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White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

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Quartz

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Post Tue Jul 21, 2015 1:26 am

White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Write reviews, share opinions, form conspiracy theories, discuss the maps of the White Elephant contest, volume 1.

Red White Animals by 'Skybax' (CTF) -

Megalodon by 'sky_lark' (CTF) -

Bottlenecks Ahoy by 'Lone Wolf' (Bitmatch) -

Circular Movement by 'Little_Apple' (Retrieve) -

Saturn V by 'Furbuggy' (Retrieve) -

Haste Hunters by 'Santiago ZAP' (Nexus) -

Nautical by 'raptor' (Nexus) -

HomosexualChipmunk RevengeDating by 'Quartz' (Rabbit) -

Diamond 1.1 by 'amgine' (Zone Control) -

Santiamigo by 'Santiago ZAP' (Core) -

Protofission by 'Little_Apple' (Core) -
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sky_lark

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Post Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:03 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Megalodon is great. Thanks for the laugh. :D
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amgine

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Post Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:13 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Good maps everyone!
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Quartz

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Post Tue Jul 21, 2015 4:13 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I too appreciate the imitation of me. When I first saw it, I laughed for a good minute. I reckon it's coincidence, but I also happen to love Chip & Dale, so it's perfection.
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Skybax

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:21 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I really really really really like Diamond 1.1

It's not even an imitation of me and it still made me laugh. It's perfect. It fits him so well.

On a different note, whoever imitated me basically just took my favorite color and favorite animal and made a map of that. Other than the fact that it says 'Skybax' under the title, you wouldn't be able to recognize that it was an imitation of me. I feel so much more could have been done with that. I am disappoint.

The C-Map on Megalodon annoys me xD
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amgine

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:59 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

What but I like megalodon its especially good.
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raptor

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:22 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Magalodon gave me a laugh; I liked how it loaded slowly, then zoomed out to SKYLARK. It was a nice touch.
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Skybax

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:56 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I'm still waiting for someone to do a detailed breakdown of every level in terms of playability and design and theme. This is so unlike a normal contest discussion lol
raptor wrote:Sorry Skybax, I hijacked your signature so I could post lots of info.
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furbuggy

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:39 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I'm going to base my comments on playability mostly, but the ones clearly ripping someone off get a deduction. I like the idea of the contest, but there are a few map makers that I don't really have experience with, so I can't factor that in.

Bottlenecks Ahoy: Can't really imagine much good play on this.. maybe an optimal playing group of 3-4 would have an average play experience. 4/10

Circular Movement: Over all it's a decent map construction, looks nice, and I like how the turrets are set up. 8/10

Diamond 1.1: I understand that this is supposed to be a joke, but it's actually not that bad for playing. There are too many turrets and too many asteroids unfortunately. 6/10

Haste Hunters: Yeah, I really don't know. It's a bigger map, so it'd probably be better with more people (like 6-10?), a major portion of the game would be played in the outer ring, but then again, you could hide in the inside ring. It's team, which is probably a plus. The number of asteroids is too high though.. it's almost a PvE map. Pretty torn on this map 7/10

HomosexualChipmunk RevengeDating: This one I actually get the reference for! I like the ring of speedzones, kind of wish it was a square instead of a circle though. Interesting idea having two flags, but maybe they could have been made for the different teams. Still a lot of fun to play on. 7.5/10

Magalodon: I really don't like the zoom-out to SKYLARK. It was funny and all, and I think the spawn-limit is cool in a more competitive map, but again, the asteroids are annoying, it causes serious lag. Also there's not much to this map otherwise. 5/10

Nautical: Decent map with decent color... probably perfect for about 6-8 people which I think is the number we should be trying to make maps for, so I really like that. 8/10

Protofission: This map inspired me, but I hear it's mostly a copy and paste. Also it wasn't really amazing game play-- though I feel core maps can be really hard to make good. 3/10 for the lack of effort (if it turns out it isn't so much copy/paste, that could go up to a 6/10)

Red White Animals: This actually played pretty well, but I really hate repair. Tasteful use of asteroids though. 6.5/10.

Santiamgio: For a Core map this is really good. I hear that it may have been a significant amount of copy/paste? Good design though, I think it would be really good for a group of 6-8. I'll re-evaluate after I find out exactly how much of it is original, but a 8/10 for right now.

Saturn V: I think this represents my map making style pretty well, and no surprise it plays well ;P 8/10

Average Score: 6.45
Last edited by furbuggy on Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Quartz

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:22 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

In terms of actual playability Nautical is the obvious winner IMO. I foresee it being the map that is most played post-contest.
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furbuggy

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:39 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Agreed, it's probably the best team nexus I've ever seen (though I remember seen a few that were okay). Then again the chip and dale map is the only really playable team rabbit I've ever seen. That's not saying a lot considering how long I've been gone.
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amgine

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Post Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:57 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I am disappointed on my map I know but it is supposed to be a joke but Even though the changes dont seems obvious I make manychanges that overall improve the map greatly and how it plays i feel this did not happen for me.
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Quartz

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Post Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:37 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Reminder that the party is tonight, Friday the 24th at 5 PM PST / 8 PM EST!
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Skybax

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Post Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:26 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I'll be there for like half an hour and then I have to go to work lol
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amgine

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Post Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:54 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Overall there are not really any really bad maps everyone did a good job!
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Fordcars

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Post Sat Jul 25, 2015 12:17 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Dammit I missed the party by one day :O
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amgine

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Post Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:10 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Dont worry I am sure there will be another one!
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sky_lark

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Post Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:57 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Note: I based my reviews around playability, though I imagine some levels were purposely designed for more or less playability depending on the author they were emulating.

