TF2Maps.net Major Contest #15: Payload Checklist Contest [PRELIM VOTING]

Da Spud Lord · Mar 5, 2019

MAPS|No Opinion|Yes|No
Amaryllis||x|
Bella|||x
Berlebeck||x|
Bombastic Forest|||x
Burner|||x
Canale|x*||
Cannonburg|||x
Cavern|||x
Descend|x||
Fractal|x||
Frostwire|x||
Highwood|x||
Josh|x||
Kahoalii|x||
Kinder|x||
Longhaul|x||
Munitions|x||
Preinvention|x||
Rush|x||
Slipway|x||
Snowthistle|x||
Thorium|||x
Tumble Tech|x||
Wizard Town|||x

Amaryllis (Yes):
-Second CP was never captured
-Detailing is good

Berlebeck (Yes):
-Very hightower-like
-Fun for a while, becomes a grindfest after a while
-Detailing is good

Bombastic Forest (No):
-Unique layout
-Mediocre detailing, very boring and gray in a lot of areas
-Doesn't feel like TF2's artstyle in some places (ie first CP building)
-Third CP sewer tunnel has no lighting
-Third CP in general seems tough to push
-Lots of sightlines
-Best part of the map is the last area, but its ruined by the massive chokepoint through the tunnel with only one tiny route around it

Burner (No):
-Still in alpha, dev textures everywhere
-Sniper sightlines everywhere

Canale (Neutral):
-Too much water for TF2
-Cool idea, but I don't think it's possible to execute well in TF2
-Aside from the abundance of water, layout is decent
-Detailing is good

Cannonburg (No):
-Blocky brushwork
-First stage is weird to navigate, first CP is chokey
-Z-fighting in a few places

Rush (Incomplete Judgement):
-Detailing is fine where it's done, but lacks in some places
-Lighting is flat
-Some sections are a bit cramped
-Map crashes on some computers

Bella (No):
-Detailing ranges from meh to good
-Scaling on this map is a major issue, some areas are overscaled and others are underscaled
-Some areas are very dark

-Slime is cool, but final explosion slime overlays look too cartoony
-Third CP is hella close to last
-Third and last CPs are super chokey
-Second is very tough for Blu to cap and very engie-friendly

Cavern (No):
-Thicc brushwork
-Eh detailing
-No respawnroom visualizers, res spawn path to A is easy to camp
-Bad layout, doesn't guide red players to CP shortcuts
-Bomb routes are very straight and long, makes snipers super powerful
-Unrotated textures
-A few areas are a bit chokey
-Texture scalinggggggggg

Thorium (No):
-Absolutely no detailing
-Broken everything
-Doors use OnEndTouch instead of OnEndTouchAll
-Possible leak?

Wizard Town (Yes):
-Nice detailing where actually done
-Kewlio layout
-I loathe crit pumpkins with every fibre of my being
-Vertical finale is kewl af

*This map was played and judged, but I could not settle on either a Yes or No vote.

Jack5 · Mar 5, 2019

Idolon · Mar 5, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | x* | |
Bella | | | x
Berlebeck | | x |
Bombastic Forest | | | x
Burner | x | |
Canale | x | |
Cannonburg | x | |
Cavern | x | |
Descend | x | |
Fractal | x | |
Frostwire | x | |
Highwood | | x |
Josh | x | |
Kahoalii | | | x
Kinder | | x |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | | x
Preinvention | x | |
Rush | x | |
Slipway | | | x
Snowthistle | x | |
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | | | x
Wizard Town | x* | |

*I did play this, but my opinion is undecided or neutral.

Amaryllis:
I don't want to give this map a No because it's plenty better than other maps that are also getting Nos from me, and has even been detailed... but I also don't want to give it a Yes because I still haven't found it particularly fun. I've left a decent amount of feedback in the past, and after playing the most recent version, I think some of it still holds.

Bella:
The front half of this map plays decently, although I would not call it particularly fun. It functions. The back half, from what time I've spent with this map, does not. The choke directly after B has no alternative routes for blue (meaning there are no tactical decisions to really make) and red has almost immediate access to a great high ground defensive position from spawn, which completely stalls the map with a competent red team. The detailing is serviceable, although too dark (this seems to have been addressed in the final version, but I am not judging that version).\

Berlebeck:
A map that is detailed and plays decently? Sure, onto the next round. I need to play more of this, but it seems ok.

Highwood:
The layout seems solid, although maybe boring. I need to play this map more, but it seems good.

Kinder:
I have not played this map much, and it has some less than insignificant issues, but it seems to be a major improvement over Bella and it left me wanting to play it some more. I'm not ready to call it good, but I don't think it is bad.

