Time to make Docking Competitive
Grissi
Join Date: 2003-08-28 Member: 20314Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
Join Date: 2003-08-28 Member: 20314Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
Hey guys
I have been talking with Dux and he really wants to make effort to make Docking competitive, he only needs feedback to make it happen. We have already started to make some minor changes but we need some playtesting before going futher.
What I ask players to do is to give the map a real chance, it might take more than 2 rounds to figure out how to play the map effectivly.
We have made the first mini nsl version of the map, these are the changes:
*Marines will always spawn in Terminal and aliens in Generator.
*Cafeteria tech point has been removed.
*The vent that leads to landing pad has been removed.
*all ambience sounds have been removed.
There are other changes that might be needed like closing off the route between cortyard and maintenence, or simply prevent that rt from being sniped from range. But til we get some playtime on the map we can't know for sure.
We also know that it might be to easy to siege lockers from cortyard, but again before we get some real playtime it will be hard to pinpoint how it would be best for Dux to fix that issue.
So lets try to help him out and give some constructive feedback. Goðar is willing to schedule matches on it to help it get some playtime.
Here is the workshop link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130773042&searchtext=docking
I have been talking with Dux and he really wants to make effort to make Docking competitive, he only needs feedback to make it happen. We have already started to make some minor changes but we need some playtesting before going futher.
What I ask players to do is to give the map a real chance, it might take more than 2 rounds to figure out how to play the map effectivly.
We have made the first mini nsl version of the map, these are the changes:
*Marines will always spawn in Terminal and aliens in Generator.
*Cafeteria tech point has been removed.
*The vent that leads to landing pad has been removed.
*all ambience sounds have been removed.
There are other changes that might be needed like closing off the route between cortyard and maintenence, or simply prevent that rt from being sniped from range. But til we get some playtime on the map we can't know for sure.
We also know that it might be to easy to siege lockers from cortyard, but again before we get some real playtime it will be hard to pinpoint how it would be best for Dux to fix that issue.
So lets try to help him out and give some constructive feedback. Goðar is willing to schedule matches on it to help it get some playtime.
Here is the workshop link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130773042&searchtext=docking
Comments
I feel like Locker could be a viable spawn point for aliens as well as generator just to add some variety, although the ARC location might be problematic, that vent right above the ARC spot they added a couple patches back should help alot...more testing definitely needed. locked in spawns for both teams takes a little bit of the tension out of the start I find.
That said i think that there is a concern that the marines can too easily reach the mainteance and stability RTS. I have a couple of ideas regarding that...
One possibility would be that marines always spawn in lockers and aliens spawn in departures.
Regarding blocking off maintinance I think blocking off that hallway would be a mistake, basically would make that RT completely free for aliens. I can't really think of a good way to further protect that RT, so maybe instead we should consider making it more difficult to shoot the RT in stability (move it behind the divider so it can't be shot from so far away, or add a box perhaps?)
I do see Stability as the most important alien location in the map, if aliens lose control of stability they will definitly have to struggle to have a chance of winning. Even without arcs. At the same time it seems to me that its not easy for marines to get control of that area. Maybe if they would arc stability from courtyard(if thats possible) they could get a foothold there.
The gameplay of this map is little bit unpredictable atm, with a quick look it seems like Marines won't have easy time holding any rts because of the distance between them. At the same time they have easy access to powerful pressureplay through courtyard.
Aliens have good mobility between maint, stability and departures area, this should give them good chance of holding 3-4 rts. But it depends how strong marine pressure turns out to be and how effectivly marines can zone the aliens in.
Yeah this was painful for many reasons... Streamed by WasabiOne here:
http://www.ns2commander.com/2013/02/bourgeois-gorge-defeats-cystitis-in-saturday-night-show-match/
*Irrelevance of Landing pad
*Terminal proximity and ease of access to Courtyard
*Ballcourt too open
*Stability right next to 2 hive locations giving too much control to whomever occupies it
*Lack of connectivity from courtyard area to departures isolating departures from everywhere but generator
I think there needs to be a rethink on the location of terminal, connectivity between gen and departures as well as between courtyard and departures.
The biggest issue in my (limited) experience of playing the map is the ease of killing maintenance RT, and then running over to stability very quickly to assault the other natural RT or vice versa. However, this is slightly offset by the fact that its kind of a pain in the ass to hold marine RTs as well due to the map size especially east wing which is really far for a natural RT. A box blocking the long shot to stability, would also help make stability even easier for aliens to hold.
Oh god, yes. I love the idea of just turning Generator 180 degrees, so the hive and RT is on the west side instead of east.
With caf gone, how does bar's relevancy hold? It's in an awkward position without caf imo, but still a valid siege location for locker - but why would you with courtyard's location?
I see the map playing out with marines constant pressure on stability and locker since holding locker is almost the same as holding courtyard due to proximity (and an elevated entrance into court - nice!). Since stability is so important and it's so close to terminal, phase tech's use is also diminished until arcs (should there be any). Also, I'm not a fan of the location of the power node in departures - open area near it with a huge staircase that is easy to exploit movement with as a marine. However, I'm unsure where to place it.
At the very least, should an alien team choose to gorge stability, that gorge should be able to prep his defenses before marines get there every time. Currently, I'm not sure if this is the case.
Put a tech point in landing pad right next to the power node.
Route blocking from courtyard would be too strong so add a vent from east wing joining onto the existing vent from courtyard --> departures. (maybe remove the part that goes to courtyard)
Also add a vent from back alley to ball court.
Flip terminal room so that you can't ARC from east wing (Massive room, should be able to send marines in to fight)
OR
Make terminal a lot smaller and add cover.
The 3 problems I see with my suggestion here is that Bar is far too difficult for marines to attack, aliens can get an easy 4 RTs with a gorge blocking terminal from central, and that it goes against the lore kinda what with there being a dropship on landing pad...
Then, the only change I see necessary is a slightly smaller "build area" in Generator for all the Marine structures...?
Its not hard to see how Cafeteria and Generator suck as spawns or Locker and Terminal are great. To fix, I'd try to make the spawns more like a regular pentagon with (roughly) even sides. Here's my quick paint attempt:
I'd have cafeteria/terminal as marine spawns and locker/generator/departures as alien spawns. Also, for those who dislike close spawns, you could restrict it so if marines spawn in terminal, aliens can't spawn in departures, and the same for cafeteria/locker.
A shame, because I like cafe as a room way too much.
So now the whole south side of the map is completely redundant?
As in "only 4 tech points and aliens can have a random spawn in 3 of them"?