Plasma Review Library

[Smeagle]

Plasma Review Library

Halidom 4

Sniperstand

System Zeta 2

AstroTurf

Boulevard

Art Vandelay

Descension

High Impact

Go HERE for the original review thread.

[Smeagle]

AstroTurf
By: PegasiDelta

First off, we went ahead and broke your map for you.
We got out by jumping from crate, to crane, to B signs.
Then we got out from dumpster to fence box by buddy jumping.

OK, now that thats over with.
We played a 3 person game of FFA on this map.
We intitially noticed your amzing interlocking skills.
To us it felt like something completely different than foundry.
But we found some major bumps in the double-box tunnel.

Then we checked out the weapons.
We thought the mauler spawn was spot-on.
But we also thought the sniper was way to close to the mauler.
We suggest moving it to the wire spool.
Then there would be minimal camping and it would just be less devastating.
All the other weapons had great placement.

Then we checked out the cover.
We suggest adding some barriers for a little extra cover with weapon holders.
Then it would be perfect for SWAT.
But the dumpster does look a little ugly.

Some other suggestions would be :

-remove one of the equipment
-decrease hill move time
-add some shield doors or something to prevent spawn camping


Summary: Overall, this map has HUGE potential. After some tiny improvements and break-proofing, you could have another feature coming your way.

*Review By: Captain America

[Smeagle]

Sniperstand
By: Redearth

Here's the review of Sniperstand, and i am going to start off with the most important point; the spawns.
Right in the beginning of an FFA sniper game, i spawned 3 meters (about 10 feet) away from a guy, and killed him right away.
When he spawned, he spawned in the tower, and i noticed later in-game that the only spawns are in the towers.
To be honest, this map has the worst spawns i have ever seen, with one spawnpoint in every tower.
You can just stand in one tower and hold the aim at one point to kill everyone everytime they spawn.
Occasionally someone spawns downstairs, but that's when the spawns in the tower is occupied.
The spawns in team games are a little better, but not much. you always spawn on high ground, like a dumpster or in the tower, and spawnkills are horribly easy to pull off.
I suggest you use more spawnpoint behind cover, add some walls and use spawn areas, even if it's a pain in the ass.

Now for the gameplay.
The layout is not that horrible, but the weapon-placements are.
The sniper is right next to the mauler spawn, which could lead to a devastating domination in FFA or team games.
You should get rid of the fusion coils behind the dumpster and put some spawnpoints there to balance it a bit.
The middlepiece is the only thing that is good on this map in my opinion.
One more thing though; Don't mix plasmas with spike grenades unless necessary.

Aesthetics next.
The interlocking works in the middlepiece, compared to the rest of the map it is awesome, but nothing special.
the snipertowers are really sloppy, and so are the boundary walls.
We got out of the map with a simple buddy-jump.
The mancannon lifts are sloppy, if you throw a plasma into them, the plasma will never explode, just keep bouncing onto the top of the wall.
Instead of leaning the wall on another, interlock it.
The window panels are messy as well, and you should add some tunnels in the back of the map.

Overall i think this map needs tons of improvements.
Maybe a v2 with complete interlocking and better weapon placements is a good idea?
The spawns was litterally horrible in all gametypes, and the balance was based on who died first.
Improvements are a must. I hope to see more of your maps, but unfortunately not this one.

*Review By: HLG Viper

[Smeagle]

System Zeta 2
By: JJ3672

I am starting off with the spawns as always.
The spawns are great, and the middle structure really helps blocking the spawns from gunfire.
Teamgames works great to, with little to no spawn-killing.
Not much to write about the spawns, and that's a good thing.

For the gameplay, i think the concept of this map is genius.
I've been thinking of a map like this, but never pulled it off.
The machinery in the middle makes the map less über-competitive, and gives it a relaxed feel.
The random weapon locations makes the map independent of a domination point, which removes the whole idea of camping.

We found a few flaws though.
During a team game, a simple buddy jump can get you out of the map.
It is understandable since i can imagine your budget is low, but there's another thing.
The gravlift in the activation room can be used on other locations, like getting out of the map and getting on top of the large mechanism, which grands you access to all the powerweapons instantly (you can jump from the construction with an overshield to the fencebox next to the shield doors using a gravlift).
The gameplay was summarized to okay.

Aesthetically, i have no complaints whatsoever.
The double boxes are geomelded nice and straight into the ground and the tunnels are great.
I personally like the turret-tunnel the most.
The weapon placements besides the one in the machine are great, and the turret has a perfect position considering range and the double-box next to it.

