*Continued because I hit the max character limit (10000).
Stovepipe:
Scaling, scaling, scaling...that's what I love about this map. It just feels right! And the design is adequate in terms of providing fun gameplay. This map is just fun! Those areas right around blu spawn 1 work so well in terms of gameplay--and then again at the end the setup is just right for a proper TF2 battle. But the middle areas of the map seem to lack the same quality as the beginning and the end.
This above area is what comes closest to matching the level of gameplay as the first and last areas of the map. It could be equated in saying that that the first and last areas are THE focuses of the map, and the middle is just a detour, and means to an end--the long car ride to grandma's house. Everyone remembers packing up to leave, and what happens when you finally arrive--but unless something happens during the journey, no one remembers. And that's the impression that I get from Stovepipe Wells.
But that aside, this map just feels consistent and well conceived. However, I have noticed in particular something
very odd about the use of the color palette--nothing wrong, just
backwards from what I would expect from a map that fits the dustbowl style religiously, and I'll point that out in the color section.
Style:
Here again I feel this map lacks in the same way that Repository does--it's just so static. There are very few levels of dynamism in stylistic choices that would make this map more memorable. However, this map remedies this partly in terrain geometry because it's used so much, over 70 percent of the map is fought in displacement geometry--and this is another reason I state that it's not as well remembered. The amount of the SAME displacement geometry is similar to when you walk into a coffee shop--the coffee smells WONDERFUL for the first 5 minutes...and then you can't smell it anymore. Changing up the scenery, maybe innovating on the dustbowl style a little and adding something extra new to the middle of the map would alleviate that monotony it suffers from.
But I can't complain too much about style--since most people don't think twice about this map being dustbowl style--thus no one questions it unless it's thought about critically. And the gameplay sure helps this map out tremendously, and it becomes easier to look over and forget these stylistic flubs.
Color:
Pretty standard for dustbowl style.
Again, lack of range of cool colors here is evident, but that tends to be a dustbowl thing.
Here though, is where I'm pointing out that interesting thing about your use of color, and why I think it's backward:
Most maps utilize the red/blu thing by use of architectural style, for red it's brick and wood, for blu it's concrete and metal. But it's more than that, it's the specific analogous color palettes that give the right amount of contrast between the two sides. In Cashworks, Eerieone picked a new color palette for each side, but was more subtle. Zig is much less subtle in the contrast; it uses blatantly saturated color, but the significance is there. It's the difference between warm and cool colors.
Your map is backwards!
Here's the beginning of the map, very warm colors:
But here towards the end, your color palette becomes cooler, a complete switch-up of what we're used to. Do I have a problem with it? Absolutely not! I'm astounded, whether it was intentional or not:
Negative Things:
The like repository, there’s very little to complain about here. The map plays well with no problems, and everyone seems to enjoy themselves when playing and that’s important. I could complain a little about the lighting in the last section of the map, since it does seem a little dark, and most people seem to be in consensus about that. It’s great entry, a fun map to play, and a great mark to add to your belt of maps (once you finish it).
Halfacre:
If I had to say something about Halfacre, and about Youme’s maps is that no matter what stage of the game, they feel like solid works. They feel like they couldn’t be broken, that they have a degree of professionalism to them.
But this contest isn’t about the mapper, it’s just about his entry. Halfacre has got the scenic elements to give it a good amount of originality, while pushing the limits of the dustbowl style. The spawn placements seem quite adequate, and there are plenty of them, maybe more so than any map I’ve ever played on. I won’t count the exact # of forward/backward spawn rooms, but Youme knows what I’m talking about.
I’d say the best part of the map is the beginning. It seems to me to be the most remarkable, the most unique—that’s partly due to Youme’s skill in creating believable and quality displacement surfaces. It’s no surprise he’s using them to his strength in this section. But I feel that afterwards, the further into the map we play toward the final point, the displacements cease being elements of gameplay, and more decorative—no penalty there, just an observation. The rest of the map tends to be less dynamic. Alternate routes are predictable, the map ends in a way we expect.
Style:
Had Goldrush, Dustbowl and Badwater never been made, Halfacre would have been triumphed as an immense success. But that’s just the point I’m making here—and it’s because there’s nothing else to say bad about this map—that this map feels just like a master study of Valve’s maps. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s just nothing new about it. The level of innovation is quite low, and again, there’s no fault there, but I believe that making something on the cutting edge should be exactly that: Innovative! There’s a difference between making a map that pleases, bends over backwards to satisfy—and a map that leaves you hungry for more, hungry for something fresh and exciting!
Color:
No surprise, looks like Dustbowl!
Again, the lack of range of cool colors is evident.
Negative Things:
There's not much to say that can really hurt this map. It's a solid product, the intent to create such a map was surely there in the beginning. From the WIP thread, I can tell that from start to finish there's not been changes made that majorly effect the way the map is played--part of this may be due to good initial planning...or stubbornness not to acknowledge the serious issues that could have made this map better. I still feel the last point is way too difficult to capture for blu, no matter how many countless times I've played this map on our community's server, gameday, and various other 'stranger' servers I've been to in attempts to find good playtests. But what's done is done, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks...A wonderful entry, fun to play, even if it does get a little old at times. Another map notch to add to the wall.