CEONSS

Hi all,

first off, thanks for proposing maps . Of course, public content discussions and feedback are welcome. If I count correctly though, we're now having a set of 22 maps on the plate. I think that's quite enough as a start Any further map wouldn't serve clarity especially since it's all within one thread. Thus, please, let us deal with those 22 maps first before adding another one to this thread, thanks. Also, when not presented in dedicated but collective threads, going through one by one in a chronological order would be easier, I guess.

So let's begin with the very first one, ONS-{UEM}ColdTorlan:

Even though its name suggests similarity to Torlan, this map has been changed to an extent that we're basically not talking about replacing our currently online Torlan-32P, but about adding it, right? Ok then, here's my quick review:

Size & design suited for:
- low player counts (1-11): hardly enjoyable
+ average player counts (12-22): well suited
+ high player counts (23-32): playable

Geometry:
+ looks quite symmetric
o average z-axis usage (only steep hills and some towers)

Nodes, link setup:
+ simple, clear and logical layout
+ cutoff possibility
+ no choke nodes
- only few hops from core to core

Playstyle plurality:
o on foot duelling (maybe some node fights but that's all)
+ sniping
+ turret defence
o super weapon usage (only 1 deemer per base or did I miss anything?)
+ flyers
+ wheeled vehicles
+ tanks

Weapon & vehicle balance:
- poorly equipped lockers at base
- enormous vehicle amount at base, not so well equipped other nodes
- many flyers but no avrils at all
- redeemer at base (one should work for super weapons and get them as a reward, not as a cheap gift)
- tanks at side nodes but none at base (gives an advantage to the already stronger team)
- core defence overpowered (8 turrets wtf?)
- very few pick-ups scattered over the map

Aesthetic aspects:
+ bases nicely worked out
- rest of the map looks rather dusty, monotone, dull and depressing

My conclusion: Some potential, indeed, but I wouldn't support it as it is, mainly due to weapon & vehicle (im)balance but also for its not so refreshing look

-------------
'+' = pro
'o' = undecided
'-' = con

A quick reminder that during such more thorough examinations of proposed maps here, it would also be beneficial for the potential improvement of any other map to observe and highlight any noteworthy code, clever solution to common problems or unique mechanic in them that could be reused elsewhere. Here's some examples:

- Wulff's custom weapon lockers (no need to throw weaps to get max ammo) in over a dozen maps
- 2ndRaceway's one-sided, triggerable garage gate movers
- Acerbus & LonesomeGlen's underwater superweap pickup
- ArenaOfEvil's core automated AS turrets (by Kamek's OnslaughtToys1)
- Battlefront & BitchSlap's realtime cameras & monitor terminals
- Blockfort & MasterShower's grapple gun
- DesertedSands' uber damage amp & megashield
- D&K-Gunshop's & MasterBath's faster transit methods (base-to-base tunnel, core-to-nodes teleporter/jumppad relays)
- Echo103[ECE]'s vehicle lifts
- Hustle's cores' ped/vec healing volumes & MasterBath's health/armour healing chargers
- Floodgate_XL_RC2's cores' team-specific kill volumes & EONS EMP Deployer weap
- Grit's custom vehicle teleporters
- Iguazu's upward, vec pushing jet stream
- IslandHop's volcanic/pyroclastic effects
- Minus & OmahaBeach's core vec healing volumes (not MagicIsle's center, campable equivalent)
- Maelstrom & Pandemonium's strategic cutoff facilitating node link setups
- MBB-Weapon_Outpost_V3's manual drawbridge
- MPC-Basement-Home-Theater's invisibility pickup
- MPC-Basement-Home-Theater & Ascendancy's top score scroller
- OmahaBeach's Ion Cannon (not MassDestruction[ECE]'s)
- Pandemonium's upward, ped boosting jet streams
- Rail's manually operated node covers
- Silva & Suspense2k4's translocator & weap.locker bundling
- SpaceJox's moving platforms
- TitanNecropolis & TreetopVillage's (kinda) seamless warp portals
- TreetopVillage's on-radar nodes' health and permanently unshielded node

...and that's all I could think of. Phew, that was a tricky exercise. Anyway, you get the point, I hope; no flood of arcane, custom vecs/weaps plz.

My current schedule's pretty busy ATM, but hopefully I'll be able to do some reviews here soon. Stay investigative, stay critical .

