What's your favourite DB map so far?

(Anti) #1

Hey folks,

During the course of the alpha and beta we’ll be regularly polling you for your opinions on various aspects of the game, often repeating the same poll several times to see how your opinions change over time and as we make balance changes.

In future these are likely to take the form of more detailed multiple choice surveys, but for now we’ll be using the forum poll system.

In today’s poll we’d like to know which of the three Objective/Stopwatch maps you prefer most in the current build. Please make sure you leave comments about what you prefer on your chosen map.

Thanks

(Anti) #2

Hmmm, I’ll be speaking to Badman about making the poll look less poop on the DB forum theme! :smiley:

(stealth6) #3

Waterloo with Goldrush… uh London Bridge in close second. Whitechapel is too linear.

I prefer non escort maps and Waterloo has a nice dynamic that it can be completed in under 5 minutes if you have a good team / bad defense that doesn’t fall back on time.

I prefer non-escort maps since the EV seems to be such a drag. Most of the matches I’ve played the EV goes slow so most of the team runs off somewhere else and eventually it just turns into a TDM with a few people doing the objective.

(DarkangelUK) #4

Waterloo for me, London Bridge 2nd then Whitechapel last. I’m with Stealth, I’m not a big escort fan but the Goldrush shines through on LB so makes it at least a nostalgia trip for me. I like the pace and the on-edge’ness of Waterloo, feels like more team work is required for that map on both sides rather than the escort missions where it’s a ‘stand by this and live as long as possible’ routine on the escort missions. The only real issue on Waterloo is the random generator to repair at the very start on Waterloo, it’s far too close and it feels like an inconvenience to repair at the start more than anything. It’s so close that it’s not worth the risk or wasted effort for the enemy to destroy because it’ll either be disarmed or repaired instantly… hell the enemy trying to destroy would probably get accused of spawn camping if they try to defend themselves in the process. I’d also like the forward spawn to be more closed off and less easy for the defence to… err… defend.

Whitechapel I’m just not getting on with. The initial escort is quite chokey and feels defensively biased, I feel like a lemming on offence just trying to stay close and alive to it as long as possible to get it to move those few inches every spawn. When the EV reaches the 1st objective transition, it feels like a mad rush to get to the far away objectives before the defence can get their **** together. Once they do have it together though, I feel the defence spawn is too close to the action… all in all the chapel just feels too tight and chaotic to get any team work going. The tightness more or less stays until the end, the last showdown feels more or less like a final stand off area with no alternate routes to defend or worry about. Again offence are on a lemming run here to make it into the cap area.

(Humate) #5

LB for me and I dislike escort missions.
I feel attacking and defending are on par with each other experientially.

Also enjoy defending on the last phase of waterloo. Reminds me a bit of area22.

Whitechapel, I’m not feeling it at all to be honest.
I cant really point out why.

(dommafia) #6

Whitechapel just feels really cramped, I feel like im on rails and cant do much to outflank or try a new plan of attack. London bridge is very vertical and just feels right. You always feel like you can try a different approach to outsmart the opposition.

Waterloo I like until the last objective. Here it depends if the defenders realize that after losing the wall they can back up and camp the crap out of the last attacker’s spawn which is a huge choke point. It reminds me a lot of oasis once you blow the wall. It is a pain in the butt to break through this choke point but once you do at least you know you wont have to deal with it again. Again this is not happening a lot now since I think most people dont realize this but I’m sure this will became a pain as people learn the ins and outs of the map. I wish the stairs on the attacker’s spawn gave you access to a higher ground balcony to help out just a bit, instead of going back down to the choke area.

So… London > waterloo > whitechapel.

(amazinglarry) #7

London Bridge > Waterloo > White Chapel.

The reasons being have already pretty much been summed up in the previous comments.

I want to echo the pump repair at the very beginning being way too close on Waterloo and the risk/reward for the defending team not being worth a trip to blow it up. It was tough to do on Oasis, too… but it seems less manageable here.

(INF3RN0) #8

LB has the most open of all the designs thus far with the greatest number of travel routes. You guys would have been disappointed to see what happened on Waterloo the other night on NA, when we full held spawn camped the offense on the connector to the 2nd objective area :eek:.

