Massive Spring Cleaning Request <3

[DysprosiumJD 0]

We have a lot of maps on our Jailbreak server. Just over 20 of them, I believe. While normally that'd be a good thing, it doesn't actually work out in practice, and that's because the ratio of maps we have on the server to the maps that are unique and people really enjoy is unfortunate disparate.

 

It turns out that six of the maps on the JB server are actually incredibly unpopular and lead to generally boring rounds. Two of those maps are actually the exact same map, just with different color schemes. When one of these maps are selected, everybody has a boring time for a few rounds before a CT quickly requests that everybody RTV's, at which point it's an RTV freeday on like Round 3, and the map quickly switches to one of the overplayed maps like Lego or Avalanche and everybody regrets having wasted time on that old map.

 

That should never happen. There should never be a time when an RTV leads to a universally bad conclusion. Sure, everybody has their tastes (some people love Lunar, for example, whereas I find it to be largely mediocre) and someone somewhere will always at all times be disappointed with the outcome of an RTV. That's inevitable. But when a HUGE majority of the server hates a map and dreads having to go there -- well, why bother even having that map on the server? If there's honestly a map so bad that an RTV vote passes the same round that RTV'ing comes available, then I don't think we really want that map on our server. The majority of players should be having fun with whatever map is played, or else why do we want that map?

 

However, the problem is bigger than just people hating certain maps. By having a sizable number of poor, unpopular maps, you encourage players to avoid trying new things and to only vote for the big, obvious maps that everyone knows and loves. This means that the server is constantly only playing the overplayed maps, so that every time you switch maps it's Lego, Avalanche, Lego, Lego, BlackOps, Canyondam, Lego. This is annoying because we have plenty of quality maps, but since people are afraid of trying anything new since they don't have the confidence that every map on the server is at least a fun or unique experience, it's pretty implacable. Furthermore, during high-traffic games, people often just 1-spam because they don't feel like actually voting, since the RTV is usually so bogged down with boring maps that there isn't an actual interesting choice to be voted on -- there's usually one nominated map, which is obviously whichever popular map has just fallen off the recently-played blocker, or the one on the 1 slot which is usually a decent map that people are somewhat aware of.

 

We need to have people actually enjoy trying out the server's large selection of maps, but the only way to do that is by providing a guarantee that whatever map you go to it isn't going to be some poorly-designed hellhole with nothing to do. So, in that spirit, I've outlined six maps I'd like to see removed from server rotation. I've explained in detail why they are boring or bad maps, and why we'd be better off without them as RTV candidates.

 

I would love to add exciting, new maps, but before that happens we have to have a massive spring cleaning and get rid of all of the junk the server has accumulated over the years so that those new maps actually see play.

 

Electric Razor - There is NOTHING to do in this map, quite literally. There's a pool, which every single map has, there's soccer, which every single map has, there's a big cage, which most maps have some version of, and there's an isolation, which tons of maps have. That's it, that's all the map has. There is absolutely nothing that this map does that you cannot do on the other maps which have these things as well as a plethora of other, extra games. To top it all off, the layout of the map is poor and guarantees that unless the CTs do Big Cage or Isolation they're going to get rebelled against and killed, and even if they do Big Cage it's likely that if the CT's aren't paying attention they'll just knife the armory vent there. A terrible map, and I think everyone would be happier playing on a different one.

 

Razor Electric - This is just a terrible reskin of Electric Razor, where it's the exact same map but just "dark" and "moody", by which I mean you can't see anything and what you can see looks like my ***. A bad reskin of a bad map, this should also be removed as well.

 

Arcane Asylum - This map is what Lockdown would be if you took out everything cool about Lockdown. Visually atrocious and filled to the brim with the worst map design ever that guarantees that only the most compliant and non-rebellious T groups will ever get to play any of the games. Hidden behind confusing, twists and turns through hundreds of identical and useless rooms are such attractions like: Space Jail's race if Space Jail's race could get any more boring, and a basketball court that you could be doing on a decent map, like BlackOps. The ONLY redeeming feature about this map is an interesting climb, but that climb pretty much never gets used because all CTs are dead by then.

 

Beyond those games? There's a library which does nothing, there's a hidden hallway that does nothing, there's an outdoor garden that does nothing, there's a chow hall that does nothing, there's a sauna that I think just slowly kills you and does nothing, there's a HL2 playground which is already in BlackOps, and there's a pool that's, you guessed it, already in BlackOps. So honestly, this map is inferior to BlackOps in every single way -- so pretty much everyone will come to this map and wish that map had won instead, which is pointless.

