Contest #50: Rule of Threes [MAJOR CONTEST] [VOTING]

[Prestige]

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | FEEDBACK BLURB
Altitude |100|100 |100 | when you take a long time before testing but then its near perfect on a1
Azumith | 60 | 60 |60 | simple, easy, perfectly scaled, every point has some issues
Gridiron | 60 |40 | 80 | i dont think this layout works but fun dm
Pine Peak |75 | 75 | 75 | B is fantastic
RO3Pont | 55| 30 |80 | C is fun
Roofrack |55 |40 |70 | i like the cart and A and C are well-balanced
Rumford | 90 |90 |90 | I like B even though its hard
Smalltime |80|80 | 80 | i always know where the jack is
Spacewar | 70 |80 |60 | best tug of war, pushing mid seems too hard

 

[SuperLuxDeluxe]

Hello! This is my tentative ballot. I might change scores later.
---

I really enjoy playing most of the maps on this list. Rating things is hard.

Also, what even is average? It's really hard to compare some things when they're so very different.

Ballot:

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude | 80 | 70 | 95 |
Azumith | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A (I made this map.)
Gridiron | 75 | 70 | 80 | Best Sound
Pine Peak | 50 | 55 | 40 |
RO3Pont | 65 | 45 | 90 |
Roofrack | 35 | 35 | 35 |
Rumford | 85 | 80 | 90 | Most Pleasant, Favorite Gameplay Area (C and the area leading up to it)
Smalltime | 70 | 65 | 80 | Favorite Small Detail (leaky pipes dripping water to form a pool)
Spacewar | 50 | 55 | 40 | Most Creative

Notes and Feedback (There's a lot here. Forgive my novice feedback.):

Spoiler

Altitude:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
The map plays pretty well.
Red is capable of holding each point for a decent amount of time.
B is very dependent on engineers getting set up in the cubby with the full ammo pack, otherwise Blu tends to roll.
It’s a bit lame how Blu’s high ground means nothing for B. Blu can't use their high ground advantage as they have to sink down to even see much of B. Attacking B in general isn’t super fun. Ubers can be stuffed by a Red Pyro from pretty much any entrance Blu tends to take – From the staircase and the dropdown, Blu ubers can just be pushed straight back up and out the staircase. From the side and under stair entrance, Blu ubers can be pushed the cliff over the railing.
You also can’t really out-range sentries on B.
I'm not sure how I feel about Red's forward spawn being so close to B. I understand it needs to be close in order for Red to hold B with how it's designed, but I often had to deal with Blu scouts camping outside of that spawn and picking off medics. The same goes for Blu’s forward spawn. I had a game where a demoman camped with stickies in front of the sole exit for Blu’s forward spawn. It took us several minutes before we were able to escape.
C is pretty hard to break into but it is certainly possible to win as Blu. It’s weird how despite the high ground, Blu is disadvantaged. Spam is very effective to keep Blu off the high ground balcony. The other two routes are better to attack down but they’re also pretty easy to spam down and stop momentum.
Pyros really love that cliff on C, it's cute.

Detail:
This map looks gorgeous! The terrain is exciting and natural and the building styles all match the snowy mountain theme.
I appreciate the A-frame building near B since that's a lot more natural of a building to have in a snowy environment. I'm really surprised how well the map first played in a1 around the minor contest. Even then it looked really nice.
The ski resort theme is pretty novel. I really like the chairlift, even if the chairs themselves are low-detail brush models. It's a bit weird how some of the arms of the chairs are clearly disconnected from the cable though.
The angled geometry on this map is well executed—It doesn't feel too much but instead feels very natural.
I would like to see more variety in the trees on the map. It's a bit strange how they're all the same size and shape. Generally there's more than one variety of tree in an area.
I feel like this map transitions very well into the spybase aesthetic and I love the map room hold area for Blu on C. I honestly feel you're really close to a release candidate here.
I would like to see more cozy fireplaces in a cold environment like this, but that is because I want to stay here.

Azumith:

Spoiler

I am not voting on Azumith as it is my own map. If you haven't recently, drink some water!

