05-26-2012, 09:26 AM
Hah, srkdy beat me to it, but anyway, I finally managed to play a couple duels on it, so far this is a lot of fun! This map is going to kick so much ass, can definitely be a great duel map (and those are rare) with some tweaks. I'm posting some comments/suggestions, some of which are very specific, but they're just suggestions. I'll do my best to explain the issues that my suggestions would "fix", but in the end you might have better ideas.
The teleporters issue has been mentionned, BUT, before changing those I think you should look at item placement first (tho the tele that spawns directly in front of megahealth is definitely a bit much, but I'll get back to that) because the teleporters currently are a lot of fun, would be a shame to ruin that. I think some changes to item placement would do the trick, also making the map more balanced in the process (player in control vs. player who is not, in terms of competitive play)
ITEM PLACEMENT:
Nearly all weapons are either in megaarmor or megahealth room, and there are no health packs anywhere and no medium armor. That means, a freshly spawned player has nowhere to go but try to go to the main rooms to get a good weapon, most likely getting killed or badly hurt in the process since the player in control is probably hanging out in those rooms (no reason not to, other than controlling nex). Even if he manages to get out alive, there is no health packs or small armor to retreat to. So it's nearly impossible for a player who lost control to make a comeback. Player in control doesn't really need to leave those rooms either, he can just move between the two using the teles constantly to pickup almost everything, even keep an eye on nex without needing to pick it up.
If you added some health packs in some of the middle paths (the shards are definitely not enough, they should be considered as "extras"), as well as a 50a somewhere in the middle to allow a player who lost control to stack up a little, the closeness of the megas (due to teles) wouldn't be as problematic.
As for weapons, you should keep in mind that in duel the "main" weapons are Mortar/Nex/Rocketlauncher and the others are "situational" weapons. By that I mean that the main weapons are safe to use for almost any situation, the others are better for defensive use or setting up traps. Right now, like I said before, almost everything is in the big rooms.
What I would suggest:
Moving RL to where Machinegun is -- This would place one of the main weapon to be easier for the roaming player to get safely, with some cover.
Moving Machinegun to where Hagar is + Moving Hagar to where RL is -- This would move same ammotype weapons (mortar+hagar) to not be so close to each other, tho that's not really a big issue.
I still think there would be too many weapons in the rooms with megas, but the map seems to be designed to have good items in those places, so I wouldnt just remove weapons from the spots without replacing them with something else (health packs maybe?). But anyway, just having RL at machinegun would be a good, maybe good enough.
TELEPORTERS:
I love the teles, I wouldn't really change them except the spawn location at megahealth because you are almost spawning directly on it. What I would suggest, is moving that spawn location close to where mortar is, under the lamp. That would leave more space for a player already in the room to fight a player coming from the tele, and harder to pickup both megas very quickly. Of course going from mega health to mega armor is still quite fast but player has to fall down or laserjump up to get armor after coming out of either teleporter, I think that is fine, both are risky if opponent has nex or spamming the armor.
LAYOUT:
The layout is fantastic, the only thing to mention is the hallways to get to nex. I understand that you wanted to make it risky to get, but in my opinion it's a bit too easy to trap someone there using the teles and more often than not, it's the player in control who will trap it's opponent. I also find it a bit boring compared to everything else on the map. I'm not sure how that could be fixed, the only "simple" solution I can think of would be to do something like this, instead of the L-shaped corridor:
Would still allow the nex to be used as a trap, but would at least give some cover for the trapped player.
That's it for now, looking forward to next release. Keep up the good work, sir!
The teleporters issue has been mentionned, BUT, before changing those I think you should look at item placement first (tho the tele that spawns directly in front of megahealth is definitely a bit much, but I'll get back to that) because the teleporters currently are a lot of fun, would be a shame to ruin that. I think some changes to item placement would do the trick, also making the map more balanced in the process (player in control vs. player who is not, in terms of competitive play)
ITEM PLACEMENT:
Nearly all weapons are either in megaarmor or megahealth room, and there are no health packs anywhere and no medium armor. That means, a freshly spawned player has nowhere to go but try to go to the main rooms to get a good weapon, most likely getting killed or badly hurt in the process since the player in control is probably hanging out in those rooms (no reason not to, other than controlling nex). Even if he manages to get out alive, there is no health packs or small armor to retreat to. So it's nearly impossible for a player who lost control to make a comeback. Player in control doesn't really need to leave those rooms either, he can just move between the two using the teles constantly to pickup almost everything, even keep an eye on nex without needing to pick it up.
If you added some health packs in some of the middle paths (the shards are definitely not enough, they should be considered as "extras"), as well as a 50a somewhere in the middle to allow a player who lost control to stack up a little, the closeness of the megas (due to teles) wouldn't be as problematic.
As for weapons, you should keep in mind that in duel the "main" weapons are Mortar/Nex/Rocketlauncher and the others are "situational" weapons. By that I mean that the main weapons are safe to use for almost any situation, the others are better for defensive use or setting up traps. Right now, like I said before, almost everything is in the big rooms.
What I would suggest:
Moving RL to where Machinegun is -- This would place one of the main weapon to be easier for the roaming player to get safely, with some cover.
Moving Machinegun to where Hagar is + Moving Hagar to where RL is -- This would move same ammotype weapons (mortar+hagar) to not be so close to each other, tho that's not really a big issue.
I still think there would be too many weapons in the rooms with megas, but the map seems to be designed to have good items in those places, so I wouldnt just remove weapons from the spots without replacing them with something else (health packs maybe?). But anyway, just having RL at machinegun would be a good, maybe good enough.
TELEPORTERS:
I love the teles, I wouldn't really change them except the spawn location at megahealth because you are almost spawning directly on it. What I would suggest, is moving that spawn location close to where mortar is, under the lamp. That would leave more space for a player already in the room to fight a player coming from the tele, and harder to pickup both megas very quickly. Of course going from mega health to mega armor is still quite fast but player has to fall down or laserjump up to get armor after coming out of either teleporter, I think that is fine, both are risky if opponent has nex or spamming the armor.
LAYOUT:
The layout is fantastic, the only thing to mention is the hallways to get to nex. I understand that you wanted to make it risky to get, but in my opinion it's a bit too easy to trap someone there using the teles and more often than not, it's the player in control who will trap it's opponent. I also find it a bit boring compared to everything else on the map. I'm not sure how that could be fixed, the only "simple" solution I can think of would be to do something like this, instead of the L-shaped corridor:
Would still allow the nex to be used as a trap, but would at least give some cover for the trapped player.
That's it for now, looking forward to next release. Keep up the good work, sir!