Thanks for the tips alex and for suggesting I should write feedback on some of these maps. Critiquing other people's work turned out to be quite insightful and informative, and surprisingly a little fun. I hope you guys find some of what I wrote useful, otherwise just disregard it as pointless rambling xD, here goes:
- Echoes -
Aesthetically, this map feels like an extension of the 2nd campaign level from Halo: CE, so my compliments to you for all the details you put in to make it feel that way. While playing CTF on the map, it felt like there were only two ways to go about when pulling the flag: mounting a full assault with several vehicles which was difficult to pull off without possession of the banshee, and the other more common one was two players sneaking the flag through the teleporter or via mongoose. In either case, it felt as if once the flag left the initial base it was insanely hard to retrieve back. I’m sure the spawns put the team trying to retrieve the flag close enough to the action, however due to large obstacles and terrain in the way the flag carrier and his team would always slip by through the nooks and cause frustration. The only moment teams could contest returning a flag would be at the other base’s doorsteps. That large stretch of open land almost guaranteed the team pulling the flag a cap because of their closer spawns and one touch pick up. I feel as if this map is missing the good old tug of war feeling that Valhalla brought because flag contesting happens so much deeper into each side of the map instead of around the middle. Due to the lack of mancannons, it does sometimes feel as if infantry is always one step behind vehicles. Also, sometimes spawning on either Splaser side or banshee side when the enemy team is rushing to your base with vehicles, leaves you feeling powerless, especially when the power weapons are not available. Perhaps adding a turret near the side cliffs or a tier 2 weapon to slow down vehicles could help players actually try to stop the enemy team instead of rushing to the enemy base for a counter pull as the only other viable strategy. Just a few observations that I hope you find useful =]
- Badger Pit -
I think the thing that frustrated me most on this map was how confined the ghost felt within whichever side it spawned on. I feel like if the ghost got to maneuver through the needler cave area up till the corner strongholds it would give it more room to breathe and more of a purpose. As it was mentioned earlier, the pathing seems a bit unintuitive due the middle area being sharp corners. I like the idea of changing that into a more exposed but powerful bridge leading from base to base. Also I'd suggest making it diagonal so the two bases have some sort of sightline, which could help players orient themselves on this map and know where their enemies are spawning. I realize you are going for a cave theme but have you considered opening up the roof in certain areas to help with orientation? The terrain feels a bit labyrinth like so some geometry higher up on the map or the ceiling being open in some spots could help players realize where they are currently positioned and where they are heading. I liked some of the skill jumps you added into the rock pillars and if within budget, you should stretch the bottomless pit so people don’t instinctively jump off the map, sometimes it is difficult to tell if there is a floor beneath the next jump or a death pit. That’s about it for this one, Keep at it
- Kizingo –
I really like the art phase that went into this map since the last time I played it, the buildings tell a story and I’m really liking the nighttime atmosphere - something about being in a cityscape, and surrounded by mountains almost makes this city block you created feel cozy and Christmas like, haha especially imagining a Christmas tree in the middle of the center platform. That aside, the map plays really well after the strong hold location change. Now the flow of the action is constantly circular which is great. The vehicle pathing is more organic now as well since the strongholds provide direction for the driver to drive in laps. The games played on it were very close and super sweaty. The only minor things I’d wanna comment on would be that some weapons and vehicles are hard to see during gameplay. For ex. The ghost is sort of tucked a bit too much in and the players capturing the Taxi Stronghold could possibly not take notice due to the sightline. Another example would be the hydra under the Arch, A bit in the dark, maybe if a white block was placed underneath it to highlight it, it would be more prominent from the upper ledges. Other than that, the map is solid.
- Eagle Square -
I haven’t played any old versions of this map so I can’t comment on any changes, but I like what I see, a lot. The aesthetics feel very clean and reach inspired, and I didn’t notice those scripted trams you had until watching the replay, nice touch =] The game I played was a very quick CTF game that mainly took place on the surface level, although there was some vehicular action in the underground and some rocket fights bottom mid. Will say the match was short but sweet. I’d be interested in playing strongholds on the map as well which might utilize more locations of the map than CTF as it was mostly top mid rush, I don’t really know how else the other sides of the map could be used during CTF as the fastest and most common flag cap seemed to be across top mid. One thing I’d say is I didn’t see too many sniper kills on the map and I might think there is simply a tad too much cover for sniper to be useful to slow down top mid gameplay. Maybe you could reduce the height of some of these taller covers to give the sniper rifle a bit more dominance, or maybe outright replace it with two railguns instead but that is up to you, what do I know
. Anyways great work!