Gridiron:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
I enjoy Passtime! I feel like I should get that out of the way first. A lot of playtests were a bit squandered with players that only wanted to complain about the gamemode.
I appreciate the overtime goal for when matches stalemate although it is a bit weird how it disables the bonus goal if I'm remembering correctly.
I feel like this map plays pretty well! There's not whole lot of scout rushes or jacks homing into a demoknight trimping directly into goals and goals are instead actually earned.
Given how open the goal area is sentry turtling isn't super oppresive which I also appreciate. That much being said, there are pretty cheesy sentry spots that are very hard to take out from the attacker’s side but block any entry into the score zone.
This map has pretty good flow. It doesn't feel too large. The front lines shift dynamically, but never super quickly.
Unfortunately, teams can still grief by holding the jack in their scoring zone and doing nothing other than turtling. I think that’s just an issue with Passtime in general though. As a result, some matches stalemated super hard.
I enjoy the jump pad. I know some people really don't like them, but I think they're neat.
I'm not really sure I understand why the Mannpower speed boost is there.
Frames can get pretty bad on this map and I usually don’t have any issues running TF2. It’s really around the score area and more specifically on the platform near the train car. I sometimes hit 40 FPS there.

Detail:
It's nice to see more industrial theming, I feel like a lot of maps stick to the mining or alpine themes, so I feel this is interesting.
I really enjoy the roaring sound of the fires and the soot steaming out of the chimney stacks.
I like how you can look down in Blu spawn and see lots of equipment down below. So much of this map has OOB areas that feel like they serve real purposes. I really like it when maps have lots of rooms out of play space that suggest the importance of a map.
This map feels like you're fighting over an important metal plant. I also like how massively tall the buildings are.
I think it's a shame that some of the walls of the buildings near the score zone on Blu's side are one repeating texture with only a few windows to break them up.
I really like the giant crucibles on mid.
I appreciate how both sides are distinctly Red and Blu, not only with material choices but also structural design of buildings.
I would have liked to have seen a blend texture on the displacements on the score zone. They look a bit flat as is.
There’s an elevated train track on one side that isn’t on the other side of the map. I’m not sure where it could go. Not really an issue, just something I noticed.

Pine Peak:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
The first part of the map plays pretty well. There are some pretty cracked sight lines later in the map.
Red can view all of Blu’s spawn exits from one location and can easily and safely spam pipes over the wooden fence prop into two of the three exits. Blu usually gets out of spawn in a minute or so though.
Red has a lot of hard to hit cubbies to set up in on B which makes it hard to clear out with a single uber if Red is set up well. I had a game where we would clear out an engie but another one was set up. After we wiped from that push, the first engie would come back and rebuild.
There are a couple of dead end areas which are a bit confusing.
There is a pretty hard choke near the base of the hill on C. All entrances funnel through that area and all of them are narrow.
There’s something I can’t put my finger on that I don’t enjoy about this map. If I figure it out I’ll write more here.

Detail:
The detail score is only as low as it is because the detailing is incomplete. The first part of the map looks incredible aside from some missing roofs, but as the map goes on, the detailing become more and more sparse. The entire area around C besides the mountain tunnel is the best example of this. It’s clear that you were running out of time, but what you managed to get done was very nice.
It's really impressive what you managed to do in two days! It looks like your last alpha was on Thursday, so that would give you two days to detail yes? Looking at the a6 revision it seems like you spent most of your time detailing outside of Blu's spawn. That area looks superb! I'd really like to see further artpass efforts of this map.
The structure on the map seems to be smartly desgined to help with vis. Unfotunately, it seems like the C area has a diaper skybox? The backsides and undersides of brushes I expect would be out of the map were rendering My frames didn’t go lower than 60, but I don’t usually have issues with running maps.
It's a shame you didn't have enough time to work on a 3D skybox.
Lots of bare bulb props look strange. I would advise reconsidering light prop usage if you continue.
Many of the track props don't line up.
The mountain and train tunnel outside of Red's spawn is really pretty. I love the laser beam finale.

