. Anyway, to cut all this waffling out now and turn to the more meaty issues, based on everything I looked at during a weekend review of RC2 (ugh, there's that dreaded "commercial software" pro terminology again, along with all its alluring promises of project finality, rearing its ugly head in a predominantly user-generated game's community, where most things tend to stay in a perpetual beta state; erm, sorry for the digression here, bit of a pet peeve of mine this :/), the map has made some pretty serious strides towards the mid-Tier 2 quality region, to borrow a term from content management parlance, and, in any case, seems to be in need of only a few and time-wise minor additional adjustments. Just like my first post in the last page, I think I'll go with bunching up the various suggestions in their relevant categories location-wise, and then in descending order of importance. Let's see what's what then...Bases:
- First off, kudos on the cores' new positioning. While plopping them on a semi-raised pillar like that might seem like an indecisive half-measure to some, I think that having enough of 'em exposed above and also below ends up offering more room to attackers for different positioning choices, most crucial of which being the ability to pinch 'em with hitscans from afar, which can act as additional pressure/incentive for defenders to get out there and clear their neighbouring hills and skies of threats. One element of that redesign I'm not too clear on, though, is the hole's diameter, which ATM is wide enough for players to slip and fall through, even with the core's shield activated. Obviously, during late-game this would afford the dominant team a pretty convenient way to quickly avoid return fire from players spawning in and defending the area, and buy them quite a few extra seconds of "quality time" with the enemy core. While I don't know whether this was implemented intentionally, it's a design choice with some pretty clear-cut pros and cons in terms of matches' pace during late-game - the pros going mostly to the attackers - so I figured I might as well touch upon 'em here so you'll have an extra opinion on this just in case it wasn't. While preventing this would be as simple as re-enabling the energy field st.meshes' 3 collision blocking params (and, to be perfectly clear here, I'm not trying to imply this needs to be done), just like with everything else, you're the mapper so the final choice is up to you one way or another.
- The only other gameplay-affecting issue I have to raise has to do with some spawning decisions regarding the Perses; a vec that, I might add, after some testing, I've begun to think fits the medium-large, hilly outdoors character of this map pretty well. Still, I can't help but point out that placing it on a delayed 4min timer before it spawns seems like a pretty bizarre choice. Considering the vehicle is slow and lumbering as it is, and the map's terrain morphology features numerous hills that would also be delaying its advancement from one gameplay-significant area to the next, all making the trip from a base to someplace it can help likely last at least 30-40secs (and then again as long for each subsequent relocation), I just can't see the logic behind not offering it to players right from the start, even if you would wanna stick with the draconian 4min respawn timer for every subsequent vec (don't believe I can name even a single example from some other map where a vec factory is set to so high a respawn delay, and some are offering minos & krakens that are even bigger threats).
The other Perses spawn-related concern I wanted to voice has to do with the IMO counter-intuitive location of its factory. One common trait that most maps offering a levi [variant] near each base tend to exhibit is that they make sure to communicate the behemoth's availability to players in an immediately perceivable manner; ColdFusion, GunShop, Hustle, MagicIsle, RedPlanet, Stonehaven, Valarna-BadWolf, VolcanoHigh all abide by it. This helps because, especially with new custom maps, not everyone can be expected to have the luxury of getting the map to load and having sufficient time to fly their observer camera around, explore their bases' surroundings (even beyond its walls) and note where every useful team asset is located before the match starts. For the rest, spawning a few seconds into the round and hurrying to catch up to the action, a hasty glance around for the quickest remaining means of transportation is all the attentiveness a mapper should expect, so placing something that powerful and, thus, helpful out of sight beyond the coliseums' walls comes across like a self-defeating choice in light of the mapper's intention to give such a tool to players. There are a number of ways one could solve this, if so inclined. For one, the Perses could be moved inside the bases' walls, and the only change needed to make it fit through (one of) the gates would be to stretch the pair of arch st.meshes (myLevel.divers.porte1) by ~1.4x along the y-axis, and slightly readjust their positions. Alternatively, if avoiding abuse of the vec inside that area is a factoring priority (and, tbh, I was able to find plenty of ways to either waste it, do some nasty camping with it or just get it hopelessly stuck by the winding stairs and other places in short time), a better arrangement could still be achieved simply by moving the Perses' spawning base to a location where it''d be visible through one of the arches, most suitably the central one. Of course, the remaining problem then would be how far to place it so as to not obstruct the exit of other team vehicles from that gate and how to balance that against the possible risk its prospective users might be placed in from enemy fire during the late-game phase while trying to board it. Easy solutions to that would include either a longer arc jumppad from inside the base or a dedicated teleporter that could bring players right next to the vec in relatively more safety. Also, the vec itself would likely need to be dug in or be surrounded by more cover of any other kind in the case that it were moved farther away from the base since, in such a scenario, enemies would have an even easier time wrecking it while laying siege to the defenders' base before it even got a chance to be used. Long story short, there's a number of different ways that the Perses' spawning conditions can be improved, so I'll be curious to see which way you go with.