Munitions:
This is a pretty map with a strong aesthetic, and I can tell it was made by an experienced mapper. However, I do not think the mapper has much experience with asymmetrical layout design, because the layout makes what I consider fundamental errors. While it is true that red should have the overall positional advantage most of the time (because blue team needs to be challenged), this does not mean the blue team should get no height advantages. Pushing uphill constantly tends to not be very much fun! Even Upward, the map named after the blue team pushing up a hill, consistently gives blue an easy height advantage to control on every point except A. When it stretches across an entire three stage map, it just feels unfair.

Slipway:
This map has a lot of ideas, but issues with player flow unfortunately undermine the whole thing. Attacking players get shortcuts that bypass significant parts of the map, and I often found blue players ending up in front of red spawn without even passing by the A point. The design of final is also questionable, as the cart path does not terminate at its most difficult to push point. Every time I have played this map, red has the strongest defense when the cart is on the low ground in front of their spawn, and if blue manages to get past that part, they have little trouble pushing the rest of the way.

Tumble Tech:
The finale has a large height advantage over spawn, which almost ensures that the map will steamroll. In addition, all routes out of spawn funnel through the same small room (there are only two doors and they are then immediately connected on the interior). The map has nice craft: The brushwork is clean and the detailing, if sparse, is nice. The layout just doesn't make sense.

Wizard Town:
This layout is rough around the edges, and the detailing isn't really there, but there is some fun to be had on it. I do not think it is contest quality, but there are prettier maps in this contest that play worse.

SwaggyZeal · Mar 5, 2019

(Edited it to be only the maps I played, didn't realize we had to play them in a gameday to vote lol but I fixed and now and will only update it after I play them)

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | x | |
Bella | | | x
Berlebeck | x | |
Bombastic Forest | z | |
Burner | x | |
Canale | x | |
Cannonburg | x | |
Cavern | x | |
Descend | | x |
Fractal | x | |
Frostwire | x | |
Highwood | x | |
Josh | x | |
Kahoalii | x | |
Kinder | x | |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | | x
Preinvention | | | x
Rush | x | |
Slipway | x | |
Snowthistle | | x |
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | | x |
Wizard Town | x | |

Midlou · Mar 5, 2019

Erk · Mar 5, 2019

Suna · Mar 5, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | | x |
Bella | | | x
Berlebeck | | x |
Bombastic Forest | | x |
Burner | | x |
Canale | | x |
Cannonburg | | x |
Cavern | | | x
Descend | | x |
Fractal | | | x
Frostwire | | x |
Highwood | | x |
Josh | | x |
Kahoalii | | | x
Kinder | | x |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | x |
Preinvention | | | x
Rush | x | |
Slipway | x | |
Snowthistle | | | x
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | x | |
Wizard Town | | x |

MegapiemanPHD · Mar 5, 2019

ics · Mar 6, 2019

I intentionally didnt peak into the maps much before, untill this stage of the contest. The bar is quite high on this contest and it was hard to for me to pick the 10 maps out of 26. Regardless, everyone should pick 10 maps! Not less than 10, 10 total!

Regardless, its a contest and nobody should feel left out. Even if your map didnt get to the next stage, dont feel left out. Learn from what you did (or didnt do) and make more maps. Should you learn from the old maps, you only get better at the end. We all started from 0. Even me, 11 years ago when i first time opened hammer.

I have to say public voting like this is much better than private pre-selection. I feel like i wasnt properly judged when i entered dynamic payload contest years ago. This is much improvement to have it as public vote.

Idolon · Mar 6, 2019

Dockyard has been withdrawn from the contest by the author due to the missing content errors. I have taken the liberty of editing Dockyard out of everyone's ballots.

Also, giving at least 10 Yes votes is not a requirement. You may vote however you would like.

phi · Mar 6, 2019

dotmd · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | --- | --- | ---
Bella. | | | x
Berlebeck. | | x |
Bombastic Forest. | x | |
Burner. | x | |
Canale. | | | x
Cannonburg. | | x |
Cavern. | | | x
Descend. | | x |
Fractal | x | |
Frostwire. | x | |
Highwood. | | x |
Josh. | | x |
Kahoalii. | | | x
Kinder. | | | x
Longhaul. | | | x
Munitions. | | x |
Preinvention. | | | x
Rush. | | x |
Slipway. | | | x
Snowthistle. | | x |
Thorium. | | | x
Tumble Tech. | x | |
Wizard Town. | | x |

Ones with . after the name are ones I've played. Leaving some as no opinion as I can't decide either way. Feedback below, I might write something I might not who knows not me

