Map
|
Score
Cashworks|9
Zig|8
Repository|8
Stovepipe|8
Halfacre|10
Reservoir|6
Vipers den|4
Tranquility|5
Frontier|7
So many good maps, but for me, the true winner is Halfacre. Anyways, now my thoughts on each map.
Cashworks: This is a bunch of mixed opinions for me. I've been keeping my eye on this for a while ever since the original thread was around 3 posts long, and its evolved into a very popular map so far. The balancing of the map is phenomenal, congratulations on that! The downhill section deserves particular praise because its very innovative and very fun. The map is a very unique alpine map, and stays true to the style Lumberyard employs, excellent job on that as well. This would've been a 9.5 for me, but I will deduct half a point off for less-than-perfect optimization in a few areas (outside of blu spawn, on the bridge over the river, etc.). Can't wait for the final version of this map.
Zig: A very nice map, with a unique art style. The textures are very nice, and keep the map fun and refreshing. This is a truly great effort, but it fails in two certain areas that keep it from being the best: optimization in the last point, and gameplay balance in the last point. The last point is, from my experience, ridiculously hard to capture, and there are a myriad ways to lock down the offensive. There are multiple sentry positions that are spread out effectively ensuring that nobody can really take down all of the positions within one uber demoman. However, the rest of the map is balanced nicely, and I get good framerates there. I like it, good job on final (though you're going back to beta to improve filesize, correct?).
Repository: This map is closest to Valve style as possible in terms of payload. It hardly breaks any conventions, and the color scheme feels right out of Dustbowl. That said, the gameplay is absolutely fantastic, well balanced, and makes the map just fun to play on. Sure, it isn't the most unique map I've ever played, but it is a very fun one to play on. It feels very polished and is virtually bug free. Nothing bad about this map, but it doesn't feel like it has anything really special.
Stovepipe: I don't really think I need to go over some of the flaws in this map (I've covered the problems in the WIP thread), but what I'll say is that it captures the badlands style extremely well in the first part, and has the Dustbowl 3-2 feel at the last part. Sure, it could be made a little more visually appealing in the last part, but the gameplay is pretty much perfect for me. A solid effort all around.
Halfacre: This one really takes the cake for me. Your cliffs are wonderful and beautiful, and your visuals are gorgeous. The desert-y feel, complete with cacti and small little desert bushes, help a lot visually. There is detail in the appropriate places, and I feel it is very well optimized. Apart from a few improvements, this map is really well balanced, very pretty, and I've had a terrific round every time on it. A definite winner for me!
Reservoir: Huh, this could be a little better. Some of the scenery is very bland IMO (not much detail) and the last point isn't very epic. There are a few balancing issues you should definitely go over, like an overpowered sniper position in the first part, but the optimization is perfect for me. While its not the best map, I certainly can do very well on this map due to its optimization. Good try, this map seems to have a bunch of potential in the future. One thing I'd like to emphasize when you continue to improve the map; minimize spawn rooms so they are straightforward, and not a maze (the blu spawnroom at the first segment is absolutely GIGANTIC).
Vipersden: Come on, you could do much better than this. This map has gigantic scale problems and feels unnaturally large in some portions. Definitely use some playermodels in Hammer to get a sense of how large your map is, because it's absolutely gigantic. There are several map flaws throughout, and there are some areas that need to be clipped off because you can get outside of the map boundary. I have several cubemap problems here, and overall you should definitely add more detail. Add more points to the map, and make it MUCH smaller. It's just huge atm.
Tranquility: This map is surprisingly innovative, but a few things bog it down. I mean, some things feel incomplete. A pit that's cube shaped? Rocks that you can shoot through? A really-weird-looking waterfall? Some things, again, feel a bit large, but the uniqueness of the map presents interesting gameplay decisions. Will the player escort the cart underwater, or fire on defenders from above? Will the player airblast people off into the pit, or will he stay to the side and ambush the opponent? Sure, the map is lackluster visually, and I get terrible fps underwater (plus, you can get outside of the map!!!), but it's a very unique gameplay experience.
Frontier: Ah, yeah, heralded as one of the best custom maps ever. I don't see why this map is so popular at the moment, really. The map is visually cluttered, some things look absolutely weird, several bugs (like carts just randomly getting disconnected, the cart floating around post-explosion, rock models that jut out of natural walls oddly) and a pisspoor framerate made me absolutely hate the hell out of this map in b1. While it has improved barely in b2, it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth whenever my rig just is destroyed by this map. Sure, it looks nice at times, but if I have to sacrifice framerate, and in turn gameplay (since bad framerate can really affect gameplay) for the nice visuals of this map, I'd rather just leave the server. Sorry, but if you optimize this map significantly for b3 to the point where I can at least play decently, it deserves this 7.