Milsto submitted a new map: HELIX - Efforts to preserve this node prove futile. 2-6 players. Read more about this map...
This was a pleasant surprise, looks really good, especially considering it's the only recent map you have. Good stuff, though I do have my gripes which I could go over if you want
Alrighty so first off, avoid using the night time skybox on tidal as it bleaches your lighting, it can look ok in a few select situations but overall, I'd stick to chroma boxing and fog for nighttime/dark skyboxes for your lighting's sake. I'd also recommend adding more source lights to your map, or try and create natural lighting (a fill light that is subtle enough to pass as natural lighting) to brighten up rooms that have no lights at all since, especially when coupled with the nighttime skybox, makes the rooms without any lights appear very flat. I'd also recommend never exceeding 1400 objects on a map, and even that is well within the territory for frame drops. You could totally use bigger objects and be more efficient with your piece usage to bring down the object count to allow you more wiggle room with the art. You should also colour all of your pipes since the default colour doesn't match the map's overall colour pallet, and looks very "forgey". As for layout, I don't have too many complaints here but the large, flat open walkway by one of your teleporters (it has red/blue team intro cameras on it) could easily do the same thing if it were brought in closer to the map. The open walkway is simply dead space thats only purpose is to act as a route to the teleporter so you could easily turn the area into a smaller ledge rather than what feels like a landing pad since as of now, the area is a death trap that offers you no advantage besides tele so bringing this area in would be ideal. Additionally id experiment with more micro height variation to break up otherwise large flat floors, this can be as simple as a 4 unit tall difference between two pieces with a small ramp or stair piece to make the area feel less flat and barren. This can be applied to much of the map. My final bit of layout feedback is your damage boost spawn, which feels very out of place. I think it'd be better to connect it to the wall of fuel rod spawn where that small jump up is next to the pipe bridge near the outside of the map. From there you could bring the other side of that damage boost platform a bit closer to the above shelf and raise it to make it a single, clean jump up to the shelf with the two explosive barrels. This would eliminate the amount of jump ups needed to push that shelf and make pushing from fuel rod easier since you would now only need to jump up to the shelf itself, as opposed to jumping onto the platform, onto the corner piece and then onto the shelf. I'd also recommend that you double up respawn points, two next to each other per spawn point. Good stuff though and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next.
Somebody make this guy a Forge Critic please! @WARHOLIC @Nitro @SIR IRON WOLF @Max Extra He's one of the few that has stuck around throughout H5, and continues to give good feedback. Back on topic, nice map Milsto. I downloaded as soon as you posted it, but haven't had a chance to check it out in game. Looks very promising. The only gripe I have at this point is a small one...3v3 is a very odd player count to build a map for. There's really not an audience for it. Have you considered tailoring it to 2v2 or 4v4?
Good idea! I only put 3v3 since softcapped the player count to 6 but I see what you're saying about the audience. Thanks for the input. This is the first map I've actually put time and effort into so I figured there could always be things to improve on. With the damage boost, I tried to put it in a central location equidistant from both teams spawns. I really like your idea but it's restrained by the budget I have left. I was trying to go for a clean look which is why most of the pieces are simple and in multiples.