Breakout
Gameplay:
At first glance at the screenshot i expected some of the poor geometry detail to hint towards bad gameplay, but the gameplay is actually OK if not that the map contains perhaps too many routes and balances towards a coordinated RED team. health and ammo seemed to be quick appropriately placed even if i found myself running around looking for health, generally where there was combat there was some ammo and engineers seemed to setup their gear fairly successfully.
Balance:
BLU are fighting an uphill battle for nearly the entire map, certainly past the staging area before it levels out at and after CP2, only then to require fighting against a few more disadvantaged height differences at the final CP. The large health At CP3 makes sandvich heavies cycling healing themselves without medics a powerful obstacle, especially if their primary loadout differs where they become increasingly difficult to overcome as they swap flanks. The map is very balanced in RED's favour. Also, even with the long sightlines at locations like the staging area, each class seemed to be performing relatively well and this is said as a heavy taking on enemies at distances of up to 2048 units, thinking "shit" when i see snipers, only to see them get flanked my a pyro. So class balance was a little better than team balance.
performance:
The map has a lot of open doorways but the amount of corners that tend to disorientate players also helps to cull lengthy sightlines and the generally low level of detail prevents the larger areas from really affecting map performance.
Aesthetics:
The level of detail between some areas is sporadic, some areas having moderate detail, one has a lot of attention to geometry detail and others have almost no detail besides the odd prop and LoS breaking walls. The theme has mostly been lost to generic-ness how ever which is disappointing, the map revolving around spy-techness after the inside industrial theme seen at the staging area.
Copperhead
Gameplay:
The map plays well in general, plentiful opportunities for all classes and manner of player tactics and the map's design compliments all manner of weapon unlocks. However progression of difficulty feels schizophrenic at times. The long winding flanks lead to semi-frequent ninja caps when unprotected and the above average quantity of health pick-ups makes for breaking player heavy defences (not sentry farms) problematic; and chasing wounded enemies to finish them off all the more dangerous.
Balance:
The map suffers a bit from up-hill battle syndrome where RED almost always have the height advantage and over zealous buffer areas between one point and the next that make it twice as challenging to push forwards to the second CP; battles rarely occur on or around the second points.
Performance:
The layout doesn't seem to have been produced with performance in mind. Geometry is messy and to no fundamental grid setting. There is little obvious sign of breaking LoS for anything more than gameplay purposes, but it is more present within larger structures. Since detail is not over saturated there is no real loss to performance on current generation machines.
Aesthetics:
The attention to detail can be rather hit and miss, some areas receiving significantly more attention than others making it feel rather patchy. There is a lacking attention and care in the creation of brush based arches, but use of props has been clever and effective. There needs to be a more obvious definition of player space and out of bounds areas; on the first few rounds on this map it is difficult to assess where threats might approach from, but once the layout is learnt it becomes rather enjoyable and you can start to apply effective and appropriate tactics at certain points.
There is however a lack of definition regarding the theme, there's alpine mixed with industrial and the custom made construction pack mixed with lumberyard with dockyard thrown in for good measure. Whilst mixing themes isn't necessarily bad by default, there's no real coherent method in its execution. The map progresses from one scenario to another, no location feeling specific or with purpose. Spytech appears at one point half way through the map then disappears as you progress into a construction scene, then it reappears before disappearing behind some industry.
One would ask themselves why a mercenary battle is occurring at this location besides the fact that there's a spytech base with other mercenaries in it. As beautiful as the spytech aesthetic is it is literally generic with no real specific objective present at the finale or hinted at throughout the map. If it is a server hub this should be emphasised, if it is a monitoring station it should be made more obvious with recording equipment etc.
Canyonfodder
Gameplay:
Canyonfodder's gameplay feels a little odd in places, large spaces make way for contrasting tiny corridors, but scale in general is quite appopriate but for a couple unique locations that could use more development. The varying scale does make progression of difficulty schizophrenic and there's no real method to the distance and location of CP1 and BLU spawns; which varies significantly between stages. The varying scales and distances means this is a map where you will spend time changing your loadout and class a lot to suit the circumstances of the layout design which may or may not been seen as a pro or con to gameplay, but having to change classes and loadouts within a single stage as opposed to between rounds is very annoying.
Balance:
Again, progression of difficulty being so schizophrenic makes it hard to judge overall balance. BLU rarely make it past stage 2 unless RED have a poorly made up team in which case the map is prone to steamroll.
