I noticed that several maps present in the TAD standard maps pool have been removed from ranked play. I believe the following maps were removed (based on ~150 games): Great Plains, Great Lakes, Carolina, Texas, California, Araucania, Indochina, Yucatan, Hispaniola, Bayou, Deccan, Silk Road, Yellow River. Furthermore, some excellent EP maps added to the game are not included in the rotation, e.g. Pampas Sierras, Cascade Range, Indonesia.
I hope that I am wrong about a few of these maps and just haven’t encountered them. If not, it is extremely frustrating that iconic maps like Great Plains have been removed, while the likes of Borneo is included. Overall, the DE set of maps includes a significantly higher fraction of Asian maps. There is now a single map for the entire continent of South America - Patagonia. I can’t see any reason to remove Great Plains or Great Lakes. It is reasonable to include a few niche maps in the rotation such as Indochina that encourage non standard play. It seems that any map without a trade route has been removed from the pool. This is a bad guiding principle. Overall, the DE ranked map pool is quite bland and would greatly benefit from increased diversity.
Thank you for posting this. Several of the maps mentioned used to be so frequently played that they are basically synonymous with the game itself. It is a real shame that they are not included in the standard map pool of DE.
Great plains is the most iconic aoe3 map and should permanently be in the map pool. It is the definition of standard for many players. Perhaps as a map maker you judge what is standard differently.
That’s about what I would expect. I suppose some standard maps are low in the list because players resign before 2:00. I would always host standard or all maps games and certainly don’t want a return to Deccan or GP lobbies. I’m simply arguing there should be a great plains type map (home of the Lakota) permanently in the map pool. It makes zero sense to have converted High Plains (the balanced version of GP) to an Asian map if GP was removed. Great Lakes is important historically and ought to be added as well. I agree it has it’s problems, but is much more enjoyable in my opinion than Borneo, Siberia, or Yukon, which are all currently deemed “standard.” Thanks for the discussion and your effort on EP maps.
The fact that other maps were previously ignored is already solved by the nature of not being able to choose your map in ranked. So, there would be no harm in reintroducing GP and Deccan and perhaps a few others, as they would only occasionally pop up in the pool. Maps like Mongolia already favor certain teams (French, Dutch), while any water maps favors Ports. Ozarks favors aggressive teams. The balance is never going to be perfect, so better to just throw a bone to the vast majority of players that enjoy GP and Deccan. We can adjust the balance slightly if that is the issue (a couple closer herds in GP, and then a slight delay in the landing time of the trade route). These two maps also sort of balance each other in the long term, as Deccan favors defensive civs while GP favors aggressive civs.
I’d actually argue that a little bit less balance (as long as it is not extreme) encourages more diversity in play and thus more interesting play patterns. I want to be required to adapt my game depending on the map, rather than be able to run out the same strategy out every game because I know (for example) that I am guaranteed two trade posts and three easy herds.
There are already 22 maps in the standard pool. The map pool is fine. I don’t know and don’t want to know what GP or Deccan is. I guess they are the AoE3 version of Arabia or Blackforest? If so, exclude them from the standard maps would be the best decision the devs have made.
The map rotation is the worst part of Age2. If you add map rotation. Some people will ask for map bans and preference maps, and soon there will be map dodgers. Keep everything untouched if you don’t know how to solve them. Think twice before you make any irretrievable mistake.
If you want to play something specific, please go casual lobby. Set your fovorite rules, play and chat with players you approved, earn your casual rank insignia. Don’t change the ranked mode for all the old and new players.
If you aren’t familiar with the two most played aoe3 maps, then you aren’t qualified to judge if the current map pool is good or not. I agree with you though that a map rotation seems unnecessary and annoying. I just want a reasonable permanent map pool.
Fact is, that the map pool is still being revised. Some changes have already been made since release. We are both just voicing our opinions, and not adding a map is not the “default” at this early stage. I think many players would like to see a (balanced) version of great plains, which has a nice aesthetic. It is home of the Lakota and also features the Cheyenne tribe, not currently on any map in the pool.
As long as making sure all the maps are well tuned that all gimmick stuffs are removed and everything is standard, and make sure all the standard maps will be picked equally, then I am totally ok to see some new standard maps added in the standard maps sets.
Really really don’t want to see 99% games are arabia + BF happens again!
I can see why some maps would have been removed from ranked play, specially maps with no tp.
Great plains would be a great map to have if it gets balanced. Cant say the same about great lakes though, maybe its just me, but I never liked the design of that map.
Big No to preferred map. All standard maps are picked equally and randomly is the best and the most fair solution.
If some map is not well-balanced, just fix the problematic part of that map. Don’t add unnecessary restrictions to other people… you don’t want to how map dodgers ruin AoE2.