- Lastly, here's three minor aesthetic issues around the bases that can easily be adjusted for a more cohesive visual result. The first has to do with the gates' parallel walls st.meshes (myLevel.divers.pillier) that feature those odd and unfitting "trough" labels pointing in both ways - probably a holdover from the map/setting you originally got 'em from, but still easily fixable by navigating to their myLevel'd entry in UEd's Static Mesh browser and copying the asset's skin[0] to its skin[1]. The second visual glitch involves the rear painted/stained glass frames momentarily disappearing and reappearing when moving about some 3/4 of the way to the top of the rear winding stairs. Took me by surprise the first (few) time(s) I noticed it, so had to try n' replicate it again n' again just to be sure my laptop wasn't crapping out or anything, but it's consistent and it seems to be caused by the basement ceilings' texture having its Anti-Portal flag enabled (which, btw, a quick rmode 1 test showed wasn't achieving any kind of occlusion beyond those 2-3 st.meshes no matter where you'd move in that underground area, so no real benefit). I guess, when it comes to net performance gains around that area, it's either ZP sheets or nothing :/. Anywho, predictably, turning the A-P flags off fixed the popping in n' out issue. Lastly, and this one only concerns the SE base, the right flank raptor spawn needs its platform's st.mesh combo realigned, and the bender spawns' combo could stand to be raised a few UUs to hide the bigger part of that jutting power cable st.mesh protruding near their back too probably. No big deal in either case, but I just thought I'd point 'em out to get 'em sorted.
Primary nodes:
- That's a pretty interesting redesign concept you came up with for the distant primaries, J-P! It certainly provides way more room to fight around, and, compared to the old arrangement, the significantly longer total amount of exposed ledges makes it far more likely that duels will incorporate the z-axis too. For a bit I was worried that the platforms the cicadas spawn on could be camped by enemy phoenixes doing repeated alt-fire blasts and simultaneously damaging the node discs below as well as blocking ppl from coming up via both lifts due to the blasts' range, but it turns out the distances check out and that st.mesh is for all intents and purposes solid, so that's not an issue. The only questionable element around there I could point to would probably be the choice of having flame badgers spawn at the lower level, pretty much for the same reasons mentioned in previous discussions about its flying counterpart, the Draco. In a big and open outdoors environment such as this, where lines of sight between objectives' locations are long and uninterrupted and everyone can be expected to be equipped with avrils and some kinda hitscan weap, I can't help wonder how useful it will be for the average player to try n' hold their own in a vec like that.
- While I'm more curious about how the bunker primaries' upwards pushing ForcedDirVolumes will influence gameplay around those areas than outright negatively predisposed to the concept, I still can't shake the impression that their otherwise imperceptible nature could contribute to players interpreting that element as an obstruction rather than a mechanic. Perhaps some kinda visual cue could be included to act as a fair warning that some sort of unusual effect is at play right above the node, which players subsequently caught in it would then rightly attribute to the FDV without getting mad about the sudden shove. Considering what kinda solutions would be both theme-fitting but also not too heavy-handed and attention-drawing from the node itself to work here, the concentric energy rings emitters from maps like Lucid, 2ndRaceway-DW-SP1 and Colossus-NV-{gio} came to mind as appropriate enough - albeit after receiving some necessary adjustments, as the rings here wouldn't need to be of varying diameters (better to keep 'em the same) nor be generated at the same rate and speed (something slower, like ~3 at a time, seems more sensible). Not exactly a fatal map flaw we're discussing here, but just throwing it out there as an improvement idea.
Central area:
- First off, thanks for applying that slight size increase to the main n2 (Old House) house/barn structure; making more room available to players as well as including those boxes too should both make fights there more skill-based and interesting, and maybe even lead to fewer frustrations due to deaths owed to running out of maneuvering space.
- Relevant to n2, but also n6, I noticed that it's possible to sneak through the node-adjacent houses' top floor window and steal the health keg pickups inside without needing to use the teleporters just by dropping from the roof above and crouching. Much like the cores' holes discussed earlier, I dunno if this was intentional or not (although it's kinda fun to pull off ^^), but I thought I'd just let you know about it in case you want it patched.
