This is Station, a map made by myself and a friend of mine, Pandemic nOk. It was designed with symmetry in mind, and for the purpose of Capture the Flag. We're currently still testing out the rest of the gametypes, but as of now, we're comfortable with the pacing and options avaliable to the player in CTF. It may seem like a long/big map, but we think you'll find that everything is in order, and that it doesn't take too long to cross. There are man-cannons down below the bases on each side to help flag-running/general traversing, as well as teleporters nearby that lead towards the center of the map on each respective side. There are 2 Sniper Rifles (one in each building), 1 Rocket Launcher (in the center), 2 Shotguns (one under each covered bridge in each base), 8 DMRs (four on each side), 4 Assault Rifles (two on each side), 2 Pistols (1 on each side), and grenades of each type, which are next to the snipers and near the man-cannons. There is also an active camo and an overshield. The map is fairly open, but there aren't a lot of compromising sightlines to render it ridiculously so. There are enough, however, to make it strategic and fair. This is our first map, and first real attempt at anything in Forge, so be gentle. We hope you enjoy it.
I'll download and check it out tomorrow, but from what I'm seeing now, it looks like the mancannons take you all the way across the map, which would make capturing the flag just too easy, I'd suggest making them only go halfway perhaps
That's essentially what the man-cannon does. The only way up from that area is to go through the teleporter, which comes out on your team's side of the map, near the middle.
Those man cannons are great now that I've looked at the map, lets you get out of there pretty quick with the flag, but not all the way there, because you'll still have a run to the capture point. Ok, just checked it out, although it was just solo, not playtesting, its looks like a good map, but could do with a few improvements that I noticed. Rockets just look like they're too protected, i'd suggest moving that cover back around 10 feet or so, so rocket spawn isnt so safe, if you notice in esentially every official map, rockets have esentially no cover from the rest of the map, so you have to put yourself at risk to get them. Here you're surrounded by cover as you're approaching, and picking up the rockets. The two sniper rifles in my opinion should be moved, and this is for two reasons. One, the snipers are in too neutral of an area, making it fairly easy for one team to take both of them, I'd suggest moving them back to the little triangle pad, just past the plasma pistol spawns, and replacing the sniper spawns with DMRs. The second problem with the sniper spawns is they are in an area that is so inaccessable to sniper fire, that you wouldn't want to use the weapon there. Overshield, kinda wierd that in an essentially perfectly symmetrical map, that the only overshield is not centered, I suggest you move it to that center platform in the bottom. Also not enough medium-low tier weapons on the map, the amount of power weapons here is just right for the size of the map, but it needs more than 2 DMRs and Needle rifle, and also could use some more plasma weapons. These should be basically scattered around the map (perhaps on top of those buildings on the sides in the middle for one placement) Asthetics, great looking map, but I saw one thing that could easily be improved on, and that is the lower middle buildings, those one way shields look very detrimental to the asthetics of the map, and could be replaced with walls, plus in the case of the one on the floor, it would allow for smoother gameplay, with the ability to not have to avoid that hole.
Thanks for your thoughts. I will speak with Illumiere and take these into consideration when we make changes to the map. I've played a few custom games on the map and all the action seems to take place at the dish, any ideas on how to get people to use the bottom parts as well?
This may be hard, as it is the centerpoint of the map, and the point with the best view of the whole map, and its on your direct route to the flag (or other team in slayer games), and I'd assume all your spawns are facing this area (sorry didn't check out the spawns much). Discouragements to use the top can include explosives such as fusion coils, or you can take away some cover, either of these will make people shy away from the area. To encourage people to use the bottom (although there's not much area there) you can add better weapons, or more space and put some spawns there, along with some cover.
Thank you for all of your input, Armadillo. We've been talking about everything, and we'll be changing things around to remedy the issues that you brought up. Has anybody else had a chance to run through this, yet?