Over the past several days, I've made some significant changes to Data Mine's weapon set and changed the geometry in a few areas. This has been based on my own personal play tests, as well as some feedback I've received.

In addition, I've done a lot of work on the aesthetics of the map, particularly the lighting. Comparing screenshots of the old version to the newest, there's a significant increase in overall brightness and visibility. Aesthetics will be a continuing work in progress as I try to balance detail and atmosphere with visibility and frame rate issues.

I've updated the images in the main post to be current. Here's a detailed list of what's changed in version 1.5:

Geometry

- Refreshed the back corner

I added an extra pathway and level of elevation in the very back corner near red spawn, which had been identified as an overly congested area in oddball. There is now more room to move around, as well as a staircase up to the Light Rifle spawn (which use to be the CE Pistol).

- Opened up Top Mid

As part of an effort to generally clean up geometry and reduce redundant pieces in the center of the map, I've also reduced the amount of cover available on top mid, near where the large computer banks are. This area is a power position with sight lines on a large portion of the map, and one of the focal points of gameplay since it is harder to hold for extended periods of time. I wanted to give it a bit more power and make it a bit more exposed at the same time.

- Rebuilt Bottom Mid

The changes are mostly aesthetic, but I've rebuild the bottom platform where Hydra / Shotgun spawns and reduced the number of pillars to help frame rate. This area is now less congested and cleaner than before.

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Weapons

- Changed Camo to OS and moved the OS a little further towards the wall.

I felt like Camo was not drawing players to this area as much as I'd hoped. OS serves this purpose this in a more heavy-handed sort of way. I moved the spawn point closer to the wall to pull players towards that side of the map more.

- Put a Sniper back in place of the SAW.

The original layout had a Sniper on it, but I doubted my instincts and swapped it out out for a SAW. Initial feedback has consistently been that the SAW feels a little cheap / too easy to use, so I'm going back to the Sniper. I may try out a Railgun in this position if I'm unhappy with how the Sniper plays moving forward.

- Changed Shotgun to Hydra

The shotgun was useful, but the map seems better suited to a longer ranged weapon like a Hydra. I also added a "danger: do not touch" sign to the Hydra spawn for chuckles.

- Altered Utility Weapon Layout

Changed the selection of utility weapons to be a bit stronger / hard hitting. I wanted to have a few more weapon options on the map, and make the rifles compete more closely with the Sniper.

The layout went from:
2 H5 BRs / 1 H2 BR / 1 Carbine /1 CE pistol / 1 SMG
to
1 H5 BR / 2 H2 BRs / 1 Carbine / 1 Light Rifle / 2 SMGs

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