Overall gameplay was good.
In fact, very good. the structures had a nice layout and the map was overall very clean.
The spawns were great and so were the weapons. the only thing you should improve is the breakability.
Oh and CaptainAmerica noted some gaps between double boxes.
My suggestion of gametype would be FFA, it was loads'a fun =D

*Review By: HLG Viper

[Smeagle]

High Impact
By: Vorpal Saint

The spawnpoints works as they seem to work, as they are positioned on different levels, they are great.
We never checked it in forge, but the spawn areas are very usefull in there kind of maps (i'm guessing you used them).
We played capture the flag on it, and even though you had flag spawn, and capture-points, the default flags were in the bases.

Gameplaywise, it was completely awesome according to me.
The tension just kept on rolling, and no über-domination happened.
The thing i would like to see fixed though is the map boundaries.
You don't do anything in the bases, why have them open?
if you have resources to do it, then do it.
The map was friggin' sweet otherwise, The aesthetics was fantastic, a lot of interlocking that fitted well into the map.
This map has great potential, i think you should keep improving it and post it with a sweet introduction who knows, maybe you'll get a feature. Oh and one bad thing though.
You should geomeld those fenceboxes at the teleporters one step, since it requires a jump to get on top of those, and the floor would look a lot nicer too.

Overall, the map played very well.
Even CTF 2v2 worked good.
There's not much to say about this map, other than, finish it so i can download it.

CaptainAmerica also said that instead of him making a video, he'll let you make oyour own action shots. here you go, the film;
One Flag on High Impact

*Review By: HLG Viper

[Smeagle]

Boulevard
By: Linubidix

My intitial thoughts going into this map from the screenshots were skeptical.
And believe me, the screens dont do this map justice.
What the screens dont show are some of the very innovative features of this map.
Such as:
The hut made from window panels and a bridge.
The elevator made from a grav lift in a fence box.
All of the shortcuts to the roof.
The use of fence boxes and regular boxes for walls and structures.
The ghost was also a great addition to the map.


But. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We broke the map !
We grenade jumped from the roof to the high edges of foundry.
We suggest fixing this with something as simple as a bridge.
Or a barrier held by a weapon holder.

Also some of the open double boxes could have been merged into the ground.
And sometimes when using the elevator, i would bounce off the sign on my way up.
I think the ghost was a necessity, but the warthog just feels too big for this map.
Also, we dont feel like the teleporters are needed since there are so many power weapons around.

Now on to weapon placement.
We think that the power weapons placed are just about the perfect distance from eachother.
But something we found ugly was the shotgun weapon holder's bottom sticking out.

Some of our suggestions are:

Remove the warthog.
Remove the regenerator.
Merge the double boxes with teleporters into the ground.
Block off the high edges to prevent map-breaking.
Move the sign in the elevator a little back.
Maybe remove the teleporters.

*Review By: Captain America

[Smeagle]

Halidom 4
By: CPV18

Cons:
My first impressions of this map were pretty good.
But to tell you the truth i found one too many problems with this map.
First off, I easily broke the map by grenade jumping twice.
Then i had alot of problems moving up the stairs at each main base.
Why is the only hill outside the map?
Also, i dont know if this was intentional but i found it very easy to get on the center tower.

Weapon Spawns:
What the hell is with every single weapon being on the outside?
Other than that the weapons are OK.
But you need more grenades or everyone will eventually resort to beatdowns.
And I dont like the idea of a Needler as a power weapon.

Merging/Interlocking:
There is some decent merging and interlocking here, but nothing too special.
The stairs are extremely annoying when fighting enemies in the base.

Overall:
I think you need to spend a little more time on your maps.
And be serious about them if youre going to post them in competitive.

*Review By: Captain America

[ezekeil20five17]

Descension
Created by HLG Viper

Descension ia an asymmertric foundry map set up for most objective and slayer gametypes you can view the orignal post here

Asymmetric maps aren't the easiest to forge and on the whole this map is good but has a couple of flaws namely the spawns and use of the map space.First the spawn placement there is no where near enogh spawn points which mean that the the majority of the map dosent get used and spawn killing becomes an issue with one player being assasinated upon respawnig.
However the flag away respawn area are placed but again if there was more of them it would make better use of the map remember spawns and respawn areas are like good manners they cost you nothing but make you eveything
The hills are well placed and make better use of the map
spawn killing


The map layout is very good different looking structures and a very neat layout.The cover works well and the fact that most,not all,areas have more than 1 entrance is great it does help prevent camping{there is a speacil place in hell for campers it takes no skill you know who you are}the use of movable objects is well thought out out and helps to vary the gameplay slighty but there is lots of repatition due to the spawns
"whats that smell.....oh s£$%"

Its the same story with the weapon placement the selection is good not over or underpowered but due to the spawns they didn't really get used and the sniper rifle spawns too close to the enemy to make any real difference



Overall this map plays well but does not reach its full potential 2v2 slayer is fun King works well and 1 flag CTF produces some close battles to recover the flag this is probably the best gametype for this map

SECOND OPINION
this is what my comrade About 6 Bushmen had to say

Overall gameplay was great in a 2v2 but most of weapons were un-used.

