It seems like all he will do is just pick the maps people are voting on, which… wouldn’t really solve the problem. Granted, he’ll probably just not pick Michi and the like, but assuming he’ll try to be ‘fair’ and give us a selection of closed and open maps, it’ll still be up to the playerbase to vote for the maps.
Which is how we get a ton of closed maps and so on, as the playerbase seems to want to play those maps more.
What’s the good news about that? The devs literally ignore every single suggestion that has been made regarding the map pool and instead give all the power to one person.
That one person knows the game and its maps well enough to make a selection that doesn’t go too much into one direction.
Definitely gonna be more open maps with Viper picking. Can’t wait to see the first pool.
Is Viper picking 1v1 and team game map pools?
Yep. He picks both dev picks as well as voting options
They really oughta rename it to “pro picks” then.
Some good news. Viper gets to pick the map pool (within certain restrictions).
Watch from 2:07:00 or so: AoE2 w Snek | Age & Rage & 1v1s | By TheViper | Facebook
Thats interessting, but the system is the real problem.
So a lot wil depend on whether Viper puts the maps like Four Lakes, Hideout, Atacama, Golden Rush, Nomad, Baltic, MegaRandom in the map voting pool. If he does those will surely get voted without surprise.
But Viper complained about the same recycled maps all the time, so maybe he actually puts just more rare or unique maps in the map voting pool. But 6 such maps are not enough, there has to be some real absence of the always recycled maps.
So a lot wil depend on whether Viper puts the maps like Four Lakes, Hideout, Atacama, Golden Rush, Nomad, Baltic, MegaRandom in the map voting pool. If he does those will surely get voted without surprise.
He selected MegaRandom as dev pick and Nomad for the voting pool. With MegaRandom and Nomad there will be 2 maps in the pool that get always recycled. That is not much less than in the current map pool.
That he selected Migration was predictable.
It would be nice if Morass and Wade get selected, but they have probably no chance.
But it will not be the worst 1v1 map pool with Arabia, Arena, MegaRandom, Migration, Nomad and probably Haboob and Enclosed.
Full overview:
1v1:
Dev Picks: Arabia, Arena, MegaRandom, Migration
Votable Maps: Enclosed, Haboob, Kawasan, Lowland, Morass, Nomad, Northern Isles, Seize the Mountain, Wade
TG:
Dev Picks: Arabia, Arena, Black Forest, Migration, MegaRandom, Nomad
Votable Maps: Coastal, Enclosed, Four Lakes, Haboob, Kawasan, Lowland, Team Isles, Team Moats, Yucatan
Just checked the map pool again, because I wasn’t familiar with some of these maps. But yeah, this map pool is so much better. I hope they keep Viper (and even other pro players) for regular consultation with the map pool.
It’s not like the community doesn’t get a voice either, since we are ultimately the ones voting for the maps.
Would’ve been interesting if he had managed to sneak in Rage Forest instead of Black Forest for the TG rotation. Rage Forest is a much better map. 11
Viper’s explanation for picking maps:
I think the decision will be between habob, kawasan, enclosed and nomad.
The other maps are jsut too distinct in their metaplay and most players aren’t comfortable in picking these.
One general issue devs should account for, that most players tend to vote for maps in their “comfort zone”. Which also lead to the last voting which upset some of the top guys.
Most players, especially on lower elos tend to select slower paced maps if they have the option as they just feel more comfortable there.
But more importantly, I don’t think it’s a good idea to add maps like wade to the selection pool, as it is very unlikely they will ever be chosen by the community.
When we try to add more diverse maps to the pool, they have to be dev picks. And I am totally for that. I thin devs have every time the chance to add 1-2 maps to the pool which aren’t as known then - and next time add exaclty these maps to the selection pool to check if the community has learned to be comfortable with them and find them attractive.
I doN#t think the other way around will ever work. And I think with all the work Viper put into this, he just didn’t took that community behaviour into accoutn. Which will lead to a kinda predictable resullt in the votings.
Either you have to select all unpopular maps, or only already popular - ottherwise the result is kinda predistined.