Best PL Layout

Kengon

L1: Registered
Jul 4, 2012
31
4
I've got a few cool ideas for a payload map, but every time I try to make a layout, I get worried I'm doing something too unconventional that will mess up balance. So...

I want you to name which PL map has the best layout in terms of balance (including non-Valve maps) and why.
Feel free to mention which ones you specifically hate too!

Hopefully then we can see which PL map aspects are everyone's favourite and which aspects of PL maps don't work and should be avoided. :wow:
 

Jetti

L5: Dapper Member
May 2, 2010
226
111
I don't really play too much payload, esp. unofficial. I have to go with Badwater because there is always a route to the side I can take to avoid the frontline.
 

GPuzzle

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 27, 2012
638
414
Upward. The map is so badass it has cliffs everywhere and is the best PL map out there - so good it is competitive level.
 

GPuzzle

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 27, 2012
638
414
Badwater is best in my opinion. Upward tends to lean pretty heavily towards defense.

I like Badwater too, but third point is really easy to capture, while second is preety damn hard.
Anyway, Badwater Basin and Upward are the best official PL maps.
 
Mar 23, 2010
1,872
1,696
badwater. upward's last sucks and deathpits are unfair and i hate snipers.
 

Kengon

L1: Registered
Jul 4, 2012
31
4
badfather the best map

There's something Freudian going on there. :p



I think Upward has the best aesthetic design; it's really cool that it's circular... But badwater probably has a better balanced pathway with a better mix of close to ranged combat opportunities.

I guess it raises an interesting question that I've been too scared to ask (I pretty much know everyone will rip the suggestion apart); but...
If Valve doesn't fuss overly with balancing, and allows some maps to have some fairly unfair areas, then is it really a top priority?

My instinct is obviously yes, because you shouldn't aim to have an unfair map; but then again, when the teams swap at the end, the balance is inevitably fair... No?

Edit I'm tired, so that may have been a b/s question, but psht.
 

Mr. Happy

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 16, 2008
320
158
I love badwater and upward, probably equally depending on mood. BUT personally I think they both have overly-defensively-balanced final points. However I usually play them with large teams.
 

phi

aa
Nov 6, 2011
832
1,815
I like Upwards better as a map overall. The balance is definitely a little better on Badwater, but there hasn't ever been another map quite like Upwards.
 

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
I like most of the official ones, honestly. Upward, badwater, barnblitz, goldrush, even hoodoo.

For some reason, I sort of dread seeing thundermountain in the server browser or upcoming on nextmap, but I don't dislike it when I'm actually playing it.

I actually do not like frontier however. I can't pin down why; I think it has to do with the aesthetics.
 

GPuzzle

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 27, 2012
638
414
Well... Goldrush is preety good.
The 4 PL 4 points 1-stage maps are preety damn awesome. I remeber getting more stabs in Frontier and passing 3 levels in a strange kinfe than any map.
Well, I hate Hoodoo (first point, second stage, sentry choke).
Thunder Mountain, (third level, first point, sentry choke) is preety damn good, until the "let's get the shortest and tallest official map ever.

I really like Barnblitz, Upward and Badwater Basin, and, with Lakeside and Viaduct, they're, in my opinion, the best maps.
 
Mar 20, 2012
391
806
My personal favorite is Barnblitz. I always have a lot of fun playing Spy on that map. Last can be a hectic ride, but there's a lot of height variation considering it's an indoor finale. I also enjoy how much detail and style goes into Barnblitz.
 

Kengon

L1: Registered
Jul 4, 2012
31
4
I'm indifferent about the layouts of Frontier and Thundermountain, but their aesthetics mean I don't like to play them at all. Frontier is a poorly detailed map without much interesting going on past the new cart; and Thundermountain is dark and just doesn't feel nice to play. :( Good to see I'm not the only one thinking it!

The thing I like most about badwater is that the map isn't staggered into 3 stages. In my opinion, that seems to mess up the continuity of the map. :(
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I'll tell you this much. I tried doing writeups of the three official single-stage payload maps in the game, to try to get a handle on the different sorts of sub-areas designers can create and how it affects the relative strategies and difficulties for each team in each stretch of track and so on. Badwater Basin seemed to be the only one where this sort of analysis was really possible. The others seem way less strategy focused and more chaotic. Granted, this may be more due to how much more I've played on Badwater Basin and how intimately familiar with the directions its gameplay tends to take. *shrug*
 

soylent robot

L420: High Member
May 26, 2009
499
394
i can tell you that i dont like thunder mountain at all. its the same dull wood texture all the way through the level, the different stages arent linked together like goldrush's are, and the final stage feels more like one of those long 4 point single stage maps than a final stage. the side points are too easy to cap but the tower point is horrible to push the cart up.

i like goldrush, batwater and upwards tho. im pretty indifferent about barnblitz and i dislike hoodoo