abp
Cool start. Too chokey and often connectors feel more like long hallways than fleshed out gameplay spaces. Some of the chokes like the one before B are really awful and not very enjoyable. There's often too many sightlines in the connectors as well. I think last is cool looking, but I don't recall ever defending it successfully. The tar doesn't look like it can kill you - however, I like the big rake sunk into it.
Idolon
There’s a good map in here somewhere, but every point has some flaws.
A feels well-designed but can be a slog if red manages to hold the very small choke that all of blue has to fit through. I would recommend changing the cliff route a bit so its more difficult for a couple of red explosives classes to jump up to this route and hold it - open it up a bit, give blue players more room to work with when trying to push in here.
The connector to B is weird and has potential to fail if red manages to set up correctly. This area should probably be redesigned to eliminate the tiny stairwell on blue’s left and replaced with some other route for blue to use for attacking. Where this would be, I have no idea.
B itself simply doesn’t give blue enough to work with. The flank is decent, but doesn’t offer a vantage point onto anything useful and red can respond to any attack fairly easily. I think this point would work better if the B area was a bit larger (more distance between the cart entrance and the point) and blue had more options/cover for approaching through the main route.
C is okay, but it has sightline issues, and I feel like the routes into the final area don’t give blue very many options.. I haven’t really made up my mind on what I don’t like about it, but it feels awkward.
Saph
I found some parts of Tarpit to be solid, while other parts of the map would be consistently rolled, leading to some hesitation in my score. Although the map may have been hard to learn at first, it was decently fun in every round regardless of winning or losing.
- I found the initial area to be extremely enjoyable as there were various spots to have a solid hold, but plenty of creative means to counter them. The area felt straightforward and emphasised teamwork.
- The first section after A is where things fell apart. The routes all converge into one central building without providing many options for moving around it, even in the area following it. The portion afterwards felt fairly simple, but worked well. I do wish there was another route into the B area, but the area’s larger scaling doesn’t require it. Pushing into B allows for a decent amount of flanking and movement, but the point suffers from large amounts of dead space.
- Following the B point, there were tons of interesting things present within the path, but defenders would often be wiped, leading to a roll. Although there was diverse geometry — the columns, catwalks around the outside, and upper glass room — it all felt underused by both teams. The lobby provides a good foundation for attacking the final point, but combat sometimes felt messy as teams would ram heads. I’d say you’re close to nailing down the final point, but large changes are needed elsewhere to make the lobby after B play out better.
- Some forward holds by defenders or the locations of spawns were questionable. Pickups were well-distributed. Outside of the edges of some platforms being hard to see due to lighting, aesthetics did not impact gameplay.
This map received my vote for greatest potential, best alpha style, and best name.
Startacker
- Red seems to have always had a good hold up until last, where everything breaks for them and they die instantly
- Awful deathpit hole
