Custom Map Cup - Map Feedback Thread

Mouse

This cup was an awesome opportunity for us mappers to see how our maps held up in competitive play. But, because so many games were played over the weekend, there is far too much "data" for us to sift through on our own. So it'd be awesome if everyone who played, cast or watched these games could us this thread to give us some valuable feedback on what you thought of each map.

These are the maps that were played over the weekend:

ns2_triad
ns2_nsl_turtle
ns2_icarus
ns2_jambi
ns2_honorguard
ns2_drydosity

Also, try to be constructive with your criticisms. While none of these maps are perfect, "This is a shit map!" tells us nothing about what needs fixing.

[EDIT] I've also posted this thread on the ENSL forums. Reply wherever suits you
http://www.ensl.org/topics/632

SquishpokePOOPFACE

I really liked Jambi, lots of great matches on that one!

wiry

Triad is my favourite of them all. Even though it is marined biased due to the very long hallways and open spaces. Many fun spots for skulks to hide though. I would like to see some work regarding the north-east resource node (the one with the void, above the circular hive-room), but that might not need fixing, as much as it is that I don't like it. :>

I have a sweet spot for Turtle, even though it's Jetpack heaven. Corridor from marine start going to generator (I think - right side anyway) could use some more cover for/from aliens. Maybe rework cargo, removing a lot of the boxes and decreasing the size of it in general. You are also able to drop alien structures in the wall directly to the south of cargo hive from what I heard.

Honorguard - The vent above the resource node that is north from marine start could probably use some tweaking. Sewer was pretty interesting, but was quite disorienting.

Shino

One of the maps, you can shoot the central hive from an entire room away, outside of draw distance.

Honorguard, aliens get 7 free res nodes. It is extremely easy to hold most of the res nodes leading to the hives. If marines get 3 tech nodes, they are on 5 res nodes vs. alien 6. That is absolutely retarded and this map needs to be completely reworked.

Drydosity, it's just flat out too big. The commander view is retarded (everything is small, if someone goes 1/3 a screen away from the middle they disappear). It takes 12 res to cyst from alien res node to natural. It's just really really really bad.

Amb

we had a blast yes2day in honorguard

Lambo

Jambi and Triad - Awesome.
Turtle - Needs a few fixes.
Honorguard - Alien sided.
Drydosity - Awful.
Icarus - Yet to try.

Even though they all need balancing fixed.

ScardyBob

Honorguard is a bit of a wreck atm. Marine start is really isolated in the south of the map. Aliens pretty much have easy access to roughly 5 RTs in the north part of the map, making it nearly impossible for marines to prevent alien res explosion. The tech nodes really need to changed around to make the distances more even.

3del!

ns2_triad
Unfortunately I didn't play this map in the cup, but it was the only one we had a scrim on
Overall i liked it, two things that bothered me were the dome like area in the east of the map, where skulks can camp underneath the platform with the RT and are very hard to kill, and the design of the area just south of this. The design of the hallway is interesting, but for me it was very confusing... I guess I'd just need more time on the map
ns2_nsl_turtle
Had a good round on this map in the cup and i really liked it. Main critique point would be problematic cyst paths, where you need to cyst through the central room or engine room, to get to the Tech (i believe it was called) RT. Other than that, i believe the expansion hive in the top west is very easy for marines to push with mines, and the other hive in the center east is basically not defend able, since it can easily be sieged by an arc push built in marinestart.
ns2_icarus
We unfortunately had to play Archaea on this map, but it was a lot of fun anyways. I liked the map a lot, and balance wise i don't have a lot of criticism. Some of the hallways are a bit long and open, for example the hallway south of the Tech Point in the west, but over all, the map seems to be balanced. I'd like to see some more vents connecting for example the southern Tech Point to the hallways to the center of the map though.
ns2_jambi
I knew this map already, since i took part in designing it. But it has changed quite a bit, since i was involved in the project. One problem i had was that whenever i spawned in the Pipe hiveroom, i didn't know where i was going, since the exits look very similar. Other than that, there are two RTs (i know of) you cannot get behind (The Pub and Gravity). This is very annoying as a skulk, since you're basically a free kill, when you attack it. I think the RT in Shipping should be moved more to the east, since there is no real incentive to go east from Shipping atm.
ns2_honorguard
The biggest problem i see with this map, is that the north eastern Tech Point is a bad spawn location for aliens. The distance to the expansion hive is very long, and compared to the other "alien" TPs, aliens have less map presence. I think if the hive was a bit more in the center of the room, it would already help a lot. Other than that, there are some long hallways without cover, for example in the north west of the map. I don't really see the RT distribution as critically as others seem to. Maybe the Center and Bridge RTs could be moved towards the south a bit more, but if marines leave 3 TPs to the aliens, aliens should be able to have 5 RTs.
ns2_drydosity
I like the general layout of this map. I don't like the access to the Center Top RT, where you have to crouch for ages to get there directly. If there was one path in the area, where you could stand, it would make it more enjoyable to play. Maybe a curved path, so you can't just walk straight through. Also a little bit of cover could help that area, since skulks are easy targets, as they can't dodge. I don't really agree, that the map is too big from a player perspective. Maybe that's different for the comm, since the map has a lot of height changes, and the comm cam isn't really adjusted to it?

