What do you like about any good 'KOTH' map?

[Deodorant]

I'm still in the planning stage of the latest overhaul of Sanitarium, and I'm stuck on the layout of the hill room. When I try to come up with a room layout resembling those I enjoy playing in, I end up with elevated platforms in various shapes along the walls. I then realize that this type of layout is usually reserved for final points on CP/PL maps due to how defensible they make the room, and putting them around a koth hill makes it much more steamroll-friendly. I can negate this by making the elevated parts thin and low, but that sort of defeats their purpose. I can also negate it by elevating the point slightly, but this makes floor-level gameplay less fluent and creates a ring of dumb disadvantageous space.

I've looked at official maps for inspirations, but the only thing with a comparable mid is Sawmill, and (as much as I like that map in general) the mid is basically just a big boring box with two saws, two blocks of planks and two flights of stairs.

I'm of course not asking you guys to design a mid for me, but if you could tell me what kinds of elements you enjoy/want to see around a koth mid, I could use that as inspiration. Thanks in advance.

 

[re1wind]

My second favourite thing (which will be tricky to create from your own mind, but well worth it) is the perfectly balanced Engy spot in the flank area I mentioned earlier. It's strong enough to be able to hold, but is vulnerable enough to take down with the right tactics. Perfectly balanced, but again...tricky. A good Engy nest is every map-maker's dilemma.

This may just be my impression, but taking down engineer nests on the blu side of the map by the large support pillar is easier for red team than vice versa. Due to all weapons being right handed (except The Original)

 

[Zeigh]

This may just be my impression, but taking down engineer nests on the blu side of the map by the large support pillar is easier for red team than vice versa. Due to all weapons being right handed (except The Original)

As far as I know, you can change which hand to hold weapon with in the settings yourself.

 

[tyler]

It changes the view, not how they are fired.