Community Question: Your Favourite Splash Damage Map


(badman) #1

We’ve got another Community Question to hurl your way and this one’s of rather epic proportions. Splash Damage has been going for 10 years now and during that time we’ve produced quite a few multiplayer maps. Things started off in earnest with our map pack for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Game of the Year Edition at least several moons ago. This was soon followed by Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Doom III multiplayer, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, and this year’s Brink. With so many maps offering up different play styles, universes, and objectives, we’re after the one you think is the best work we’ve produced to date.

Which neatly brings us to today’s question:

Out of all the maps Splash Damage has produced over the years - including those for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, and Brink - which one is your favourite and why?

We’ve listed out the most popular choices from each of our games in the poll attached to this post, so please have a look and cast your vote. Oh, and don’t forget to let us know why you think your pick is the bestest of all time; that sort of feedback is always great for our designers. Also, if your choice isn’t listed in the poll, just select “Other” and tell us all about that obviously glaring omission in your reply.

Let the map battle commence!


(Pytox) #2

Fueldump!!!


(Dormamu) #3

No multiple choices :frowning: ? Fix this poll! :smiley:

Edit: Voted for “Gold Rush (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)” - is Gold baby :smiley:


(amazinglarry) #4

I voted for Market Garden, because at the time it was easily the most epic map for RtCW. I hate using that word, but in this case it’s the truth. I had never seen a map of that scale in RtCW and it was a blast. Nothing like sniping people on the bridge.

EDIT: I should also mention another reason I was a big fan of Marketgarden was because I love dual-objective maps. There simply are not enough of them, damn it. I absolutely loved Depot in RtCW. sigh… nostalgia.

My runners up would have to be:

Fuel Dump (bk_forest :cough: )
Gold Rush
Resort


(tokamak) #5

Goldrush is really really special. It’s the work of a genius.

The beauty of this map is that it’s centre dynamically changes as the objectives process further. The centre always remains an incredibly important point to control. Yet at the same time it’s a really weird place to be, every angle you can approach it from is different. You can approach it from above, through the open, through cover it’s all there. There’s a huge vertical range as well.

Oh I could go on about this but it’s really hard to convey in words all the things that are done right here. It’s the ultimate playground for an objective shooter.

Second favourite is Refinery I think. I’m not even sure why, but I’ve always had incredible games there. The map isn’t that balanced (not biased, just really whimsical objectives) maybe that’s why I like it. The defenders need to work hard or each objective is done in no time, yet the attackers may even need to work harder as the longer it takes to accomplish the objective, the more difficult it gets.

Of course Quarry is another favourite, but I’m not naming it. It’s hard to defend for inexperienced players and perhaps too easy to defend for experienced ones. I’m not sure I like the concept.

Furthermore I really appreciate maps with dynamic bits. The trains on Railgun and the underwater caves in Siwa Oasis are examples of that. I think that’s where the future for objective shooters lies. Objectives that slowly change the geometry of the map as they are worked on but likewise revert back (with the geometry of the map along) when the defenders take over again. Simplest example might be a draw bridge slowly opening and closing but there are tons of it (a huge elevator platform in a vertical tube moving up and down).

Oh and in ETQW, Valley and Area 22, not the whole maps, but the indoor areas with vehicles is amazing. Vehicles suddenly become entirely different things when put in close confines.


(Floris) #6

Siwa Oasis for me. Played some crazy scrimmages on it and it was always a pleasure to play on publics.


(.Chris.) #7

Why I like Radar

Introduction

The Allies are attempting to steal components of the new Axis Würzburg 62A radar for technical analysis. The Axis must guard their two prototype radars and prevent the Allies from escaping with any stolen parts.

For more information listen to the news.

First Stage

The Allies start from an abandoned Villa and can chose from 3 objectives from the word go which they can complete in any order to help them get to the second stage.

Option 1

Capture the Spawn Flag from the Axis forcing them to spawn back and giving the Allies a forward spawn at it’s location. You should now have a pretty clear shot at destroying the Main Entrance and perhaps get an enemy uniform to open the Axis only door leading to the second stage. Till that main entrance is destroyed the Axis can take back the spawn and regain control. This leads to many frantic battles in and around the spawn building.

Option 2

Destroy the Main Entrance, doing so will force the Axis back and will give the Allies the same spawn mentioned before however the it’s better to do option 1 first in this instance as the Axis spawn is quite close, you’ll be hard pressed to defend the dynamite. However you might just pull it off and gain some more time for the second stage.

Option 3

Destroy the Side Entrance, this is located away from the main battle and leads to the second stage, destroying this entrance doesn’t make the Axis Spawn back. However once blown their is a command post that either team can build, if the allies (attack) build it, they can chose to spawn there creating a second front for the second stage to attack from. The Axis can destroy the command post forcing the Allies back to their default spawn at that moment in time.

The Axis’ default spawn is at the forward spawn bunker in the middle of this stage but they can chose to spawn back on the second stage which allows them to head of to the Side entrance to construct the command post and defend that entrance.

Second Stage

The great thing about this map is that technically it’s all one stage as you can complete the map without ever capturing the forward spawn and blowing the main entrance, it’s hard to win the map this way but is possible.

Anyway, on this stage you have to capture radar parts from two radar stations located at the East and West sides of the map, they are a huge amount of options you can take in order to reach them both, and even more if you build the command post at the side entrance, you can attack from both entrances.

