I revisited this map after finally watching the demo I got from the TF2Maps playtest back in July 2020. Before I jumped in, I had read
the feedback of a2, which was really bad. I had a feeling this would be a disaster. And, fortunately or unfortunately, while it did kill the imp, I realized just how confusing, big, clunky, cumbersome, buggy... it is a mess of a map that is pulled in so many directions that one person even said (paraphrasing) "this map needs to come with a pdf to make sense of it."
Additionally, as one reputable member put it, "medieval mode was a mistake", and I agree. Yeah, I agree. However, this is not as troubling to say because I admire the dumb-fun medieval mode has to offer. It's just stupid to gamble every life, but that's the point.
Where am I going with this... How it ties in to the terms of this map, there is too much going on, and not enough focus on what makes medieval mode what it is.
So without further adieu, here are the notes I have on the demo:
- I noticed players congregated in the place that I thought would be the last place anyone would visit, which is the top area with the single big house. I learned player's natural instinct is to go straight in new places right from the get-go.
- I noticed someone was riding the cart to shoot arrows from on it.
- The blue core didn't despawn after the count went to 0...
- There are glitches with the crates, most prominently if two break nearly the same time, the first one that's broken spawns all the points from the second crate.
- Crates fall off the wagons. Intended, but bad.
- It takes 15 hits to break the golden crate. Seriously, why?
- The Well: One person said it was cool, another said I can't see sh*t, another said there is no inferable way to know it doesn't just kill you.
- The roofs are climbable by anybody.
- The cores that let you steal basically all of the other team's points, is bad design. And it's in a place that's not obvious from the start of the game.
- There is a lot of dead space, namely here:
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- A lot of unfocused areas. Namely:
- The well + underground (a shortcut that is just not fun to fight in, has a huge advantage to those that know about it and is mostly unknown because it's in the well and nobody knows where the intel is)
- The flag/reactor core (The person that steals and caps the core wins the game.)
- the side areas [picture: in red, in blue] (No use. It adds walking time and that's not how I want to make this map.)
- The top house near the cart spawns (not a good place to fight in, just a weird layout)
- The other houses (these are for treasures, not sure if I'm keeping them)
- So about the treasures. The whole map revolves around finding, defeating NPCs (which are the treasures or crates) to collect points. However, I think this is a bad move for a number of reasons.
- First the glitches,
- Second the idea that it's not trying to slay the other team.
- Third and last, what is 'fun' about destroying a box? You get stuff from it, and compared to Half-Life, it did this well because it gave players the sense of reward for exploring their environment. Yet, these treasures in this map can't build on that idea. It's not obvious that these exist, and you don't get anything from it (substantially). It's not intuitive in this map, even with the glowing.
So what I gathered from all this are my thoughts on Medieval Mode as whole:
- Medieval Mode is Dumb-Fun, a gamble every life.
- Maps are smaller to accommodate for slower classes' travel times.
- Narrow, claustrophobic subsection areas add to the hectic gameplay. Generally, open areas (with some cover) is better. Generally, travel distances between these areas are small and not spaced out.
- Additionally, not having so many flat areas. There need to be height variations.
What do I want to focus on? What ideas do I have for this map?
- I might make this a Halloween map, with limited to probably three [relatively tame] gimmicks that are pointed out on the HUD.
- Maybe players can become a giant for a limited amount of time? Two giants go 1v1? Would have to add backstab resistance to said giant... maybe
- Fightable Dragons or monsters that give buffs? ehh...
- Map Design
- A tower with two bridges that go into the other team's base--a very risky but rewarding shortcut. (think 2Fort somewhat)