 

Assassinator Remake - Again, just boring. While this one isn't BAD, there just isn't anything to do on here that can't be done by a better map. Pool, soccer, a boring and easy-as-hell climb, a disco, and a poorly-done LR room. VIPIntheMix has ALL of that but done better (except climb, but this map's climb is dreary and takes like 5 seconds, so that doesn't really count), plus more. No one votes for this map because it usually comes up at the same time as VIPIntheMix, and pretty much everyone enjoys the latter map more.

 

Forest Rooftop - This map has exactly three attractions: a pool, a deathrace, and a soccer game. The deathrace and soccer are EXACT copies of the ones found in Xtreme Downview, so we wouldn't be losing either one by removing this map. The pool is tiny and shallow and does nothing. Those are seriously the only three things to do in this tiny, tiny map. So if you don't want to play Xtreme Downview's pool or soccer, and you don't want to spend an entire map session using a miniature pool, then... well, you're not going to enjoy this map at all.

 

The kicker to all of this and the one thing that makes this map just outright worthless is that it contains what is probably the worst cellspawn complex I've ever seen. Honestly, you have to see a screenshot of it to have a full concept of what you're working with: Steam Community :: Screenshot View the full size of the screenshot to truly understand what a cluster**** that is. So yeah, CT's will die every time, ensuring that you never get to play any of the three worthless attractions that the map provides.

 

Jail Maximum Redux - Just the same thing as the above maps. Walkways so utterly narrow that in all my time playing this map (both as a T and a CT), I'd say that we make it out of the initial complex 1/4 of the time. Usually, when it's a bad CT or a particularly rebellious group playing, the exasperated Warden will just resign trying to use the map and just play games related to the three numbered couches right next to cells every round, which gets old fast.

 

However, just for the sake of giving this map a fair chance, let's say the T's aren't rebelling and the CT's are good at their job and you make it out of the main cell complex. Congradulations, your reward is... well, not much of anything. There's a pool, but it contains the dirtiest-looking water I have ever seen and diving boards that don't give you extra jump. There's a gun toss, but it's not as cool as Lego's or VIPIntheMix's or Space Jail's. There's a highest spray... but that works on absolutely every wall in the game that has a decent height to it. There's a soccer, but again, basically EVERY JB map has soccer, and Blackout actually has two seperate soccers. What makes this soccer different is that the goals are so tiny that if you're playing legit soccer nobody's going to win and it doesn't kill people so if you're playing death soccer you're not going to actually be playing death soccer, so even if no other maps had soccer, this one would still suck. bnThere's a HL2 playground, but the spinny thing is broken for some reason, which means it basically doesn't do anything.

 

The highlight of this map is its race. There's actually two races, but one of them is just a simple four-lane jump-climb-jump course that isn't all that exciting. The other race is actually very cool and well-done. However, unless you want to be playing race for 45 minutes, you're not going to get much mileage out of this map. If you guys want to keep this in rotation for the race that's fine, but enjoy 20 minutes of rebelling, 20 minutes of couch games or trivia or whatever, and one small round of race with the three or four T's that survived the early round rebellion.

[Otherworldly 2]

You make a good point about Forest Rooftop for sure. Whenever I am a CT, it is VERY hard to maintain power when any T can just hide in it and CTs get screwed REALLY easily.

[DysprosiumJD 0]

You make a good point about Forest Rooftop for sure. Whenever I am a CT, it is VERY hard to maintain power when any T can just hide in it and CTs get screwed REALLY easily.

 

Yeah, we went to Forest Rooftop on the server last night, and it was absolutely ridiculous and unpleasant chaos for the two rounds we were there, followed quickly by one of the fastest RTVs you've ever seen.

 

So it's pretty much unanimous from the userbase on that map; it should definitely go.

[Selby9409 0]

d*mn your post is longer than the motd lol. But yea maybe a few of those should get removed but i like the majority of them, and yea theres stuff you can do, most of the time its just terribad wardens.

[DysprosiumJD 0]

d*mn your post is longer than the motd lol. But yea maybe a few of those should get removed but i like the majority of them, and yea theres stuff you can do, most of the time its just terribad wardens.

 

Which ones do you specifically disagree with? I outlined in my admittedly large post which ones were boring and empty, and the ones that result in lots of rebellion isn't necessarily always the Wardens fault, but in that it raises the skill floor for a Warden to be able to maintain control over a group, one that raises exponentially the larger the group gets. Which is bad.

 

So unless you have a really good Warden, most of these maps are just going to play out in the same way -- a few tedious rounds followed by a swift RTV and map transition.