I wonder how many players reached a decent elo just knowing the proper time to get the walls done before this arabia came out.
First of all, I do not understand why people in this topic always bring froward "classical AoC Araboa" because it was not my point to compare the two. Anyway...The map was made for King of the Desert IV, I think most people are aware of this, and the fundamental idea of the map was to create an experience that was close to the original version. It was important that all elements brought back could be introduced in a manner that would be balanced between all players.
Furthermore, the map was made in an attempt to suit multiple playstyles. This was done by creating a variance in how the forests and elevation were generated on the map, and especially immediately around the players. This means that each generation should grant you something different - sometimes, you may get a generation that doesn't suit your playstyle, and sometimes you may get one that is right up your alley.
Needless to say, this is a tricky balance, and I will not deny that the balance, currently, is somewhat skewed towards the more aggressive side due to the nature of the event it was made for.
Apart from ponds (that should be present in the desert arabia and not in the green version) I totally agree.I can only speak for myself but many ~2k players I have talked to agree:
The map is good in general. I like that it seems quite fair and that it varies if you have a decent map or a really garbage map. But what I think could be improved is:
* The hills are fine but way too many. You can't make TC anywhere and I don't think that is the point. Keep the hills but reduce them with 30-40%
* Remove the ponds. They don't contribute at all and are just annoying when xbows camps etc
* The bad maps are fun sometimes but they are too bad and too frequently bad imo. I feel like the standard gen should be 3 woodlines and sometimes 4 or 2 woodlines to mix it up. Maybe I'm wrong here but I got the feeling that the standard gen is 2 woodlines with everything on hills forward. It just makes the arabia gen too bad imo.
But in general I like it even if I sometimes lose a lot and get tilted and blame the map. But I really think it could be a lot better with some easy fixes.