Spawning was relatively ok but in the game i spawned behind an opponent for a quick
assassination.

The only areas i seemed to spawn in was by the one flag cap zone and the opposite corner , i never spawned behind rocket structure so it made it relatively unused for the enitre game.

This map is well thought out plays well and looks very nice wether it is deserves space on your hard drive is a choice i leave to you 4/5


TIPS FOR V2
MORE SPAWN POINTS AND RESPAWN AREAS-you have a great looking map make sure people get to use it more
ADD MORE COVER to help prevent spawn killing roofs or open single boxes

[Skittlemeister]

I cannot delete this because I am warned.

[JJ3672]

Don’t Look Down

Map By: ezekiel20five17
Review By: JJ3672

Quick Overview

For those too lazy to click on the link, this is a non-circuit oriented race map using almost all of Avalanche. I’ll be breaking the review down into three categories: aesthetics, creativity/design, and gameplay.

Aesthetics

Although this isn’t very important in a race map, most of the map is pleasing to look at and appears professional. The shield doors and energy blockers keep it away from the grey/brown drab that often plagues foundry, and interlocking has been used where necessary to make it smooth and streamlined. I know how much of a pain in the ass it is to interlock in the air, so it’s good to see that you put the effort into it where others might’ve just thrown boxes around. I also noted some nice angular geo-merging, so extra points for that as well.

Pretty much everything in the sky (and there was a lot of it) looked clean and well thought out, unfortunately I can’t say the same about the objects on the ground. It’s nice that you tried to add a few teleporters and mancannons to direct the player, but they seem strewn randomly about and just seem rushed. The minefield also appears that way, I know there’s no real way to improve it but it just doesn’t look good.

However, as it is a race map, your score for aesthetics won’t weigh much on the total.

8/10

Creativity/Design

Racetracks on Avalanche have so far been few and far between, so it’s good to see someone take the initiative and put ‘goose and snow together. Using the whole map is certainly a positive, and no easy task considering how damn big it is. The race setup is certainly interesting, as it uses a checkpoint based system rather than a lap-based system. Both have their pros and cons, but your system certainly fits the map (a lap based system wouldn’t work at all on your map, as there’s no feasible way to prevent cheating).

The racetrack doesn’t seem to be one coherent whole, but rather a whole bunch of individual sections (which is different and fits the checkpoint system quite well). My personal favorite areas are the branched downhill path (to start), the banked glass turn (before 1st trap), the banked turn over the edge of the map (yep, I did fall to my death), and the geo-merged launch ramp on the other side. Each of those sections is well-designed while at the same time brings something new to the table.

9/10

Gameplay

Here’s the big one. None of the above is important if the track doesn’t play well so…

My opinion was that the gameplay is fun yet slightly frustrating. If there were a competitive and casual section for racetracks, this would certainly fall under casual. This is partially because some luck is involved with successfully navigating the track (unless missing the shield door three times in a row was my fault), and the checkpoint system makes it so that falling off or otherwise driving poorly won’t ensure that you lose the race (so you’ll always have a shot at coming back).

A few of the jumps require extreme precision to avoid overshooting the landing platform, and hitting what seemed like a good jump only to find yourself tumbling 60 feet down into the snow might be enough to get on some drivers’ nerves. At least they can always skip ahead to they next checkpoint and wait if they don’t want to chance the jump again.

One of the bigger downsides is that the race seems to be only designed for two mongeese (or 4 players max). I did notice other mongeese spawned around the map, but there were only two at the starting areas, so I don’t know how the game would work (or IF it would work) with more than two teams (it also seems way too narrow for large races).

Also, the gametype that we played on was flawed. The VIP should only be allowed to be a passenger so that the other player must drive him around, otherwise the non-VIP player can just get off the mongoose and harass the other team (like I did). I do like the idea of having combat between the VIP’s on the back of the ‘geese, so fixing the gametype should help promote that (and the gravlift trap is very original and well thought out, so it would be good to see it used more).

7.5/10

Overall

This is one of the better racetracks I’ve seen, and certainly the best on Avalanche so far. Anyone looking for a fun (but not necessarily competitive) racing experience should try it out. It’s good to see someone show some originality in the racing genre. And put some damn periods in your post next time so that it's more like a description than an indecipherable code.

Final Score: 8/10








And the two posts above this should be deleted as they are not reviews.