Here are my thoughts. I tried to be constructive with each level and provide suggestions for how to make each better.
Also, I'd really like to see more users post reviews. I submitted a level and would love to hear more comments on it and how I can make it better.
COREYumm... Crack MuffinsLooks like the map maker fell victim to lack of testing. This is a cool map, and it looks like it took a lot of work, but it's not inherently obvious what people are supposed to do (despite the text objects). I think he/she was trying to require teleporters to be engineered in such a way that teammates could invade the base. Actually, I really like this idea of requiring teleporters, but it'd be better maybe for a tournament, where each team knew what they were doing ahead of time.
Suggestions:
- Bases need stronger defenses and more room to maneuver and defend in.
- Asymmetry is a nice touch but could be tweaked a bit to provide less of a bias to red.
- While I think engineering teleporters should be the primary choice of players, you should implement an alternate route. Add in obstacles to make it less desirable than engineering teleporters.
DecorI really like the concept of moving around the bases to invade, and the engineered teleporters play out nicely. The wall design is a nice touch, and the portals are pretty straightforward, which is usually a worry with close-in-location portals. The mini-bases were a tad too small but had smart defense design. I felt like the main bases had too few defenses and they could use more resources. Finally, while I'm not normally a fan of bottlenecked paths, I thought the path to the bases was a really smart choice to keep tight; it requires the invaders to have sufficient energy and numbers to get in.
Suggestions:
- This map felt unfinished to me. See if you can fill in some of the empty space where the Bitfighter logos are and add in more spawning locations and areas to battle in. You don't need more cores but I would like to see at least another route to get to the enemy base that didn't have to go through enemy ships and asteroids.
- Balance the bases. Make the mini-base a little larger, and provide a couple of minimal defenses to the larger base. The large base was also really difficult to defend since after the enemy came down the chute they were right next to the core, leaving little time for defenders to react and kill invaders. See if you can add some kind of "widening" system to the entrance to the base so it opens gradually instead of narrow-then-immediately-wide.
- Needs more resource items for each base. Two resource items are pretty much guaranteed to be dedicated to engineering teleports so there's little possibility of making defenses.
Quad CoreThis is an ok map. I like the concept and visually it's simple and elegant. But, the cores require way too little hitpoints to be damaged. This pretty much breaks the level, because nobody wants to sit around repairing turrets or defending their cores. They'll just try to shoot cores as fast as possible. There was even a moment when I worked together with another player on another team because it was more efficient.
Suggestions:
- Add more hitpoints to the cores, and give them defenses. You can keep the level design simplistic by just extending the tunnels to get to the cores, so players have an easier chance defending.
- Turrets should be appropriately placed. There's little incentive to repair a turret in the middle of the pathway. Put it near a core so it can do some good.
- Consider lowering the number of teams to 3. This will require a bit of creativity to design, but I could it could be beneficial. You're less likely to run into an enemy that you feel fine working with temporarily.
BITMATCHArena 2I didn't play-test this one much, but it looks fine. I'd say remove a couple of the first aid kits though, since it's a small map only one or two kits are needed. Clean map overall.
Blizzard ControlBrilliant idea. This is the kind of inspiration people will need to begin learning how to use levelgen. I can't say it was much fun getting knocked all over the place, but I still enjoyed the craziness of it all. This seemed to be more of a novelty map than a competitive map, but that's fine considering this is a level design contest that doesn't require maps to be played in a certain venue. The only suggestion I can offer is seeing if you can figure out how to make the blizzard control be on a time loop. While it's neat that players can control the blizzard, I think it would be much more competitive and fun if there were short bursts of stillness timed carefully. Constantly being knocked around is amusing for the first minute, but afterwards it just becomes tiresome.
New Super BitMatchGood, simple map. Design is fun and clever, and I love how each arena is slightly larger in size and resources. I had a blast just flying around in relative and watching as people tried to chase me… the fact that I could navigate smoothly despite there being a lot of sharp corners is a good thing.
Suggestions:
- When I play-tested this, something felt off. It just didn't have the same enjoyment as many other maps did. It is a fine map and we had enough people to balance out the excess room… then I realized it: This map needs to be nexus. Seriously, nexus is perfect for this kind of maze-like navigation. There needs to be a reason for people to come to a mutual location and frantically try to get to the nexus by snaking themselves through the barriers. Without that common goal, I had no reason to commit to a battle with a player if I was losing; I could just fly away and hide or seek out another player.
- Fewer teleports could also make battling a bit more interesting. Granted, there's teleport camping, but on the other hand that discourages people to constantly switch between arenas.
The ArenaCan't say I'm too fond of this one. Visually it could use some work, and gameplay-wise there's not much reason to stray into the corners. I think even as a plain arena map it could be improved.
Suggestions:
- Add more rooms, and provide incentive to them. Put in spawn points so people populate them naturally and put a first aid kit so people stay.
- Increase the distance between teleports. It's too easy to go through one teleporter and in another to escape.
- Work on the aesthetics. Change up wall thickness and try to make it look less blocky by adding in more weird angled walls and curves and the like.