Performance:
With all the winding corners and corridors it may seem that aspects if considering performance has been worked into the layout design, however the map is littered with unnecassery gaps in geometry and levels of detail hit over saturation in some points of the map yet completely miss others. It kind of evens out in the end, but it is by no means perfect.
Aesthetics:
In a similar manner to Copperhead the map feels very unconsolidated, less so in theme this time and more so in architectural design. The map is quite obviously desert in appearence but the structures are very arbitrary and have not been given an appearence that serves any particular purpose. Even a store house needs implications that it is a store house but these just appear to be generic structures serving little use but to obstruct players and force them around corners to even more arbitrarily located control points.
On a final point, I already mentioned that there is almost no aesthetic important to the capture points, least of all the final point. The final point is hidden behind smaller structures when it should be highly visible and using the badlands final point model is not enough for an A/D finalé; which incidently lacks any epicness at all and is a massive anti-climax.
Desertion
Gameplay:
Desertion feels strange in many ways. Scale is on the large side and outside areas are open but with "some" obstacles; these do provide limited cover but the obstacles don't funnel players in any particaler direction (such as to objectives) or provide any substantial presence as to allow players to flank each other in a coordinated manner or for engineers to setup gear; they just get in the way and make combat convoluted.
The map's weakness is in being unable to draw players together, players split up and skirmish even in coordinated play, scouts dominate the health packs and rocky obstacles whilst snipers dominate the open expanses between control points/buildings. The lack of defined flanks also makes controlling territory impossible and BLU can barely setup any lasting forward position and keeping teleporter entrances operational is a chor. When combat reaches the contested CP BLU players are forced into the one obvious route of attack with the single advantage making the map repetitive to play.
Balance:
Balance is a massive issue, the large space on offer and amount of exits/entrances to buildings allows RED to easily slip past BLU attackers, take out teleporter entrances and flank individuals respawning/travelling to the front line. There is also an issue with class balance, the over scaling makes scouts and snipers the prefered class of choice and the proximity of the final point to the defenders spawn makes it nearly impossible to complete a capture on without getting interupted by people you previously killed to get there and the tiny nooks and crannies between medium sized props make for powerful hidden sentry locations.
Performance:
The map is low in saturation of detail but doorways don't seem to be placed to methodically break los giving off huge sight lines into and out of large structures; doors which would normally be utilised under these circumstances have not been utilised.
Aesthetics:
Details are sketchy and displacements don't align at seems making playable space difficult to ascertain, players will frequently get stuck against or slide off rocks or stairs. Buildings are monolithic and overwhelming and each area is rather same-y in size.
The theme feels very empty, prop usage is repetitive and limited; it's in the desert and that's about it with a little cargo hold at the end which doesn't look particularly important.
Frozen Assets
Gameplay:
Scale is on the large side and many of the structures outside in the staging area serve little purpose beyond replicating the feel of gravelpit A. Whilst with a little more detail the scale might feel more acceptable, long winded corridors between CP1 and 2 are a deal beaker that send many players running for the disconnect button.
Balance:
The map feels rather balanced in terms of teams besides the one ultimate sentry spot in the reel room opposite RED spawn. RED usually win, but BLU have had their moments, but worst is class balance. Wins were possible without class stacking but scouts were deffinately a prime choice as a result of the travel distance.
performance:
The exceedingly low level of detail gives a high performance by default.
Aesthetics:
Aesthetics leave a lot to be desired, effort has been made in odd ways, there are alpha blends in the displacements, some light fixtures even have sprites and there are the starts of what appear to be detail rooms. However the map should in no way be labelled "final" when it looks barely out of alpha.
Mojave
Gameplay:
The further the map progresses the less refined the map seems to feel. Gameplay is still fairly tight nip, players aren't given too many options which is great for the most part when it comes to influencing teams to consolidate before assaults; but many of the CP's feel incomplete and insignificant, with uninteresting gameplay, often tucked flush against a map boundary wall or a far corner with limited surrounding space.