MAPS | Feedback
Amaryllis | ---
Bella. | Thought it was pretty, but too cramped together, particularly with C/D so close. If a team did manage to set up a good hold, pushing into it wasn't much fun due to the tight spaces. Goop was cool, some places were too dark and I'm not 100% sure this actually meets 5 checks on the list? But yeah detailing was generally nice.
Berlebeck. | I think it's a good size for the gamemode and like how despite being fairly small, it feels like there's 3 distinct areas to push through, like how a 5cp map has mid, second and last. (mid being mid, second being that area with 2 med kits, and last being the final push into the saw) so I think rounds flow pretty well. Detailing is alright.
Bombastic Forest. | It might be a symptom of reworking some areas so much but some of the points feel like they're from different maps but stitched together. I always thought A/B was ok, and the whole C point, with the train, is my favourite part of the map. But D always seems to roll through and I don't think E really fits with the rest of the map. In the sense that it feels the smallest and least significant with small buildings surrounding it compared to earlier on when this should be the big grand ending. The route that opens left of blu's last spawn is a bit weird, I remember red looping around to spawn camp us a couple of times. Detailing is alright. I don't dislike the map so don't want to vote no, and while it's definitely gotten better as you've worked on it, there's still some areas which could be improved.
Burner. | First off, I really like the fact that the whole map is looping over itself and that you can see the start from the end (and vice versa i guess). I don't know how much this is due to dev textures but despite playing it a lot through development and in these contest tests, I still get confused where I am around C/D, everything looks very similar. Unfortunately in a lot of the times I've played, and I know people commented on this ingame, Blu often rolls straight to last and then gets stuck there.
Canale. |
Cannonburg. |
Cavern. | I think how you designed blu spawn to stay the same with the drop down shutters opening after B is capped was really clever. It's still quite a walk to last as blu, I wonder if another door through the cave wall taking blu straight to C would fit/work? Having the payload tracks be in such long straight lines down the spiral makes every area feel quite similar. I think the map would benefit from the payload taking a more varied path, looping through buildings/ terrain/whatever and over/under things rather than straight through each area. This would help reduce some sightlines too. I think other people have already mentioned some of the spawn door issues but that's not too hard to fix. Detailing is ok, the wooden beams/broken panels around last are cool and a lot of the out of bounds details are cute, like the lil minecart lift taking a cart lower down into the mine.
Descend. | I think this is a really good example of completing the checks in interesting ways, particularly with blu spawn staying the same, but going into a lower section of the map later on, and the lift. Last is still quite frustrating to push into, and it's a shame that you only got to a4 (iirc) before the deadline as I think with further development to improve last and detail that it could be a really solid map.
Fractal | still haven't played this ):<
Frostwire. | Haven't played this enough to decide either way.
Highwood. | I think I've heard people comment on not liking B ingame but I've always liked how B plays. Attackers are split between pushing over the cave or through it and I think that the times a team does get stuck there is mainly due to them not coordinating rather than an issue with the map. C I think still plays a bit weird, the door helps slow down blu but (almost) every time I've played they've pushed straight through that building with all the ramps and nothing really happens in there other than blu waiting for the cart to move through. Once blu got pushed back out to B and couldn't find a way back in, but that was a one off. I don't really dislike it, but every other point feels fun to attack and defend except C. Overall, very pretty (especially the big beams across last) Cute bears.
Josh. |
Kahoalii. |
Kinder. |
Longhaul. |
Munitions. |
Preinvention. | I love how ambitious you were with this map, but it tries to do too many different things and becomes overly complicated. I think if you took some of the ideas of this map and used them in separate maps it would be easier to understand (like a single map using just ctf -> pl or a pl track where a cp unlocks something). In terms of layout, I think the tracks are generally interesting, particularly in stage 1, but a lot of the gameplay spaces in s2 feel really big and empty (like near the control point) and then s3 has the opposite problem of being too small and tight (around the flag). Some of the detailing is ok, I think the spytech buildings are probably the best detailed areas. Had some issues with super dark shadows in some areas in s1. I hope you keep making maps because it was super interesting and very different, but I don't think I can vote yes for it in this contest
Rush. |
Slipway. |
Snowthistle. | It's a fun, good dm map but I think the cart often gets forgotten about, which idk is necessarily a bad thing and might just be a nature of this gamemode. I agree with what abp said once before (and I'm sure he worded it better) about the map feeling like one building plonked in the middle of an open area. Like it's obviously designed to be a videogame map rather than an actual place? Detailing is cute, I like all the little details you added with the ice waterfall (and icy floor), pink flowers and signs.
Thorium. | Angry frogs aside, the map starts off ok and I like A. But I found the whole area behind A/B/going over C super confusing to navigate. The times I played I don't think I ever really noticed B when attacking or defending, I guess it just got capped straight away? not sure. C is definitely a grand finale to the map and I can't decide if I like the super high ledge blu has to attack, might be a bit too extreme and the angle of it means you can't really see much from up there anyway.
Tumble Tech. | I'm a fan of the first half of this map, I like how the carts start in the same general area and get close together quickly as I think that makes plr more interesting. I've never liked plr maps that start far apart since some team members get stuck sitting on the cart doing nothing for the first 30 seconds which is boring. When the carts get about half way up the spiral, I found it hard to challenge and defend unless I was a jumping class and this became even more of an issue at last. I know there were stairs leading up from spawn to last but it felt like I could never get up there in time (again, unless I was a jumping class). This meant that there weren't any of those exciting "end of map" moments where everyone is jumping on the cart to push or defend long enough for people to respawn and help out. I thought the detailing was well done though, if a little sparse in places, looked like a classic tf2 level.
Wizard Town. |

