This is an updated version of my map, Hydro Power. I will not go into great detail explaining the map, but I will include a few screenshots showing what the map looks like in case you did not see my original thread. You should know that this map is intended for 4v4 slayer gameplay and 8 man FFA. A list of what's new: 1. Man cannon from the bottom of the map will always get you to the top now. 2. A second man cannon was added from a lower floor to the structure at the top of the, the same structure that the bottom most man cannon takes you to. 3. A two way teleport system was added from nearby the sniper rifle spawn to a bridge at the "front" of the map, the bridge connecting the two towers with the spiker and sticky spawns. 4. An anti-camp barrier was added around the whole where players pop out of in teh structure at the top of the map. 5. Added headhunter, oddball, stockpile, and crazy king (I think) gametypes. 6. Improved weapon spawn timers. 7. Tweaked some of the player spawns. 8. Added some lighting to help with player orientation. 9. Added killzones to prevent players from flying out of the map and to keep them from hiding in the water. Power Weapons List: Sword-In the tunnel system, near the yellow flashing light Shotgun-stand alone tunnel on the main platform in the center of the map Sniper Rifle- On one of the back platforms, its spawn is on one of the highest points of the map, however, it doesnt have a clear line of sight to every point of the map. Rocket Launcher- On a block in the water at the back of the map, close by the bottom man cannon. Know that you can walk on the water to get to the rocket launcher. Grenade Launcher- On a block on the bottomost platform that leads into the water. On to the pictures!
Holy lack of cover Batman! Seriously, add more cover onto the map. I could spend hours discussing why this is important, but if you would just test a medium-sized team game on this (testing should always be done before you post a map) the reasons why a lack of almost any cover is detrimental to gameplay whould immediately become appearant. Also, I know it's hard to merge some of Reach's geometry in ways that look appealing, but you really should put your best effort into it. I know aesthetics can't make a map, but a lack of any unique style can break your map in the sense that it becomes so bland and repetitive that people ultimately can't tell it apart from other maps in the same style.
Actually, I DID play test this map before posting it. I did not play test it extensively, but I did play a few 4v4 games. Honestly, the lack of cover was not really appearant while playing, the map is big enough that in a 4v4 match you are not constantly being shot at from some random corner. This is not really a fast-paced map, which is what I was actually worried about and what the play testers critiqued on. Personally, I found that there were enough places to fall/run to that I could get to cover quickly unless I was facing someone with the sniper rifle. Like I said however, I did not extensively play test this map, and perhaps you are right. You should not assume I did not have this map play tested at all, because that is simply not true. About fitting Forge geometry together, I agree that I could have done a better job at placing things to fit the map and make things more symmetrical. When I first started the map, I did not pay attention to where I was placing objects relative to one another until I was so far in the map that I would have had to start over to fix everything. This being said, when I had the map tested, (by people from xforgery by the way), everyone generally liked the map, especially on 8 FFA. I'm not trying to sound overly defensive here, even though I know I am, but I think only one person mentioned the map being light on cover, and nobody thought that it was poorly forged. I feel like Im just trying to defend myself now, so I'll stop here. Anyway, the reason I did not add more cover is because with the map being as large as it is for 4v4 slayer, I thought things would become too busy with navigating around cover and time between player spottings would be too long. I will admit though that I should have tried harder at the beggining of the forging to make the map fit together better, but I tried to be creative and create different enviroments within the map. The play testers said that they thought the map was unique, but a little too large, which is why I decided not to add cover and instead added more ways to get around the map. I apologize for not having a rendered gameplay, but if I could show it to you it is clear that is usually fairly simple to break your line of sight with an enemy, as the map is already almsot divided in half (top and bottom). /end rant If there are any other major critiques, or if the map really does need more cover, I'll try and accept them without writing an essay in my defence