How does everyone else feel about the first round of BTB maps? I have to say that overall, I am not impressed. Future maps are being submitted by community cartographers rather than from forgetacular, so the next round will probably be a huge step up. My opinion on the maps: Outcrop: I didn't mind this one. The layout was simple and provided balanced game play. However a lack of vehicles and CQB areas do make for rather one-dimensional gameplay in which 99% of the battles are long-mid range DMR duels. Some nasty Z-fighting in places too. 3/5 Montana Gambit: Although this map is rather ugly in the middle, it does provide for exiting gameplay. The three bridges all have unique tactical qualities. The lower bridge is easy to sneak across, the main bridge provides vehicle crossings, the rock bridge provides high ground and hard cover for infantry. The map feels balanced and the warthog paths are nice. 4/5 Bendarius Ridge: I found that crossing this map was just too hard and attempts at forward movement were usually punished. The crossings are just too exposed. Also, there is plenty room for warthogs on red side, but none at all on blue. 2/5 Rift: This one was the worst of the bunch for me. It is totally inbalanced. Blue can grab the banshee and the sword much easier than red. Blue sniper spawns on a convenient tower that overlooks the entire map with no need to ever leave. Red sniper spawns on an exposed ledge with virtually no chance of survival vs the roaming banshee. Every game i have played on this map involved red team getting spawn ganked from the offset and mass quitting. 1/5 Ridged: Another bridge map. The crossings are really vulnerable to the flying vehicles and once again snipers are placed in convenient towers to further crucify anyone attempting forward pushes. Being on foor with a DMR is a nightmare on this map. EDIT: just played this again and got totally spawn ganked by flying vehicles above our spawn points that are totally in the open at the back of the map. 1/5 Renegade: Apparently, bungie stuffed up the link and put an old version of the map on. They then decided to 'FIX' it by putting hard kill zones for the banshee to smash into. I've played the more recent versions of this map which I would score 5/5, but the version posted only gets 3.5/5.
Honestly, I've only played one so far. Bendarius Ridge me thinks. Not only are there TOO MANY power weapons, but they spawn back so fast it's pretty sucky. Plus, the banshee spawns like every 30 seconds. Both sides pretty much camp until either e vehicle is nearby or someone's brave enough to walk into the open, and die 3 seconds later.
Rift: Red base was huge, but pointless because not even red team stayed anywhere near it. The banshee also exploded every time it did a flip, not cool. Hogs also had nowhere to go to attack red side, just one path in with big cliffs on each side. Battle of Antitem anyone? (Civil War reference.) 1/5, Honestly Gazz, has bungie even looked at maps other than ones 12 year olds sent in? Ridged: This I liked more just because I had just played rift. Driving paths were decent, but no more, and bridges sucked. And the shotgun in the middle of the map? This was pointless to get, you already have rockets at each base and snipers nearby. 3/5, I contest that even I can make better maps. I hope the Community Cartographers know where to look, I mean, there was just a BTB contest on Halocharts that Bungie featured on their site. Put 2 and 2 together! Edit: Played Bendarious Ridge and was pleasently surprised that it had driving paths that were at least decent. The rock bridge was frustrating, a sniper sat up there near the end of the game and killed close to 15 players without dying, but the bases were well crafted and much of the rest of the map was nice. 4/5, possibly because I compare this to rift and ridged only. Also, are all of them on Montana/Alaska? How about some variety!
I've been part of one of the groups testing for the community cartographers and I 100% guarantee that the quality of maps submitted to bungie thus far are a LOT better than the forgetac stuff. I just hope bungie decides to use them
I have played on Montana Gambit, Ridged and Rift, and I can safely say that MG is the best of the three by far. I have played two games on it, both on red side and I personnaly think it is the best map in the playlist by far. The main bridge becomes a crucial holding point, and it isn't too hard to remove a team once they have gained control, thanks to the lines of sight and good use of the vehicles. It makes a great place to sit and kill with the DMR, and there is always the risk of enemy fire, even though there is a little too much cover on the bridge itself. Ridged is by far the worst map. Its just too big for 8v8. It has a silly amount of power weapons, and the red side back spawn is horribly exposed to any flying vehicles, and I kept on spawning in the same spot over and over again, even though spawning in the base is safer, you will always be placed outside. The fact that the middle is so jumbled up is also bad. It means that you really can't seem to find a decent path to the other side without hitting a dead end or ending up being rapped by 4 enemies at the same time. There is just too many walkways to use, and little chance of actually being able to use the obscene amount of sniper rifles (4 I think) placed on the map. I just don't see the need for all the walkways, as all they do is make the map look very messy... Rift isn't too bad. I found it reasonablty fun to play on, even though crossing the middle is suicide and the kill zones are way too small for the banshee, which is also a stupid idea on such a relatively small map, and the sword is next to useless and a BTB map.
a lot of the maps look pretty. i've only played a few matches on them, so i cant really give a solid opinion on them yet. i did enjoy the games that i was in, but i can see that there may be some issues i think i might be bitching more if i had been on the other teams, though, because we were doing pretty well and a couple times we did have them trapped in their spawns...
The one time I've played this list so far was the other day with Vorpal and a few others off here. Was drinking so don't remember much other than this one game. Game starts and I'm running tword the banshee (don't remember the map name) don't even know if I'm gonna get in it yet depends on what's there. This dude on our team nades it knocking it away from me and lowering my shields. Instantly I'm like oh **** this guy, so I get in it anyway and he then blows it up. I alert my boys to this and we spend the rest of the game making sure he doesn't even so much as touch the thing. Including one point where me and him were racing side by side for it with him just slightly in front of me. I say "**** he's gonna get it first" Vorpal replies with "No he isn't" then I see tracer smoke from the sniper appear through the guys head. I loled. A fun game and despite the betraying we still won. So my opinion of the BTB playlist is that it's not bad. The maps may have issues but they don't seem to be any where near as bad as Hemorrhage or paradiso.