Opinion
Blitz matches are fun, right? They sound like they should be a relaxing smash-n-grab and an uber-lovely romp through a field of mines and artillery explosions. On a tiny map, two players face off against each other. They are without diplomatic options, all alone against their enemy, bracing their armies for quick and deadly combat. Ships are blindly launched into contested territory, and each captain instills a silly hope in his crew that, “This is our moment of glory, boys.” It seems like it should be a short and joy-filled experience. Make a few superb manoeuvres, and you’ve got ‘im! If you are into Planets combat, it is definitely a good time, but there is also a dark side to the Blitz format. Since these types of games score League teams big points in Nu‘s new road to the championship, these head-to-heads deserve a bit of scrutiny. After all, isn’t winning a champ game the most important thing in the Echo Cluster?
When a commander joins a 1v1 Blitz Planets match, he wants a map that gives both players an equal opportunity to win. While it can be thrilling to fight against the odds, more often than not, it is a waste of time and energy. All players have a finite amount of the aforementioned “human” resources, so they do not want theirs drained by a game that sets them up to lose before the first turn has hosted. This nightmare is frequently realised as the Nu map generator tends to give one player more planets than the other, or it places planets very close to one player’s homeworld but far from the opponent’s.
In 2v2 matches, this problem is exacerbated. When partners join a team Blitz, they also want a balanced map. More specifically, players need their teammate’s homeworld to be placed in a position that is as beneficial as all the others. Each player requires an even number of resource planets and to be positioned equally-distant from all other players. Instead, we see homeworlds in the middle of the map and bunched up planet clusters giving one team a huge advantage over the other. There is no room for error in a 4-player Blitz, so the chances of winning a game with a Turn-1 imbalance are very low.
Planet count imbalance
The above examples were games I played in the 2023 League season. The left was a 1v1, and the match on the right was a 2v2. For the left, my opponent’s half of the map contained 11 planets which were all close together. From the starting blocks, I was at a disadvantage and had an uphill battle. I scraped together a victory, but only because I was the Crystals and immediately threw webs up in enemy territory, giving myself time to expand. Most other races would struggle to do this. It is very clear that my opponnent started with an advantageous position.
For the team game on the right, our opponents had one homeworld positioned in the centre of the map. To make matters worse, the centre race was the Robots. In the blink of an eye, the entire map was covered in minefields while the Bot’s Lizard teammate hid in behind and built up power. Their half of the map contained 14 planets and ours had about 10. I will give you one guess on how this battle unfolded. It was most definitely decided before Turn 2.
Was this just me and my bad luck? Definitely not. Below are a collection of images which show the divisions of many games from the 2023 League season.
Planet clustering
In the above maps, I highlighted an issue with planet clustering by adding white circles. The smaller whites encircle the planets within range of a Warp 7 jump, and the larger encompass planets which can be reached in one turn with Warp 9 engines.
Warp 7 engines do not require a Tech 10 upgrade, so they save a commander a lot of cash. If your planets are all less than 50 LYs apart, you can dominate your side of the map with only Quantum Drive 7s. However, if the majority of your planet connections are up to 81.5 LYs, you have no option but to spend the money to upgrade to Tech 10 engines. To add to the extra megacredit cost, Transwarp Drives cost extra molybdenum, a resource that is scarce and commonly decides the fate of Blitz matches. You don’t need to do much math to figure out how a tighter planet cluster gives an advantage to one side.
Beyond money, there are other disadvantages. If you do not equip ships with engines that can effieciently make one-turn planet hops, you end up moving too slowly. Blitz battle unfolds quickly, and you cannot afford to lose time on that extra turn to reach the next planet. Fuel consumption compounds this issue. To make up for lost time, you are forced to overdrive your engines and burn extra neutronium. While this works for the early part of the game and can be countered with alchemy ships or lucky resource finds, it is a weakness that can be exploited, or it can hurt you without your opponent lifting a finger.
What these maps and white circles prove is that many Blitz maps cluster planets in one opponent’s favour. We all know what happens when your opponent can quickly access the majority of planets and save money on engines.
Homeworld Positions in 2v2 Blitzes
Similar problems occur with 2v2 starmaps, as you can see in the following screenshots:
These images depict the same problems as 1v1s: too many planets near one team and distance between planets giving one team an engine advantage. These maps also prove another problem which compounds the first two: the issue of placing one team’s homeworlds in a front-back position. One player’s homeworld is positioned directly in the middle of the map, while their partner is tucked safely behind them. While the front position might seem vulnerable, it usually acts as a shield for the back race to grow in power and a wedge to disrupt opponent movement and cooperation. In dramatic fashion, this set up throws off the entire balance of the game, and often the team not stacked does quite poorly as they are far more vulnerable and limited in how they can expand.
The same problems persist
This article has been on ice for a year. I waited till 2024 to revisit this, and it looks like this still has not been changed for this season’s League Blitzes. In the images below, you can see 1v1 and 2v2 matches displayed, and the same issues persist.
Changes need to be made
These map imbalances are too common, especially for a Planets format which already advantages certain races over others. Some changes need to be made.
To set up a balanced Blitz, the number of planets should be evenly divided between the two races. Each player should find the same number of planets within 49 light years and between 81 and 162 light years. One player should not be forced to upgrade to Tech 10 engines while the other benefits from no upgrade; likewise, one player cannot be blessed with the majority of the resources.
2v2s matches should experience similarly balanced planet distribution, and each player should be placed in their own quadrant, having an equal ‘piece of the pie.’ Both teams should have an equal opportunity to cooperate.
Regarding planet clustering, it would be fine to have a few randomly distributed planets to fight over. And alternatively, a match could have a more exciting feel to it if the majority of planets would land approximately equidistant between both homeworlds. With a clump of planets in the middle, the map generator would create a treasure trove of resources over which both empires would be forced to compete. Both commanders would need to make calculated choices and smart fleet movements to gain extra resources.
As a completely new format, it would be interesting to see Blitzes where minerals are overstocked on the homeworld and scarce on other planets. This would require a less economic approach that instead focused on military manoeuvres and logistics.
From 2023, three 2v2 matches were seriously imbalanced in favour of one team. Of elven 1v1 matches, seven experienced the same map lopsidedness. So far, in 2024, the majority of 2v2s and 1v1s continue to be imbalanced. This is a problem.
Personally, I would like to see Nu create a collection of 30-50 handcrafted Blitz starmaps, which would be randomly selected for each match. As it is now, the Nu map generator sometimes creates a generally balanced map and all is as it should be, but more often than not, the imbalance rears its ugly head and creates a nightmare situation for one side. In these dismally-uphill battles, victory can still be achieved, but only with luck and risky aggressiveness. Balanced starmaps would create 1v1s and 2v2s where player choices make the difference, not planet distribution or homeworld position.
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Thanks for reading. – TS
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