Sandbox Static

Seems like a very well put-together map. Well done! A definite DL from me and I will update this with my full review when I play it.

 

From what I can tell, the map is beautifully forged. Looks like it will ahve very nice flow. But I do not think that the FX Juicy is very necessary, I would just scratch it.

 

Thanks! We'll be lookign forward to the review.

There's actually no FX on the map. That's just the effect Vyctoriouz put on the pictures. Thanks!

Thanks man! Glad you like it.

 

Ace you really need to get out more. This many amazing maps so close together, I just don't understand how you do it

Also Vyctorioz is coming up in the world quickly I see.

 

I totally Dl'd this from Vyctoruouz's Fileshare like a week ago assuming it was already posted. This is pretty sweet. The whole grass, natural rock shape thing is beautiful. This doesnt even look like a map that was added to and thought up along the way. It looks like it took hours of sketching and brainstorming so I guess that means you guys got it going on, lol. Every map I have seen with Vyctoriouz' name on it seems to be pumped full of awesome aesthetics with crazy grass designs and wierd interlocking I never would have thought of. I also noticed he loves him some Obelisk ramps, lol. You guys got some real talent and it makes me feel like an old timer who is out of tune. Great map guys. Cant wait to see you dominate in Reach.

 

This looks like an excellent 2v2 map Ace and Vyctoriouz! I hope it plays well enough for the Xforgery 2v2 contest! The second I looked at the first picture, Static looked like the type of map where everything was perfectly straight, and floors didn't have "rocks" popping out of the floor everywhere. But I guess that just adds to the cover and aesthetics, even though the "rocks" are kinda out of place. Added that you guys forged this near the top of the sky bubble, you'd think it would be durable, wrong. I won't tell you where it's breakable, because you guys already know where, and have since then fixed it, but yeah.

Excellent map, I'll be sure to play this despite the fact that I did not enter the 2v2 on Xforgery. I may or may not write a review. I'm too kind, and Ace, I've known you too long to write a bad review.

 

I must say, aestheticly this is a monster. Its very impressive, and i approve of the combination between the clean and rocky forging styles.

Im not lol. I need to make sure of something though; Static 1.1 is the most up to date version of this map correct? If it is not, what have you changed since then?

 

I can´t help but feel that you recycled parts of aerocrest. Not saying your not original, this is amazing. It´s map like this that made me make the transition from generic symmetrical maps to some-what generic asymmetrical maps. 9/10.

 

From XF:

 

STATIC​

Enjoyment​

The enjoyment on Static is downplayed significantly by one huge problem; in a local party the game has horrendous amounts of lag that just ruins it. If someone played the map once in a local game, chances are that they would not play it again. While lag wasn’t nearly as bad when in an online lobby, it was still a notable issue.

Luckily, every player who experiences this map with as little lag as possible will agree that it is not only original in its aesthetic use of obelisks, but also in its game style. In most maps the majority of action happens along the top structuresbecause these tend to become power areas. Gameplay in Static, however, occurred almost exclusivly on the bottom level. This strange phenomenon can be attributed to the poorly spaced power weapons littering the bottom floor and the lack of any real pathways up for anybody but the most expert of jumpers. If performing a delayed slide jump to ghost jump was a walk in the park then this map would be easier to travel; most players though will stick with the grenade spammed ramps or the commonly camped teleporter. The map wasn’t all bad though, or even unenjoyable in regards to flow. The game constantly kept moving and rarely slowed down except for the previously mentioned teleporter.

There were a couple of areas where a buddy jump was easily used to get out of the map, and even one on blue side that could be exploited using only a power drain. The weapons and equipment were okay but slightly overpowering and grossly over-numbered. All in all, the host of issues plaguing this map(mainly the murderous lag) brought down the fun of what players expect out of something so well built.

Balance​

Static was constructed by two forgers who know what they're doing when it comes to forging maps. It is evident even to those who know nothing of its mythic origins that this map was designed by intellegent and well versed forgers. There were no real power positions in the map, and very few games played on it will be stupendously uneven; it has the magical trait of being the most well built competitive map that allows anybody to have a chance, no matter how great or poor of a player they are. Games ultimately end with the smartest of teams winning every round, something unusual yet highly coveted. There are a few fundamental issues with the layout of the map though; for example the difficulty of accessing the top level. The creators did a very good job of making it easy to go down. Getting up is easy if a player is around the outside, but if a player is at bottom mid, under the giant X, then they are forced to walk all the way to the outside of the map to get up, or perform a crazily difficult jump to get out behind camouflage spawn.

