Health Kits + Developing Maps

I have noticed a couple things when playing new maps in regards to health kit placement. More specifically the health kit count on any a given map.

It's damn annoying when you join a map and there are hardly ever any health kits. But, when there are plenty of kits the experience is a lot more enjoyable. You're more likely to run into a health kit and top up your health for the next fight than have to search for one; which is incredibly annoying when you don't know the maps layout yet. In addition to the fact that a lot of players choose scout which is an excellent skirmish class. I often find myself spending 20 seconds looking for a kit, only to get picked off by a flanking scout.

Naturally, if a map is saturated with ammo and health drops this is fed back to the author in order for him to redeem this "over sight". Too many health kits can make it hard to kill people, particularly scouts who will often run in and out of battles.

So, whilst people can initially get annoyed by people exploiting larger than average concentrations of health kits (making some battles unfair/resolve in ways they wouldn't have otherwise), it does mean that players (particularly ones who end up away from the team) survive longer, and subsequently learn the layout quicker.

I was wondering what other people thought of this. Because i find myself asking whether, on early alpha releases, it would be beneficial to place more health kits than one would have in a beta release; in order that players enjoy and learn the map faster through prolonged lifes.

Of course, i imagine players would get frustrated at the removal of health in any release that that occurs on. But ultimately it appears you get a more thorough test of the map in the 30 minutes that you get. Since once a player realises a health drop is gone, they can still figure out where the others are and adjust faster this way.

I actually think it was one of your maps that made me realise this trend, Spud. I found myself learning the layout of the map in a fraction of the time i would have had i spent most of my time trying to search for kits and probably dying in that process.

I also find myself more likely to experiment with routes, since on maps with hardly any health i find myself sticking to one route where i'm frequently successful. Which doesn't really help the author when it comes to providing feedback.

No, i reckon you're right. Having watched several comp PUG's i've noticed a team can expend a lot of ammo in a fight. Particularly demomen and soldiers. Also the scouts pistol pretty much requires a medium if it gets used just once.

I find myself in a similar situation a lot of the time as well. Grabbing an ammo pack and then having to wait for it to respawn again. Which then stacks if you have other players on your team waiting for it, which is a huge issue on 2fort. Since a lot of players retreat to the sewer as the only source of ammo and health without going back to ones own spawn or running into the heart of the enemy base at a significant disadvantage.

It would only be temporary, Jakkarra. In order for players to survive long enough to learn the layout in the first few alpha releases. Using small health kits as Spud already mentioned would reduce the negative impact on balance as much as possible. Plus it would be discretional. A/D style would probably not warrant this action, since it's usually the simplest layout, not to mention linear and one directional. Providing too much health in a dustbowl style map would bring it to a crawl for sure. But i think you're over exagerating what i mean, the idea isn't that people trip over health at every corner.