This is an overview of my maps that emulate StarCraft II Co-op maps. Their goal is to provide an identical gameplay experience as official maps, however, they also include several custom-made mutators, feature prototypes, and many useful commands for testing.
The easiest way is to search for [MM] on arcade. Maps are available in all regions though I cannot guarantee that maps in the China region are up-to-date. There is an individual map for each enemy race (e.g., "[MM] Oblivion Express - Terran").
Difficulty
For Brutal difficulty leave settings as they are in the lobby. For lower
difficulties lower AI difficulty:
| Desired Co-op difficulty | Difficulty to set |
| Brutal | Hard (default) |
| Hard | Medium |
| Normal | Easy |
| Casual | Very Easy |
Observing
Observing isn't natively supported. However, there is a workaround for it.
You create the game and leave. After that, you can use "recover game"
function, or "watch replay with others" and "take command"
once the game is loaded. Recovering even few second-long replay will
enable observers into the game. All you need is a short replay
prepared.
Mutators are special modifications that bring additional challenge and variety to existing Co-op missions. Currently, there are 61 mutators. I tried creating new mutators as it's an interesting game design exercise and implementation is relatively simple compared to creating a completely new commander. Eventually I implemented 16 new mutators working very much like Blizzard's own. Some of them are based on my ideas, others or suggestions from other players. But each mutator required a good amount of iteration before reaching its full potential.
I found creating mutators fun since it's a combination of game design, programming, art, and QA. They are small enough projects that I can finish in a reasonable time. And they can be combined with other mutators, maps and commanders to provide a huge variety of gameplay scenarios.
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Shapeshifters | Shapeshifters spawn with enemy attacks and in enemy bases. These creatures can transform into any unit of yours. |
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THE USUAL SUSPECTS | Enemy attacks will be led by dark reflections of Heroes in the service of Amon |
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Endurance | Player and enemy units and structures have 3x more health and shields. |
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Bloodlust | Enemy units gain increased attack speed, movement speed,
acceleration and damage reduction as their health gets lower. |
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Level Playing Field | All weapons and abilities can hit both air and ground targets. |
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Great Wall | Enemy begins massive effort to construct defensive structures
around the battlefield. |
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Infestation Station | Damaging any structure can cause infestation. |
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Dark Mirror | Enemy attack waves will contain player units. |
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Supreme Commander | Massive units gain 25% life and are bigger, the rest of units have
25% less life and are smaller. All units gain +2 weapon range. |
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Matryoshka | Enemy units will spawn mini-self upon death. This can trigger
several times for larger units. |
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Necronomicon | Killed player units will rise again at enemy bases. |
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Nuclear Mines | Nuclear Mines have been placed around the battlefield. |
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Rip Field Generators | Rip-Field Generators are deployed throughout the map. They will
burn any unit that comes into their range. |
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Repulsive Field | Enemy attacks will push your units away. |
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I Collect, I Change | When a non-heroic unit kills a hostile unit, it becomes the unit
it killed. Units can only evolve into more expensive units. |
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Mothership | Enemy Mothership roams the map and attacks player units. |
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The Mist | Mists roll over battlefield while unseen terrors lurk inside.
Desperate warriors will fall and rise again. |
My maps include other features apart from mutators. For example with "-bile" command Zagara's Bile Launchers will take advantage of smart-casting. "-unload" command adds a button to Nydus Worms to unload only heroic units. And other UI changes.
BlizzCon 2016 Challenge with mutators being progressively added is recreated and added as well. It can be selected in the commander selection screen from a list of challenges.
30 sec - Purifier Beam
3 min - Power Overwhelming
5 min - Speed Freaks
7 min - Alien Incubation
10 min - Blizzard
13 min - Missile Command
15 min - Avenger
18 min - Void Rifts
21 min - Polarity
24 min - Going Nuclear
Blizzard's design direction regarding mutators has been that each mutator has to provide additional challenge for players. There are only few exceptions – holiday mutators and occasionally Slim Pickings or Eminent Domain. It's a good rule. Each mutator adds additional complexity to the game. Complexity is a cost to player for implementing things into the game, and should be minimized – as opposed to depth which desirable. Too many mutators that don't add challenge and missions will become confusing and hard to make sense of without actually being challenging.