Hi all,

Heinz, what is "z-axis usage"? Sorry "^^

I'm ok with all of this, btw. It could be wise to look at one map at a time, for now.

Wow, nice compilation you got there, Peg! Looks like a sticky thread in the Creative Corner, ain't it?

Anyways, on with the next map, ONS-{ROW}Shipdock:

Size & design suited for:
- low player counts (1-11): too big for few players
+ average player counts (12-22): well suited
- high player counts (23-32): size ok but too few vehicles at base

Geometry:
- centre room including its nodes is asymmetric
- z-axis usage: several floors but only one main level in each room (top level at centre room accessible only by flyers)

Nodes, link setup:
+ 3 main paths, rather logical layout
+ cutoff possibility
+ no choke nodes

Desirable playstyle plurality:
+ on foot duelling (due to few vehicles though)
+ sniping
o node defence
- super weapon usage (is there any SW at all?)
o flyers (unsatisfying manoeuvrability)
+ wheeled vehicles
+ tanks

Undesirable playstyle encouragement:
- vehicle camp spots due to some narrow rooms
+ excessive sniping unlikely
+ base laming unlikely
+ weapon spamming unlikely

Weapon & vehicle choice & balance:
- very poorly equipped weapon lockers
- vehicle availability at base
+ powerful vehicle distribution: not too many tanks & Co.
+ flyers vs. anti-aircraft
- only few pick-ups
+ no dominating vehicle
- SPMA useless

Aesthetic aspects:
o average overall look
+ lighting
+ neutral colours (no team preferred)
+ nice ship / submarine / aquarium
- no ship entrance / exit (how did this fokn ship ever get in there?)

Conclusion: main flaws are asymmetry and poorly equipped weapon lockers Otherwise it could have been added IMO.

Karma_geddon wrote:Hi all,

Heinz, what is "z-axis usage"? Sorry "^^

I'm ok with all of this, btw. It could be wise to look at one map at a time, for now.

x-axis is left/right
y-axis is forth/back
z-axis is up/down

Z-axis usage refers to how much players are forced to look up or down to fight enemies, even when they don't use flyers. For example, Torlan's central valley provides basic Z-axis gameplay because enemies could attack from above. The prime example for Z-axis among stock maps would be DM-1on1-Roughinery. That map has so many layers and connections between them, there are places where you could get attacked from both above and below. Obviously this much Z-axis usage isn't really possible in an Onslaught map, but for example Adara has quite some of that vertical gameplay.

Ok thanks

Next one, ONS-[SD]8-Ball:

Size & design suited for:
+ low player counts (1-11): well suited
o average player counts (12-22): bit small even for average amounts
- high player counts (23-32): hardly playable

Geometry:
- asymmetric layout
+ z-axis usage
+ bypassing mouseholes (although I doubt they'd ever be used / useful)
- only little room for walking, dodging and duels on mid levels

Nodes, link setup:
- illogical, disruptive layout
- cutoff possibility: these weird ground-floor connections don't count IMO
o choke nodes: 2 quasi-linear paths
- only few hops from core to core

Desirable playstyle plurality:
+ on foot duelling
o sniping: only SSR - are there any other sniper rifles / lightning guns?
- node defence: most nodes can be reached from afar, no shields, no turrets at nodes (ok Hellbenders, great )
+ super weapons: Redeemer & SSR
o flyers, wheeled vehicles, tanks: available but ... don't they feel a bit misplaced on this small map?

Undesirable playstyle encouragement:
+ vehicle camping unlikely: not many spots to stay alive at for long
+ no excessive sniping: simply not enough sniper weapons available
+ base laming not exactly possible: no spot to hide at
- weapon spamming: tight places & many spammy weapons available plus SPMA

Weapon & vehicle choice & balance:
- weapon lockers: poor base lockers, predominantly spammy weapons (flak, rox, miniguns), unevenly distributed
o vehicles: is it an adequate vehicle map at all?
+ flyers vs. anti-aircraft: Mantas & Avrils equally available
+ super weapons: Redeemer and SSR have to be earned
- pick-ups massively concentrated at only few spots
o dominating vehicles: hard to tell offline, SPMA and Mantas could turn out a bit annoying here
- many minigun turrets vs. open arena / table surface
- minigun turrets pretty one-sided
- super shock rifle: one-shot-death-weapons should be avoided