- The current design of the south & north ruins secondaries (n4 & n8) seems to've reached a good balance between cover and exposure, and sports some interesting geometry to have some close(r) quarters duels in too. OTOH, the mid-west & mid-east ones (n3 & n7) strike me as far more open and harder to protect, but I'm assuming the reasoning behind that choice had to do with them being tertiaries/central objectives that also feature 3 connections to other nodes under the current node link setup, both making 'em valuable enough to justify the trouble of keeping 'em up. What will probably also help bridge that defensive gap are the ExtWildCardBases you've brought over from BBBv2K and placed near those two nodes. Main reason I'm making note of that is because of the varied options from all over the "tactical spectrum" the pickup pools you opted for can provide: from multi-purpose offensive (U.dmg) to area defensive (mines) to infiltration & stealth (invisibility) and beyond, there's a nuanced balance of offerings, each of which can help in different situations and get players thinking along different lines, that I couldn't help but appreciate. Treating the classic sniper as a neat gift in there too was also good thinking, since it can be a less conspicuous node-pinching aid that nobody else on the map will expect to be there. IMO this is the proper way to use the ECWBs, so kudos to you, sir, for doing just that
.- Speaking of the current node link setup, I gotta ask, is the RC2 one expected to be final? If that's not necessarily the case and you're still entertaining ideas, allow me to offer a few suggestions below towards getting some good mileage out of the amount and location of the map's nodes:
* Include complete peripheral route connections. This will provide players looking to pursue the team's agenda without getting embroiled in any bigger central area conflicts with a viable strategic alternative, as well as give 'em a good incentive to explore the map's border beyond the bases' vicinity. After all, while nodes may represent their entire surrounding territories, players still tend to travel along existing node links when moving from one to the next. This isn't to say that the "full scenic route" is supposed to be some kinda unbreakable stipulation, of course; there's numerous successful maps that deliberately don't adhere to that mentality (VolcanoHigh comes to mind) and still work just fine; rather, a reminder that, unless there's a specific link setup design reason for not doing so, including those peripheral links would be a welcome courtesy to players.
* By virtue of their different geometric design and core proximity, primaries often naturally differ in how defensible they are. This disparity can be put to good use and/or compensated by a number of ways, such as giving the less defensible node (in this case the more distant one) more potent vehicles or placing some helpful asset or mobility convenience (teleporter, jumppad to someplace important) near 'em. Another common way to bestow more strategic value to a primary, and the one I think might best fit here, would be by giving it a higher number of connections, like you see with SlatedWorld or StarReach. Doing so for the distant primaries would also serve to alleviate some of the linear tug-of-war gameplay the current node link setup can be expected to deliver once a match moves past the fight for central nodes and into late-game stage (the bottleneck is owed to both primaries and secondaries having a degree of just 2).
* Have a link line that connects the midsection's nodes from end to end in some fashion or something equivalent. This will provide room for players looking to "change lanes" and so introduce more strategic breadth to their choices by providing a cursory cutoff possibility - inasmuch as stepladder link setups can support that (think ChainIsles). Of course, creating node isolation opportunities can go much further than that, but a "midsection belt" linking is common enough ground for many maps.
* Consider whether the nodes' relative locations and connections provide any room for "deep link" connections, as in ones that are longer than the average link's length for the map, like the case is with, say, MagicIsle's phoenix secondaries. Complimentary to the previous suggestion, this can add more strategic depth to players' choices, because the risk vs. reward calculations for attempting raids [deep] into enemy territory are substantially different to the more typical fare of teams spawning at battlefront-adjacent nodes and butting heads all around there until one side overpowers the other and the front is moved one node deeper in either direction. To successfully pull off a raid along a deep link players will need to communicate & coordinate better, as well have to rely on speed or stealth far more than in the usual combat situations. A big map that's more sparsely populated by nodes, like Panalesh, could be considered to feature deep links in a more natural manner too, I suppose.
* Lastly, one of the most predictable strategic calculations you can expect the more seasoned n' experienced ONS players to make as soon as they glance at a new map's link setup will be to identify the nodes with the highest number of connections (the aforementioned degree property) as the more valuable ones and, then, for them to plot a route that takes 'em through those nodes. It does make perfect sense from a player's PoV, but it can also lead to predictable and repetitive gameplay in the area between such hotspots on your map match after match, where ppl will keep on respawning, bringing all the heavy gear to and camping with (remember Battlefront?), and that's not exactly the ideal to aim for. For that reason, avoiding giving [central] nodes too high a degree unnecessarily - say, above 3 - might be the more sensible way to fashion a link setup so as to ensure a geographically more evenly distributed gameflow.