In Slayer, the object was not to control the map, nor was it simply to keep moving; it was simply ‘find a big gun and shoot it’. This style of gameplay did not always lead to power-weapon whoring, it simply suggested it, and was always a fear in the back of a gamer's head, a reminder to grab the rockets and get the easy double kill. There was not only a Sniper, Rockets, and Camouflage in a map that could only support four people tops, but also a Needler (the most underrated power weapon) and multiple pieces of equipment. Battle Rifles and Carbines littered the map to the point that they could almost be called overdone.

The spawns within Static were almost perfect; however there were two locations that people tended to spawn in most often: The little wing of the map outside of the blue side, where it was insanely easy to jump out, and the starting point near the rockets. Using intelligence, an amazing team that managed to get in the right place at the right time could set up a difficult spawn trap with this knowledge. Also, in King of the Hill there was a hill on top of the wood that just felt random and out of place. This hill was too open, it offered no structures to run around if you were being shot at across the map. But beyond that balance was passable.

Durability​

Spawn trapping, as was previously stated, is challenging to implement and requires more than a little luck to successfully pull off in Static; however it is possible, and can give one team a seven kill streak, or possibly more. If one player on either team stood on the blue spawn and looked directly across the map with the sniper while that player’s teammate camped bottom mid watching the Rocket starting point, the other team would rotate between those two spawn points. The major issue with this was actually getting both players on the other team down at the same time, and making sure that the player on the top of the map stood in the correct location. This was the only way to exploit the spawn system.

Strangely enough, for all of this map's useless elegance, the easiest places to escape the map were in the most boring areas. This is good because a few of the methods to escape the map weren’t truly discovered in-game, and even the couple that became easy to see did not involve areas of the map that were well traveled. The best and most favorable area for would-be escapers, and also the easiest to use, was the wing where the sniper had to stand in the previously mentioned spawn trap. A simple buddy jump, or even a power-drain boost, was more than enough to get out. Once out it was easy to maneuver around and get wherever you wished to go as well. The ease of this break forces players to create an honor rule in regards to that area of the map.

Aesthetics​

This map, visually, is absolutely astounding. It combines the cave-like feel, that was popular at the creation of ghost merging, with the everyday linear box-aesthetics. This design of a regular one level map with caverns built below it gives Static a unique and almost brilliant feel to it, something that is enjoyable and entertaining. The forging itself was incredibly smooth and there were only a few minor bumps in the map. Also, objects were used in creative ways and found in strange places that weren’t expected in the slightest. This newness and strange intoxicating feel was almost emotional. If one could get past the obscene amounts of lag and object flashing, a game on Static was unquestionably worth it. Too bad, that this hugely over-expanded budget that allowed for such beauty also ended up creating so many issues with lag in game.

Originality​

Static found its way into many hearts through its uniqueness, and the plethora of forging styles combined between AceOfSpades and Vyctoriouz is something rarely found in competitive maps. As was mentioned, the gameplay being focused on the bottom is something that isn’t common by any standards, and the aesthetic theme of the map is just brilliant. It starts out as a standard angular map on top, and seems to transmorph into the caverns beneath a mountain on the bottom; it’s just fun. But despite the brilliant combination of styles, it brings nothing totally new to the table. It almost feels like somebody took about ten things that were commonly used to make good maps, then put them together in a new way; using way too many objects to do so, and causing untold amounts of lag hell-bent on pissing me off.

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[floatleft]Enjoyment Rating
Balance Rating
Durability Rating
Aesthetic Rating
Originality Rating[/floatleft]





Now, these scores seem to say that Static comes out stuck in the middle of the pack. It is not entirely accurate, because Static is an above average creation and will be treated as such. The overall rating of 5.2 is what the map should get for those ratings, yet it does not accurately represent the score that this map deserves. I do not feel like changing any of the sub-scores would be an honest way to fix this, because they all accurately explain the different sections already and I don’t want to misrepresent any portion of your map via a faulty rating. Because of this, I have decided to raise the overall score of Static to a 5.5 so that I may better insure the integrity of the review.

M A P . R A T I N G
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I'm going to have to give this one a try. From the photos I can't really get an idea of the symmetry, evenness and fairness or lackthereof, but I will say it looks extremely well done.