Open area maps rarity

Open maps are so rare. It's all walls and more walls, like a city. Might this not suggest a flaw in Bitfighter mechanics?
It's
Not
A
Problem
Now
But it is a flaw.

[Skybax]

Open maps are rare cause open maps suck. It's called wasted space, and nobody likes it. My very first map was the most openest map you've ever seen in your entire life, and it sucked. A lot.

[kaen]

All open space is exactly the same, plus or minus projectiles. You have to have walls in order to add variety. Also, walls are essential for navigation and traffic control.

"You have to add walls to have variety"

this is the flaw of Bitfighter

[Skybax]

If you want a game where you don't need obstacles to provide variety, go play Halo or TF2 or something.

I've never played those games in my life. since you mentioned a shooter (i know what halo is!), I would change your list. Contra would be fun.

[kaen]

Imagine Contra with no platforms and only one type of enemy. Or Zelda in a completely flat and open world. Or sentences without punctuation. Or a house with no rafters or framing. It's not a flaw to require elements for the purpose of structure. It's just a consequence of the medium (in this case, 2D top-down view).

"You have to add walls to have variety"

this is the flaw of Bitfighter

I hate to be nitpicky, but that's not a flaw. That's an intentional design of the game. Or maybe, to be more accurate, a byproduct of an intentional design. You may not like it, but that's just the way the game is designed. You could call any feature that a game lacks a flaw, but that's not really fair. :/

I mean look at it this way. You may have to add walls to enjoy variety, but you can add said walls in a whole lot of different ways. You can use polywalls, levelgen, varying thicknesses etc to shape maps. You can play with few walls or lots of walls. etc. Look at the bright side!

I think the largest barrier to open space battles is the field of view constraint. We play a 2D game so we can only see the length of a screen. There's no minimap so we can't tell where an enemy is. So it's hard to engage in open space battles when you don't know where the enemies are.

Something we can do is try to add the illusion of free space. Like, open areas where the players are encouraged to convene. Some of the Zap stock maps come to mind, like Colosseum with its middle nexus area and Blinding Snow, where players would follow the speedzones. Airlock is also good at containing players in an open area, although to a bit of a lesser extent.

Speaking of space - one of the toughest things to learn as a mapmaker is to not overcrowd a map. Like, not fill it with every object possible. Sometimes just having a bit of seemingly useless space can really add to the map during intense battles.

I've made a feature topic, it is aimed at making good open space maps a reality.
In the meantime, I'm considering the way you told me other maps would 'hack' open space to work.