onra77 · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | | x |
Bella | x | |
Berlebeck | x | |
Bombastic Forest | x | |
Burner | x | |
Canale | | x |
Cannonburg | | x |
Cavern | x | |
Descend | x | |
Fractal | | x |
Frostwire | x | |
Highwood | | x |
Josh | x | |
Kahoalii | x | |
Kinder | x | |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | x | |
Preinvention | x | |
Rush | | | x
Slipway | x | |
Snowthistle | | x |
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | x | |
Wizard Town | | x |

Will_ · Mar 6, 2019

YOYOYO · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | | x |
Bella | | x |
Berlebeck | | x |
Bombastic Forest | | | x
Burner | | x |
Canale | | x |
Cannonburg | | x |
Cavern | | | x
Descend | x | |
Fractal | | x |
Frostwire | | x |
Highwood | | xx |
Josh | | x |
Kahoalii | | x |
Kinder | | x |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | xx |
Preinvention | | | x
Rush | | xx |
Slipway | x | |
Snowthistle | | xx |
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | x | |
Wizard Town | | x |

Diva Dan · Mar 6, 2019

This is a gentle reminder that in order to vote for any map, you must have played it on our servers to have a basis in judging any and all Gameplay elements.

We can tell if you have not played a map, so if you have not played a finalist map you have judged on this thread, please update your scores to be "No Opinion" accordingly, or we will remind you directly to update them.

Gameplay tests are being held almost daily on our NY and EU servers, so if you would like to play the contest maps, you can do so these coming weeks. Feel free to update your scores at any time until the thread is locked.

Happy judging!

Kill_the_Bug · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | x | |
Bella | x | |
Berlebeck | x | |
Bombastic Forest | |x |
Burner | x | |
Canale | x | |
Cannonburg | x | |
Cavern | x | |
Descend | x | |
Fractal | x | |
Frostwire | x | |
Highwood | x | |
Josh | x | |
Kahoalii | x | |
Kinder | x | |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | x | |
Preinvention | x | |
Rush | x | |
Slipway | x | |
Snowthistle | | |x
Thorium | | |x
Tumble Tech | | x |
Wizard Town | x | |

Idolon · Mar 6, 2019

Pollock has been withdrawn from the contest due to technical issues. I have removed it from everyone's ballots.

ZungryWare · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | x | |
Bella | | | x
Berlebeck | | x |
Bombastic Forest | | x |
Burner | x | |
Canale | | x |
Cannonburg | | x |
Cavern | x | |
Descend | | x |
Fractal | | x |
Frostwire | x | |
Highwood | | x |
Josh | | x |
Kahoalii | | | x
Kinder | x | |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | x |
Preinvention | | x |
Rush | | x |
Slipway | | x |
Snowthistle | | x |
Thorium | x | |
Tumble Tech | | x |
Wizard Town | x | |

Mikroscopic · Mar 6, 2019

MAPS | No Opinion | Yes | No
Amaryllis | x | |
Bella | | | x
Berlebeck | x | |
Bombastic Forest | x | |
Burner | x | |
Canale | x | |
Cannonburg | x | |
Cavern | | | x
Descend | | x |
Fractal | x | |
Frostwire | | x |
Highwood | x | |
Josh | x | |
Kahoalii | x | |
Kinder | x | |
Longhaul | x | |
Munitions | | x |
Preinvention | | | x
Rush | | x |
Slipway | | | x
Snowthistle | | x |
Thorium | | | x
Tumble Tech | | x |
Wizard Town | Author | |

TF2Maps.net Major Contest #15: Payload Checklist Contest [PRELIM VOTING]

Occasionally I make maps

L4: Comfortable Member

they/them

L1: Registered

L5: Dapper Member

erk

What's a greybox?

Doctorate in Deliciousness

http://ics-base.net

they/them

L2: Junior Member

L1: Registered

L1: Registered

50 crashes and counting!

hello!

they/them

L3: Member

If this is your first time logging in after the migration (Feb 8, 2022), you must reset your password to log in. Follow this guide if you're having trouble