Ro3Pont:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
A plays pretty well. I don’t really have any complaints there. It’s not too narrow or too wide, Red can hold for a while but Blu always caps.
Right after A though, the map becomes narrow from then on out. If Red holds the choke just after A, it’s very easy to spam down and keep locked for a few minutes.
The covered bridge leading to B is also very narrow. It used to be worse, but it is still very spammy and a phlog uber pyro or Kritz soldier can completely wipe Blu here.
Aside from the tunnel, attacking B isn’t super satisfying. The slow opening doors work as well for flanking for Red as they do for attacking for Blu. It’s also super easy to spam that route as it’s also narrow. In addition, there are very long sightlines behind the point that are very hard to deal with when the enemy sniper is competent.
Blu doesn’t have a great place to set up for C. Red mobility classes can jump in through the open window and other classes can walk up the stairs just to the left of Red’s spawn. It’s pretty easy to shut down Blu up there and then push back even further to B, even though I think you were intending for Blu to attack the point from there. Red just has really good accessibility options for there.
There’s a lot of routes going on in C. Maybe a bit too many. Blu can become a bit unfocused here. For some reason they all seem to favor Red.
The pacing is a bit off on this map. Blu really has to fight for every piece of ground past A. As a result it can be kind of exhausting to attack on this map.

Detail:
Pont! It's so impressive how superbly you managed to detail this in such a short time (a week iirc). I hope you got a lot of deserved rest afterwards because I can only imagine you staying up super late working on it. This map looks really great. Not to mention you started the a1 so late into this major contest. Very impressive.
I like the way the map snakes upwards with the slight ramshackle aesthetic that certain TF2 maps are known for. I imagine the visibility may lead to some issues with FPS, but I can't speak for that since my computer doesn't usually have any issues with running TF2.
I'm also not sure what the teams are fighting over on A and B.
It's too bad your poster is just out of sight on Blu's spawn.
I feel sorry for that poor mouse that got incinerated in Blu’s spawn.
I ran around with mat_wireframe 1 and noticed that there are some vis problems on this map. I understand you didn't really have any time to work on that though, hopefully we'll see that improve in later versions.

Roofrack:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
I appreciate the novel concept of having the payload cart with more cover. I don’t think it plays super well on this map though. Maybe the payload is just supposed to be a vulnerable place to be?
Some of the areas have very low ceilings which is kind of claustrophobic and not the best to fight in.
A is better held way in front of the point from the tall building overlooking the tracks near Blu’s spawn than from actually near the point. Once Blu takes that, it's pretty much done for Red which is fine. I do feel like this building is a bit too strong for Blu when they're attacking Red on B though.
It’s an interesting concept to have the same building used for two points, but I don’t like how short it makes the rotation for Blu heading to B. The one way is also not very fun to fight around on B. It’s on the same side of the best location to set up as Red on B, as the other side is very tiny and also flankable. I think the big issue from this building is that Red has the low ground compared to Blu. Blu just has to have one player hold the door open and then can rain down from above with spam.
I think a lot of the play areas in general are a bit narrow on this map.
The area around A plays pretty well.
I find it a bit strange how close B is to A and how far away it is from C. I feel it might make more sense inside the concrete building just after where B is now?
Fighting on C feels pretty alright. I feel like I can actually hold as an engineer but Blu can win the point. That generator/light prop has some awful collision though. Once again the many floors with short ceilings is a bit weird.
Pacing is just a little weird on this map. A and B are pretty easy for Blu and there's a bit too much dead time in between points, especially between B and C. Red gets bored and tries to pester Blu as the really slow doors open.

Detail:
I find it a bit strange how blue the lights are in Blu's spawn.
Some of the detailing on this map is a bit rough with textures that aren't aligned well or misplaced and roofs the top of some buildings vanishing as you move around.
The wooden beam texture is a bit overused, especially around the area near Blu's spawn and A.
I like how as the map progresses the materials of the structures also change and progress. I don't feel like there's enough landmarks in this map though? I’m not sure what we’re fighting over until the end. I don’t feel like there’s enough storytelling?
I like all the little houses up on the ridge with the power lines.
Some track props are misaligned.
I like the cube on the last point. I would like to know what purpose it serves. A sign or something would be nice.
I do feel the map is a little bit gloomy and lifeless, but that's probably because of the wind sounds and how there's no trees or greenery. Also, there's not enough contrast between the terrain and the buildings and as a result they don't really stand out and look kind of bland. This is could just a personal thing and you don't need to listen to me on this.
I like your kangaroo cutout props.

Rumford:

Spoiler

Yay, Rumford! I've been enjoying playing this map every time it comes up in tests.
I don’t really have too much to say because the map is pretty great.