- Hangout –
Firstly, I wanted to say this last week but this map has got the most visually appealing teleporter design I’ve seen in this game so far imo, Great work =]. Have to say the gameplay on this map is an acquired taste for me. Played on it a bunch of times over the weeks and it is slowly growing on me more and more. The various adjustments to the stronghold locations, especially pink, is improving in each version and the banshee doesn’t seem as be all end all as it was couple of weeks ago. I will say that the map definitely requires several playthroughs to get used to the pathing, due to the vertical complexity of the map so first-timers may find it initially confusing to traverse the different areas just like I did in the beginning. Also there are so many catwalks and upper areas, I’m slightly questioning the power of the warthog or ghost as players are quite safe if they stick to the upper levels. The vehicles definitely seem necessary to hold down yellow corner but if a team chose to just hold pink and café, they don’t provide as much interaction with those strongholds as the banshee does, just a thought. Besides that, the map is unique and definitely stands out, Nice work!
- Ferrous -
This map is easily the most fun I’ve had driving around in a warthog, let’s start with that. The vehicle pathing is superbly interwoven with infantry movement and I keep discovering new jumps every playtest. To make a scrap metal yard look this great and immersive, massive props to you and your keen eye for detail. Gameplay for strongholds is nearing perfect and I wouldn’t mind trying assault on it as well. The few things I’d say is that the version I was playing (.3), there were gaps in the wall next to red trench which players could hide inside, dunno if it was intentional or not. Also near the ghost spawn area, there seems to be a nook to hide behind that feels like it should be blocked off. Besides that, the only thing I noticed is that the red side warthog was in a more noticeable location for players than the blue side warthog. Often times if I was on the blue team, I had to go retrieve the warthog from the cave because my teammates simply didn’t spawn near or were aware that the warthog spawned. Maybe adjusting a couple of spawns to be facing the warthog would remedy that issue. Anyways my final comment for this map is that this feels and looks like a dev map. Fantastic work!
- Artemis –
This map is very unique in a way for me because it makes 8 v 8 BTB feel like a 4v4 arena match. It’s action packed from start to finish, very sweaty palm inducing. Every object seems to be placed in a calculated fashion and it really shows. Almost all the paths are used in gameplay and the map works equally well for both CTF and Assault. I really like the position of the flag and bomb plant site on top of the base rather than when it was inside it. Assault was especially fun because of the exposed nature of planting the bomb, there were some insane clutch situations in the game where the planter was sniped from across the map right before they scored, very great gameplay overall. Just a couple of comments, I was wondering how useful the plasma caster was in the game, it certainly had its moments but I’d personally prefer a stronger weapon. A Railgun might be too much because of the two snipers that already exist on the map but something like the SAW could be interesting, just an idea. One more thing is that this map feels like a ghost map, but it does not feel like a warthog map. The spacing is simply too tight in many areas so the warthog is delegated to more of a moving turret role than a speeding vehicle of death. If that was the intention behind placing it, that is fine but I think that a gungoose could work pretty well as a flag-carrier deliverer and a more suited gunned 4-wheeler on this particular map. Final comments, if there is such a thing as BTB MLG map, this is prolly it, so major kudos to you sir.
- Fracture -
I am glad that there is at least one map with great mantis gameplay, to my surprise these vehicles fill more of a support role than I initially thought. It feels like they work as point guards for objective type gametypes such as CTF and assault, and the map is well built around this sandbox of vehicles. Assault got extremely heated, especially in chat haha because the game was so close. CTF if I recall also worked great as well, although I’d say Assault could be the new primary gametype for this map as it stands based on the fun I had during the playtest. I like some of the minor changes, adding a second ledge inside the middle deathpit has saved me from falling to my doom more frequently than before. The new shotgun location is much preferred and the camo is worth getting at the bottom of the map as it burns 5-10 seconds off of it which balances out the short distances to each base. Overall, the theme of the map comes really well together, personally Fracture gives me the vibe of a soviet era base in syberia or something like that =], also great to see more people adding scripted aesthetics in their maps! Also really like the blast shield aesthetics bottom mid. Great and inspired work!