NEXUSGarfunkle's Claim to FameNeat map! Amusing name, good choice of colors. Level looks and plays nice. Spawning on top of barriers felt smooth and smart. I like that the rooms are small and next to the spawn area. Most importantly, this map "just worked." It played cleanly and properly, like nexus maps should. Most nexus maps are a bunch of arenas linked by teleporters, so I enjoyed seeing a twist on that concept.
Suggestions:
- See if you can move the teleporter endpoints. Too many times I would go through the teleporter only to be knocked off by a player in the teleporter endpoint because it was right next to the edge.
- Also, see if you can "stretch" the map out by decreasing the spawn area and distancing the nexuses. It seemed to be too easy to stand next to the edge of a barrier with a bunch of flags and fly off when an enemy comes through, then quickly move into the next teleporter. There should be more combat and less room for fleeing.
LinesI didn't get a chance to play-test this one, so I won't comment.
RETRIEVESands of TimeI too am a sucker for dungeons, and this is a great map. For what it's worth, I was that guy who kept screwing with everyone by placing stupid teleporters.
But hey, I didn't cause too much damage. I hope.
I don't have many suggestions for it, because it's hard to criticize a dungeon map overall and not on individual challenges (although that's not a bad way to review maps either). It took us a reasonable amount of time to accomplish and people seemed to be having fun, so props to you.
Space WinterThis is a great, fun map. The snow effects are beautiful and I love that they're scattered over both empty space and the walls. The rough, jagged rocks in the middle make for frantic and unique combat. Base design is a bit ugly but fantastically designed. I have no complaints there except for a suggestion to add in another route to the bases, but one could argue that engineering teleporters is the additional route. While the main arena is crowded, it's not bottlenecked because there are so many places to go and get around an enemy. Arena size is relatively small though so people aren't just going to fly into nothingness. While there are a lot of flags, this doesn't seem to me as a bad thing. It reminds me of old zap maps and I think it's a nice touch.
Suggestions:
- Close quarters combat isn't for everyone. See if you can add in an open space for battling inside of the main arena. It could be large and in the middle, or thin with one on each side. I think these spaces would provide a nice break from the crowdedness and accommodate more players with varying interests.
CTFThe Bigs RoomsThis was a fun map when we played it at the party. Nothing fancy but the engineer items provided lots of hilarity with placing random teleporters and turrets. There actually was a strategy involved… you could place the laserbeams to block corridors for flag-runners to escape in.
However, I wonder about replayability... we had a lot of people who loved screwing around with engineer. As an actual competitive map or with a different group of people I could see it not being fun.
Suggestions:
- Spice it up. Add more routes, a border design, or asymmetrical bases. Give people with different tastes a reason to like it more.
- Base design needs tweaking so people can't camp with the flag inside.
- There were more resourceitems than necessary. As fun as it was to place a ton of random teleporters, I think fewer would've made for a fun, but less chaotic, experience.
The FortThis map shares my same sentiments as The Bigs Room. A few too many resource items and poor base design. Other than that, the map is fun. I think I even like it more than The Bigs Room because it feels more complete and polished.
ZONE CONTROL018Simple, straightforward map. The boosters are staggered intelligently, so that players are not obligated to continue zooming around. There are lots of zones, which means flag-runners will definitely need bodyguards to ensure a victory, yet the map is small enough that they can be found by practically any player. This too felt like a novelty map, though.
Suggestions:
- While I like the simplicity of it all, I wonder if adding more objects could be a good thing. Right now, there's no way for player movements to be predicted. While that's good for the flag-runner, it's quite difficult for teammates to block properly if they have no idea where their flag-runner is going to go. There's no route that's more efficient than another. Defense for the other team is also a nightmare, because it relies almost exclusively on skill than strategy.
- Therefore, I would suggest to the mapmaker that they
consider adding in more objects. A first aid kit on each end as a safe haven. An asteroid depot near the corner for offense to shake off an enemy. Maybe even go big and add in resources to be engineered. Something, to add in more strategy so that the newbies can still have a shot.
- Also, consider adding a more artistic border. The 018's design looks really good. Don't taint it with an ugly border.
RABBITseekerI like the aesthetic design. Ships look pretty on commander's view despite having a simple set-up. I love the boosters showing flight path. Level design itself isn't too bad either to move from arena to arena.
Suggestions:
- I'd recommend modifying the teleporters so they cycle through the arenas in a determined fashion. This will make the rabbit's life harder which is a good thing. It's bad for nexus or bitmatch but for rabbit we want to give the rabbit lower odds so that they cannot clinch the victory easily.
- Also, since the arenas are so small have only one teleporter. This will naturally create a traffic jam of people trying to get through, but it's not a big deal since there is more than just two arenas.
- Finally, there are way too many first aid kits. I get that you're trying to let the rabbit have an advantage but this is poor thinking… it's the rabbit who needs to have the disadvantage so everyone has greater opportunities to pick up the flag regardless of their skill levels.
- Testitems I think are fine but you could consider replacing them with resourceitems; given the small size of arenas resourceitems might play out better.
Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:18 pm 