Gameplay:
The map plays pretty well. I enjoy playing it.
B can be a really hard choke to deal with if Red sets up sentries; I honestly feel it's a better hold than C. C has much better and further apart routing options than B.
It can be hard for Blu to take the flank building for B as Red has the high ground on it and they can spam through the corridor leading to the porch on B pretty well. The other small exit for Blu here is narrow and ends up in the middle of the main choke route. As a result it’s just as spammable.
That much being said I enjoy the pacing in this map outside of these areas. There are moments of action and moments of downtime. You're never constantly fighting.
Red has a good chance of holding all points for a considerable amount of time; no point feels like a gimme.

Detailing:
The aesthetics of C are fantastic! I love the material choices, the trusses and beams, and the slight purplish fog. I love all the little storytelling elements.
A paper mill is certainly a unique theme for TF2, but one I feel the mercs would be fighting over.
I like how you progress from the logging area to the sawmill and woodchipper to the conveyors to the silos to the pulping vats to the rollers. The progression of the product matches with the progression through the map and that's really awesome. Super cohesive neat stuff!
I love the train bridge and the building it runs through outside of Blu's spawn.
I thought it was a little strange how aside from skycards, all of the OOB detail is in the world and not the skybox. It looks fantastic either way though.

Smalltime:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
This map plays pretty well with the exception of times where the playtests are full of people complaining about passtime. My only real gripe is that it's fairly easy to keep a team from scoring with a level 3 sentry. It can hold down a few routes while other team members can easily hold down the rest. The buff that gives sentry resistance is nice but it doesn't seem to be enough to push through. There were a few agonizingly long stalemates that happened when I played the map. It can be pretty painful to stalemate in any gamemode.
Another thing to note is that a few times I saw a demoman stickybomb jump from one team's base to another. Another player would pass the jack as soon as the stickies exploded. The jack would home in on the demoman and would sail straight into the walk-in goal for a cheesy score. Not sure if this is an issue with the map or passtime in general.
The fight areas on this map are pretty fun, but it can be a bit hard to push into mid if the other team controls it.

Detailing:
It's nice to see a release candidate map on this list! Glad you had enough time to polish up the gameplay and detailing to something you're satisfied with it, It really shows. You did a great job capturing the Hydro theme! I appreciate you even managed to use that one weird street safety railing prop.
I like the score tower and the ball impact on the opposite tower. The music coming from it is cute. It makes me think some employee is just chilling up there yeeting balls at high speeds when needed and just jamming out dancing otherwise.
The cave areas are really pretty. I especially like the skylights through them. I wish there were more open caverns in TF2 levels.
The crumbling structures near the points are really well done but may be too high of a concentration of detail in a small area. Very minor non-issue really.
I love the little small things like the noisy leaking pipes dripping down water into a puddle.
I do feel it's a bit sad how both Red and Blu's bases share a very similar shape and material makeup.
It's a bit weird how the water level coming out of the dam in the skybox stops against the backwall of the building at mid. Where is the water going?
It's a bit weird how the tunnel road in the skybox is very wide yet stops at the back of another building at mid. It doesn't seem like it could meet up with the road at mid. I don't think these parts of the skybox are looked at terribly often though, it’s not super visible from gameplay space.
I do feel like some of the cinder block buildings at mid are a little too flat.
I think the team sides need a little bit more color or theming to communicate where you are in the map as how it is now there's only pale concrete with a few bits of color to suggest the side your on as well as a billboard up high on each side. Given how small the map is though, it's difficult to get lost.

Spacewar:

Spoiler

Gameplay:
I think tug of war is an interesting concept for a map, but this map tends to stalemate pretty hard. You need to give the attackers (whoever controls mid and is pushing) an advantage over defenders. This is how 5cp maps are set up. If the defending team is good enough, they're able to push out, but they are at a disadvantage. I feel rolls are better than stalemates.
Some of the spaces in this map are fun to play in, but there are also some spam corridors, especially leading into the building of the last point. That's where pushes tend to end and where the other team rolls the cart back to mid.
People who love deathmatch really enjoy this map it seems.
The low gravity is a fun gimmick along with the falling into space one. I honestly feel like this map could be akin to the classic zany community maps. I remember imaginative, wild stuff like this being popular in earlier TF2 times. I don't think it's a bad thing, it has a lot of charm. You could also disable the time limit and the deathmatch crowd (2Fort and Hightower enjoyers) would love that I think.
I do enjoy playing on this map, even if it is exhausting because of how fun and wacky it is. I guess it’s a nice break from the more serious modes?

