Foreword: I'm not interested in Force/Phoenix, this post refers to Advanced.
As most of you know, the Tanarus maps have recently undergone a new rotation. Some of these maps were made by players that I respect and I mean them no disrespect. However, it seems that many maps in this rotation were little experiments or learning experiences for their makers and should have never reached production. These maps discourage teamplay and the sort of action that made you fall in love with this game in the first place.
Huge underground areas and secret rooms are cute at first, but ultimately serve only to split teams apart and leave us with five solo artists wandering aimlessly in hopes of not gouging out their eyeballs from the boredom of it all. Most of you would prefer to see teams grouped up fighting regardless of the tanks and weapons used. Even chams and heaters like big fights as it gives ample opportunity to vulch and con kill. Having 2 of your 5 wandering aimlessly down in the catacombs is neither fun nor in the spirit of what made Tanarus good in the first place.
Yes I know you'll always have people who solo, but at least in classic-style maps they are relatively easy to hunt, harrass, and kill should the enemy get fed up with their antics. In these maps, who the hell has time to load dampeners, rocket up, click their heels together, go through the Mario Bros portal, and pop out into Neverland Ranch to hunt those players down? Noone is going to bother with it and games are going to suck that much more due to it.
Massive towering structures high above the battlefield are nifty to look at, but discourage the use of any tank other than the Mag. Why would you ever refuse the ability to drive up those 75 degree angles and jump from any height to escape your enemy? Whats the use in learning basic team tactics like blocking and cycling when you can just float to safety instead? Now understand that I enjoy fighting against mags and harbor no predjudice against them, but should we really build arenas that blatantly punish those who choose not to pilot them? Many of the current rotation maps do exactly that. Oh sure, you could load dampeners and try to flip over fast enough to not get destroyed, but you all know chasing a mag requires that your tank have its treads on the ground. It's hard enough to kill one on flat ground, much less up in the catwalks.
It becomes a question of gameplay. Do you prefer arenas that encourage people to run from bad odds through convoluted ramps and diving to safety from dizzying heights or do you prefer a more simple arena that encourages people to focus on the enemy and their teammates? Mind you, simple does not necessarily mean small and it does not mean Project X. Both The City and Velocity are current maps that do not get in the way of playing the game. Just ask yourself, "Is this map feature condusive to the gameplay or is it a hinderance?" Unfortunately, many of the latest are chock full of hinderances.
I think this only pertains to riddle? This map was an experiment and should have been placed in practice. I think the players are just curious about it and soon will play in the more team friendly maps. Let's see what happens and go from there.
Personally, I'm happy there was at least one old map to make an appearance, lol. However, I am very interested in this idea... Could we possibly create a map to FORCE teamplay? LOL. Although I agree with this to an extent, I think the players are ultimately at fault. You all know who you are . Pretty much everyone who's left in this game can see this. Less than half the arenas have the fighting spirit - more like the RATIO spirit. Then, to top it off I see the fighters backing out because their team is "G1MPED", or even worse, afk. Just last night I was stuck in a 3v5 situation - Me, Buz, *chammer vs. sat-vans/lights in The City and as usual 2 BOMBERS were afk cybering on vent. Now these fights with red who had bunch of talented players were getting good and these two just wouldn't help BECAUSE OF THE CHAM... In an effort to cut the bs I'll get to the point; These idiots were that stuck in their own little hater world they completely ignored two flexible gamebreaking teamplayers on their team to be a hindrance to the cham, and ultimately us. Seriously, all they did was talk sht and the cham was actually winging me. Eventually, they got caught in a couple of our battles and red died with no losses... but they still didn't help, saying "I wish we had a team of 5" LOL.I could go on, literally write a new story for every game I play. I feel bad we didn't give Zodiak and his red team the battle they deserved, but I still feel we gave them a challenge.And funnily enough, it felt good to be outnumbered again - you wouldn't believe the amount of stacker action I get in 2009!
