I like the addition of coast, it's got some interesting elements, although whoever made it can't optimise for shit, and wish to enquire as to why king has recieved no further attention. I have provided a copy of r5 but the svn is still using r2. As the whole point of me being a tester is to make king compatible I would suggest you get your finger out and assess the 'new' version, albeit several months old.
There's three flags, and one refinery which builds using the flag capture system. It'd be a very small and simple map, it's less complex than district and district is a simple map. Yes it only really takes off when you have a number of players, but that can hardly be avoided without fucking up the experience when you do have the players. However, if the entity provisions were made, I could make it so that the city is closed until you have enough players on the server, but I'd need an entity to trigger events based on number of connected players. It's in its own area, it would be easy to add some doors to the main gates and close the portals permanently. Alternatively, if you added other entity support, I could make it so that you could build raxes as an engineer at the flag locations, that would remove the need for flags. But I simply can't make a closed in area like the city using conventional empires techniques, and I want to make a closed in area because I want a contrast to the rest of the map, that's the whole point. I've only seen three or possibly four games played on it since it was released, and at least half of those were poor games with little participation, everyone just sat in spec and talked, and I know that can't be dislike of the map because nobody had played the map to know whether or not they liked it. I need it to be tested before I can make improvements, so far I know of no significant testing having occured, so telling me 'nobody likes it' is pointless because nobody has, to my knowledge, played it.
In the old maps thread, I'll fish it out. Trickster tells me some people experience slowdowns due to a very large cliff texture I used to get the speculars looking good, if this presents a problem you can fix it by using the old materials, or commenting out the line in the vmt. It runs much better than the 2.23 coast though. Edit: Hang on, it's gone, I'll reupload. http://files.filefront.com/emp+king+r5zip/;13474150;/fileinfo.html Reuploaded.
the layout is boring and unfun. simply put. the map has amazing elements to it and the city itself is great and does look to have the potential for its own escort/district style standalone map. The problem is just layout and its too damn dark. Idk how to quantify it but if the city were a focal point of the map instead of in a corner that doesnt yeild that much money, whats the point of it? People see it now and it's too complex or difficult to defend confidently. I'd cut the city out or move it to the center of the map, and perhaps intergrate that useless boring tunnel system into the city if you can let it go and simply remove it. my 2 cents. There's yer feedback.
The layout is not complex, no, but most empires maps are not, relatively simple layouts seem to work best, so I don't think there is a problem with the layout because any layout will work in an empires map, people make their own layout. Canyon is a simple loop, king uses an almost identical layout to coast as a matter of fact, a loop with a central accessway. The difference is that instead of a central focal point (the bunker) the focal point is on the loop, and requires contesting rather than simply capturing. I also added more things to the northwest which makes it a bit more like the city, but as you have likely neglected to play the latest version you probably wouldn't know that. How people see it is simply because it's a new map, if you play it you will learn more about how it works, the city isn't difficult to defend because it only has two main entrances. Once you play it you will devise a strategy that works, but if people won't play it then they never will. We had this problem last time, I said you need to play the map to enjoy it, but the counterargument is 'I don't enjoy it because I don't play it'. I can't make you play it, however, including it as a standard map would get people to play it. People tend to play maps if they come up in the rotation. The city is a double ref point, so it earns as much res as the opposing corner, so it is a valuable earner and you should contest it. I shortened the tunnel system and made it a safer and direct connection between most of the map apart from the city, it's more functional now, so it should not be useless. I played a version of midbridge for the first time recently and I don't understand the layout for that entirely, but that doesn't mean I can't play it, nor does it mean I'm unwilling to learn the layout.
how to make king better in 3 easy steps: REMOVE THE WHOLE MIDDLE AREA MAKE IT SO PEOPLE CAN FIND THEIR WAY THROUGH THE CITY MORE INFANTRY COVER IN THE NW
How to make me happier in 3 easy steps. Don't suggest removing the middle. Play the latest version, which you obviously haven't done. I second on midbridge, I was very impressed when I played it, the architecture is actually a very good balance between efficiency, functionality, and prettiness.
I recommend rounding out some of the corners and boxy 'between' areas on the map. It gives players a sense of direction and purpose when their path is a bit more narrow. Most maps try to use all of the space in a box. Maps need more constraint or action is going to go nowhere. If you have a minimap of KUTM, I can make some suggestions. Here's an example with a rough sketch of arid. http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t64/OuNin/arid.png
They do have a sense of direction, there are signs pointing everywhere and obvious paths to take. For the last time play the new version before you tell me what I need to do.
Everything I said was bassed on the last version. REMOVE THE WHOLE MIDDLE AREA MAKE IT SO PEOPLE CAN FIND THEIR WAY THROUGH THE CITY MORE INFANTRY COVER IN THE NW The major problem is that king has to much space, with every road that takes a 45 degree turn for optimisation you increase the distance somebody has to travel by 33%. The middle cap flag area around the NW tower adds alot of space to fight around. In almost every real game I played on king I was searching for enemys half the time and when I encountered someone it was never more than 2 persons. Every route every place and every extra turn and every parting of the ways adds more area you have to walk through. I ninjad some cv´s that parked outside the city by just walking through the area cause nobody of the enemy team expected that someone can just run through it.
1. what is the latest version? i've played and hosted kutm and king_r3 aside from that i didnt see any other public releases, the lastest one i thought was in a svn testing but i never noted the revision of the map. 2. i'm not saying your layout sucks, its just not intuitive whatsoever, i've had this map (3 diff. versions) in rotation and on my server and everyone rtv its immediately, so i took it out. You cant make people play something they dont like. And you cant force them to tell you why they dont like it, but when you do get feedback from ANYONE, try to actually consider what they say instead of shrugging things off as not being the latest version. Unless you reworked the ENTIRE MAP and made it BRIGHTER in this 'latest version' there are still problems with its fun factor. 3. People love canyon/other maps due to their simplicity it seems. Canyon is a big circle and it used to be the #1 played official map. King seems to be too complex to jump in and play w/o knowing the map. I realize you cant be objective about this, but many a people have informed you of this. Try creating an alternate version of king (new name, etc) where the city is moved to the middle (and partially simplified or 'opened' up) and add some more damn lighting everywhere or increase the ambient. People dont want to play dark maps, period. hope that helps. also, glad to host any new versions and/or run playtests to see this map become community accepted. It has tons of potential and you clearly know how to map.