Detail:
I feel like I should get this out of the way: I don't think this fits TF2's aesthetic at all. There is certainly a precedent for TF2 characters being in space with Asteroid being a thing. I don't feel like the materials really match TF2's style though. Your textures are mostly made of very saturated, solid colors, and shiny. TF2's textures tend to look like they were painted – you can see brush strokes in a lot of textures. TF2 is also very delicate with it's color choices. I don't think the textures and overlays in this map would be out of place in another game, but they just don't feel TF2.
That much being said, I do like some of your props around the map. I have to applaud you for how many bespoke assets you have created for this map.
It’s a bit disappointing how the bases tend to have one texture of a strong team color throughout. I would have loved to have seen more materials, especially to tone down the density of intense colors.
Also, there's almost no background ambient noise in this map? Understandable since it’s space, but the mercs can breathe in this map, so there’s atmosphere right? I think you could really have fun and run wild with ambient noise in this map. There are definitely sounds that make you think of space and desolation. Having comforting interior ambient sounds would also make a nice contrast. Ambient noises do have a small effect on gameplay, most notably with spies.
I like the little birds flying around in the terrarium. I do feel that there should be more plants there though. Also, the waterfall doesn’t make any noise and is non-solid – you can hide in it!
I just think this map is a little too far from traditional TF2 style and gameplay that it's not really what a lot of people are looking for here. I still enjoy it though.
Please let me know if you work on another space themed map.

 

[Uncuepa]

I wish I had been mapping earlier this year to participate because seeing some of these maps, they're fantastic! I haven't been able to play all of them yet, so I will give my scores as I go

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude | - | - | 100 | Best Name
Azumith | 40 | 50 | 30 |
Gridiron | - | - | 65 |
Pine Peak | 60 | 75 | 45 |
RO3Pont | - | - | 75 |
Roofrack | - | - | 60 |
Rumford | - | - | 75 |
Smalltime | - | - | 90 |

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Hmmm.... through no fault of my own I / we find ourselves in an unprecedented position meaning that it's never happened before - until now.

During the development of Spacewar - it qualified right up to version 16 of the map, then listening to the feedback of the people in testing I removed two of the cap points (one on either side of center) to improve the gameplay of the map completely forgetting the fact that by doing so I was removing a key element in the R03 conditions and therefore for anything past version 16 (i.e. b17-b24) the map now longer qualifies for the conditions set forth in the R03 guidelines. The rules being the rules, I am withdrawing the map from the contest since too many of you have already based your voting on B24 which doesn't qualify.

That being said, I would still like to have an unofficial judging of B16 if possible, just for feedback re vs how it would have fared if I hadn't changed this key component. I'd like to see the results but not not have them count for anything.

The strange irony of it is, for the minor, the map got canned because of bugs making it unplayable and therefore removed and this time for the major it gets removed because I listened to people.

I therefore have beaten you all in being the first person to disqualify himself twice in the same contest! Surely I should get a gold star for that one, ok make it lead.

Ciao!

 

[SuperLuxDeluxe]

Sorry to hear that KTB! I enjoyed playing on the map.
I wish you better luck in future contests.

 

[Tang]

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude | 85 | 90 | 80 | Best theme
Azumith | 75 | 60 | 80 |
Gridiron | 75 | 80 | 50 |
Pine Peak | 66 | 60 | 75 |
RO3Pont | 75 | 75 | 75 |
Roofrack | 50 | 45 | 55 |
Rumford | 85 | 75 | 90 | Best Gameplay - Most "official"-like
Smalltime | 80 | 95 | 75 | Best Passtime Map
Spacewar | | | |

 

[pont]

Spoiler: Scores

MAP | OVERALL
Altitude | 80
Azumith | 50
Gridiron | 35
Pine Peak | 55
RO3Pont | I made this! In a month and a half! Somehow!
Roofrack | 5
Rumford | 90
Smalltime | 100

Spoiler: Titles

Most Creative: Altitude's dramatic use of height is creative and inspires cool ideas for my own work.
Most Pleasant: Smalltime's choice and execution of theming makes for a very pleasant environment to be in.
Best Name: Rumford. Sounds nice.
Favourite Gameplay Area: Altitude's entire BLU->A area is a ton of fun on both sides.
Favourite Small Detail: Smalltime's JACK impacts a wall when spawning, where the outer layer of brickwork has been stripped away.

