Now a big feature about CM13 are its maps. CM13 has some pretty iconic maps (LV and Solaris being the prime examples). The newly testmerged maps (Tyrargo Rift especially) are quite solid.
However, there’s some… dated maps that could use some tweaking. These maps are often considered the worst by players for a reason. And these are the four maps.
Shivas
In short, snow slowdown is bad. Snow settings are very nice, but the main problem with this map is the snow slowdown makes the map actively worse. I get shoveling snow is realistic, but in practice it just causes a giant slogfest for both sides. It slows both marines and xenomorphs down, which causes rounds to also be slow as a result. The snow slowdown isn’t a cool feature, it’s just an annoyance for both sides. The only way for xenos to even easily clear the snow is via spit. They patched out crusher being able to charge the snow down, for some reason.
This map also needs polishing with the buildings in general. For some weird reason, you can’t mortar any of the buildings here (due to them counting as underground, which why). The buildings also need reworking, like most of the map is ignored due to snow slowdown or buildings just being active annoyance for both sides. Apparently the map is mirrored from one of the older maps which was taken out of rotation, so yeah. This map feels dated and could use some reworking.
Sorokyne Starata
IMO this map isn’t as bad as the others, but still the map could use some changes. The jungle portion of the map to the east is fine, it’s a fun part. But the rest of the map… not so much. The west part of the map suffers similarly to Shivas, with snow slowdown being a slop mechanic. I think the central building part needs to be spaced out a bit as well, it tends to lead to slogfests. There isn’t much incentive to explore the map and you just have to push east instead, which makes a lot of the central areas kinda useless. I feel like the map would be more fun if the main action was focused on the jungle rather then the central buildings. This map isn’t as bad as the rest as I’ve said before, but I think the west snow part and the central buildings could use some polishing.
Fiorina Science Annex
This map is here, mainly because it is a dogshit map for marines, to put it bluntly. This map REQUIRES people to bring a lot of breaching tools like the xm51, breaching charges, good CAS and OBs. But the problem is a lot of people like to frag more, given well fragging is fun. This map has a lot of closed and small spaces xenomorphs can flank from. LZ1 and LZ2 both have a million different ways queen can send a deathball to flank from. Most rounds play out like this. Marines push to the hive, likely somewhere far west. Because of the amount of small flank routes xenos can hide and pounce from, marines get ambushed and get wiped, forcing an early evac. You can argue a lot of rounds go like this in general, but Fiorina is worse due to the amount of narrow spaces xenos can flank from. Imo, to fix this map, the map needs to be opened up more. Less narrow spaces for xenos to be able to flank from. For example, maybe the armory section and lowsec could be opened up to make LZ2 harder to push to. Central and west Fiorina in particular is where marines tend to wipe, which is well most of the map. Maybe open up those more as well, letting marines have spaces to breathe and to better react to xeno flanks from.
New Varadero
This map has a lot of potential to be a great map. The best part of the map for me are the small beach areas outside the buildings, I like navigating those. But the buildings part leaves a lot to be desired. The buildings suffer a similar issue to central Soro and Fiorina in that there is a lot of rubbish parts that xenos can flank from, and that also don’t get explored much by both sides. You will need good OBs and cas to repel xenos back to caves from my experience of playing this map. The map is known to even be a FOB siege map, where most of the round is FOB sieging and that marines struggle to be anywhere but close to the FOB. The buildings part needs the most rework.
What would make this map REALLY shine is more beach. Less buildings. Please. I want bikinis, straw houses, coconuts, posters that advertise dancers, etc.. like your typical touristy tropical beach area. I think the map would really benefit and become one of my favorites for that. But instead, it’s slop buildings.
Anyways this was quite a ramble. I’d like your thoughts below!