Votes:
Trotim:
One of my favourites of the contest, the geometry is really interesting, it mixes up the traditional 5cp structure that gets used sooo often. Last is probably the weakest, and 2nd needs another way for the defenders to get up to it easier (it seemed to always get capped really quick), but I really love mid and the geometry around it. YM says the mechanic ruins the map and he may be right, although it rarely came into play and when it did it was feeling very stalemately, so I actually quite liked it. I thought it was a really creative entry with a lot of new ideas that I haven't seen in 5cp maps before, and that's why it gets my vote.
Vacon:
I really like this map too. It's a pretty solid koth map while still breaking the "viaduct format" that plagues so many maps, while keeping /enough/ of that format that it still plays great. I played engie for most of my time, and I liked that there were good sentry spots but they weren't overpowered and could get destroyed really easily, I had a lot of fun trying to defend my sentry. Visually, I don't like how the grass feels with the clean aesthetic of the gorge buildings, sawmill grass suits brown wood and metal better, not bright, clean, white. If I was to give any criticism, it's that the building in the middle across the point could stand to be lowered a bit in order to block some of the sightline across the point, forcing snipers to come down out of their territory a bit more to fire onto the other side. Some of your displacements coming out of the water (which needs to be scale 1 texture!) are a bit too steep to walk which is annoying also. I voted for it because it's easily one of the better playing maps this contest, I never actually got bored on this map like I did on so many of the others, I always felt there was something I could do differently. Additionally it has a fully textured aesthetic which is always impressive for the time period (conjoined with such a good playing map!).
Bakscratch:
This is one of my favourite maps of the contest also. The visual style is great, and the train! I love the train. It works well for arena I think, perhaps a bit too much health though I never found it an issue. I think it's a little cheating to make an arena map because they're quite easy
but I can't deny that this was very fun. It has a good variety of heights and there was never any place that was boring to fight in. I voted for this because it's easily one of the highest quality maps and while arena, it doesn't devalue the fact that it's far better than a lot of arena maps and the most detailed of the 72h maps.
Reviews:
Fish:
It has potential but atm it's a little boring and chokey, the areas seem to be rather flat in themselves and some things are just there for no reason, like the pool of water on 1-2, which I feel could be intergrated better into the area as a whole to make it more interesting. Glad to see you added that extra route instage 1 though. Also, more signs, or a less confusing (more open helps) layout.
Egan:
I love the idea, it's excuted well and one of the most fun maps of the contest. Some balance could be done like disabling hunstmans, and I think red needs a better respawn area, but definately one of the most enjoyable maps of the contest.
Garuda:
I like this map quite a lot. The geometry is interesting and probably the map's strongest...well, strength, and the theme is interesting although not to my taste. Considering I'm judging only on gameplay, this map plays pretty decent for a koth. I like the idea of the point getting more open and more dangerous the round goes on too, though I think there should maybe be a bit more pezazz for the doors opening so you know when it's happening.
Grizzly:
This koth map is pretty nice too, I like the mid area but the area between the spawn and mid (with the train bridge) is boring and doesn't server much purpose apart to pad out the distance (which is a bit too long as it is). The pit doesn't offer anything to the area apart from being an annoyance in restricting movement, it should provide a low route into the point area or some sort of reason to go down there to make fighting in and around it more dynamic. In summary: mid is fun, but the rest could use some work. The aesthetic is the biggest part that lets this map down for me. I remember watching in your video that you wanted to combine the clean look of gorge and process with desert, but I think the clean, bland look really needs the green of the trees and grass to balance it out.
Bereth:
This is just huge, it was big during the contest testing and you made it larger it feels? The areas themselves aren't bad per se, but everything just feels large. Also you were missing hdr cubemaps. Ironically, some parts were too cramped, like A, blue spawns directly under the point, give them some breathing room first!
YM:
This map was okay. It was fun at parts, though some of the open spaces (like the area before final, and final itself) were a bit uninteresting to fight in with a lack of buildings to climb on, stuff to jump around, etc. The rocks in the area before final did this but not to the same extent as your other maps.
The thing that bugged me most about this map was the trains. I love trains, but the fact that there's one right outside blue forward (which you can't hear coming from inside) is annoying, but that wouldn't be so bad if the trains weren't made of acid! Seriously, why does touching the train anywhere kill you. Make only the front kill you, and just give the train a blocking damage so if anyone jams it, it kills them, but you can still touch it without a horrible death. Also, there's no good chokes before final which means the map plays very similar each time.
Dark:
It's okay. The geometry is just a little weird, it's all big and blocky and so all the heights and that feel very binary. Mainly though, you either need a lot more signs or to make the layout a little more intuitive. Making more "open" spaces usually helps with this and lets soldiers and demos love you. Also, that beam on A that when capping the point you can barely see past, yet red cna shoot down on you from behind is frustrating. Also windows for blue spawn would be great it's important for blue to be able to see where red is, what medigun they have, etc etc before charging in. The geometry is nice in some places, I really like B, but the rest of the map is a bit eh. A is very easily held by a sentry above the door, and blue spawn roof should be clipped.
Waffle:
I think the main issue with this map is that you never kno where the enemy is coming from (at least on blue), and that the win condition for blue is very unclear (what is it?). Blue started leaving on the game I played because it felt very pointless for them. I kept getting ganked from behind by red because I had no idea where they were coming from and it was very frustrating. Playing as red, we managed to win easily by camping blue's second spawn with just a single demo also.
