Let’s address the elephant in the room…
Cape River Mining Colony ROCKS (pun intended).
LZ2 and the eastern part of the map is xeno-biassed while the western part of the map is (mostly) marine-biased. That is… Because the western area is mostly open, and the eastern area mostly has buildings that are closely knit together.
I was writing up a post about CQB and ambushing as marines, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that because xenos have thermals, it’s considerably harder to do it, but possible if you use C4s or traps.
This new map has the glistening chance of it actually happening, and I’m a bit excited for it.
This map explores and exploits a few new interesting ideas, such as semi-random loot for survivors and an un-crossable river.
And my opinions on those are as follows:
The un-crossable river is an idea with its advantages and disadvantages; it creates some vital chokepoints on the map, especially on the eastern portion that are 2 or 1 wide, and they can be used and exploited by both sides, but it also makes it so that manoeuvring outside of the bridges is downright impossible.
I think that xenos and marines should have an option to employ the river tactically turning the switch on and off and making it a strategic hardpoint for both factions. (Or maybe another way to make more choke points, or having them available after a certain timestamp.)
The survivor loot can make survivors too strong on a given round, but I think that it’s honestly more fun than over or under-arming them. It does make it more fun to play survivor and have to scavenge for guns and metal in random locations, using my crowbar every once in a while to open crates.
Other considerations: (sensors pushing, foliage and caves)
Sensors is arguably the hardest hardpoint to push, which is consistent with other maps: If the marines capture it, the round is pretty much over. The design of the central rock and the rocks that are in the river give the xenos the ever so slight edge, but if marines blitzkrieg hard enough or fortify and gradually push while cading, it is winnable.
Steelpoint was correct in the fact that the desert is the most detailed I’ve seen on the engine, this map particularly is more detailed than Kutjevo and the Trijent Dam.
The caves follow the inverse logic thought: The east is heavily marine-sided while the west is heavily xeno-sided. I also find it neat how the caves have a lot of access points through the south following the outline of the caves.
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In any way, these are my opinions, what do YOU think about it?
I find the map fun.