Aesthetic aspects:
+ overall look ok
+ lighting
+ neutral colour theme, no team preferred
+ funny book titles
- low resolution pictures (coke machine, dogs pic)
- bible is completely greyed, must be several hundred years old, prolly Gutenberg's very first edition
o would be funny if all billiard balls were moveable

Conclusion: Asymmetric and, indeed, most likely too small & spammy. Other than that this node layout is mediocre at best and I'm not sure whether (so many) vehicles fit there at all

ONS-{UNK}ShantyTown-ANS1:

Size & design suited for:
+ low player counts (1-11)
+ average player counts (12-22)
o high player counts (23-32): size ok but too few nodes

Geometry:
- asymmetric
o z-axis usage
- confusing building placing
- unnecessary, disturbing and style changing side tunnels

Nodes, link setup:
+ relatively logical layout
+ cutoff possibility
+ no choke nodes
- only few hops from core to core

Desirable playstyle plurality:
+ on foot duelling
o sniping: only two real sniper spots, sniper rifle lockers misplaced
o node defence: some nodes are covered, some not
- super weapon usage: I didn't find any but tbh, I didn't play this map exhaustively
o flyers: only Mantas
o wheeled vehicles: bad manoeuvrability
o tanks: bad manoeuvrability

Undesirable playstyle encouragement:
- vehicle camping: due to bad manoeuvrability tanks and Hellbenders are prone to be used as camper vecs only
+ excessive sniping unlikely: only 2 real sniper spots
+ base laming unlikely: nothing to be earned there
+ weapon spamming unlikely

Weapon & vehicle balance:
o average weapon lockers
o only few vehicles
o flyers vs. anti-aircraft: any avrils at all? Not many flyers anyways, so this shouldn't bother
- only few, obviously arbitrarily scattered pick-ups, too many places left unused
o dominating vehicles: possibly Mantas?

Aesthetic aspects:
- overall look quite half-hearted
- arbitrarily placed shapes, doesn't look like a town at all not even a shanty one, maybe like a Robinson playground
+ lighting
+ neutral colour theme / no team preferred
- no special effects

Conclusion: indetermined playstyles, it's an NV-map by general design, there's still vecs nonetheless (which have no place to manoeuvre properly). Building placing looks ... loveless. And those side tunnels... what for?

ONS-{UEM}DeathCanyon:

Size & design suited for:
o low player counts (1-11): bit big
+ average player counts (12-22): well suited
o high player counts (23-32): bit small

Geometry:
o asymmetric map, differences could be bearable though
o z-axis usage: steep valleys, mountain backs not likely to be used much though (no pick-ups there)

Nodes, link setup:
+ simple, clear and logical layout
- no node cutoffs
+ no choke nodes: 3 different paths
- only few hops from core to core

Desirable playstyle plurality:
o on foot duelling: focus clearly is on vehicle usage, node fights possible nonetheless
o sniping: only few lightning guns available
+ node defence: turrets available & at least some nodes covered
- super weapon usage: I didn't find any
+ flyers
+ wheeled vehicles
+ tanks

Undesirable playstyle encouragement:
o vehicle camping: those rather narrow node areas are likely to be used for tank and Bender camping
+ excessive sniping unlikely: no sniper rifles anyways, not many lightning guns
o base laming: possible, bases easily to get to, many vehicles there to be interesting enough for base lamers
+ spamming unlikely

Weapon & vehicle balance:
o weapon lockers: averagely equipped, slightly unevenly though
+ vehicle amounts at nodes / base: not too many, not too few
+ tanks decently distributed, probably no dominating vehicle
+ flyers vs. anti-aircraft: flyers & Avrils available, could need some more Avrils, perhaps
o pick-ups available, but only at nodes; map exploring is a bit frustrating, there are no hidden goodies :/

Aesthetic aspects:
o average look overall
+ lighting
+ neutral colours / no team preferred
+ cool hot fire / smoke effects surrounding the map

Conclusion: all in all it seems to be an ok map; unique ideas are still missing somehow and there's nothing overly exciting . Its z-axis usage, while alright at first sight, turns out a bit mediocre in the end: those valleys are used only for keeping players on tight tracks. Would there anyone ever climb up hills? There are no goodies to find and sitting there with your Avril or LG will soon turn out uninteresting. However, compared with e.g. Samar-beta2 it's probably the better map, so I'd like to swap them. Not with this default node link setup though, we need a better one - suggestions?
Maybe this one?