reavers, and other high damage, anti-ground units. In a game on Island Hop, you may be more inclined to drop Goliaths or Hydralisks to counter the air force that you opponent is creating. By only giving one location to test out plans, it gives players a two dimensional view of the three dimensional world that is Starcraft.
Most importantly, the memorization of every position on the map greatly reduces the needs to use on of war's most time-honoured traditions, scouting. Just last week I was involved in a 3v2 game on a LAN on Razor Thicket. Both me and my partner though that there would be a choke point near each starting base. My partner, a chronic turtle, decided to set up for his usual turret and bunker spam at what he believed to be his choke, while I began to block in the most dangerous of our enemies to his starting base. My partner was attacked from behind his mineral line, rendering his defenses useless. He was forced to fly his Command Centre out to a nearby hill to stay alive. The Zerg opponent I thought I had contained expanded freely and came with a much larger force than expected to destroy my forward position with aid from his Protoss ally, who had expanded to the other side. The three of them conspired to destroy me and then starve out my turtle ally. Had either of us scouted the map more instead of reverting to our Lost Temple-esque ways of thinking, the match would not have been so one-sided.
Lost Temple goers are often quick to lampoon money map players because it lowers the amount of strategy needed to win in the end. What they fail to notice is that they too suffer form the same ailment. So next time you log onto Battle.net, venture into the unknown and select a new map to play on. A whole universe of possibilities awaits.
At first glance, Lost Temple is a fairly large map, but still small enough to make rushing a possibility, albeit not a very common tactic. Play a game on Cycle or Dark Star and that Terran won't be so quick to send his SCV into unexplored territory to build a wall. Blood Bath doesn't only encourage rushes with it's small size, but also it's simplistic layout. With everyone and their dog knowing the exact layout of Lost Temple, the effect is much the same. Siege Tanks, lurkers, and Dragoons reign supreme on this map, however play an island map and suddenly the danger units become Dropships, Shuttles, and Overlords. By limiting themselves to strictly Lost Temple matches, players are restricting themselves to reading one book in a library of great literature.
Furthermore, by assuming the setting to be Lost Temple, many players judge theoretic attack plans based on their effectiveness on that particular map. Ultra-early rushing is generally shunned by the “elite” of Starcraft, citing the danger of failing. Change setting to Blood Bath however, and that 4-pool or offensive barracks isn't so outrageous anymore. Drop units on Lost Temple are generally believed to be Marines & Medics, Siege Tanks, Lurkers, Reavers, and other high damage, anti-ground units. In a game on Island Hop, you may be more inclined to drop Goliaths or Hydralisks to counter the air force that you opponent is creating. By only giving one location to test out plans, it gives players a two dimensional view of the three dimensional world that is Starcraft.
Most importantly, the memorization of every position on the map greatly reduces the needs to use on of war's most time-honoured traditions, scouting. Just last week I was involved in a 3v2 game on a LAN on Razor Thicket. Both me and my partner though that there would be a choke point near each starting base. My partner, a chronic turtle, decided to set up for his usual turret and bunker spam at what he believed to be his choke, while I began to block in the most dangerous of our enemies to his starting base. My partner was attacked from behind his mineral line, rendering his defenses useless. He was forced to fly his Command Centre out to a nearby hill to stay alive. The Zerg opponent I thought I had contained expanded freely and came with a much larger force than expected to destroy my forward position with aid from his Protoss ally, who had expanded to the other side. The three of them conspired to destroy me and then starve out my turtle ally. Had either of us scouted the map more instead of reverting to our Lost Temple-esque ways of thinking, the match would not have been so one-sided.
Lost Temple goers are often quick to lampoon money map players because it lowers the amount of strategy needed to win in the end. What they fail to notice is that they too suffer form the same ailment. So next time you log onto Battle.net, venture into the unknown and select a new map to play on. A whole universe of possibilities awaits.