Either way, I'll be making the fight you can be d@mned sure.
^^^^^^
Real Fighters have spoken!
The maps are terrible. We need to put some maps Bumpwes made back into it...anything but what "papadog" has made. All he does is try to make pretty textures rather than make something that would allow decent game play.
OLDTIMER wrote:
Dude, for the record, only 2 out of the 5 maps I made for this rotation made it in, 1 of them being an OLD version of BigBox. Yes, that is the wrong one. This is due to errors in rotation. Secondly, you know [)amn well Standoff is a good map. I havent had 1 bad thing said about that map from anyone. In fact, nothing but praise for it.
Ive come to a conclusion: 1, Either you dont like me for some previous situation on Tanarus, and this is a personal shot. Or 2, you havent taken into consideration, or have any idea how it is to try to make a new map that appeals to 100% of the genres community. Half your post suggests I am the problem.
I didnt ask for any of mine to be put in. Id go out of my way to say they arent "terrible" though. On top of that, there were known problems with this rotation, which Kan has already explained, leaving out many maps-to-be, 2 of which were also mine.
If you want to see what I TRIED to contribute to the rotation for YOU, OLDTIMER, to play in so YOU wouldnt be bored with the older maps, what I TOOK my time to do for FREE, go here:
http://killgorack.com/tanarus/maps/default.asp
My maps that didnt make it are:
Jericho
BigBox (correct version)
Clash
Compound
If you dont know how to play the maps, go here:
http://killgorack.com/tanarus/maps/...=50&forum=5
Maybe you should go check those out and see if they are terrible too.
Other than that, do not sum me up to be some "pretty texture only" mapmaker. Ive been making maps for 8 years for many games, and I just started on Tanarus. Give me a break. I admit, BigBox was one of my first maps, but any one of my recent 4 would rock your world. Drop it in the "idgaf about ur comment" box.
I played in Omega before, it was actually pretty decent last night when it was full, with the exception of the cloakers waiting by the ramps on the top. I think it is BigBox, not too sure, but people have been playing in it lately, and it is not really a popular map to have a team battle in. I like the base design though; makes it fun to base raid a team. The ceilings are far too high though, It takes about a minute for my sats to come where I want them to be, thus leading the team I was leading with no power most of the time. Not to mention those underground tunnels, which I think are pointless, because you have half the arena of players who aren't that great roaming around down there while your team is being attacked.
You guys should play in Velocity more, that map was always a gooder! =P
For once I agree with you, Metro. BigBox was my first attempt at a serious map, and probably a fail. I didn't think much about having a high ceiling. I see now the sat time is ridiculous. Also, the tunnels were originally supposed to resemble something like Aztech, for flanking, but I got pretty carried away. The whole map ended up being much too expansive. I never really intended for it to hit servers, much less have the wrong version on the servers... Ive definitely learned a few things from making it.
Overall, Id also say Velocity is the best Adv map we have for now. Im surprised one map isnt being abused though. So far Ive seen people playing on BigBox, Omega, Velocity, and Riddle. Good to see some variety for once, at least.
For those who dont know, Standoff and BigBox were my first two maps that made it to the server, as this has been my first rotation since Ive been back playing Tanarus. I've made a few mistakes, I'll admit. Bear with me. If theres anything learned from my 8 years in mapmaking, its that I improve from mistakes.
Also, to clear up any mystery on what the Force/Phx lineup would have been:
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kanTANKrus says,
"Basically, the force and phoenix servers kept going down after the rotation. The maps placed in were: Force, compound, overkill, phobic and torque Phx, arizona, gettysburg, shrine and strife. I'm not sure why the servers were going down, I suspect that either the file sizes were too big, specific textures caused problems, naming conventions somehow interfered, or corrupted maps (errors on export) We didn't have time to troubleshoot it because the players were on our nuts to get them back up, no patience. So we placed back maps we knew would work just to get the game on again."