Also, regarding copy/paste, I don't think that's a big deal as people are making it out to be. I didn't copy/paste in my levels but I can see how people might view it that way and even if I did I wouldn't be too worried. The point is to emulate the author and if the best way to do that is to restructure levels (like Megalodon), then so be it. Megalodon turned out really nice even if 95% of its assets were from my levels so I'm cool with it.

Red White Animals by 'Skybax' (CTF)
I am madly in love with the art design though the polarization of sizes is a bit strange. I also really like simple, classic CTF levels like this. We had a bunch of fun playing 3v3. Going forward I would definitely resize the tiger faces to be more aligned with the size of the level, as well as take out some of the items in the middle to make it less of a stalemate.

Megalodon by 'sky_lark' (CTF)
I got a good laugh out of this one! Thanks to whomever designed it, you did a great job. The opposing flag points were a nice touch though I spent most of my time just shooting at the asteroids to where it didn't matter. The only slight bother is the game to 1 -- I want to play the level longer, dammit! Though I expect I made a level or two with that feature so I have no island to complain on... :)

Bottlenecks Ahoy by 'Lone Wolf' (Bitmatch)
Decent enough bitmatch. Not much to say here, I liked it but didn't love it. I think that's a fair review.

Circular Movement by 'Little_Apple' (Retrieve)
I actually really dug this level, even though in our 3v3 game we got rekt 3-12. It's a bit on the tough side as far as retrieves go, as there aren't many defenses to guard flags with. The broken turrets are irritating but don't really affect gameplay. Otherwise it's a fun level and the speedzones make the level play out nicely.

Saturn V by 'Furbuggy' (Retrieve)
Cool level, I like the aspect of starting on the wall though there is an exploit with that so going forward, take that out!! Other than that it's pretty balanced, only thing would be to add some kind of defense as with enough pressure it will be quite difficult to cap.

Haste Hunters by 'Santiago ZAP' (Nexus)
Interesting level. It was fun to find a balance between collecting flags and hunting down enemies who were collecting flags. After I passed someone with 100+ flags outnumbering my measly 20+ flags, I definitely went with the latter. The endgame was super cool, we opted to actually hit the nexus about a minute early, get our flag depot teammate inside, then heavily mine the exterior. It would've worked if an enemy hadn't cloaked in! But this is definitely a cool model of level, team nexus where the nexus is heavily bottlenecked so you actually have to go clear it out minutes in advance.

Nautical by 'raptor' (Nexus)
Lovely level. Great design and the perfect size for a small game of 3v3 or 4v4. Team nexus was a nice touch though I think it would play fine as FFA nexus. It was interesting to watch players naturally flow toward the middle. I found much more safety in the outer rings than I expected.

HomosexualChipmunk RevengeDating by 'Quartz' (Rabbit)
Love the art design, gameplay design is a little rough but it definitely feels Quartz-like! My main beef with the gameplay design is a two-flag rabbit – interesting idea on paper, but in practicality rather frustrating to play with. As soon as one team gets both flags it's pretty much game over unless you can wrangle both flags back and hold them for an extended period of time. I was also disappointed by the fact that players could get outside the ring with the flag – needless to say, it was tricky to track down rabbits on the outside of the ring. However, I absolutely loved the art design, very creative!

Diamond 1.1 by 'amgine' (Zone Control)
Cool level, fits amgine and his series of updating stock levels really well haha, for playability it's actually not too bad except the teleporters were irritating. Otherwise I could see this as kind of a fun level breaking up a competitive playlist every 7-8 levels to ensure players keep having fun.

Santiamigo by 'Santiago ZAP' (Core)
I like this as a simple core level, a few different routes available and good looking symmetry. The main thing I enjoy about it is there's defense, a lot of core levels suffer from being primarily offense-oriented with not much of an advantage to play defense. But with the bottlenecked entry, close vicinity of cores and lots of turrets, a player can definitely hang back and defend without torching his team. I would say bump of the cores' health a little so it's not crazy easy to destroy but otherwise solid work.

Protofission by 'Little_Apple' (Core)
Interesting level, the storyline is definitely intriguing but strange haha. I initially thought the level was pretty unfairly balanced in favor of the blue team (the speedzones allow for nonstop pressure), but when we played it blue actually won so I don't know. Maybe give it a few more playtests to really finetune that balance.

Top 3 Favorite Levels:
1. Megalodon – Dude this is a work of art
2. Red White Animals – Sweet artwork and classic theme
3. Haste Hunters – Bit ridiculous but fun nonetheless

Best design: Nautical
Most fitting: Diamond 1.1

Great work everyone!
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Quartz

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Post Wed Jul 29, 2015 1:49 am

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

Thanks for the review sky_lark, always a fun read.
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amgine

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Post Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:24 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I actually disagree with my copy I generally with some expectations change the map design not just add items for example soccer 1.1 shape is different and has items.... as well as change the games design and the way it plays but still.....
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Quartz

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Post Wed Jul 29, 2015 5:27 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

amgine wrote:I actually disagree with my copy I generally with some expectations change the map design not just add items for example soccer 1.1 shape is different and has items.... as well as change the games design and the way it plays but still.....

amgine, I'm pretty sure we could all nitpick about our copies, but the rest of us have this wonderful thing called a sense of humor.
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amgine

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Post Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:53 pm

Re: White Elephant Vol. 1 - Map Discussion Thread

I know the Level was done And I do get that it was a joke.

I just wonder how good it could of gotten ;)
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