(Hyperg) #9

London Bridge, Waterloo then Whitechapel for me aswell. However I do feel kinda claustrophobic on pretty much everyone of them, not sure how much of that is geometry scale and how much is player speed (given players can cover large areas pretty fast).

The lack of space around the EV certainly adds to the “chokeyness” of the map. Being able to squeze between the tank and the walls created a lot of Benny Hill moments on GoldRush xD.

(dommafia) #10

Which made me type my 2nd paragraph above :wink:

(EnderWiggin.DA.) #11

Honestly they all kind of feel the same to me. Even after a week they all look similar and I’m having trouble telling them apart in my head. Maybe it’s just because they aren’t finished and there isn’t much context to the maps.
I guess my favorite parts of the three maps are the first phase of Waterloo and London Bridge’s load the gold… errr 2 cores on the EV.

Whitechapel is probably the most recognizable to me because of Rogan Jo’s and the white chapel stand out. However, the start to that map is my least favorite as it reminds me a lot of the container city start. Whitechapel is probably better with fewer players as well.

(.FROST.) #12

At the moment I’m more about figuring out what class/build/char fits me the best and therfore concentrated less on the actual gameplay. So my judgement of the maps is more based on their aesthetics. In this regard I can clearly say, that White Chapel is my least favorite one. I don’t like those extreme bright lights. The map should be more even lit; not so much extreme dark spots, neither those extreme bright spots. And yes, I know, that WC is WIP, just wanted to say that. London Bridge is definitely my favorite. First, it looks just great, love it. And second it has a bazillion routes to where ever you feel the need to go/run to. Waterloo is just behind LB, only because it’s smaller* and has less routes to the target.

*Wich may be even better gameplay wise, but I’m expressing only my visual impression/opinion of the maps here for now; if it makes sense or not.

(Pytox) #13

London bridge cause it’s always pretty close to complete it at the end :smiley:

(iwound) #14

waterloo terminus for me mainly for the last part, very open and larger area for sneaking.
lots of ways to all come to the objective area.
id like to see a route for defenders from their last spawn going right staying outside to the open area in front of terminus
to balance out the fact that attackers have a free run from left to right but defenders
really only have 2 routes inside and are pinned down without the option to push attackers back if possible.
and defence there still feels a little constricted.

i like to evaluate a target and have a choice of options. but mostly its run chuck lead and die.

all the rest seem samey to me with no standouts.

(acQu) #15

The poll is closed. Would have voted for Waterloo, then slightly behind is London Bridge and at the end is Whitechapel, for reasons of linearity.

The graphical style of all maps is beautiful, but my first impression was that they are too tiny and create a really hectical gameplay with average lifespans of around 20 secs. Many hiding spots also. Maybe a bit too much. Very chokepoint oriented with lots of action happening at one place. For older hw spec PCs this usually also means huge lag spikes on crowded places.

(H0RSE) #16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk6M1gqV-0A&t=1m6s :smiley:

(iwound) #17

now ive played a bit more, london bridge. lots of varied locations for the battles, nice open bit near the end is my fav part.
too easy to get data but you need more time on the map so i can enjoy even more dont care if i lose.

(Runeforce) #18

In my experience, that’s due to players not falling back appropriatly, while the offense usualy is right at the entrance. Hopefully, it gets better with experience. (SIGH I am NOT looking forward to the first six months of pub play!)

(SockDog) #19

[QUOTE=iwound;418093]now ive played a bit more, london bridge. lots of varied locations for the battles, nice open bit near the end is my fav part.
too easy to get data but you need more time on the map so i can enjoy even more dont care if i lose.[/QUOTE]

I’d agree here, the delay for the defence to set up around the data cores means you can usually swipe both if you attack as soon as the building blows. Couple that with respawns that might fall awkwardly and you’ve got a pretty underwhelming objective. Yet, when there is a defence in place it’s a really nice scrap.

Would it be too much to put an internal door at the front entrance that needs to be hacked? The sides could still be accessible to both teams but that front entrance needs a small delay.

(Runeforce) #20

That’s a very good idea! 5-10 seconds could probably do it (because besides the delay, the attacking team would have to get a covert ops there. Teamwork and situational awareness FTW!)