CIRCUIT BREAKER - UPDATE 2.2

Recently I've been trying to make my updates more substantial since posting one bumps the map up in the queue, so this will be a long one...

My latest changes to Circuit Breaker centered around an effort to improve flow and weapon balance. I've also altered some geometry to address feedback that the map was too circular and played too much like a NASCAR track.

Here's what's new in this update:

- Moved the Void's Tear from bottom mid back to Outside, where it originally spawned.



- Moved the Binary rifle to Long Hall, where the Gravity Hammer had been in previous versions.



I wanted to encourage players to pick up Binary and then move to Outside to set up, rather than being in Outside from the start. Long Hall offers a cross map sniping position like Outside, but is a difficult position to hold with the Binary Rifle because of the cramped hallway.

- I also combined the Binary and Archlight Railgun with the weapon glitch. Now the Binary Rifle has one shot per clip, then you have to reload. It spawns with 5 shots total.



- Moved Speed Boost to the upper mid bridge, where the Void's Tear used to spawn. This can be seen from most of the map and rewards players for pushing across the center.



- Took the Gravity Hammer off the map, since combining it with the Speed Boost was a lot more OP than I had intended, and replaced it with a standard Needler. The Needler spawns in Underpass, which is in bottom mid. I also added a bit of lazy cover to Underpass to break things up.



The main geometry change in this update is a reworking of Red and Blue bases. The previous version had a lot of long sightlines which made it easy to pick people off from the sides. This also contributed to the race track flow I had going on. In order to address this, I've changed up the central rooms in each bases.

- I first added a wall with a doorway dividing the back area into separate play spaces and made the flag spawns more isolated.



- I also built out the second stories to include a large energy tank and some scientific research stations. This large pillar blocks site down the hallways and makes it so that the only place you can cross map is at Outside and Long Hall.



- I opened up the back corner of these rooms to give space for the central pillar. I've loaded this space up with crates, bags, tools, etc. all set to normal physics. When you fire off a Void's Tear burst near one of these items, they get disrupted and flung around. I've done this in several other places throughout to add some immersion to the map.



- Lastly, I moved the window BR spawns to the energy tank where they are more visible and moved the base BRs to the other side of the room to balance their positions out.



- (NOT PICTURED) I also replaced the BRs in the windows with Splinter grenades.

That does it for this update. I'll continue to test the map and try to play to / refine it's strengths. Thanks to everyone who's given me feedback so far! Let me know if there are ways I could improve it further.