Good and Bad Maps

[Xac]

I thought it might be useful to start a thread on the type of maps people like and dislike (and why) as an aid to those who want to make good maps people will want to play. Also, since a small number of well known maps get played over and over, suggestions for alternatives present in the map roster that are good, but people don't know so well and so they don't normally get a vote.

The problem is IMO that a few popular maps get played over and over again and they get boring after a while.

My favourites are Bridge, Tripleslap, Gunshop, Masterbath. I think they are good because they have something for everyone and there are not too many overly powerful vehicles. I like maps with vehicles, but when you get a vehicle with superweapons/strength camped up somewhere and you stand no chance at all on foot or in a small vehicle, - that is frustrating. I find maps such as Magic Isle and Kingdom to be like this.

I also like it when you go to the gun locker and you get the full suite of weapons and don't have to mess about hunting around for the Avril or Rocket launcher.

[Xac]

Looks like no-one has anything to say about maps!

What I was thinking of was the kind analytical discussion Pegasus and others had the other day for Gunshop:

http://www.ceonss.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=246

What is it that makes a map good? Obviously this will vary according to individual playing style, but there must be reasons why some maps are so popular.

For example, I like Air Mars, but I find Slatedworld extremely annoying.

With Air Mars, it's a simple map, you can have some fun dogfights and if your Raptor gets damaged, you can pop back to the base and pick up a nice shiny new one! There is space for hand to hand combat too, without being wiped out from the air. The node layout seems good, there isn't too much of people all piling into one node all at the same time. The core is also hidden, so you can't just attack easily with a long range air to ground attack. There aren't any tanks, so you haven't got to deal with the tank camper brigade.

With Slatedworld, there are loads of different types of aircraft, with varying degrees of usefulness. Some of the nodes tend to get spammed too much as everyone piles in at the same pinch points. There's the rail tank, which can camp up in the fog and take you out with a single shot. On some nodes you spawn miles away from any gun locker or aircraft. If you do get into an air to air situation, you usually are in the wrong kind of aircraft and you end up uselessly skidding past each other repeatedly until someone else shoots you in the back. It's very exposed, so on foot it's quite useless, you'll just get run over or shock cored etc from the air. also, the cores are totally exposed, so someone just has to camp in a plane lurking in the fog and fire off at the core from long range, pretty much unseen.

Those are my thoughts, I'm sure others will disagree

My other point was, what about maps that don't get played very often? I'm sure there must be some good ones in the roster, but because of the popularity of the others, they get ignored. So my question is, what's a good map to vote for, other than the usual suspects?

[Kentaro]

[...] Slatedworld [...] On some nodes you spawn miles away from any gun locker or aircraft.

This one is one player start wrong putted in place. Would be fixed by a simple edit.



For a complete evaluation of ONS maps, i can propose this one posted by Pegasus. It's a bit complicated but complete

My other point was, what about maps that don't get played very often? I'm sure there must be some good ones in the roster, but because of the popularity of the others, they get ignored.

To avoid that, we should simply increase the map cycle (don't remember the exact name). Currently it is setted to 28. Could we try 35, or something else?

[Xac]

Thanks Kentaro,

That's a useful post from Pegasus. It's a shame the thread got side lined by people going on about hit sounds and skins and no-one has added to it since 2010.

Maybe what I should do in future is to encourage people when they write in-game "I hate this map" to come on to the forum and say why.

I'm glad you are interested in working on maps new and old and I'm looking forward to playing in them

[RottenToTheCore]

To avoid that, we should simply increase the map cycle (don't remember the exact name). Currently it is setted to 28. Could we try 35, or something else?

That's no good idea though. There is a reason why some maps are not played often: They are not too popular. Why force players to play the less popular, for the majority of the players less interesting, maps? If you want to play a map, vote it.

And i think there is a reason for the number 28, as the maps "refresh" every day at the same time. So it won't happen that bots play them alone at night too often .

[EmanReleipS]

A good thread! (Did I cause this one with one of my comments yesterday?)

