Cascade

Cascade RC2

Top shelf layout and detailing. Fits into the game perfectly.
Gorgeous and fun
This map is gorgeous, I could spend hours running around looking at it
Kothy koth koth
map has come a long way from what it used to be and is well balanced now
Gameplay.

The map plays rather poorly, giving sniper even more power than he usually has, while other classes suffer heavily from a lack of easily accessible flank routes, routes which are incredibly easy to defend on this map and hard to reach. The underground is near useless, as a pyro will blockade it from either side, and even an invisible spy cant get past. The waterfall upper area is another spot for sniper that is *incredibly* powerful and near impossible to reach as soldier or scout due to the powerful minisentry spot behind the hill being near impossible to kill for anyone except a demo, as the soldier cannot reach it without being gunned down. There are many big open spaces making team cohesion difficult with the aforementioned super powerful sniper, and making rotates slow for non-core mobility classes.

I've played this in a pub, highlander, and 4v4. It worked reasonably well for the latter, though it was a bit too large. The other 2 suffere heavily form the problems I mentioned in the first paragraph. Pub was nearly unplayable due to the insane power of sniper.

Another issue is the rocks, of which you can never be sure of the hitbox, and in our highlander game cost the sniper several shots, including a med pick, which is of course extremely frustrating. I would suggest replacing them with something where you can tell the outlines more easily, or using more flat, smooth rocks instead.

Gameplay is a 2,5/5.


Performance.

The performance on this map is abysmal. It runs extremely poorly. There is an abundance of unneccesary clutter, and while the map looks very, very good, it also has the drawback of running poorly. It does not adequately support super low configs, has many many particle and light effects which eat up your fps. I have an average of 70 to 80 fps on most maps, but got a measily 20 on this (consistently!). I know I am not the only one, as other people told me they had the same issue.

Performance is a 0/5. It's awful.

Looks.

The map looks really good, with nice details (though they do eat up your fps!), stuff is mostly well visible, the setting and geography is beautiful. An issue is the waterfalls in the upper area though, and the upper area in general, as it makes it hard to see if anyones there, which is devastating should there be a sniper.

Looks is a 3/5. The map looks beautiful, but suffers from visibility issues.

This map definitely has potential, but its current state is frustrating. While I feel this isn't as much the maps issue as people already forcing it into comp without adequate testing, it is still noteworthy here.

My suggetsions would be to make the underground area more useful, I would suggest connecting it to the upper area, perhaps. It needs more entrances and exists, preferably 4 total, as currently its very easy to blocaked it with a sentry and a pyro, rendering it useless. It's also hard to tell if anyone's in there, but that might be intentional, though I'm not a fan of that. The upper area near the waterfalls is too hard to access for attackers, too easy to defend with a minisentry or even just the team in general, as there is no alternative route into it besides jumping or going the full route past their team. Sniper in general is far too powerful on the map as well, especially in the aforementioned spot. The long ranges make it hard for other classes to take him out and give him even more power.
A really well balanced KOTH map. The only complaint I have is that teleporters can be spammed in the tunnels forcing players to jump over them.