Spoiler: Notes

ro3pont
it's always neat to reflect how things went after participating in a contest. i have no fucking idea how i managed to make and fully detail an entire 3adcp in about 1.5mo alongside my uni final major project. considering what other stellar stuff has been going on in this contest, i'd be happy to even make fourth place! after the contest is over i have a clear idea of what issues to address and how to go forward with wrapping up development of the map. with ro3pont i've found my confidence with asym and alpine theming, which is great! grats everyone, hope yall had as much fun as i have

Pine Peak
it's okay. some routes are unintuitive and feel like they're connected weirdly, especially last. last routes ARE fun when you know them, but it takes a long time to learn.
artpass is fine, though rough. first and last halves of the map are entirely different themess and feel disjointed, to the point where i'm getting confused trying to remember if they're even parts of the same map. looking at BLU spawn from outside tanks my framerate.
use actual brush doors for setup gate collision - players can shoot through the gaps between the gate prop collisions.
blu routes into A are rough. can see end of 2dsky textures.
that building with a TON of doors somewhere between B->C could do with being less.. weird.

Smalltime
love the hydro theme. don't use those mvm warning signs.
great methods to counter the flaws of passtime. this is one of the two passtime maps i've ever been able to enjoy. compact layout allows teamwork to happen naturally. those two high ground corners over mid are really annoying - long and dangerous rotation to dislodge anyone up there.
see below for announcer feedback, shared with gridiron.

Rumford
looks nice. lots of fun. i don't see many B holds - at most it lets RED stall for time before C. C could use more engie spots than a single corner.

Roofrack
B is awful for both teams. BLU gets two oneways? where do RED hold? how do BLU push B when RED get a spawn exit ahead of the point?
detailing is full of weird texture scale choices.
i keep getting sniped from people two thousand units away in sightlines i don't expect! why are there so many ramps leading into corridors? it makes weird situations where people are shooting eachothers' ankles at long range. lots of little bits of geo i keep getting stuck on.
last is abysmal to push. left flank for last can be held down by a single sniper, who gets a free medium health kit and can look over 1k+ hu of route with long rotations to access.
A is a BLU steamroll.
what's the point in the cart being like that if nothing interesting happens with it? there aren't any places (that i can tell) where it opens up any new routes or anything.

Azumith
you can walk around every single point so easily - my time defending was spent being stalled ahead of every point by random BLU players. every route is a tiny chokey doorway. really not fun to attack. A itself is kind of just a flat plane. B and C roll extremely hard if BLU keep momentum. BLU's C flank is in a spawn door sightline.
there are lots of little dead-ends with full ammo that i'm guessing is for engie but they're nowhere useful.
displacement ground at C has misaligned textures.
B has no real flanks, just ways around the building that all converge into a place easily held by a sentry. going around the left of B (for BLU) requires overextending, getting cut off by RED players on the point.

Gridiron
i do not like playing this map. too much small height variation everywhere with odd dropdowns. hard to navigate. does not solve passtime problems - having a hard time keeping track of the objective and players are spread out enough that coordinating and supporting eachother is difficult. i've been playing exclusively mobility classes - couldn't imagine trying to navigate this without charging, rocket/FaN jumping.
the train bridge with medium pickups beneath it is interesting geometry - i wish the rest of the map was like that, too. unfortunately it's also the only viable route to push for a goal.
mid gets dominated by soldiers hopping up onto those box things. ground level is mostly slight height variation, which gets extremely boring extremely quickly. mid itself is easy to hold, so stalemates are almost assured.
detailing is passable. lots of big flat walls and no effort made to mask the looping metal texture. weird huge signs everywhere.
see below for announcer feedback, shared with smalltime.

Altitude
pretty as hell. fun, too, aside from engineer. there are a few clearly intended Nest Spots for RED engies, but they're small and restrictive. overall pretty awful to play as engie. nowhere feels like a solid hold position.
clip the top of that cablecar you can jump to from RED spawn instead of relying on purely the model's collisions, it's awkward to walk around on with lots of little bits you can get caught on despite being so easily accessible.
while writing this up i've realised i don't actually know what the main route into C is, or if i've even seen it - i always end up taking the flank routes from that computer room.
there are sizeable issues with BLU rolling forward too quickly after capturing a point.
while i understand that C is a cablecar station, it's really flat and easily the weakest part of the map compared to what's going on with the other points. would a basement area, and/or the cablecars moving be something worth experimenting with?


