Space-Island-SP1

[Cat1981England]

Constructive criticisms and suggestions for the Space-Island-SP1 map.


Pros:

Nice looking
Easy to navigate
Nodes have a fair balance between attack and defence

Cons:

Takes too long to travel between nodes
No vehicles
Two centre nodes become a choke point for one team to control the map

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I've played this map twice now. The first time with 10/11 players made the map far too sparse to be able to build any momentum. After building a node you would have to move onto the next node and attack it yourself as other players were unable, for whatever reason, to do so and by the time you got there the node which you had just built was already under attack. Then you would need to go back and retake the first node and try again. This meant that two players on opposite teams would be endlessly moving back and forth without really shooting each other. This can easily turn into a 20min+ map which become extremely tedious. Toward the end of the game only 3/4 people were left playing.

With 30 players there was a great deal more fighting and the game became more interesting, however once one side has taken control of the two centre nodes (5 and 6) and has a fair few players defending them, it becomes very difficult to get back into the match and feels like a traditional map with a choke point even if there is two nodes. A handful of players left during the game.

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Possible improvements:

Change the link setup
Introduce redeemers
Reduce the travel time between nodes
Introduce Raptors


We could try changing the link setup. Removing the link between 5/6 and placing new ones between 1/2 - 3/4 would possibly create and more open map, more along the lines of CEONSS maps.

Introducing redeemers wouldn't be to everyones liking, but if the link setup stays the same it would allow teams to get back into the match quickly by getting a foothold on the centre island, nodes 5/6.

The time it takes to travel between nodes i think is this map biggest problem. If DM isn't your cup of tea then this map can be extremely frustrating as it can take 20/30 seconds to get back into the action, then you die and then you're back to square one again. The hand teleports have limited use as there isn't a great deal of space to use them. By introducing a few yellow instant teleports to the map we could greatly reduce the travel time and open up the map. Perhaps placing them on the opposite sides of the nodes to where the white boost jumps are.

Last is the Raptors. I personally don't think this would work too well as the map would become a narrow AirMars which itself isn't a hugely popular map, but it's a possibility.

[lilalurl]

Thanks for the feedback .

Some quick replies:

- The map is indeed NV. Well, it is not obvious given the map name. For the history, the map is originally vehicle-based.
However, it did not play that well because the fliers were too powerful because of their mobility. Wheel-based vehicles were stuck to the base+primaries areas since they cannot cross the asteroid fields.

So introducing (back) Raptors is quite out of question.
Btw, Airmars is actually quite a popular map (in the top 10):
http://www.theclq.com/ags/players.php?a ... 10.78:7777

But it has always been dividing people between those who hate it, those who love it, those who don't mind.
And like you, I think it would just be a narrow Airmars, without fun to be had.

- There are no redeemers, but there are some ion painter pickups in the asteroid fields (the ones that surround the center "island". It can deal a good amount of damage if you manage to reach a place where you can aim it correctly (which is doable thanks to the translocator [the hand teleport]).

- New node setups are a likely option. Regarding your suggestion, the issue I could see is that with such a setup, one team can manage to severe the enemy node chain, meaning those enemies on the front line will have to travel back a lot, probably leaving a chance for the other team to consolidate their back lines (by taking back the isolated nodes).
Btw, there is no link between 5 and 6.

Here is the current link setup:


The original author also offered the following setup as an alternative. Would you be more interested by something of the kind?:


- Teleporters. These could be an option, especially if they are team-specific (only usable by one team) for the first parts of the map, meaning that you can teleport to get to (or reconquer) your primaries but the enemy has to walk/translocate when they are on "your" side of the map.

However, because of the narrowness of the map, there is a very strong potential issue: enemy players learning where the teleporters teleport a player and waiting in ambush/sniping at it.

One solution could be to have teleporters with (semi-)random destinations (actually it would mean have a bunch of separate destinations for one teleporter and let the game choose at random). Then, I don't know how many players will feel confused by the randomness.

Also, using teleporters could result in a similar issue as one that you mention.
Suppose, in a game with not many players (less than 16) you manage to take one enemy primary node. With a system of teleporters, you have a strong risk that when you go to attack the core, enemies have already teleported to the primary and taken it back.


The translocator was added to the map because it will leave the players the choice to create their own path and therefore avoid the risk of being sniped/ambushed/anticipated by the enemy.



If you have other suggestions or want to discuss some points further, feel free to leave your comments.

[RottenToTheCore]

Hey!

looks nice. Will it be released?

Greetings

[lilalurl]

Actually, it was part of the map roster a while ago, so it was released.
Perhaps laboRHEinz will make it part of the roster again soon. Or perhaps offer an individual download.

Otherwise, I must have a copy of the map somewhere, so if need be I will upload it (PM me to remind me in 2 or 3 days if I forget).

[laboRHEinz]

Yes, really nice map.
Only problem was that it flooded the serverlog with huge loads of warnings. Something like "negative weight" IIRC.