Hey, DP, welcome back! Always nice to see ppl looking around and making content recommendations, too, so since we got a fresh batch of 3 suggestions this time, I figured I might shed some light and add some additional thoughts on them.
Thinking back for a bit, I could say we've been familiar with all 3 maps DP proposed for awhile now (at least since 3-4 years ago, personally speaking), and there's reasons why none of 'em are being hosted on the server. For one, and as Ema pointed out, UrbanStrike went through a recent revival/re-edit stint a few months back only to reaffirm that it's got a pretty low ceiling in terms of the gameplay quality/variety it can offer: "roof world" and ground level were too far apart to matter much to each other or be able to allow for players on each to interact with the other in a meaningful way, few objectives placed at the top of buildings and without much significance/necessity to winning strategies, and also ground geometry was otherwise of a standard, orthogonal and overall unoriginal nature that didn't create interesting situations. All in all, despite attempted renovation edits, UrbanStrike couldn't prove itself capable of competing with the more established urban-themed roster mainstays - Urban, Minus, Nevermore, StarReach, even MagnanimousLucid - or deliver anything otherwise unique, so it got the axe.
Having refreshed my memory of VerticalLimitECE after several years, I could only again come to the same conclusion that I did back then, which led me to never bother suggesting it to Heinz in the first place: yeah, its theme/aesthetic does look cohesive, decently-fashioned and unusual enough to create an intriguing first impression while flying around in spec mode, but when it comes to "brass tacks" gameplay and how the placement n' distribution of the quite few objectives around the map affect the way it plays, things don't end up looking as hot IMO. Sparsely populated points of conflict (mid-to-large sized map with only 5 nodes), considerable horizontal/vertical distances separating each from the next making it a hard/time-consuming proposition to reach 'em in a timely manner, unless you're among the lucky few to've managed to get into a flyer first (the vertical car slide can only do so much to help there), a chokepoint node link setup that can easily have both sides spending a good portion of matches there butting heads in the middle, and the general scarcity of useful resources (weaps, ammo & vecs), all suggest this could quickly become an exercise in frustration for players left behind and having to hoof it to the battlefront on their own - which could just as well have shifted elsewhere by the time they get there - to say nothing about the long falls down. And sure, one could spend the time to add more nodes along the midsection and make their surrounding locales more interesting to fight around, one could throw in a bunch more vecs for each side, clean up the errant ammo pickups and boost the lockers, but, in the end, the fundamental geometry of the map would still remain the same, along with the aforementioned flaws that entails. Bringing the whole thing closer to the terrain's level would mitigate much of the wasted transit time (vertically speaking, anyway), alright, but, in turn, also would render the map's most unique and memorable (remarkable?) element, the car slides, moot. Overall, I just don't think VerticalLimitECE's mix and arrangement of "raw" ideas makes a very convincing argument for putting in the effort to bring it up to a "serviceable" state with any kinda hope for that to amount to much for people. But, hey, I could be wrong.
Iguazu's been hosted on CEONSS for awhile back in the server's early days (2010 or so), I believe. It's probably one of the best looking ONS maps around - certainly ranks somewhere in the top ten of visually attractive maps for me, anyway - among other gems like TwinFang, Suspense2K4 (boring chromatically, but still impressive in design and scale), SavoIsland, Aeterna, ConcealedRespite, Dinora (one of Hourences' best), RapaNui (by Toni 'scarface' Seifert, who also made Iguazu), all the way up to probably the IMO most meticulously put together specimen, AlenjaForest-SE-ECE (by Chris 'Oxygene' Urban, although not even good enough to host, gameplay-wise
). Iguazu's theme is lush and vibrant, merging the natural and the mechanic together beautifully (to near Myst levels even); it makes great use of the z-axis but without making it cost too much to careless players usually, including its unique, signature element, the upward air streams; and most of the locations it features are genuinely fascinating to roam around and explore. Unfortunately, it's kinda hard to get around fast enough without the help of mantas or flyers, it's only got 5 nodes (default node link setup ain't too great either), and, most importantly, fighting around nodes can oftentimes suffer due to lack of sufficient space or enough solid ground. To be clear here, I don't believe any of those issues are unfixable, and considering everything else about it, personally, I'd be absolutely delighted to see Iguazu receive the necessary attention to bring it back up to current standards' level. it's just that it hasn't happened yet. But yeah, it's always good to bring it back to our attention again, so thanks for that, DP.
Alright, that's a long enough rant for now, methinks.
. Would it be much trouble adding them to CEONSS?
