I've been talking with Jona. He didn't recommend//ask for Tanith to be played in this season. He recently updated it, but there's still a lot of issues with it. It's very marine favored. I'm not sure how much Jona can do to fix it with such short notice. He spectated a scrim of Scurvy vs Titus just a few minutes ago. He said he's looking at moving Cargo more Northwest on the map so it isn't quite as OP and is more of an expansion point.
In the future there should REALLY be a custom map cup instead of just throwing maps into the season. Let's try that between season 3 and season 4 please?
Personally, I think we should play Descent a second time instead of Tanith. What do you guys think?
Being someone who is making one of the custom maps that's in the season now, I am happy with it being featured in a custom map cup instead until a map is deemed "finished enough" or whatever criteria there would be.
Don't get me wrong, when I heard there was a chance of Caged being in the regular NSL season I jumped at the chance, simply because I wanted people to play the map so I can get the feedback I need to balance the map out. The feedback I have been getting is invaluable, and once the week 3 matches on Caged are done I will be making various layout changes in order to hopefully give aliens a better chance in week 7.
On a side note, so far it seems more marine biased in the premiere division than in lower divisions... marine skill ceiling issue instead of broken map, anyone? Pleeaase? :p
Back on topic, a custom map cup would offer the chance I've gotten in season 3 to other community mappers, and more maps would get the feedback required to improve them. I'm all for it.
Yes, tanith will not be played and I will take up on your suggestion to replace it with descent.
As for the topic of a custom map cup; we have some time until christmas which will be filled with cups. I will make sure that a custom map cup is one of them.
That's a general thing. Not directly linked to caged ;) But still, it affects how caged plays. LOS problems are usually more evident in higher tier games. My suggestion is that you take a good look at the higher tier games to find positions that need line of sight blockers.
pretty much everything important only happens in central. Gen and Sewer are large loops around the outside edge where it's just 1v1s, no real pushing/fighting.
again, its somewhat of a byproduct of central being so vital. Very well connected as well as being the fastest way to most parts of the map.
But well, why putting descent a second time while it's not really balanced and needs a lot of rework imo... Especially with these new last builds.
Having ventilations that give direct access to marine main base wtf ? (This is one of the most disturbing points of this map)
Why not putting biodome in a second time ? I have not heard a lot of bad feedbacks from this map, and I personally find it more interesting than most of the always-played maps. Seriously, it's easier to get a 2nd hive than all the other maps imo, and it's good for the actual gameplay / metagme.
In the next version of Caged marine start will be slightly further away from the center of the map (It's fairly subtle, but I want to see how this works before I possibly change how Butthole connects to Central), and I will change Purification and how it connects to Ventilation Access so that cysts aren't so easily sniped anymore.
Also, Kaneh, thanks for casting those week 3 matches on Caged, I've watched the VODs and they've been pretty useful for me.
I'll stop derailing this thread now and will just make a separate ns2_caged thread for feedback. :>
I have updated Ns2_Tanith on the workshop if anyone is interested in testing. I have addressed most of the issues that been discussed here, and from watching gameplay.
Changelog:
-Redesigned Sat Comm with more cover
-Added a vent connecting to the lower part of sat comm
-Moved resource node in chemical transport to acidic to make a more defendable RT for aliens, also to de-emphasize the importance of chemical, which favored marines more
-Redesigned cargo, by making the cover more alien favored also redesigned the connection to storage entrance so that it has to be entered from the lower part of cargo
-Moved resource node in cargo to storage entrance
-Storage entrance redesigned to be a resource room, more easily expandable to by the alien team from either fusion reactor or Waste hive locations.
-Renamed connecting corridor between Central access and waste to "Drainage" (this is to make more logical sense of the power nodes for these areas)
-Added cover in drainage and altered lighting
