I just wanted to ask, what map does the community like and what maps does the community hate?
Personally, I hate fiorina. Reason being? Just too many flanks. Especially around southern LZ.
i hate Fiorina too, though i hate it for its lack of pipes; its fun to crawl around in the pipes as a xeno.
I don’t think there’s a Bad Map in the game, and don’t really think there ever was - including old Ice, but CORSAT is a bit of a stretch.
I notably am a highly fluid player. I play Engineering, Medical, rank-and-file or Command pretty interchangeably but with a different character designed for each. I also tend to shake-up my loadout for each map, because the maps are clearly meant to be approached in different ways.
Fiorna’s, Varadeo, and Chance’s are great, until you get a batch of Marines or Xenos who didn’t think to bring anti-wall measures to clear a path around Go Fuck Yourself Alley, whose atmosphere is 50% boiler gas and 30% bullet at any given time.
LV and Solaris are classics though not my personal cup of tea, but people unwilling to shore-up backlines and a strong defense of the center of the map are liable to result in 3-hour rounds when one side loses its siege, has to fall back past Hydro (LV) or Admin (BR), and all the way back home to lick their wounds enough to keep poking at the other’s defenses after a crushing retreat. Kutjevo - LV/Solaris except better - suffers similiarly some rounds.
Finally, some more complex maps like Trijent, Shiva’s Snowball and Ice (Goddess rest their weary souls), or Sorokyne offer excellent opportunities to switch things up. Making lanes in snow to funnel Xenomorphs/Marines for risk of slowdown, marines utilizing elevators/trams to transport dozens of marines in seconds, and the Xenomorph’s ability to attack from a large variety of angles due to all the open ground for tunneling.
The issue is, ultimately, that means adapting. You’d have to join the round, absorb which map you’re playing on, and strategize beyond rushing from A to B and bunkering down in some place a dedicated commtech or two worked hard to build. If you flounder in a Kutjevo siege then you ultimately don’t have too far to run to get back to home base, but taking the same “no fortified fall-back point” means an absolute slaughter on Trijent, Fiorna, or Varadeo, which translates to a lot of people having poor views of less simplistic maps.
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522’s reactor part, it’s just like maze i hate it too much.
Fiorina not badly designed but not fun to play. I think that’s because of lack of meta places to fight.
Sorokyne, too big.
Chance’s is awful, please take it out of rotation asap, thanks.
Fiorina is one of my favorites. Trijent is a blast to play.
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The community certainly loves LV, because they vote it in every single fucking time.
Me? I hate LV, because it gets voted every single fucking time.
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I don’t mind Chance’s Claim but it feels like it’s just the survivor map. Aside from Fiorina (god I love fio).
I play almost nothing but synthetic or survivor on Chance’s claim, because it’s just only really fun if you play one of those roles (+ you get to use the breaching hammer a LOT on CC and I love the sound)
I think my favorite map would have to be Trijent. There’s plenty of space to fight in, the map is gargantuan. Even though the xenos always hive in the far northeast corner of the map there’s plenty of ways to attack it by moving to filtration, or taking the dam, or flanking south. Also, UPP insert my beloved.
I think the way to make LV a little more interesting would be to add more nightmare inserts. As of now it’s a very basic map with little or nothing in the way of changes to how it plays. I think that maybe using nightmare inserts to change up the terrain every round would be fun. Adding or removing entrances to the caves, changing the way the nexus is structured, swapping some of the domes around maybe…
This would also probably be a nightmare to balance and plan around, especially for xenos, if done wrong, though.
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I will kill xenos and cap marines anywhere, at any time, and I will love every second of it. Shit’s too fun.
Chance’s claim:
Great until you hit the reactor. Lots of alleyways, escape routes, flanks, and destructible terrain.
New Varedaro:
Same as chance’s - great until you hit the caves, except the LZ’s are too open and too difficult to protect. Chance’s LZ is ok.
Trijent Dam:
Pretty good but it’s very open and very large. Makes it difficult to actually protect anywhere except fob and cave entrances. Cave area doesn’t feel as claustrophobic to fight in, which is nice.
Fiorina:
Also pretty good but the southwestern LZ is very difficult to defend, the amount of materials needed is probably the worst of any LZ on any map. Map flow is pretty good until you reach the deep hive area with indestructible walls.
Mostly what I notice about maps I prefer vs maps I don’t really like so much, are the following:
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Key defensible locations:
New varedaro’s engineering, bball, and chapel; LV’s medical building and hydro; fiorina’s chapel (could be better), Chance’s engineering and grill; Kutjevo’s hydro building northeast of LZ. -
Wide open combat spaces:
LV’s beach, Kutjevo’s scrubland and botany, that first open area inside trijents’ caves; these places where xenos can weed and build, have some structures, but you have space to actually run around and fight and usually able to call down mortars and cas. -
Lots of flanking opportunities:
Chance’s claim, new varedaro, and fiorina are all pretty good for this. Trijent also but it’s not as thorough. Basically creates opportunities for xenos or marines to get around unseen from the main fight or with cover. Makes it more fun when you can do that.
What I DONT like, are indestructible chokepoints. Every map seems to have them and I think they make the combat much much worse. Devolves into unfun boiler gas, warrior grabs, and lots of friendly fire. It’s just not fun to play chokepoint stuff. We need less of it and should try to figure out balance without them.
Instead of indestructible chokepoints, I think we need layers of destructible ones. Chance’s claim, kutjevo’s botany bay, and new varedaro in general are like that, and it creates a back and forth flow - xenos with their current weeds and build ability can very quickly regenerate structures and cover to create new chokepoints so I don’t think baking them into maps is relevant anymore.
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