Man, I like playing this map. It is a blast to play especially as defence.
That being said I think some specific areas of the map could probably be improved. Note that all these comments are from B2.
Stage 1: Overall this is just far too hard for Blu from what I've seen. If a Blu team can take stage 1 comfortably, it's very likely they'll win the map because their team is so much better than the other one. I've seen Stage 1 stall out far too many times in all honesty.
1-1: This is probably the biggest roadblock. The sentry location in this area is extremely solid (Just before the point) and life isn't made very easy for medics to build Ubercharge as there is a lot of empty space which makes them scout and sniperbait. Part of what I think makes the sentry spot so solid is that the attackers have to deal with defenders from both sides while pushing up.
1-2: This is a lot easier than 1-1, but it is ruled by soldiers and demomen. Pushing uphill against them with a height advantage is very tricky and they're quite good at fighting good numbers pushing up the cart. I think overall this part of the map would be made a lot friendlier for attack if the side door was opened up before the cart captured the forward point like it is in B2, but it's not bad overall.
1-3: The only real problem I feel with this point is that a sentry in the concrete house on the right of the track covers both the track and the side-entrance really well...it seems hard to take on the point when it's covered by the rest of it's team. Make flanking a bit easier and this point would be golden.
Stage 2: This one's a bit jarring. It's a bit more up and down in terms of pushing power.
2-1: This part honestly feels far too easy for the attackers. The defenders don't seem to have any good ways to cover the payload track with defensive classes or sentries, the attackers have lots of viable routes and free space and the defence takes an incredibly long time to get back to the point after respawning. Giving the defence a forward spawn or at least a super-shortcut route (a la Dustbowl 3-1 or Goldrush 2-1) and possibly some nice alcoves for sentries that cover the track would make this less of a gimme for Blu. It's especially odd considering how hard Stage 1 is.
2-2: This is the stuff of nightmares against a team with a competent engineer. That side gate that opens when you capture the point really needs to be opened beforehand, because until you get past it Pyros, scouts and spies are completely useless. Secondly, underwater sentries are absolute hell. One placed in the sideroom makes getting past almost impossible and it's quite possibly the hardest sentry spot I've ever seen against ubercharges, mainly because you can't see very well at all through surface boundaries of sky and water plus the pushback from a sentry while underwater is like when jumping so everyone gets flung out of the water or pinned against the wall to an untimely death.
Seriously, open the gate and remove the underwater sideroom so there are no good underwater engy spots. I see this point stall out a lot or at the best even a good team seems to lose a lot of time from this point. I hear a ton of complaining about this particular point from players on the server, it seems to be a personal bugbear for most people who play the map.
2-3: This is a pretty tough fortress to crack. It'd almost be suitable for a finale point if I must say. There isn't too much you could do to this point as is, but it seems like that it's very easy for the defence to push the offence back and make them lose ground. In both Gold Rush and Badwater, for the final, defensible points it's always a challenge to push the line up to about halfway to the point but once you get there it seems much easier to hold it. Then once the turtle is cracked Blu can cap the point very quickly. The problem with this point is that you get pushed back to the start of the point too easily. I'm not really sure how you could easily rectify that though...maybe making your underground side route more attractive (possibly with more health/ammo or something). I'm not really sure about this one.
Stage 3: I honestly can't give too much of a comprehensive opinion on this part, but it seems well balanced possibly even biased towards the attackers...but I can't really say because I've only actually had the pleasure of playing Stage 3 on both sides once.
But still, it is a good looking and quite playable map for the most part. I can't wait to see this polished up and improved.