Balance:
Balance feels a little off in places, the capacity for RED to counter attack and retake positions at CP1 of both stages effectively resets BLU's progress. BLU should really get a spawn advantage to counter-act the unusually long walk distances to the secondary capture points. The map also needs some more appropriate respawn visualiser placement, the capacity for RED to push BLU past their own setup gates and into the spawn rooms is not a good thing for the map when RED have so many other advantages already, the fact that there are so many exits and doors at the setup gate area just makes it all the more easier for a single RED player to sneak past aggressing BLU attacks and deal massive damage at decisive moments.
performance:
The map has plenty of turns and doorways that generally cull most potential LoS issues and the level of detail is never excessive, keeping frame rates within acceptable limits. Although the numerous doors with glass windows and gaps in solid walls feel unnecassery.
Aesthetics:
The red environment light, red dirt ground and excessive use of red brick and red/brown wood gives the map a very mundane feel and the less than pleasent lighting condition is exasperated in the shade where the ambient light fails to highlight existing detail. The choice to go to red brick on the inside at CP4 would not be a bad choice on its own but considering the high level of red seen throughout the map's last 3 capture points a change of atmosphere would have been appropriate. The map also fails to highlight the lesser structures contents such as around CP 3 where there are sheds with item drops; these lights need to be brighter and the author needs to follow detailing trends in that many wooden structures utilise the white wood beams to increase inside ambient light. The map really needs to show off it's control points, none of which are aesthetically significant and very generic.
Pilulokpass
Gameplay:
The map's gameplay is not very refined; areas contrast between small rooms with limited entrances to linear corridors and wide open spaces. Classes out match each other in an extreme fashion, so depending on the location the terrain advantages stack against the disadvantage and class perks. Cooperation for attackers tends to go out the window when players try to make an impact on their own in an effort to attract as little attention to themselves and make progress stealthily; also medics get prioritised and assasinated in the open fairly consistantly making it a difficult class to play.
Balance:
As i mentioned in gameplay, classes tend to out class each other in the extreme environment designs from tight close quarters to long distances that keep scouts and snipers to certain areas and engineers, demomen and soldiers to others. BLU are almost always exposed, if not to long sight lines, to winding flanks that are impossible to hold and control. It's easy for RED to hold the immediate area around the CP's and difficult for BLU to gain any forward ground due to the open space and winding flanks that allow scouts and spies almost free reign to harass your team support.
performance:
The map is particularly snake like and winding so even though there are some excessive light lines, the map isn't excessively bad and the below average levels of detail mean that performance isn't as much of an issue as it might be if the map had reached further development in the artpass phase.
Aesthetics:
The maps aesthetics are particularly bare, especially when it comes to prop usage, but the geometry is interesting, the buildings look quite nice on the outside and many have been given inner details such as trusses and detail rooms. The map has an emphasise with trains and i certainly feel the map could have been better executed around this theme in a manner that would have also complimented gameplay by utilising more appropriate scales.
Powderhorn
Gameplay:
Powderhorn's gameplay can be a little off at times, although nothing all too serious to call it broken, but i will seperate the negative points in detail. The excessive space to the far right flank of the BLU spawn goes largely unused and only serves to turn decisive assaults into diluted skirmishes that almost always end in RED's favour (because of the height and item drop placement advantages). The spawn should either be moved into a more central location or the map boundary expanded if only slightly to BLU's left and the right flank removed entirely to provide more space for combat. But once combat reaches the control point after BLU finally push past their spam-tastic primary exit the combat starts to get more interesting (if not that the CP position itself is prone to the same predictable SG positions). When CP1 falls, CP2 is usually quick to follow making it feel very much that the progressive difficulty curve is a little backwards; and the lack of height for RED on their final CP also feels a little backwards, and their spawn exit proximity to the CP makes it very easy for BLU to spam the door whilst capturing the final point.
Balance:
As hinted at in my gameplay discussion BLU are too easily trapped in their spawn where RED have a direct height advantage over the BLU spawn exit with readily available health and ammo supplies; and BLU have a height disadvantage within their own spawn area so red will often stand flat against the respawn visualiser shooting in. The space to the far flank is so wide and open that it serves as little respite for escaping BLU players (besides perhaps the odd skilled spy that can rack up a kill streak or harass the SG positions before being killed with little to no discernable impact in their teams favour). The maps difficulty progression needs to be revised as does the area surrounding the final point.
performance:
The map has obvious attempts from the layout design to cull LoS making the use of rain affects less damaging to performance. The slightly under saturated detail levels also leand to relatively high performance rates. Although the high concentration of spam towards the primary BLU spawn exit and LoS to the area behind as well as rain particle affects makes for some occasional choppy play at this staging area.
