Warcraft III Multiplayer: Shifting Gardens

1v1 Melee - (2)ShiftingGardens[dimfish].w3x

Starting Mines	13,600 x2		Total Gold	52,200
Expansions	12,500 x2		Total Creep Levels	186

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Concept - Reasonable Random Buildings

How can we use random neutral buildings in a fun and strategically interesting way? First, the randomness has to be managable or players won't feel like they have any control. I decided on two random sites, and the set of possible buildings for each site is small and memorable. Each set has an item merchant, a unit hire merchant, and a fountain.

East Site {Goblin Merchant, Dragon Roost, Fountain of Mana}
West Site {Marketplace, Mercenary Camp, Fountain of Health}

Any particular building has a 33% to appear, and the possible combinations are interesting. If both item shops appear, players could load up on good Hero items, for instance. If a unit hire merchant appears, a player might decide to creep near it so she can buy up the best units and deny her opponent.

Players are rewarded on this map for adapting to a scenario that isn't fully defined until the match starts; players who choose random race may also enjoy the proposition of this map.

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Details

Several creeps at the red camp are randomly chosen, contributing to the theme that the battlefield is a mysterious garden that changes with every visit.

The walled garden between the two starting positions creates two roughly equal-distance paths between the bases: armies may very well pass on opposite sides. The inner area has four green camps appealing in the early game, but the liklihood of contact is high. Essentially, this middle garden and the starting bases form an early-game battlefield within the larger map.

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