I think the major problem with this map is its complicated nature and its game mode switch.
There is a trend with new designers thinking maps are modular and you can just straight up switch modes out for other ones at the first sign of resistance.
On the point of complicated map design. Try to remember the wise words of the scholar UEAKCrash "players are dogs, and won't look up.". Design your levels with a certain perceived flow to them, where someone who just started playing will automatically take the path to middle / the battlefront. Giving players a million and one options will just annoy them and make the completely switch off their brains. I know it's happened to me a few times. For examples of good koth maps that flow I would check out koth_viaduct, koth_harvest and koth_overflow.
What I'm trying to say is, stick to one mode and try to keep it simple. You'll thank me later.
You just denied yourself an instant thanks.
Well to the gamemode-switch:
In defense of new mappers, as I am, some may start with an design idea and then choose the gamemode that could fit.
There are plenty and add the custom ones to it, one can get confused by the multiple options and feel like in front of a bargain box.
This actually isn't the case here. My favourite game-mode always was cp. Imo it offers the best chances of a dramaturgy.
It can possibly go on forever. This mustn't be a good thing, sure. An everlasting stalemate is the worst case scenario.
But otherwise you can enjoy your chosen map with a back and forth for a longer time than some other gamemodes offer.
Like I said before, I'm not quiet sure if my strategy of using KotH to test one control point by itself works out.
But this is my idea here. Not switching it over and over. Just moving things around a bit can't work either.
The principle I'm pretty confident to follow is that alternate paths which lead to a better tactical position (high ground f.e.)
have to be a bit longer than the main path and visa-versa.
5Gorge's left path from cp2 to cp3 is the main example that comes to my mind.
That's why I actually kind of restarted the map after the first test. Quoting myself again:
The paths that worked before for themselves imo, won't work anymore after the required changes I have to make.
Let me show the progress the map has made since the inital idea.
Pre-Alpha, 3cp:
(I hope you have some love for ugly sketches and some pictures of the map in mind for imagination)
The spawnrooms were underground. The well in the middle of the map would have been quiet big.
It would stick out on the ground level with a roof on top, as well as going two stages beneath it.
This height would form a big hall around it in the mid-cp direction and lead behind it.
The walls of the well were made of glass so you could see players swimming up and downwards by the hall
as well as by the spawnrooms. This was before I knew that it isn't possible to connect
two surfaces of water..
The next problem was the layout being asymmetric. Also teams would split up initially.
Gladly I never started this way and we should never talk about it again.
Post-A1
The main problem besides the signs and it being too complicated, was the wideness of the map.
The test made obvious that players are more likely to run around the point than towards it.
Cutting off this whole side in front of the building is mandatory. No underground anymore.
Also I work on a transition between the inner and outer routes on ground and upper ground level.
Still: This is the KotH test version for the mid-cp.
I'm a bit afraid of 3cp maps and still want it to be a 5cp in the end, kinda like this:
Don't take the outer borders too seriously on this pic.
Of course the initial routes would need to be wider and more interesting in the end.
But by this layout I could use the space more effectively and still maintain the parts
that I like about the map. This is roughly how it shall end up.
What I didn't change is the main building and its hall.
The first feedback included the point itself being too small and a bit too high.
Also it was stated that you will get spammed from above.
But there actually went some thought into it:
I want it to be a bit small, so that players only go there for capping.
The hall itself is big enough to fight around it. The height contains advantages
towards two of three main-paths to enemy's direction.
And going with what I said before: If the enemy turns up upwards, he took a longer
way to get there and deserves an advantage for it..
This is what I go by for now. Let me know what you think.
Cheers.