Aesthetics:
The shiney affect on the metal roofs is a great addition to the sawmill-rainy theme that really stuck out to me for this custom map. The level of detail in the out of bounds detail was pretty much executed at the most efficient levels but inside details were quite bare. The outside level of detail was OK considering the amount of open space that was being rendered however displacements were sub-par and in need of way more love and attention to make the map as a whole feel more complete. The water also felt arbitrarily placed, i'm not even sure the waterfall and pool lead anywhere, it just suddenly stops.
Relay
Gameplay:
I really have nothing to complain about regarding the gameplay. Areas have a pleasent variation in height and size and are never too big or small, except perhaps the space before the CP 3 building which has a tendancy to allow RED to bulwark much further ahead of the CP, clearing out forward BLU positions that might have gone up during an assault; though this also has the drawback of ninja caps in BLU's favour so it's hard to call foul in terms of balance (despite how i feel about cp_sekhmet's easy defence yet tendancy for BLU to ninja cap). The amount of long corridors (roads), numerous doorways into the ware-house like structures make it difficult to set up dispensers at key points or eat lunchbox items without someone exploring and coming across you or your gear by chance and killing it/you. Which can be troublesome for engineers who prefer to help the team more acgively as opposed to setting up sentry nests on or behind objectives.
Balance:
Balance is great, cap times seem a little on the short side, but only by a second or two. Distance between CP's is appropriate but the tandancy to give RED a ledge overlooking the capture point gets a bit repatitive.
performance:
The saturation of detail is just under par which means it looks nice but is incomplete and this generally gives maps like this a quality performance level. There are enough corners and walls/structures to cull LoS so the outside areas don't get excessively choppy.
Aesthetics:
The amount of bland gray walls outside prevent any real landmarks from speaking out to players and reinforcing player orientation. Sometimes it gets confusing to RED as to which direction BLU will assault from. The size of the map helps to reduce the capacity to get lost though as you usually run into BLU reinforcements or a CP area fairly quickly. The details on the inside are a lot better than those on the outside and the unique approach to details such as windows fits nicely into the TF2 theme.
Sekhmet
Gameplay:
Sekhmet's A/D gameplay has been unrefined which makes me wonder what happened during the alpha testing. for A/D the map is very wide making it very difficult to defend with so many entrances into any area, due to them being spaced so far apart. There are chokes inthe form of said entrance/exit-ways, but there are so many that they become diluted and often scouts or even just regular speed classes will flank an entire team and begin to ninja cap. The distance between CP1 and BLU spawn is such that it's very difficult for a full team to push through the initial defence, secondary defence at the buffer area and then again at the exposed CP within the initial time limit; and i am disinclined to call the potential for ninja caps balance, although we have managed to get to the final point on non-full servers it's just bad layout design that ruins combative gameplay when the only option is to run past enemy players to reach the objective in time. Maybe for a final point, but not for CP1.
Balance:
In a less than full server the massive gaps between capture points is less of a hinderance to map balance as ninja caps force defenders back past the staging area and buffer to directly around the point. The maps difficulty is created in a very strange way that throws off standard gameplay tactics and creates more of a cat and mouse play. Some might enjoy this but it seems in negative contrast to the game mode that is attack/defend.
performance:
the tight spaces between areas break LoS nicely and seperates areas of significant detail and combat. Performance has obviously been a consideration from the start, though the amount of particle effects from both torches and high levels of combat can cause periodic screen tears and the amount of brush based detail probably doesn't help (monuments/catwalks/trusses).
Aesthetics:
The colour throughout the map is fairly monotonous, though this is often the case with egpytion themed maps, it just seems to be an extreme here as the orange torches and light brown textures in the night theme combine to a less than attractive ambience. Brush based details seem to have been prefered in the face of props which is slightly understandable given the lack of egyption theme related props, but a lack of imagination in stretching the potantial for the egyption theme seems to have limited the selection more than what could have been achieved.
Ship
Gameplay:
cp_ship's gameplay is fairly loose and the map feels like it was not extensively play tested, tight lengthy corridors for flanks that also tend to wind around many corners and the numerous stairs and catwalks disorinetate players; plus a lack of signs doesn't help. Pillars/I-beams and boxes get in the way of combat more than aiding it into something interesting, often making it incredibly difficult to attack the CP's. The small spaces coupled with a completely new theme make it difficult to figure out where to progress forwards or even where exits and entrances are (which tend to be more recognised with more refined and typical TF2 themes).
