Spring RTS Engine

sorry I hate center battle maps. they are for tards who cannot expand.

this is the ultimate noob metal map.

Castles was also the most popular map in spring before riverdale was released...

SwiftSpear wrote:... alpha island isn't a very popular map...

Not it isn't.

But, on the other hand, Castles and Speedmetal are the most popular and everyone knows they are very good maps.

Castles isn't that popular any more is it? I thought people had migrated to altailored divide... Admitantly I don't play as regularly as I used to.

People play speedmetal because it's a different style, one that is easier to grasp then the proper expansionist style maps. Plus you get to see lots of big bots blowing eachother up! Speedmetal is popular for it's simplicity, not it's quality.

River Dale does have some balance issues - but the South needs less metal on account of the high ground. It's the best example of assymetrical balance I can think of...

This metal map is no battle for the center, as the center spots have less metal than the outward ones, yet, they are more easily accesable.

Just play Road to War, and you will see how awesome this design rly is.

Quick comment on why i thnk that River Dale is badly layed out:

In any game of TA, you will win when you can get the most ressources in the shortest time possible, and use them of course.

If you start at the bottom of river dale, you will have to seize and exploit a much greater number of metal spots to gain the same amount of ressources as the players at the top do.

Thus, the top-team gains ressources more quickly, can get a bigger army faster and so wins the match.

The high ground hardly matter, scince the difference in ressources is so great, that the top team just mows the little defences of the bottom team down.

Just lol, you simply cannot make a generic metal map layout and claim it is the best. Your only reason for it being the best is, as you say, because there isn't alot of metal in the middle - how does that make it better than other layouts? It's entirely dependant on the terrain layout, there are ways to have high concentrations of metal in the middle without causeing problems (Desert Triad for example).

And with riverdale - i'm regularly on the winning side no matter if i play either north or south. So long as you expand quickly, either end has a good chance of winning.

You just cant say because a map has a large concentration of metal in the middle is crap - it's just not true.