New map terrain label

Currently we have "Flat", "Hills" and "Mountains" to describe map hillyness. I think we need another descriptor: "Cliffs". This would deal with the starcrafty type maps. When tagging these maps I am not sure what else to call them. A flat map is equal for bots and vehicles, this is true on those maps. "Mountains" is used for when spiders are significantly better than bots and vehicles but this is more due to consistent poor terrain, not just occasional cliffs. "Mountains" implies that vehicles are completely unreasonable

A "Flat" map would be a flat open map such that the map are equally accessible by all move types. Eg. Titan Duel or Red Comet.

A "Hills" map is a map where vehicles (compared to bots) have to take alternate routs to reach important areas or are blocked from reaching some important areas. Vehicles on these maps will have greater rush distance or a harder time expanding. Eg. Wanderlust.

A "Mountains" map is a more extreme version of "Hills" where Spiders and Jumpies get the advantage over bots and Vehicles are basically unplayable.

A "Cliffs" map would be flat areas delineated by cliffs and ramps. Vehicles and Bots have near-equal accessibility but are cramped compared to All Terrain.

Good idea!
But I would argue that wanderlust is a "cliff" map, rather than being hilly.

Is there any example of the "Mountains" type? Otherwise I'd suggest simply renaming mountains into cliffs.

Go to http://zero-k.info/Maps & set filter to "Mountains" = There is 50+ official mountains map.

Imo there is no use to make categories more/too fine grained, sometimes that is even bad.
It is already very much matter of taste if maps are considered "flat/hill/mountains."

[Spoiler]

One word always comes up in terrain-rating discussions: accessibility
Take "Lava Highgrounds": Is it flat? Is it hills? That does not really matter because the defining factor is obviously the large uncrossable lava areas.


Or a map like Knockout that is very flat, but just calling it "flat" does not really describe its character.

You could tag it with the new "cliffs/starcraft" category, but that does not really fit either.
Maps like Bluebend, Ravaged, Quicksilver, Heartbreaker are in this cliffs/starcraft style.
Putting map like Knockout in same category still misses the point a bit.

So instead of trying to rate accessibility via heightmap, accessibility should be its own category with options: 1) open 2) medium 3) inaccessible

accessibility could then also be useful not only for landmaps but also for more accurate rating of watermaps.

Call it Plateaus.

Yeah I've long been describing maps this way in my head.