Balance:
It's almost impossible to define and review the balance when players are so easily lost in the layout the true nature of the map is never fully revealed, but the map is generally a ton of tight spaces and corridors one after the other and the single exit at BLU's spawn does not bode well for its potential.
performance:
As seems to be the case with many of the submissions, again, this map like the others has a generally low level of detail so performance isn't terrible. But much of the layout around CP2 shows a lot of brush work that is not efficiently executed, the authors inexperience with Hammer is quite blatent in the smaller details like stairs and windows.
Aesthetics:
Effort has been put into an entirely new custom theme but the theme has been terribly executed. It neither fits the stylistic painted style of TF2 nor executed in conjunction with existing materials or themes such as spytech; which for a space station might have been the most logical choice. The resolution on many of the textures also leaves a lot to be desired. Attention to the finer details such as trims or mini-scenario's depicting "life" and "use" is almost completely absent. But at least there is some significance to the objectives that tell a narrative within the map, even if the details of the narrative are not well demonstrated by the minor/finer details.
Slush
Gameplay:
General balance aside the map provides plenty of height difference and path opportunities before diverging into a series of linear corridors between CP1 and 2 of each stage. The map doesn't support a wide variaty of tactics or weapon loadouts, both teams tend to utilise what ever weapons pack the biggest burst damage punch to lock down corridors or push through predictable static defenses.
Balance:
If a player enjoys a challange then playing BLU on Slush is similar to playing BLU on the last stage of dustbowl or first stage of goldrush and will keep you coming back for more if only out of stubborn-ness to never give up. Slush's difficulty curve is shocking for BLU and all sense of progression of difficulty is lost at Stage 1, CP 2, where attackers not only fight a literal uphill battle but have to double back on themselves to reach the control point and engage sentry nests whilst putting their back towards the enemy spawn. The first stage is by no means impossible and a little team stacking works just for the sake of moving the map on to the second round. One might call it goldrush fever and until this is resolved much of the map remains to yet show its full potential. CP 2 of stage 2 is just as difficult to take where demomen and soldiers can cycling through the locker room to negate reloading between spamming the CP; or sitting next to a well protected dispenser behind a wall beyond the capture point to keep ones health and ammo conviniently topped up despite offensive pressure. The amount of doorways, catwalks and routes between control points make this map a dream for spies who can consistantly wipe a quarter to half a respawn wave and keep teleporters from staying up for any length of time.
performance:
The plentiful corners, appropriately high walls, doorways and lack of see through windows keeps performance within good standards. Density of detail is not excessive nor lacking and generally hits that sweet spot.
Aesthetics:
As previously mentioned the level of detail generally hits that sweet spot between too much and not enough, the outside areas are superb, a little gorge mixed with some snow is executed rather well, but inside details seem a little off. The inside industrial detail relies too much on pipe props and the industry to spytech theme progression is a little nonsensical. One could say the map lacks detail consistancy on the inside which is emphasised by the amount of different textures and styles utilised for trusses and trims that busy the scene with unnecassery additional visual information.
Zig
Gameplay:
Zig's gameplay is pretty straight forward thanks to the methodically created layout and this can be considered more of a pro than a con. The distance between right, left and middle flanks between CP 1 and 2 is such that coordinated pushes are difficult, but usually a mass assault down the middle is enough against a defending team that doesn't counter attack; the only worry is that this basic and predictable tactic repeats itself throughout the stages, especially when the last stage is expected to have fewer flanks and height advantages for BLU to exploit for progression of difficulties sake. Besides that (which i can't judge because stages 2 and 3 do not exist yet) individual gameplay can be a little fiddly. unalligned displacements on the floor and rock props that aren't visually ascertive as to their walkable/climb-ness leave players getting stuck in tight spots during combat and dry humping walls and props to get to odd places when out of it.