Good job on the maps everyone! Was a lot of fun testing these out over the weekend.

statikg

I played on Jambi a couple of times and felt that it was too large. I didn't feel that the marines were able to defend their RTs effectively and it was really easy for them to be impossibly far out of position. Phase first is basically required which isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, but I didn't feel that early phasegates were able to make as large an impact as on a map like veil where early phasegates is also strong. I feel that because of the distances marines are essentially forced to play harvester wack-a-mole and if they fail to kill any rts on one side of the map even with some success on the other side of the map they are going to be behind. Alot of the rooms especially on the left side of the map are massive, and maybe if they were scaled down a bit, that would help. Although not really a balance concern, I was a little bit sceptical about the purpose of some of the vents, like the one under shipping.

I would like to see gravity closer to more RTs so that a phasegate in that area would allow marines greater map control.

Aesthetically and from a map differentiation point I really enjoyed alot of the rooms, but the overall size of the map is a problem IMO.

fanatic

Jambi and icarus were great. Good candidates for ensl s2 if some improvements and bug fixes are made (siege spots, stuck spots, texturing, some poorly designed rooms).

Triad was pretty good, but heavily marine favored due to hive room and close resource point room design, possible candidate for ensl s2.

Turtle is not really playable in its current state (alien spawn design is all kinds of broken), honorguard will never be (klingon theme, lava pits galore, poor resource point distribution, poor tech point room design). I didn't personally play drydosity, but my teammates were unanimous in their dislike.

ritualsacrifice

Drydosity is pretty much a mess... it's absolutely HUGE and full of open rooms and long hallways. The aliens won both rounds when we played, but I think that had more to do with marines just being a lot slower than aliens are as it seemed to be fairly marine-biased.

I personally haven't played Jambi in awhile, but previously my only criticisms were that a lot of the map felt too open/hallways felt too wide.

Icarus was the best out of the bunch that I played on, though I feel it would be better with fixed spawns. We started with the bottom left techpoint as marines and it was absolutely BRUTAL trying to get out of there and cap anything. The central cargo area felt heavily alien favored, but only because of the containers that were placed that basically allow skulks to break LOS whenever they feel like it. If the props were placed in a manner to provide slightly less cover to the aliens, I think it would arguably be the best big open area in the game. Currently I feel it was designed in such a way to make it easier for skulks to survive in, which I can understand to some degree because of how quickly they can be killed. However I think that with how powerful aliens already are without any extra help in terms of cover, giving them anything more than what's absolutely necessary will cause the map to become alien biased.

I missed day one of the tournament, so I can't comment on the rest of the maps as I have not played them.

Amb

so only 6 custom maps work atm? What does nsl mean?

wiry

Nazi organizations

National Socialist League, a British pre–World War II Nazi group

/wikipedia

-
No. ENSL (European Natural Selection League) www.ensl.org was hosting a tournament in which these maps were played and tested to see if there were any good candidates for the upcomming season 2. We've been stuck on 3 maps for far too long and with enough feedback these maps might become viable.

Golden

Copy/pasted from my post on the ENSL thread.

I don't believe any of these maps are ready for Season 2 in their current form. Jambi is the closest of the custom maps, but still needs a bit of work. Luckily, Descent should be out before the season starts.

Changes I would make:

ns2_triad - Almost every hallway has large areas that have no power. Central hive can be shot from Dome outside of visual clip distance. Ventilation is open to sniping by marines and too easily sieged from repository. Many of the pits have visible floors with death triggers and there's some that have black floors with death triggers only near the ladders.

ns2_turtle - Bridge tech point needs to be removed. Its very difficult to cyst to the center nodes (Bilge and Tech?). A lot of the doorways are very narrow and the map as a whole feels claustrophobic.

ns2_icarus - At the very least, vents need to be added from the side tech points to the interior of the map. The whole map is fairly streamlined top to bottom and doesn't allow for flanks. The long corridors need to be widened with cover added. Communications needs to be changed so it can't be shot from the upper platform (believe this is the case currently).

ns2_jambi - Closest to being ready for competitive play. Bay Wing res node needs to be further from Waste hive, likely best to move it south towards Trash? There are 4 paths to the north end of the map, three of which are very close to each other, two of them connected by vents. One of these choke points (Organ Donation, Security, X, and Bay Wing) needs to be moved further south. Maybe open up the entrance to Organ and make a choke point in Skylights or whatever that hallway is called between Skylights and Pub.

ns2_drydosity aka ns2_rocketskulk - This map is very bland and boring. Its very, very open and too easy for skulks to keep wallhopping speed. It would take a lot of work to make this map playable.

ns2_honorguard - I don't believe this map is anywhere near ready for competitive play. It is too easy for the aliens to shut down access to the north of the map and hold 6-8 res nodes. Not to mention all the lava, some of which kills you and some doesn't.