Smalltime & Gridiron (Announcer)
announcer isn't great. some lines clip the mic. no loudspeaker-like effect to set it apart from other voice lines.
not deadpan enough; the stock announcer only gets excited during dramatic things, like payload finales - a round stalemating or going badly while the announcer seems to be having a great time is really grating after a while.
announcer lines are not specific enough - "do me proud" does not tell me that the jack has spawned, and "we've got the THING" is not clear; i'm paying attention to shooting the enemy team, not having to figure out what exactly the announcer is telling me.


Spacewar
i think being disqualified twice in one contest is a new record.
lowgrav isn't fun - restricts mobility. that one tiny tunnel where it's suddenly normal gravity is annoying. having a death pit above you at all times sucks. this would be more interesting if the lowgrav was reserved for risky flanks or something, and the majority of the map was indoors.
does not solve the usual issues of tug-of-war, almost always stalemating hard at mid for the entire map time before getting vote skipped.
ugly. custom signs have no wear and no mipmaps. many custom textures are extremely out of place. custom doorframes look like playdoh. some floating props. looks like a whitebox with some props and the devtex switched for moonbase ones.
interesting concept and it's funny to knock someone high enough that they fly away, but other than those two points, i have nothing positive to say.

 

[Spleep]

I'm 90% sure I did the math right

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude | 80 | 75 | 85 | Best Sound
Azumith | 73 | 80 | 65 |
Gridiron | 65 | 50 | 80 | Best Name
Pine Peak | 75 | 80 | 70 | Favorite Gameplay Area (Last)
RO3Pont | 78 | 80 | 75 | Most Creative
Roofrack | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Rumford | 83 | 85 | 80 | Most Pleasant
Smalltime | 80 | 70 | 90 | Favorite Small Detail (Ball out of window)

 

[Keizer Ei]

i probably should not be able to give detailing scores since i play with a shitty gamer config but you know what they say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Spoiler: Ballot

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude |80 |80 |90 |Most Pleasant
Azumith |55 |50 |45 |
Gridiron |70 |75 |80 |
Pine Peak |x |x |x |
RO3Pont |75 |80 |80 |
Roofrack |45 |50 |60 |
Rumford |75 |70 |85 |Best Name
Smalltime |80 |80 |85 |Most Creative/Favorite Gameplay Area
Spacewar |x |x |x |

Spoiler: Favourite Gameplay Area

I find this room on Smalltime very sexy to play around

scores may get updated over time if i join more gamedays before the voting deadline
DM me if you want opinions on your map from a bastard gamer

 

[Tumby]

MAP | SCORE
Altitude | 84
Azumith | 64
Gridiron | 52
Pine Peak | 75
RO3Pont | 79
Roofrack | 43
Rumford | 81
Smalltime | 70
Spacewar | 35

 

[Red Dagger]

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | NOTES
Altitude |93 |85 |100 |A & B are solid, which I suppose makes C feel more lacklustre gameplay-wise than it actually is; and ofc beautiful map
Azumith |53 |45 |60 |Although I'm liking the ideas put forth, the game flow feels fairly unfocused leading to unsatisfying gameplay; can't really say much about the detailing, just an alright first pass
Gridiron |68 |60 |75 |Feels like it could do more to mesh better with the passtime gamemode, especially with stalemating, though it's nice when it works; the detailing is well implemented, but coulda had a more creative flair to make it prettier and more interesting
Pine Peak |60 |50 |70 |Gameplay felt average and moderately uninteresting, honestly - feels fairly standard; pretty, and the detailing that's been done is nice, though would need to be more complete to rate higher
RO3Pont |73 |65 |80 |Fun and interesting areas that are unfortunately far too conducive to chokey gameplay; looks neat
Roofrack |50 |35 |65 |Chaotic and interesting, for better and for worse
Rumford |83 |80 |85 |Solid gameplay, feels like there could be a tad more variation in gameplay spaces; the consistent paper mill theming make me happy, deducted 15 points for grinder in the skybox, paper mills don't have those irl
Smalltime |88 |90 |85 |how dare you make me enjoy passtime; the map looks superb, but misses the careful touch and small-scale detailing that makes maps come alive
Spacewar (b16) |30 |30 |30 |suffers from its gimmicks - tug of war, low gravity, teleporters, special routes all are good for novelty, but stacked together make playing the map for the inevitable long periods of time grating; detailing is cohesive but rather basic

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Hi There,

Since I had to remove Spacewar from the competition and the voting process due an unforeseen consequence (ha sounds like a half life joke) I would like to say thank you for the feedback I did receive during the voting process until the ‘rules’ error was seen.