Balance:
Distance between spawns, capture point 1 and capture point 2 are a little on the long side, but for stage 1 this hasn't posed too much of a balance issue as of yet; but without stages 2 or 3 it's impossible to tell how progression of difficulty will be and a 50/50 win ratio for stage 1 is unfortunately not completely balanced. The long distances make sniper and scout favourable classes. Whilst it's nice to see scouts utilised in A/D maps, the threat from snipers usually sends attackers down the more protected routes making BLU relatively predictable and easy to ambush.
performance:
There are no complaints for performance on my current generation machine though i have heard some from other less powerful PC users. Detail is not over saturated and executed methodically and with purpose. My only gripe is the number of gaps in structures that need not be there and increase face counts that aarn't necassery, though that coincides with the fact that it causes light to bleed through these gaps creating a strange ambience where blue-y white, orange and the ambient sun colour mix, and not in a pleasent way. Speaking of which, onto the aesthetics.
Aesthetics:
Zig's aesthetics are more unique than any other submission and this definately deserves kudo's, unfortunately it also means the maps general development has suffered as there is only 1 stage; and the comparrison of the level of detail in 1 stage of Zig vs multiple stages of other maps isn't that impressive. The location of detail is also relatively odd. Whilst the custom trees on the horizon is an excellent execution in terms of the theory of focal points within a game environment, often areas of high detail density are out of the general view of players and hidden between patches of trees on cliff tops or where players only momentarily look. For example the detail area behind the BLU staging area, players only momentarily see this area when leaving spawn before turning 180 to assault the RED defences and much of the setup time is spent looking out the gates at RED defences, jumping over the rock props, spamming rechargable abilities or dry humping gaps in the gameplay fences to unsuccessfully access said detail area.
Clocktower
Gameplay:
Clocktower's gameplay is simple and straight forward. There are few flanks at CP2 which generally keeps the team together, but the scale of CP1 is on the large side with much unused space and flanking paths that are unnecasserily long and still don't bring players any closer to the CP than if they had just gone forwards. The ramp at mid used to pass past CP 3 forces a certain flow which is fun but does limit the amount of tactics one can employ and makes combat around mid a little linear, however a lot of the time players will play soldier/demo and rocket jump past this feature in defiance of the maps influence on player traffic.
Balance:
Clocktower feels odd in terms of balance. By default it's symmetry makes it balanced between BLU and RED But CP2 is very difficult to access as a class without jump perks and the exposed floor level from which attackers assault does not help the matter. Still, what ever circumstances surrounding the weirdness and design of CP2 that make it not very nice to attack (as either the attacking or defending team) cp_clocktower's basic layout seems to work. CP1 for both teams has a good capture speed and is appropriately easy to attack and defend. Fights can and will move back and forth and the map is not impossible to win. unfortunately the latest version does tend to stalemate around CP2 increased LoS's in terms of both FoV and individual LoS's make snipers powerful and despite the lacking number of flanking paths individual players still frequently flank entire teams (mostly scout and engineer); mostly a result of the one way ramp at mid that is more hidden out of view now it's been narrowed. This location needs at least more light.
performance:
The map's layout around CP2 is not perfect in regards to culling LoS and sometimes FPS in the middle can get choppy despite the fact the map is in early beta and further detail is expected to come. As it stands my GTX 460 copes fine with 220 FPS. But action should be taken to prevent further loss to performance around mid/CP2 and many complaints have been made from players with lower spec machines.
Aesthetics:
The final point is industrial as apposed to spytech, which is fine, but there is little importance implied through detail regarding its location besides the fact that defenders spawn there. The industry is also in contrast with the halloween/medi-evil theme seen in the middle as these themes generally don't cross match. CP 2 is also rather generic, the structures imply nothing of their purpose and don't compliment either the theme in the middle of the map or the industrial seen at the end.
Omen
Gameplay:
Omen's scale is on the large side and it takes height differences to the extreme, no single section is really on the same level as the surrounding areas. This forces combat to occur at more distant lengths as players struggle to close the distance on enemies should the attacker be either on the low ground or behind one of the many low walls that frustratingly cannot be jumped over. The large doorways help to reduce the effectiveness of spam but the huge doorways don't compliment the over large areas and emphasise the feeling that the map is too big.
Balance:
The map tends to favour whoever captured middle first. Although i've seen a couple back and forth matches it tends to be a downhill battle for attackers for the rest of the map.
performance:
The map has some hints to an optimised layout but in some areas it does not, so it makes me wonder if those that do exist (structures and walls that block LoS) are merely there by chance. In any case, the lack of solid geometry within areas around the control points and acxessive use of wooden planks worries me that should the map reach further levels of detail it would really affect the performance of the map on average level computers.