Crash:
Easily one of the best maps of the contest, it's got a bunch of original ideas, they're executed well and I see people voting to play this map all the time so they must agree. One of the parts I didn't like is the B building. It was long, straight, and there was no where defensable to hold it. Additionally, I don't think I ever saw anyone use the lower floor, I certainly never have in a match, the holes just served as an inconvenience when I fell in them.
Roflman:
I've played on this map for 6 or 7 rounds now and I still don't understand how the mechanic works at all. I don't think it's explained well enough, or the hud just isn't clear enough to understand in the middle of the game. Additionally, the map is just...empty. The main map plays well enough, but it's big and blocky and there's no interesting props to hide behind or climb over, no subtle height changes on the ground, etc. Hopefully you can address these if you continue working because I feel this map has a lot of potential. Also, I'd love there to be a way for non-jump classes (+scout) to jump onto the big roof that seperates the sides easier, something like that sheet metal on barnblitz.
Frozen:
Don't really know how to critique this map, we played for so long on it but I never really saw anything more than final and second because it was near impossible to psuh back out. In fact, I've had more stalemates on this map than all other 5cp maps combined in my entire time playing tf2.
Idolon:
This map is hillarious. I'm not sure you deserve for me to do a decent review. It's pretty fun, but I didn't really spend my time playing thinking about how it was playing
xzzy:
I like the idea of the layout, but it's not executed very well. Second is litereally next to mid, so there's no where to defend or push between them, and there are lot of exploitive spots people kept abusing, like jumping up to the beam that seperates spawn and mid.Overall I think it has potential but you need to fix the big glaring issues before I can make a real judgement.
MLJ:
Your map is really big and confusing, either add more signs or make it a little more open and less cramped and convoluted so you can get your bearings easier. Additionally, you can cap C without owning A or B, and blue wins when they cap C? Wht's the point of A and B? The point areas in general were pretty fun, but everything in between was confusing.
Takabuschik:
This map, for plr, is incredibly spread out. The carts themselves are very seperate once they get past the first area. Additionally, the map in general is pretty flat - there are some height variations, but they seperate big, flat areas which makes the map generally uninteresting to fight on. The final area especially is just a big, flat box.
Player:
Missing cubemaps, respwn rooms and respawn visulizers. A medic got into red spawn, and camped, and we had to wait 20 seconds to respwn!!, and your cp alerts for red is broken. The map seems pretty fun but is all chokes, so blue is funnelled into one route often, and yet so is red so the team with the cart seems to win every time. Final doesn't have enough places to hold and is probably the easiest point to cap.
Icecrystal:
I exited spawn and got completely and utterly lost. There were no signs for A - except for one over a closed door. No door opened, not even the spawn doors when I managed to make my way back into spawn. I ended up suiciding just so I could get my bearings, that is not a good sigh. The map was confusing, D was too easy to cap after only having capped A (because a jump class could get up there and only jump classes could effectivly defend. Steel's is so open and low that other classes can shoot across the gap even when no points are capped). This entire map is 'Is this door locked? Probably but I can't tell. I feel a bit biased against this map because I was so frustrated in the match I played it, so sorry about that.
Leprecan:
I'm not really sure what to think about this map. It's pretty for a 72h map, if a bit samey (needs some green grass), but the tall buildings means it feels really cramped and in fact is in a lot of locations. The points themselves are kind of uninteresting, just square areas in the middle of a flat plane - which can work, but I'm not sure it did here. A good red team can hold blue in spawn very easily, but it's hard for them to defend anywhere else because of the large sightlines looking at the defensable spots.
Frederik:
It was very hard to take the point back once one team had taken it. Additionally, there was constant complaint about very bad fps. The entrances to the point area where small and few, and the point holder had view over every one which lead to a chokey spam fest. This map has potential but you need to widen a lot of the paths and scale the map up I think.
sqidnik:
I'm sorry to say, but the gametype just doesn't work. 5 minutes is a very long time to do nothing, and deathmatch gets boring very fast. Additionally, the map is large and dark, it's hard to see what team people are on. I like the theme and I like the idea of progressing from outside to inside, but as red I never even saw the outide of the map, only really the final room.
yacan:
I think you already know most of the issues with this map, forward spwawn, last too defendable, etc, so I won't bore you with that. Just one thing: Whistle must stay!
kaptankul:
The game mode is just confusing at first, especially with the setup time that ends before the setup timer has ended? The room is incredibly easy to defend once red has some good sentries set up, in addition, it's so dark you can't see them or tell which team players are on.
Berry 2:
Really?
Berry 1:
I'm not sure if that broken door was meant to be used, I assume it is which might void a lot of my complaints with this map. Without that door, blue's funnelled through one door (and the ledge around it) which means they have to enter one area...where red has height advantage. The flank still requires you to enter that area first, which often gets you killed. I don't really know what to say about A because it was always capped so fast, maybe move it back from the spawn, gorge A/D maps usually have A pretty far away from blue compared to multi stage maps.
Karmapolice:
This was pretty neat. The main issue I had was that it was quite cramped, especially in mid and the lower areas. The big staircase should we widened by 100% at least also. I say just stretch out the whole map so there's more room to fight in and it should be great.
Alex76:
This is a pretty solid koth map. It has nice routes, mid is fun, it has a good amount of stuff to break it up. The side route that goes behind the point does seem to break the koth convention a bit, and not in a good way. There's no point in holding mid when the enemy can just get behind it with no worries. Generally a pretty fun map though, at least from what I played, although it could do with a bit more health.
