Spotlight on Cyclopean I'd like to start a new thing every once in a while for people to vent their rage about specific maps. The theory is that the map can be improved, and then people can stop bitching about how official maps suck. However, it is impossible to please everyone, so we'll just have to try our best. To maintain order, I'd like to restrict it to a SINGLE rant thread at a time. For that reason, please curb your enthusiasm and don't start similar threads about other official maps. The first such rant will be about cyclopean, as we already have somebody working on optimising it. Please rant about what you love or hate about this map, but KEEP CURSEWORDS TO A MINIMUM. In case anybody wants it, here is the minimap: (click for larger version)
I'm optimizing it. For gameplay, I'm also making the southeast rooftop impossible to get a barracks on. I'm also moving the north dam ref to the top. For BE side, I'm making the North West slightly easier to attack and getting attacked by NF in the north less unfair.
Basically remove that hill and make it like the front of the NF side, the only way i can think of "fixing" that map
hmm. when was that second ramp added to the city? Not much wrong with cyclopean. maybe prevent players from getting up on the cliffs above the base walls. There is no point to doing that other than to be annoying.
I quite like the damn ref down there. It makes it vulnerable and there are good fights over it. I'd rather have all the beach/middle refs a bit unsecured so the ownership of them changes quite often. It only sucks when there is a scout going around and sabbing everything, that aint fun going after a scout and repairing the shit all the time.
West ref is NF ref. What ref does BE get like that? Damn ref needs to be like the NF west ref to be fair.
The BE peninsula refinery probably needs to be moved more than the dam ref. Anyone who owns the middle will also own that refinery. I've always seen the dam ref more comparable to the south ref.
NF seems to have a big advantage while attacking main they can either get a racks right outside or get a squad ontop of the hill and lay waste. Maybe make a racks able to be placed near the ref above NF main?
Didn't think about that. BE really can't racks push the NF base, but NF can racks push the north side of the BE base due to the hill there blocking vis.
no u. I will work on gameplay and optimization. Not going to spend hours upon hours to change the displacements when it isn't needed.
I said brushwork... it looks horrible. I always thought the visual part is important too for official maps.
I said "no u." I'll change some of the map obviously when I update it but I'm not going out of my way to make it pretty. Considering yall seem to hate NW and I can see why, I will attempt something on that side. Going to modify how you can get to both the refinery in the north west if I can change everything how I think it would be balanced best. I may make the hill in the west more attackable by BE or lessin the effects of the hills over NF. Something like that. Cyclopean looks worse.
Meh, basically, in short: BE can't get a rax near NF main, or half way to NF main, whereas NF have the hill outside BE main, and the top of the dam thing at the back. So BE should have a rax location near the A4 ref and the NF main. You can get up outside each base on the hills and mortar everything to shit. As much as I love it, its got to go. Roofraxes are fine IMO if you give BE another location for it, it makes for interesting combat. Maybe make the other roof (where you can build a rax through the ceiling) more flat, with a ladder going all the way up. Its unique combat, don't remove that. I don't agree with moving the dam ref, why not move the other ref instead, the A4 one. The dam one gives interesting combat, you're basically pulling everything that's unique about the map. Yes, the NW sucks a bit because NF can go up the hill but BE gotta climb in a bottle neck, but a simple fix is this: Move the ref (not the corner one, the other one) along closer to the NF side a bit, and then turn that area where it used to be into terrain. Sure that makes it closer to NF, but it makes no difference. If you have the north, you have the ref, you never really have each team with 1 of the refs, you either have all or nothing. As for city, nobuild some of the stupid areas where you make armoury ladders, mainly the one near the normal roof rax on the road, its just annoying. Make room for BE to get a rax under the NF bridge, like NF can do at the moment. Don't smooth out that entire area, its pointless, it won't achieve anything except giving NF a clear run to BE base, at least now you can surpress them. If you keep making the terrain more flat, you're going to make the map boring. In other words, ignore drummer A large advantage comes from that when NF attack the BE main, they are fighting downhill with cover, on a ledge, whereas BE are fighting downhill without cover. If you maybe lifted the area from A4 up and made a sort've jutting out plateu going to the NF main base, that could even it out. Don't flatten stuff though, it just makes stuff boring. So yeh, those are my opinions, cyclopean is one of my favourite maps, I'd prefer if you didn't ruin it. Kthxbai.