I have few mutators that don't increase difficulty, and so these mutators have to be paired with ones that do. This limits the number of possible combinations for mutations, but it's not a big issue as long as there are not too many of them. With mutators like Level Playing Field, players can discover new strategies and feel good about it. After all, changing the way the game is played is the most important role of mutators.
Endurance is another mutator that is not strictly in Amon's favor. However, in some timed missions longer fights can be to player's detriment. And on maps like Oblivion Express it could prove to be extremely challenging. Change in gameplay comes from more focus on sustained damage and less on burst and spells. Players also have to take into consideration more time spent in combat when planning army movements. Combat engagements take on a different feel and provide more options for micromanagement.
Infestation Station makes pushing harder and makes commanders' static defense worse. It has good synergy with mutators like Transmutation, Avenger, Barrier and Great Wall.
I see Nuclear Mines as a good alternative to Going Nuclear. It demands micromanagement and careful progress through the map, however, it's not as punishing as Going Nuclear and doesn't require constant attention. The advantage of Going Nuclear is that it's a lot more impactful on maps like Oblivion Express. Some maps just don't synergize with certain mutators. A good example is Temple of the Past and many environmental mutators that don't really do anything on it.
There is a small delay before explosion which gives players a room to micro units back. The main synergy is with mutators like Shortsighted or Darkness.
Necronomicon (killed player units spawn for enemy) and Dark Mirror (enemy attack waves contain player units) are particularly interesting as players can fight against units similar to their own. Necronomicon additionally encourages losing fewer units.
Creating the Dark Mirror mutator was the hardest part since it completely replaces standard attack waves. As I mentioned in my post about modularity, having all attack waves easily accessible in the same way for each map would help a lot. I had to hunt down all the ways attack waves are spawned and workarounds are not always elegant.
Supreme Commander (adds range and changes unit health and sizes) is an interesting mutator, but I don't think it fully captures the fantasy of its namesake. Ideally, it would double the number of produced units, however, StarCraft 2 engine is already at its limits with current numbers.
Great Wall (enemy builds a lot of static defenses) encourages using long-ranged units and focus on more sustained damage. Careful and methodical progress through the map is preferred. This mutator might be one of the best. It fulfills what players desire – additional challenge that's fair and such that they can fight on their own term.
Rip-Field Generators encourage more strategic planning and player cooperation. They are significantly more effective against small units. This mutator has good synergy with Great Wall, Fear or Concussive Attacks.
With Repulsive Field (player units are pushed away by enemy attacks), I went through several iterations – both attacker and target switching places, attacker pulling the target or being pulled itself. Eventually, I decided on this version. It mostly leaves control over units to players. I didn't want it to be like Fatal Attraction which takes control from players without good options to prevent it.
I Collect, I Change (any unit will evolve into a unit it killed if it's better) is a very funny mutator. It's also very hard to balance right. Currently, it strongly favors commander players over Amon. That's not ideal, and I hope to improve it in the future.
Mothership is one of the last custom-made mutators. It's similar to Purifier Beam – Mothership roams the map and targets players units and structures. Additional Motherships spawn later in the game. Mothership has several abilities – Time Bomb, Vortex and Planet Cracker. If a Mothership is critically damaged, it will teleport back and heal. This provides the choice whether to fight it or avoid it.
The Mist is the most recent addition among mutators. It's meant to be slightly horror-themed. Mists are randomly placed around the battlefield. Units inside mists have reduced vision, and a Shadow Terror occasionally spawns inside – just to disappear shortly afterwards. Player units that died inside mists will be brought back with reduced health and will fight for the enemy.
This mutator encourages careful positioning and choosing where to take engagements. But it doesn't require constant attention and micro-management as Going Nuclear or Blizzard mutators.