The ones I feel the strongest about:

I absolutely hate tanks-a-lot. You're screwed on foot and there are just so many tanks coming in.... I think that it's too easy for the teams to camp at their lower node (down the ramp from the core) and just spawnkill the players at the other team's low node. (I'm struggling a bit with the descriptions here, sorry if it's confusing!) And once the nodes close to the core are taken by the enemy team, the ion tank can just roll in and spawnkill everyone at the core until the core breaks down. I've had the experience that it's pretty much impossible to make a comeback on that map once your enemy has the node on the right side of the core. Most of the time you can't even get out of the base anymore....

Another one I dislike is ......well, I guess it would be helpful if I actually could remember the name...
Well, it's that map with the minefields,the ion cannon at the node in the center of the map, the huge holes you can't get out of and the nodes at the north side of the map (behind a big fence) are inside warehouses.
I dislike this map because of the minefields, big holes, really huge trees (that modified cicada usually lurks in there and drops bombs on the node below the tree), the modified cicada can shoot missiles that will follow you around across half of the map even if the pilot can't see you, and there is one node (directly connected to the core, halfway underground with little poles preventing vehicles from entering) that is really difficult to defend or to retake (because of spawnkilling tanks).

Another one I don't like is My Room or something like that. I find that while the nodes might not be too exposed (because they have that barrier around them), anyone close to them is. I also think that this map really encourages spawnkilling because the cores are directly opposite each other and each has a tank. I've had huge problems just surviving the way to the weapon's locker on that map. Plus, I think that the nodes on the shelf are somewhat hard to access. At least I've made the observation that my team usually had problems holding that node up there.


Okay.....now for my favs: Dria (or Dria-Gorz), RedPlanet, Spankjox (because it's good aiming practice xD), both Maelstrom versions, Silva. I'm okay with almost all maps, though. I really only dislike those listed above and maybe one or two others I can't recall right now.

[Anik]

Another one I dislike is ......well, I guess it would be helpful if I actually could remember the name...
Well, it's that map with the minefields,the ion cannon at the node in the center of the map, the huge holes you can't get out of and the nodes at the north side of the map (behind a big fence) are inside warehouses.
I dislike this map because of the minefields, big holes, really huge trees (that modified cicada usually lurks in there and drops bombs on the node below the tree), the modified cicada can shoot missiles that will follow you around across half of the map even if the pilot can't see you, and there is one node (directly connected to the core, halfway underground with little poles preventing vehicles from entering) that is really difficult to defend or to retake (because of spawnkilling tanks).

I think you want to say Omaha beach

Agreed for Tanks-a-lot, you know already the same ion campers over and over again.... They go at the node, wait the ion to respawn, the same person takes it and waits for it ... it's verry annoying.

1) I don't like Raceway because it's verry laggy, always verry laggy compared to anyother map. It's even more laggy than Masterbath :/

2) Hmmm ... Starreach ... sry but it's so boring and slooooow. I can't stop falling with the tanks... nub me.

3) Katharos NV - too much walking

We should also say what maps we want back, please bring Grendelkeeeeep back (I know laboR ... ) + Pandemonium <3

[Wormbo]

Raceway is laggy as hell because it contains no optimization whatsoever: No antiportals and no BSP in the terrain that would occlude things in network games.

Also...

TooManyRoadPathNodes.jpg (136.04 KiB) Viewed 13176 times

*cough*

[Zon3r]

-OmahaBeach is a good map, if the teams are ok, and there are no baselamers (Thundercat, essenceofanoob), the matches can be really good.
-Raceway isn't really balanced, cause you can camp with a tank all day at that indoor node, it's not laggy tho.
-Starreach isn't bad, pretty playable
-Katharos, not sure about that, can't remember which one is it
-Tanks alot, totally dislike it.
-My room needs a bit of editing, putting up a transparent wall between the two cores to prevent spawnkilling

[Wormbo]

-Raceway isn't really balanced, cause you can camp with a tank all day at that indoor node, it's not laggy tho.

Actually you can do that on both sides at the same time and yet the other team may get to your core.