Hey, your map got me in an analysis kind of mood so I've brought some feedback for you. Whether you use it is up to you, but I would appreciate some kind of response if possible so we can maybe bounce some ideas back and forth.
WARNING: THIS WILL GET VERY WORDY. IF YOU NEED CLARIFICATION, PLEASE ASK ME!!!!
Playability - So, let me be upfront real quick; I understand that this idea is really set in stone for you. The idea of a manor inside a biodome is mars is REALLY FUCKIN' COOL! ...but your gameplay needs to suit that. How I feel right now is that this area is really claustraphobic in terms of being a fighting space, which the flag area and overall path will always be in a flag-based modes (bar a few exceptions.) With your current flag area, the place feels really small, and not very effective for obtaining the flag. Now, this MAY be intentional! In an STB map (the gamemode you're using is called 'Steal the Bacon,' just fyi. You can look at my map sheet if you want some more info on it.), the idea is that the flag is
supposed to be defendable. And that in it of itself is fine! But similar to a Control Point in A/D, it also needs to be able to capture. And this feels just way too small for it to be reasonable capturable. What I would do here is keep the overall idea of this room, probably make it a bit larger, and then move the flag to the centre of the room. The flag being in a corner is pretty awkward in my opinion and not really suitable for the gamemode. A good example of a flag room from STB, imo, would be ctf_infiltration's flag room.
Clipping - Please please PLEASE clip stairs like a ramp would be. I understand that this is an a1, but stairs being unclipped makes combat around here (which there will likely be a lot of, since this is right outside of "The RED Zone") feel really jarring and not at all fluid.
Gameplay Flow - One thing I will always try to point out when it happens is poor game flow. In BLU spawn, you spawn players actively facing away from where they want to go, which is the biodome area of the map. This isn't good because you end up confusing players on where they should go. Yes, this is eventually unlearned via map knowledge, but this then raises the issue of why have a second route (the one of the left, in this picture) at all if it just gives attackers a longer rotate to where they need to go with no benefit? There really isn't a reason for that to happen. I think what you should do here is remake spawn (I know, I know, it's a tall order
) into something similar to this:
(Forgive the use of the devil, aka MS paint)
The design goal here is to make leaving spawn itself simper for the player. What I've done here is given BLU a second spawn exit (the exit on the left) and made their walk times hopefully a bit shorter, depending on how you designed the layout yourself. The spawn exit on the right, the black line, is where the spawn exit in ctf_marsmanor_a1 is. Whether you had a spawn door inside the spawn itself (think the 2fort main spawn, where you have the glass doors and then the shutters) would be up to you, but I think it would add a bit of coolness to BLU spawn while they wait for RED to spawn.
Clipping - Just some more clipping requests, these are a bit less important since they're mostly for RED but it'd still be appreciate since they feel pretty jank.
Playability - So, I'm gonna be upfront with you again: I think having the flag just instantly capture with the snap of the fingers is a pretty bad idea. It brings forth a design choice in other flag-based modes that is really bad in terms of playability, that being the fact that as the flag gets farther from its base, it gets exponentially easier to capture. Just because Standard Capture the Flag runs into this issue as well does not mean it's preventable! Let me give you one other lesson I learned from ctf_infiltration, which is that you need to give RED a fighting chance to make a sort of "last stand" in an STB map. You may ask why this is the case, but I then must ask you "How fun is it to lose over a single mistake?" The answer I would likely get is "not very," which I agree with. Infiltration attempts to fix this with a Control Point being placed in front of BLU spawn that BLU's flag holder must capture in order to win. What I think Infiltration gets wrong is how long the point takes to capture, which if I'm remembering right is like, 60 seconds when 1 person stands on it alone. This is, obviously, not ideal for YOUR map. I think, should you implement this idea, you should try out 15 seconds, and then if that proves too fast, try 20 seconds. Since your map is so short (which I think could be changed but I will hold off on those comments until I play a full round of the map), you want to make it so it's harder to capture, but definitely not impossible.
