| Grazr | Locnlol | Wimples | Eng Mob | Sergis
Detail |- |5 |2 |3 |2
Balance |- |4 |3 |3 |4
Technical |- |3 |4 |2 |3
Track Usage |- |5 |6 |3 |3
Locnlol:
detail:
Spawning as BLU certainly wet my whistle in terms of detailing, but unfortunately the level was not sustained throughout the map. Often corridors are left bare and large portions of walls outside are without windows, decals or complimented with other building/junk type props. Roofs are also noticeably bare, detailed only with snow. Some tires, metal sheets and melted bare patches would have been nice.
There's also a distinct lack of visual progression throughout the map. It goes from generic concrete industrial in the BLU spawn to consistent red wood shacks there-after. It would have been nice, and appropriate, to have seen an industrial segment implemented at the finalé.
Balance:
Though I've barely played this map the win ratio weighs 75% in RED's favour so i'm gonna have judge mostly based off of that statistic rather than my limited gameplay experience, where I might have been able to determine any specific imbalances and provide some advice.
The map has at least some semblance of class balance but these are often location specific, allowing for limited alternative tactics.
Technical:
I'm not a fan of detail getting in the way of players trying to push the cart and at multiple locations rocks obstruct BLU players and often in a tangible detrimental manner, where BLU are unable to use the cart as cover. Sometimes it can be used as a mechanic, on purpose, but the frequancy of this makes it feel more like that the map is just claustrophobic.
The map is also largely open, although fences block direct fire and prevent snipers from exploiting large LoS's, performance is not addressed by these gameplay solutions. Performance wasn't particularly choppy but then the map clearly isn't finished going through art passes.
Track:
The start of the track is very pretty but much of the surrounding structures have open bays and this gets a little repetitive, both visually and gameplay wise. The track goes from having sufficient and acceptable space to being blind sided by rocks or dodgey displacements by curves.
I don't understand how i've barely played this map even though it appears to be the most developed of the 4. I wish I could have been more critical of the map.
English Mobster:
detail:
Regardless of DEV textures, with miss-matched textures, unaligned textures, miss-matched props and jaggy displacements I find it hard to score this map high in detail despite the effort done in attempting to execute a custom theme.
It may have been prudent to focus your attention on important parts of the map, like the spawns, elevator and finalé, if you did not think you could complete your first artpass. Given the lack of space it would have also been worth using some smaller grid sizes in hammer. A lot of your geometry is chunky and cumbersome.
Balance:
The map favours RED tremendously. Many rounds are spent by RED camping BLU at their spawn which shouldn't be a common occurrence for the first area of the map which should really favour BLU. If BLU are to get past the first CP, it's easy street until CP-3, the next significant choke point. From there on out it's a battle of attrition through some dodgey layout/geometry, past RED's spawn, and an almost invulnerable SG position outside the RED spawn door and under a ledge which forces BLU to put their back to the objective and expose themselves to mobile defenders. Most caps here are either ninja'd by a bonk scout/spy or simply an overwhelming show of force by BLU should they get an uber through the final choke.
The map needs some serious scale addressment and some more defined flanking routes. Those at the end are hidden in crevices or far away corners and those near the start are so out of the way it doesn't even look like play space. You can tell a subtle class imbalance because at current scouts and snipers are particularly powerful and demomen sticky jump past CP1+2 in one go and head for RED spawn/harass the flanks freely.
Techncial:
The map is so open you can see the finalé and RED spawn from the BLU setup gates. If the map were to be fully detailed I would fear for performance issues. With the layout implemented with little consideration for optimisation I cannot score it high for technical.
Track:
It feels very much like you made a map and then plunked the track in because the track doesn't feel to comfortably fit all areas of the map; and with the final choke being inappropriate geometry because of the awkward track I couldn't score high here either.
Sergis:
detail:
Some parts of the map I wanted to score 2 and others I wanted to score 3 or even 4. But with misaligned textures, schizophrenic attention to finer details, mostly blank walls and holes showing the skybox between displacements and behind props I couldn't justify scoring it higher than i did.
Balance:
In general the map is a bit of a mess, you get caught on odd bits of geometry and some spots that look like you can't pass through or walk around, you can. The lack of one way gates leaves the entire map open to people who sticky/cloak past defenders. If the map had more barriers and better control via one-way gates the balance and gameplay would be a little more consistent and fluid.
All in all the map plays weird and even though the ability to rocket jump past vast portions of the map at a time, classes do seem to be relatively balanced against each other.
Technical:
As I said to english_mobster, little has been done to control LoS for the sake of performance meaning large portions of the map render at any one time. The maps acceptable performance is only a result of the lack of significant art passes.
Track:
Some of the track plays better than it looks, but there is a serious need for space, and this is relative to balance too as RED tend to win the majority of the time. Flanks need to be more defined but because of all the chicken wire one gets confused as to which way is forwards. The track has some obstacles but they largely feel like gimmicks, stuck in tight spaces with no breathing room and visually undefined/developed.
Wimples:
detail:
Not much to say here, the map is still largely in DEV so I can't justify scoring more than half the points I could offer. Egypt theme is nice, but there's nothing to see yet.
Balance:
Walking distance to the finalé is a little excessive and it's very difficult for BLU to hold any ground, RED frequently clear out the map up to BLU's advanced spawn and with superior health and ammo drops it's clear to see why RED medics are more likely to survive to pop an uber than BLU ones. Only a clear difference in skill or luck allows BLU to push through the battle of attrition here. Disappointingly the final fight is usually BLU throwing their bodies at the cart one at a time (since large groups are easily spotted and intercepted well before they can reach the cart) and hoping RED demomen/soldiers have to reload longer for longer than it takes them to push it to the end. A more sophisticated fight would have been pleasant but the BLU travel distance matching RED's spawn penalty both teams are on even ground. I've seen excellent BLU play, spies killing medics and snipers, demo's getting the SG all in one assault and still 1 unprioritised heavy/demo can finish off remaining BLU attackers, resetting the status quo for another minute.
Other than the boring/repetitive battle of attrition for last, CP1 is also particularly problematic. Many games will end here as a result of superior height advantages and health and ammo drops (BLU have NO health or ammo up to CP1). Plus ninja capping CP1 is out of the question as the door closes behind the cart, creating even more of a choke for BLU to pass.
I scored low because of the significant RED advantage at CP1 and the easy-street push through CP's 2 and 3 for BLU. The difficulty at last is kind of acceptable because it is the finalé but it's not particularly fun gameplay because of the aforementioned issues.
Technical:
Everything works and the map is executed with performance in mind but the short-cut gates have a nasty habit of trapping players. I would have scored a 6 or 7 were it not for the spawn doors.
Track:
The track has plenty of room at most locations and the flanks are reasonable up to the last where they're out of sight (and out of mind).
