Lobby Recap Recap for CTG Lobby 10/24/13

Psychoduck

Round Objects™
Dec 23, 2012
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1,781
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Greater Seattle Area
Post feedback for the following maps below.

  • Panic Attack: Inversely symmetrical arena-style BTB map with warthog jumps, played TS and CTF
  • Contour: Asymmetrical 4v4 map along cliffs of Ravine, played TS
  • Excavation: Inversely symmetrical BTB heavies map with Mantises and Rocket 'Hogs, played CTF
  • Exin: Asymmetrical 4v4 map near waterfall on Ravine, played TS
  • Deliverance: Asymmetrical 4v4 map on Forge Island incorporating water and Dinghies, played TS
  • QWOP: Asymmetrical urban-styled BTB map with rocket hogs, played CTF
  • Shipwreck: Asymmetrical wreckage-based map with warthog jumps, played TS
Minigames:
  • Cold Feet: Concussion rifle-centric game on Erosion
  • Laser Ball: Laser-centric Oddball variant on Ragnarok
I'll post my feedback throughout the day time allowing. Thanks for coming, everyone!
Flying Shoe IRDead, SHOCKKnizzle, SloppyApples, Monster Debaytes, Gore Jesus, NOVA
 

Skyward Shoe

Platinum in Destiny
Dec 24, 2012
864
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211
Redmond, Washington
Picnic Attack: That map was Hogtacular, even when not in a hog. Lines of sight were pretty darn solid outside of maybe the sniper's ability to control half of the map from his base. Warthog paths were... yeah, I can't see how you could do much better. Hogtacular. Flag played well aside from the long stalemate, but I think that had to do more with the teams than anything. We will see in due time.

Contour: The map's layout was a little random, but solidly put together. The biggest issue was the sheer overabundance of power weapons and some small, iffy side routes.

Excavation: Oheydat'smamapder. I found it interesting when someone called this a Heavies map. I'd never thought of it as one, but I guess it is one, just without the usual brokenness of Heavies maps that have been in MM. Someday we'll play Extraction on here.

Exin: The biggest issue were the spawns, which mostly left us on the lower side or right in the middle trench. I liked the trenche but I felt that the low side could have used more power.

Deliverance: I hid in da boats.

QWOP: Great first test, I loved the Turf feel of it. I don't have much feedback now, but it was quite enjoyable and very Halo-y.

Shipwreck: SPAAAAAAAAAACE! Gotta love the jumps on that map.

Afterparty: We talked about Pokemans and Haroz and played Humdinger and then Lobby Ender 3 times. It was awesome.
 
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Master Debaytes

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Dec 31, 2012
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Panic Attack
  • Loved this map. For both TS and CTF. The only real issue I saw with this map was that the sniper could be kept back at base and camped with the whole game without worry of getting killed. I agree with what was said in the lobby, that the cover in the bases should be lowered, so the sniper has no where to hide from those BR shots coming his way.
Contour
  • Ok, this map had some issues. First off, the spawns. I only died 4 times on this map, when I did spawn in (including the initial spawn) I spawned right in front or right next to an enemy spartan every time. Check your spawns out. Next issue, the over abundance of power weapons. There were way too many power weapons on the map (the Fuel Rod Cannon, the 2 Scattershots, the SAW, the Gravity Hammer, the Sniper, the Sticky Detonator, TOO MUCH). As I suggested in game, swap the Fuel Rod Cannon for the Rocket Launcher, and place the Rockets where the SAW is now. Where the Fuel Rod Cannon was, place the sniper rifle. Instead of 2 Scattershots, replace them with 1 Shotgun. Get rid of the Gravity Hammer, SAW, and Sticky Detonator altogether. That should fix your weapon issues. The final issue, the map height. While the map did incorporate different levels of elevation, those who used the jet pack gained a severely unfair advantage on this map. All of the tops of your structures were relatively low in that with a jet pack you could get on top of any structure on the map excluding the outer walls. This gave jet pack users the height advantage in every situation. I would raise all structures higher to prevent that.
Excavation
  • Heavy but not too heavy was a fairly accurate description for this map. I really had zero issues with this one. Just a wonderful map in my opinion.
Exin
  • Aesthetically, this map was a beauty. My issue with it was, much like Contour, the spawns. I found myself spawning much too close to my enemies every other respawn.
Deliverance
  • Oh god that dingy was camped up. That map was a blast to play on, but my major issue with it (other than the fact that ordinance landed on me and ended my killstreak just before the frenzy -_-) was the fact the the middle platform was a bit overpowering in that it gave players a full line of sight over the entirety of the map and when the map has a binary rifle on it it's even more overpowering. Maybe just replacing the binary rifle with the normal sniper is the right choice here.
QWOP
  • I liked this map a lot as well. Just no major problems with it at all. I can't give a final opinion without another couple of playthroughs but I saw nothing wrong with it when we played on it last night. Excellent work Mock.
Shipwreck
  • Fuck those holes in the middle of the map man. I died to those holes 3 times, 2 of the times because the melee lunge pulled me over them. They did add a nice hilarity factor to the map though, so I won't complain any further. My major issue with the map was that the hammer respawned back way too quickly. This guaranteed that there was at least one player running around with the hammer at all times (and there were a couple of moments where there were 2 hammer guys at once). Increase the respawn time on the hammer and the map should be good to go. And don't you dare change the one warthog jump that launches you up and out of the map. That was just priceless.
 