Playability - Right now, I think RED really starts off in a bad disposition: They have a singular exit, which goes into a dropdown, that sentries can't even see from, that's hard to get into the dropdown itself. So let's start off with the first issue, that being that RED only has one spawn exit. This is a really bad idea, as it means that RED can unironically get pushed back into their spawn and the only thing that can stop it is if a medic gets ubercharge. (If this happens, the game is already lost since currently the flag instantly captures.) Now, BLU has no motivation to leave "The RED Zone" once they obtain the flag other than the flag carrier themself, so BLU ends up trying to spawntrap RED as much as they can to guarantee a win for them. This will remain true for the entire duration of the route, so be aware of that first and foremost. I think giving RED a secondary spawn exit would really benefit them, as it means that they can pincer BLU if they try spawntrapping one door and can also leave a bit quicker. I believe you could afford this change in a detail sense too, as currently you don't really see this side of the mansion outdoors since it's so shrouded in darkness, so you could add a bit more space to both the top and bottom floors. (Apologies if this one got a bit rambly towards the end, I'm hungry and kinda losing my train of thought)
Major Gameplay Changes - So this picture has a lot going on. Let's start with the balcony; I think the balcony, in its current implementation, facilitates really stringent and honestly unfun movement. I dislike the jump you have to make, I dislike how strangely narrow the dropdown feels, and I dislike how much of a surprisingly blind jump it ends up being. For these reasons, I think the balcony should be removed in favour of a flat, glass floor. I understand that the balcony is COOL, but its impact on gameplay is too much for its coolness factor to carry it in my books.
Secondly, I think that you should make the side roof area of the mansion accessible. (I'll get into why I think this is a good idea in a future point) Overall, you really only need one entrance to the roof since it'd be relatively inaccessible to any BLU class other than a Soldier or Demoman, and if those two are right outside of your spawn they're probably gonna die anyway.
Major Gameplay Changes - So this is what I mean when I said "I think the side roof should be accessible." I think this would give RED more approach options out of their base (currently, the only ones are by walking down stairs or the balcony which both aren't exactly the best options) and overall just be cool. In order to facilitate this, I think you should remove the pine tree and the rock prop directly in front of the window here. This route being here would only really benefit RED, and this isn't really an issue since BLU ironically has a pretty significant advantage when approaching the mansion itself. (All of their routes are ground level and unlike RED aren't super restrictive.)
I did want to make sure that Engineer would not be overpowered if he decided to setup on the roof, so I used a sentry to test how far the range of a single gun on the roof at the optimal angle would be. It only covers the areas behind the red lines, which relatively speaking isn't a lot. The sentry spot here would also give Sniper something to do for his team, which other than this imo he is rather lacking in on your map. This ALSO gives BLU a reason to use the side entrance of the manor, as the lighter classes can rotate there to avoid the sentry while Sniper and the heavier classes can assault the main entrance to the mansion.
Clipping - I really dislike that these top tables are solid. I just get stuck what feels like randomly when I jump onto them, and imo that isn't not a good choice. I can see myself using this place as a Spy when in desperation for a safe spot to remain cloaked for a few seconds, and getting stuck is absolutely not what you want in that scenario.
Bugfix - There's a bit of a tree clipping into the wall here. Idk how you'd fix it but uh, it's there!
Playability - Referring to my previous feedback about your spawn, I think adding a secondary spawn exit for BLU around here would be reasonable. Whether you do it at a high ground or a low ground is up to you, but I think having a high ground route would be beneficial for BLU as its longer rotate time means that they can't as easily just spam out of spawn as the high ground would make you think. (You should put your respawn locker below the two-way arrow in spawn to make this more likely to be real. The respawn locker is a beacon for players so they'll likely look to it for aid and see "Oh hey, a two-path arrow!" as well.) Having more BLU spawn exits means its easier for BLU to push out of their spawn, which is nice in an asym objective map. This isn't perfect, as the spawns are both still at the same angle, but this will alleviate the spam a bit.
Thoughts
Overall, your map has really intrigued me. I don't think the map is top-notch yet (as you can probably tell from how much feedback I have for you) but I do think that you are the first person in a while to really have
something to say with STB, which is a gamemode I find very fun. My hunger has kinda gotten the better of me here, so my feedback may have degraded a little bit as it went on, but I really and truly hope that my feedback gave you some direction with your map moving forward. I am really interested in how this map will develop further along, and I'd be more than happy to try and help you out in the future with Mars Manor! Given the changes I've shown you with my feedback here, I think you may end up with a very improved map. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to play the map in a full server, but hopefully I get the opportunity to at some point. Good luck with this map! It feels soulful.