To combat this the Axis (defence) can pick from two spawns on this stage each more suited to one of the radar stations and one crucial to recovering the radar parts which they have to take back through the main entrance and to the truck in the image posted previously.

The bottom half is the second stage. I’ve marked the main routes the allies can take, the red flags are the defence spawns and the blue flags are the attack’s, the circles are the radar parts and the triangle is where they have to take them to. The crosses are the entrances that had to be blown up.

At a glance it would look impossible to defend against this but the clever chaps at SD made the map in such a way that the defence can spot where the attack are coming from in advance and react accordingly, having some spotters at key locations so they can rely to the rest of the team where they are coming from is crucial so you can adjust your defence accordingly. You’re always kept on your toes.

The radar stations are located on higher ground with relatively low cover, this gives the defence some higher ground to spot the oncoming enemies in good time but doesn’t give them too much positional advantage as the guns in ET go where you aim and they can’t camp behind railings. (cough brink cough).

I’ll add more to this post when think up some more to say, been long day.


(badman) #8

You have no idea how much Fluffy_gIMp is gloating right now. ;D


(tokamak) #9

Give him a raise.

Excellent assessment. I wish I could devote that much to Goldrush now. If I may weigh in:

Even with the limited technical possibilities Radar really achieved stealth and sneaky play in shooters. The limited vision as well as the foliage helped a lot. The back route was incredibly important and completely designed to let covert ops reign there (command post and iron door). The house and the garage made for some interesting cate and mice hide and seek as well, it was all to easy to lose any pursuers in if you really wanted to.

Also loved the detail of the hiding spot under the bridge. Especially if you had an MG with you.

A great thing about all the W:ET maps is that it’s awesome to get lost in them as a beginner, if you get a bit more experience you can still be useful by following the main route and doing your work, but the more you play, the more you find out how much there’s possible and suddenly experience starts to play a defining role in the outcome of the games. ETQW had this as well but that came mostly down to the scope of how effective vehicles and deployables are in each location.

In both games the joy lies in experimenting and finding new tricks. They’re all there, and once you find them, they’re your own little advantage over the others. You didn’t gather clothes, you gathered tactical knowledge. At least that’s what got me addicted to both of them. I had to keep on playing to find more stuff and gather powers.


(badman) #10

He’s trying to find his original topdown designs right now. Man on a mission!


(Nail) #11

For me, Fuel Dump, about the only map I liked playing both sides, although Oasis is a close second

Might have picked Battery or Railgun, but both needed ETPro mapscripts to make them memorable


(Salteh) #12

OASIS!!!
!!!
(pewpewpew)

:stroggtapir:


(tokamak) #13

Ow good old battery.

^5Guys I’ve found a disguise, meet up at the back door.

Empty beach ensues.

SD needs to make their own version of ‘Raising the Bar’


(Faerie) #14

Other: Brink, Shipyard. Reason: Masochist.

It beats me repeatedly, and it’s really irritating, but at the same time the satisfaction when I finally show it who is, in fact, the boss is enormous. I keep playing it, because I adore that love/hate feeling :slight_smile:


(Scrupus) #15

This was extremly hard, it’s almost impossible to only pick one, but since I will probably forget to vote later if I don’t do it now, I pick: Gold Rush

Been a while since I played W:ET now, but Gold Rush was the first one I remember, and will probably be the last one I forget. It was super confusing for the first weeks, but when you started to learn it, there was no end to the routes and tactics you could use to outsmart your enemies.

I also loved fueldump and oasis, and railgun (if the teams where balanced). Didn’t really like radar at the time, but mostly due to the poor performance on older computers.

From QW, I think Outskirts is my favorite (but it’s not listed for some reason), with maybe Refinery and Canyon next.

Never got the chance to play RtCW much online, so only played the ET ports of those maps, and not that often.

From Brink, I dunno - it’s not really the same type of maps as those others, but if I should pick one, maybe Resort.


(tokamak) #16

On a second thought. Slipgate would be the best ETQW map if it weren’t for the fact that the Strogg can lock down the exit of the slipgate. Canyon deserves a mention as well for it’s beauty and the highly rewarding ‘jump from vehicle’ acrobatics that work in that map. Canyon has the most instinctive gameplay as both teams have an easy time following the focal point of all the objectives. You never really feel like trailing behind the show.


(Fluffy_gIMp) #17

Lies! I’ll keep digging for some Gold Rush assets though :slight_smile:

In the meantime I did find just for Chris one of the first whiteboard layouts we did for Radar:



(.Chris.) #18

Heh, that’s pretty nice to see.


(Slade05) #19

I`d say that one in Japan, forgot the name, was in first ETQW beta.

Not because of some exceptional balance thing or like, but because of promise it delivered on. Planes dropping **** I ordered, artillery strikes guided by unsteady hand(stopped by AIT, ************), jeeps and quadbikes hurrying to the generator only to be stomped by giant robot , VAMPIRE AIRSTRIKE, pesky strogg hover, blowing up my first tormentor. Then we struggle it indoors until one lucky covert carves up camping hyperblaster whore. And we steamroll it.

Synergy, like never before.


(Fluffy_gIMp) #20

[QUOTE=Slade05;378023]I`d say that one in Japan, forgot the name, was in first ETQW beta.
[/QUOTE]

That be Sewer I believe