Wutville

Wutville beta2 - final

This map has a wonky history, I remember seeing it over the years on the Workshop in multiple themes, each one looking bizarre and not very TF2-artstyle fitting in my opinion. And I liked it, though I wouldn't think it's acceptable as an official map. And last year it was flung into a position of importance by its official inclusion. My issues with this map lie with its visuals, its framerate, Rüdy never rolling back, and bugs/exploits.

I love the whimsical wonderland theme in the thumbnail, touches of violet, sprinkles of gold, Christmas peppermint stripes and baubles. But ingame it's this weird mountain storm and mismatched blue haze, the TF2maps screenshots look far more complimentary than live. This map would look great with a visual makeover.

The framerate hurts to play sub 60 frames, and I could excuse it if it truly was never playtested because maps will run worse rendering more players to what seemed acceptable privately testing.

Rüdy never rolls back unlike every other Payload map. Maybe this is because the chokepoints can be gruesome to attack, which also explains the long round timer and this was intended to help BLU keep ground. It's kind of cool but does come across as a bandaid balancer knowing every inch the cart moves can never be returned.

The bugs and exploits have gotten better, though I still see people jumping over invisible walls, exploiting the one-door exit spawns to spawn camp, or placing sentries inside spawn doors as they transition for cheesy kills. Those can be patched however, so I wouldn't hold much against Wutville there.

Overall, I think Wutville has become the butt of a joke in the community. I like playing on Wutville (and no I'm not only playing as Sniper), and that's not pity either. I like to be optimistic and say Valve liked the unique theme, the unique fighting engagements, and Wutville's Christmas spirit for a limited time map pool. But I don't think map is reaching its potential right now for the issues I've listed.
Oh Wutville...
At this point, you already know why I hate this map. But this review isn't about that.

This is about the fact that Valve approved this *in the first place*. I can understand why they chose this, because it looked unique and it's Christmas themed. But, the fact they didn't play through this THOROUGHLY to check for glitches, exploits, visual errors etc is what really boils my blood. They only gave the map creator 4 whole days to fix things up before release. Why didn't they realize this map was *abandoned* 4 years prior? Why did r13 agree to "fix" the map within only 4 days before release, despite abandoning the map out of frustration? I can't imagine what the map looked like before it was released, but I know for sure there is absolutely no way the map could have been reworked to not be so messy within 4 measly days without assistance.

r13 has stated they're reworking the map from the ground up, but as of now the last word on Wutville was back in May. At the rate of the creator's progress with it (not even their fault) it doesn't seem like they're going to finish the map by November, unless Valve pokes at them to finish it up on a deadline.

I feel very sorry to this map's creator, despite some of their poor excuses for certain issues with the map (pickups too low because they're supposed to be "hidden in the snow"), I really hope this map gets the redemption it deserves, because I would absolutely love a map based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Honestly this map would of been great but a lot issues are kinda ruining the expirence for me
oh wow it looks super hot now I didn't want it in the game last version but now plz add it the game volvo
one of the best kid looking maps I guess