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Quoted from yak

Map is terrible, too big, too many flank options and really bad fps issues

Prob’ly this.

After playing this map, here’s what I have to say:

1)
The overall design of the map feels lazy. I do understand that it is in alpha, however I would very much like to see a bit more world brushes and props and the likes to make the gameplay less dull. Not even talking about decoration here, it’s just… bland. I would advise more terrain differences, I guess?

Perhaps a bit more of playing around with height differences and of course needs a bit more expansion to those completely useless rooms to the side that no one goes to. Give people a reason to go to every part of your map, don’t just add it there for no reason and leave it be, knowing no one will bother going there. Maybe an ammo pack?

2) Annoying and totally not fun sentry spots. The map in itself almost forces the engie to prefer lvl3 sentry over minis, which is only a bad thing if there is essentially no consideration towards sentry influence. There were only two viable sentry spots, one on the wooden “sniper ram” (which no sniper ever went to due to being mainly useless and extremely restrictive) aiming down at the point with wrangle or on on the top side right outside of the metallic crate room (my team just called it “metalworks” [rofl] so I’ll refer to it as that).

The first case I wont discuss, but I must criticize the second one. The problem with sentries right outside “metalworks” is that they can aim directly down at the point and be a complete and utter pain the ass for literally everyone down there, be they lvl3 or minis! The position is the only genuinely viable one that we could discover in such a short time and therefore perhaps the one that will be used more often- and for good reason! It’s sort of bullshit. The height advantage and inability to be focused immediately from the point only adds frustration towards wanting to cap the point.

SPEAKING OF POINT:

3)
I thought it was neat at first that we had a uh, “upside-down lakeside” (as one of my teammates put it) and I was looking forward towards trying it out, however it quickly proved to be frustrating to cap it due to it’s awkward position. Our combo would kill the enemy demo, heavy and medic and we would still have trouble capping due to how much minis thrived around it, the sniper sightlines (more on that in a bit) and just how easily spamable it was just for being on lowered ground.

In order to legitimately capture without issue, our combo was forced to take a heavily forward hold, waaay ahead of the point itself just so we could keep the enemy team back away for long enough for our flank to actually capture in peace.

Defending the point after it was already capped was also a pain in the ass due to how fragile our combo was whenever it was forced to go down there. Again, minis just shut down everything with ease, almost single handedly rendering our flank useless for defense. We are also forced to show ourselves to them and put ourselves in a disadvantage just so we could cap, which felt extremely uncomfortable.

I would suggest decreasing the inclination, rise the point up a bit, maybe put it in some sort of elevated platform and also modify the terrain all around it so that gameplay around it wouldn’t be so dumb. Personally, I’d scrap the current mid design altogether and think of something else.

4)
The sniper sightlines were ridiculous. Whether you were on metalworks, the point or on the flank near dropdown, you were putting yourself in tremendous risk of being headshotted. If you’re up against a kind of sniper that will NOT miss a headshot opportunity (aka, most snipers in the higher divisions) then you’re forcing yourself to play like a complete and utter pussy and the game becomes less fun.

Allow me to compare this with lakeside:

It is feasible for a flank or pick class to eliminate the enemy sniper if they can put their mind to it and at the same time it is entirely possible for the entire team, combo included, to change their tactic so as to best avoid getting sniped and still be able of doing something.
In this map, it is extremely hard for the flank to do it on their own due to how easy it is for the sniper to just follow the team’s heart and be protected by their massive influence and still be capable of getting good picks here and there. In Lakeside, it is generally a case of “you’ll only get sniped if you’re dumb”, whilst in this map, you’ll get sniped whether you’re dumb or not and there’s no genuine way to avoid it! As said before, this map is just sniper city.

SUGGESTIONS:
Redesign the entire map while maintaining the same kind of “skeleton”. There is nothing terrible about “metalworks”, the rooms around it or the massive mid point corridor, but everything else just makes the map frustrating to play.
Reduce downwards inclination to the point.
Make it safe to go on to the point with >50% map presence (as is the case with all koth maps?), not force teams to seek >70% map presence just for an uninterrupted cap. I believe the overall size of the map in the entire mid part is just waaaayyyy to big, I mean, the distance between far left and far right is too big for this kind of map. I honestly think a more viaduct-esque kind of “cozy” would work better. As it is right now it forces the team to spread out far too thinly to be fully appreciated as a cooperative map and not as something I’d expect from a cp_orange kind of map.
Make the “outside of metalworks, facing point” sentry spots less bullshit and compensate by granting some cover to a couple places more (far flank for example?) to let engies know they have more than one viable choice.