Aesthetics:
The colour pallete is quite limited, mirky brown mud, murky brown wood and grey and brown metals; this is not improved by the tall cliffs that block out much of the contrasting blue sky. The outside levels of detail are reasonable if not that the displacements could seriously use a lot more care and perhaps better execution, but the inside areas tend to lack any real level of attention.
Croissant
Gameplay:
cp_croissant is obviously very much a competitive map, it is incredibly scout and sniper friendly; and for public play, too friendly to them. It becomes particularly unbalanced when on the other hand you also have a lack of consideration for classes such as pyro (if not for the long death pit boardering CP3) or spy or engineer and the long sight lines destroy the heavies worth. Entrances into the bases bring combat to a linear state with narrow corridors on the flanks and dynamic door doorways that cause long stalemates between CP2 and 3. CP2 is incredibly difficult to reach as a class without a jump perk and the only 2 directions to approach it from mean that it is often not a wise choice as you will lack support and get mowed down by a consolidated defence stuck between CP2 and the primary base exit. The orientation of spawn to CP1 and the route out of CP1's location towards CP2 are such that even after tens of rounds i continue to walk the wrong way and have to refind my way towards CP2/3.
Balance:
Crossaint is not balanced for all classes, but it is not so bad that it is impossible to play. A slight overscaling tends to be the norm and usually acceptable as opposed to slightly underscaled which is a lot less desirable. Sniper lines need to be cut with more geometry and sophisticated structure designs that bring close range combat into play and provide a rounder gameplay experience and tactical opportunities.
performance:
The map has a ton of wide open space and detail is incredibly sparce and confined to large props besides perhaps around CP3. The lack of any substantial details creates a high performance rate by default, but that's not to say that there are performance spikes when turning corners and revealing large fresh batches of terrain.
Aesthetics:
As mentioned under performance fine details are sparce and much of the prop usage has been limited to medium to large. Rocks, containers, the odd hydro double stacked crate. The lack of any roof creates a strange feeling, like the map isn't entirely complete; the lack of any theme besides bare alpine exasperates that idea. Is it a dock? Is it a lumbermill? A depot? Who knows. The aesthetics leave much to the imagination.
Process
Gameplay:
Process's gameplay tends to be a repetitive stalemate between CP's 1 and 2. CP1 is incredibly difficult to take; over powered SG positions tend to bulwark the flank from CP2 whilst still covering the CP point and large portions of the far flank as well; and the bases primary exit's proximity to CP2 mean that flanking CP1 as an attacker is highly impractical. CP2 constantly needs direct reinforcements while defenders require far few players to defend the main route than is required by attackers to attack. Any attempt to flank CP1 is met with a close proximity counter attack to CP2 by defenders behind the door on the main route resulting in a back cap, that is then re-taken by the flanking attackers forced to retreat resetting the progress and round timer to full (thanks to the 2 consecutive point captures).
Balance:
Process doesn't have a lot of tiny problems like many of the other maps but instead suffers from two massive ones. As previously mentioned CP2 is very problematic. CP1 is too hard to attack and CP2 is too easy, resulting in a constant capping and back capping of CP2. CP3 is barely seen and often a decisive battle from the very beginning. Smaller teams to tend to allow for more decisive combat and flanking moves on CP1 are more successful thanks to the lower player count and lesser chance to be caught flanking CP1 by straddling defenders. Jumping onto higher ground tends to be incredibly fiddly and the excessive height advantages around mid for soldier, scout and demo make most other classes redundant, even the medics survival rate is practically zero because of all the flanks and higher platforms.
performance:
Sightlines havn't been entirely culled and outside corners by large structures are wide resulting in the outside areas peering through to each other between CP2 and 3. Although the generally low level of smaller details means that performance is not affected too negatively. Lower end machine users may take a liking to this map whilst high end machine users will ask more of the maps level of detail.
Aesthetics:
There's nothing really innovative about Process's details. A gorge theme clone through and through that is at best well executed if not incredibly boring and uninspiring. A complete lack of facade is a disappointing aspect of this maps aesthetics, especially for a 5CP push map that would sit next to maps like badlands, well and granary. Besides this complaint the height differences feel natural thanks to the well executed basic details/geometry and the use of I-beams in the industrial themed space is better than most, but catwalks tend to be oddly shaped, narrow and come off at random angles with no supports. The light is nice and bright though on the inside and outside.