I think my favourite comments were the ones were the ones where players died re the environmental hazards J

Spacewar started off as something strictly for ‘me’. It was a project that I needed to do for myself during Covid Isolation and other health issues putting me into a more depressed state of mind. I didn’t care about game mechanics, how it looked or any of that. I just wanted to ‘DO SOMETHING’ anything except live in a basement – yes it’s funny - I have a house to be in.

Then I found out there was a contest going on, found out that it qualified for the contest (ha, until it didn’t) and I decided to enter it. I then had a purpose, a goal, something to DO! I was going to try to make the best tug of war map out there and drive myself insane doing it!

Space is hard to do – 95% of the valve props are useless, overscaled, no collisions and only have an exterior skin but I enjoyed it and strove to make it better based on your feedback which was invaluable and ultimately resulted in a better map. Still can’t quite figure out the stalemating but will continue to work on it – but not sure when. Tomorrow is the first day (hopefully) that I will be returning to work in 1 year 10 months. So as you can see my insanity level is pretty skewed – lol

Speaking of insanity, I have roughed out stage one of a new payload map – I hope you like fighting sideways on a cliff face!

Keep up the good work and to the winner of this contest I say – WELL DONE!!

 

[MegapiemanPHD]

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | FEEDBACK
Altitude | 80 | 70 | 80 | Really fun map with some great detail work. B and C could still use a good bit of layout work before being finalized but this map has a ton of potential.
Azumith | 53 | 50 | 45 | This one's got some problems. A is awkward to both attack and defend, B has both cramped spaces and too open spaces right next to each other and C can be a meat grinder. Detailing could really use some work. It's not bad but not great either and not all that memorable. I did have some fun on this map but it needs more time in the oven at this point.
Gridiron | I | made | this |
Pine Peak | 50 | 50 | 40 | Unfortunately this map isn't all that memorable. Layout is OK at best with the only thing really standing out being the saw on the cart path, while detailing is very basic and underwhelming. I think you'd need to head back to the drawing board for this one.
RO3Pont | 70 | 70 | 60 | Pretty fun map for the most part. I really dislike that long thin building blu has to go through before B. It's a heck of a choke and just not a great area to be in. Detailing is good without being anything super special. I do like how you can see previous points, like A, from other points, like B. That's neat.
Roofrack | 50 | 50 | 60 | Interesting idea that just doesn't pan out. The layout has some strange flanks and shortcuts putting players from each team all over the place most of the time. I think a big payload cart could work with the right layout, but this just wasn't there yet.
Rumford | 80 | 80 | 70 | Very enjoyable map. B felt like the worst point as it seemed to mostly roll when I played it and there where a couple of areas around A where I couldn't really use my pomson as it's laser would instantly disappear but that's really only a problem for that weapon and the wrap assassin bauble. I wish the detailing was able to get across the paper mill idea a bit better as it mostly comes off as a small side theme to me.
Smalltime | I | am | contributor |

 

[BigfootBeto]

Advanced Ballot

MAP | OVERALL | GAMEPLAY | DETAILING | HONORARY TITLES
Altitude | 80 | 70 | 90 | Best Name + Favorite Gameplay Area (2nd point*)
Azumith | 50 | 50 | 40 |
Gridiron | 50 | 50 | 60 | Best Sound
Pine Peak | | | |
RO3Pont | | | |
Roofrack | | | |
Rumford | 90 | 70 | 90 | Most Pleasant
Smalltime | 70 | 70 | 70 |
Spacewar | 40 | 40 | 20 | Most Creative

*The 2nd point had some of the most interesting gameplay space I have ever seen and it blended seamlessly with the lodge setting. Excellent use of verticality that gives that area a unique feel

 

[nesman]

The polls have closed! Thanks to all who voted and partook in the Rule of Threes contest. Now onto the panel of judges who will cast their votes.