Psychoduck

Round Objects™
Dec 23, 2012
1,582
1,781
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Greater Seattle Area
Panic Attack: I will look into the sniper situation. There's a few potential solutions for that. I also need to make sure that the railings on mid road are all consistent in height. Aside from that, this played almost exactly as I hoped, I look forward to continuing to test it.

Contour: In addition to everything Debbie said, I also found several areas to be a bit cramped. Moving around the map wasn't as fluid as it could be. The ramp with the railing running up the middle of it is a particularly good example of this. I would focus on smoothing everything out a bit and just making some of the connections more fluid. Aside from this and everything Debbie said about the weapons, I'd need to play more to say.

Excavation: This felt rather good for flag. I spent a lot of the game in a Mantis, and everything there felt very good. All of the sightlines and routes work quite nicely also, the vehicle balance is spot on. I don't know how much I like the bases, but I think they work quite well regardless. The central cave area works very well also. I'm interested to play Extraction on here sometime soon.

Exin: This was a beautiful map aesthetically. The use of varying angles made the map's geometry feel rather unique and interesting, there wasn't really any lazy cover either. As the others have said, spawning was somewhat problematic on here. The map, while well segmented, is not particularly large and this made 4v4 spawning rather dangerous. I'll need to play this one some more before giving more feedback. Narzlid

Deliverance: This was another great looking map which established a very cool theme. Unfortunately, this theme felt rather familiar to those of us who have played on The Ark. The map didn't have the strongest height variation, it was largely based off of the flat water area (which I'm sure will be a point of contention in itself to some people) with a few structures built off of the flat terrain. One of these structures could dominate most of the map, even though there were a few positions to counter it from. Also, the Binary Rifle is a huge no-no to have on a competitive map as it is immensely (and inherently) overpowered, especially on a map as open as this one. I'll need more games on this before I can formulate a moe accurate opinion of it. Chronmeister

QWOP: This went rather well for a first test. CTF felt pretty good. What this really feels like to me is just another good Mock map: it hearkens back to some of Halo 2's urban maps (namely Turf) and makes for a fun battleground. I would prefer to see chain 'hogs on the map to rocket 'hogs, but that's mainly a matter of personal preference. I have some concerns about some areas on the map being under-trafficked: the vast majority of the action appeared to take place on the high side of the map. While this area felt pretty good, the low side got virtually no traffic as far as I could tell. Let's see how this goes in future tests.

Shipwreck: This is a map which provides pure, unadulterated BTB fun without taking the design too seriously. Driving around on here is incredibly fun and fluid. The map creates a fantastic atmosphere, and the organic geometry is very unique. This is a fantastic map to play Slayer on, and I'd imagine that KOTH would be excellent as well.

Cold Feet: If I was rating this on my own personal enjoyment, I would probably give it about a 1/10. That said, I could definitely see this fitting into Action Sack rather well: it's easy to pick up and understand and I imagine that the Action Sack crowd would enjoy it.

Laser Ball: My personal thoughts on this are similar to those on Cold Feet. Again, I feel this is easy enough to pick up and play that it would fit into Action Sack. I do think that the oddball should be auto-pickup to avoid throwing of players who are used to this feature in Halo 4.
 
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