For illustrative purposes, after applying those points to a blank node link setup, this is the most interesting one I ended up with.
Overall errant issues:
- It seemed prevalent enough to make me decide to do a full census, and, by my count, out of the 42 weapon lockers on the map, only 14 offer the bio rifle, just 16 have miniguns, rocket launchers aren't available in more than 20, you can only get the flak rifle in 29 of them and there's no grenade launchers to be found at all. Moreover, the map has plenty of nodes and vecs in potential need of linking, but no weap.locker will offer more than 130 link ammo per pickup, so when you do stock up on one and proceed to build the adjacent node you end up left with something like 13 link ammo. All put together, the picture painted here seems to be one of unnecessary weap/ammo scarcity; many lockers, in fact, give as little as only half the arsenal when touched. IMO the map can afford to be more generous with its standard arsenal replenishments to players without even needing to worry about compromising its greater gameplay design. It wouldn't even take long to do too: just select all weap.lockers, set for them some group name in their properties, next copy them to the clipboard, paste that in a text editor, run a Replace All to change the group name to something slightly different, upgrade their loadouts - preferably in a more uniform fashion, like the template I linked to in my first post on the previous page - through quick c&p actions (just the weapons array lines need changing, nothing more), which shouldn't take more than a min or two, then paste the whole thing back in UEd, adjust for 32UU offset on each axis, select the old locker group from the Groups Browser and delete.
- The jumppads network seems pretty well-rounded at this point; if anything, with some being located right next to a few central nodes (or even placed on their geometry itself), I might even go as far as to say their number may've slightly exceeded the optimal count. Still, slightly erring on the side of pedestrian convenience isn't really of concern here. What I wanted to point out, instead, is the moderate visibility issue the JPs' emitters suffer from, something that's likely also exacerbated by the bright day sky being of similar colour to the particles. Instead of using multi-part emitter actors that on aggregate both make the map's filesize bigger and impact client-side performance, why not just use one component (as in, drop the arrows), but aim to make it a bit more striking/contrasting in terms of colour, direction and length so that peds can know from as early as mid-distance where exactly touching any JP will send them flying towards? For good implementations of that approach, you might wanna consider maps like Echo103, Ascendancy or ZeroImpact that, despite having it easier due to their darker sky/terrain combo, have bright and "beefy" enough particles streaming away from their JPs that make it almost impossible for players to misinterpret their important attributes. Not saying that using the exact same emitters here will automatically work, but with minor adjustments, I think the odds are you'll get something better, and lighter, than the current batch.
- For some reason, while you seem to've fed their weaponbases the correct attribute, the weapons they give to players end up being SSRs instead of ZSSRs. This is by no means a complaint, btw - more like the opposite. Between the size, openness and number of varied vehicles roaming around the map on one hand, and the fact that there's enough other standalone "superpower" pickups pedestrians can collect (from the same vicinity no less) that in conjunction can pretty much allow players to relive their Mutant gamemode memories without even the health draining drawbacks on the other, I think there's enough arguments from both perspectives - the users, as well as their potential victims - for why SSRs might not be a prudent item to include on top of everything else in Syrma. Under the current setup, the speed relics are bunched up between two jumppads right next to the hills where the SSRs spawn; why not unclutter that arrangement a bit by moving those to the elevated position instead and hit two birds with one stone?
- Lastly, while not a gameplay issue and not much of a priority either (i.e. something you could just as easily tackle in subsequent versions whenever the right kind of inspiration hits ya), speaking of hill pickups, I found myself often wondering whether their vicinities could use some additional, theme-fitting decorating instead of having them just lying around on their own atop various hills. Placing those pickups, say, in the shade of a nearby tree, inside some small abandoned shack, atop some stones or ruins st.meshes (or whatever you might come up with or borrow from other maps) would contribute to tying the map's theme together that much more, and likely also improve exploring players' experience in it.
Well, with all the notes I had for the map finally elaborated on, I think it's time to wrap up. Once again, sorry for the comically long delay of this review, GLoups, and I hope some of it can still help you further improve the map and bring it even closer to a hosting-ready state.
. the bots can go around the map just fine too. i ran into an interestin glitch that i could not reproduce even after trying several times. it was visible only around this location when getting low enough, and only while facing this direction. is this familiar to you, or my PC was having a stroke?
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