Accepted Boom Town

[tababysuper]

Map Name: Boom Town
Authors: tababysuper and Laddoss
Description: The locals have had a bit too much to drink at the saloon and a disagreement has led to a full out brawl in the streets.
Download Link: here

Notes:
The map features 3 paths to get to the other side, the main path, the path over the bridge that stretches around the outside of the map and a cave system.
Each of the regular houses has at least 3 different entrances to discourage camping in them.
The bomb buildings (Saloons) have a total of 5 entrances. Each is fairly small and all are in sight when sitting at the back wall of the building facing the main entrance. It has the main entrance, a porch, a ladder to the roof, and two ladders up from the basement.
The fastest bomb to bomb time is 19 seconds.

 

[Smalusion]

Map looks really nice. I appreciate how you went the extra mile to make both halves of the map unique with different houses and structures, when most maps that utilize the flip tool don't.

However, usage of the flip tool leads to certain other problems. Namely that there's usually an obviously better path to the bomb on one side of the map. On this map specifically, there doesn't seem to be any use to the train path or the caves. Why would I circle around the back canyon path when the main path will get me to the other base in a third of the time? While it could be seen as a stealth path, the sheer cost of time would make it unviable for nearly any situation. It seems best suited as decoration or as a ghost highway.

The caves have a similar issue. While they offer one way into the bases via the cellar... you could also just open the cellar doors to the sides of the base, letting you get to the exact same area with minimal effort. (They're also kind of long, especially with the loops they do)

As for the bases, well...
One primary issue is that it's actually difficult to tell where the bomb is. Most people would expect it to be somewhere in the back canyons or the large cave, not the unmarked house that looks similar to most of the others. Would highly recommend making them look more distinctive, easily done with red/blue decorations around it.
Moving onto the base interiors, they are rather cramped and bumpy. A more open area inside would go a long way.

This reply is mostly complaints, but I would like to say I personally really enjoy the theme and visuals of this map. Keep it up!

 

[tababysuper]

I took the feedback to heart and made some necessary changes.

Link to new download: Here

The first issue was that the bridge path would likely be underused aside from kits such as ghost because everyone would prefer to take the quicker main route. For this reason I added a new spawn area that is located halfway up the back canyon path. This way when people spawn into the game they immediately have to choose whether to go up to the bridge or down to the town. This should give the upper path more foot traffic early on in the game.


The next issue was that for new players and those playing the map for the first time it would likely be hard to figure out which building exactly held the bomb. In order to make it a bit more distinctive I added some banners and carpets to distinguish the saloon as each teams base.

Another potential problem was the inside of the saloons. I removed some tables and chairs in order to maximize the area within the buildings. There is now much more room for fighting and less things to get caught on when you are trying to escape from something.


And finally the basement. As it was the basement had two entrances, the side door, and an entrance from the cave system, however the cave entrance and cave itself would likely rarely be used as the side door was much quicker. So I have decided to add iron doors at the base of the side entrance. This makes it so someone has to run around through the cave to let the team into the basement, or alternatively they could all just take that route. There is buttons as oppose to levers so the doors only stay open for a small amount of time. There two trapdoors just above the iron doors, so kits with pearls can still pearl their way through the entrance. As for the rest of the cave, it is quite long. However, the intention of this part of the cave was never really intended to be used as a high traffic way to the other side, though it could be used as one. Its main purpose was to provide a way back up to the main part of the map for those who had fallen down into the lake within the canyon.

I think these changes will help a lot with the gameplay of the map.

 

[Smalusion]

Sounds great! I'd check it out, but

pls fix

 

[tababysuper]

should be all good now @Smalusion

 

[Smalusion]

This map will be put into the testing phase (it's soon) !

I really like how this map looks, but the gameplay is something we'll have to find out about. Be very sure to note any feedback you get during the testing phase.

Thanks for the map sub!

 

[Setery]

The roof entrance seems to be mostly a non-factor entrance, kits without movement such as pearls have to take a long roundabout way to get there. Even if you get there, you will get ladder-hopped (this is because you have less reach downwards than upwards). Front entrance is easily blockable, and as far as I could tell the side entrance was only able to be opened from the inside so you need a kit with pearls to even get through the gap.

Good map theme and design though.

 

[tababysuper]

The roof entrance seems to be mostly a non-factor entrance, kits without movement such as pearls have to take a long roundabout way to get there. Even if you get there, you will get ladder-hopped (this is because you have less reach downwards than upwards). Front entrance is easily blockable, and as far as I could tell the side entrance was only able to be opened from the inside so you need a kit with pearls to even get through the gap.

Good map theme and design though.

I have noticed that there are some issues with the entrances to the base, notably that ladder issue and the fact that they are all easily defended with land mines and I will likely make some changes after I play the map a few more times so I can get a feel for what needs to be done.

 

[Dave_X]

Hey tababysuper and Laddoss,

We will not be currently accepting this map, however I think that with some changes this could be one of the best maps on the server.

Here are the reasons we won’t be accepting the map:

1. The bases are cramped. Even though they are more open then they initially were, there’s still only one viable entrance to push - the 3-block front doorway. All the entrances are also very susceptible to landmines.
2. The Blue base has an additional way to their roof through climbing to the roof of a neighboring building. Red base does not have this weakness.
3. Much of the map is dead space. The train, lake, and buildings all take up space to make the fairly straight route between bases even smaller. This main route is otherwise entirely flat with the one mesa wall as the lone obstacle.
4. Speaking of the train/lake, the upper and cave routes are largely nonviable. Both are narrow, the train route puts you at high risk of falling, and the cave route is very long.

All that said, I absolutely think this can be fixed. Aesthetically, this map is perfect; these issues stem from the layout of the map. If you were to redesign the layout to be more balanced and have more meaningful routes/chokepoints/obstacles I’ll put it straight into testing. I also recommend/condone copying and pasting the assets you already have to save time

 

[tababysuper]

Hey tababysuper and Laddoss,

We will not be currently accepting this map, however I think that with some changes this could be one of the best maps on the server.

Here are the reasons we won’t be accepting the map:

1. The bases are cramped. Even though they are more open then they initially were, there’s still only one viable entrance to push - the 3-block front doorway. All the entrances are also very susceptible to landmines.
2. The Blue base has an additional way to their roof through climbing to the roof of a neighboring building. Red base does not have this weakness.
3. Much of the map is dead space. The train, lake, and buildings all take up space to make the fairly straight route between bases even smaller. This main route is otherwise entirely flat with the one mesa wall as the lone obstacle.
4. Speaking of the train/lake, the upper and cave routes are largely nonviable. Both are narrow, the train route puts you at high risk of falling, and the cave route is very long.

All that said, I absolutely think this can be fixed. Aesthetically, this map is perfect; these issues stem from the layout of the map. If you were to redesign the layout to be more balanced and have more meaningful routes/chokepoints/obstacles I’ll put it straight into testing. I also recommend/condone copying and pasting the assets you already have to save time

Thank you for the input Dave, I can’t say when as I am certainly finding less time to play craft with school going on, but at some point in the future I will definitely put some work into making some altercations to the map.