Underplayed Maps

[Ben]

It's always annoyed me, but lately it has pestered me more and more: Teamspeak players a dual and unimaginative. Same build on the same map every time. If someone other than Koczis or To makes a map then TS players get some weird allergic reaction and instantly play on Rich Land or Golden Cliffs for the hundredth time.

I've made a list of maps that I feel are not played as much as I think they deserve. Some potentially great maps still need testing thanks to the uselessness of KaM's beta "testers." I encourage all of you; especially TS players, to try and get others to try out these maps at least twice or thrice, or (shame on you) for the first time. Note that this list is in no significant order.

Swan Hill(6P) by Thunder
Swan Hill is actually a pretty nice map. Building is a bit easy, but it's not uncomfortable. the large area in the middle is very open, allowing for maneuvers. Since the players can't see inside their opponent's territory, it allows for large undetected troop movements to the other side of the map. One of Thunder's better maps, I assure you.


Border Rivers 4P(4P) by Joymania
This map was designed for four players, so I think it is inherently better than the 8P version (which, some of you may remember, was put together by Lewin since there were no 8P map for the early days of the Remake). The map doesn't have a "pre build" anymore thank goodness. The map could use a few changes, like storehouses being relocated and some mountains being moved/removed. This map has good potential.
I might add that 4P maps are quite underplayed. This is probably because 4P maps rely greatly on teamplay. Since there have been no real "duos" on TS since Matt&Pizza and To&Fu this is not surprising: who want's to rely on someone they don't have a close (gaming) relationship with?

Dance of Death(8P) by Sado
Sado decided to make a map where all would play like sado. This map has some very strange layouts that many TS players will be uncomfortable with since it's so antithetical to To's style. I played here once and had first iron weapons being made at 40:00 minutes, for example. Perhaps it needs some balancing, but the gamestyle is unique (maybe not in a good way;)) but fighting is actually quite interesting, thanks to many flanking possibilities.


Eruption(6P) by The Raging Bullet
Bullet is an interesting guy. I was crushing him regularly back in his random days, but he joins TS and becomes very good in such a short time (quite a bit better than my average play!). He makes a terrible first released map but his second is quite good. Eruption is an example of how quickly he got good at making maps. It's looks and feel are similar to Golden Cliffs. The minimap might scare you but I assure you that it's quite a nice map, apart from the lavz which is wanting.


A Midwinter's Day(6P) by To
I tried starting a game on this map, but players the consensus was "I'm scared because I never played here before... let's play Golden Cliffs." It appears to be one of To's more challenging maps; perhaps that's why people keep wimping out on it. Seriously, give this map a chance, guys.


Fluorescence(8P) by Seigfried
Probably the saddest addition to this list. I understand that the learning curve is quite drastic, but it's a great map that truly captivates the economic side of KaM. Fighting is still important, but you can't rely solely on military strategies as there are some adverse effects of making too much sausage, for example. In addition, making a balanced economy is greatly encouraged by the gamemode. I'm guessing that the chief reason behind this map's neglect is the map, itself. There was talk of applying the script to Koczis's Cursed Ravine; which would be incredible in my opinion (though the map would need some edits to make building in the center possible).


Well that's all that I can think of. What do you guys think? Are these maps underplayed? Are there other maps that you think should be added to this list?

[Kamykos]

Good topic, but where the hell is Cube here?!
There was a time (maybe still is?) when only map played was Back in the dessert. I think it's worst map by To (really, in my opinion it can't be compared to Volcanic Violence which is awesome) and still people seem to like this map very much. It is just a matter of taste. People on ts play New Horizon, Rich Land, Golden Cliffs, TFF, Crystalline Falls because they just like them more than other maps. Why should they play a map which they like less? You say that maps need testing, okay, but I think this maps which you wrote were already played more than few times and I think it is enough for testing. They are added in new RC so I think so called "randoms" will play on this maps for sure. And maybe ts players will come back to this maps who knows?
I think that it is important to focus on testing maps, but even more important is testing new strategies like crossbowmans+axemans or bowmans+butchers etc. But this is a bit offtopic.

[dicsoupcan]

well ts players tend to stay with the old traditional maps and ignore new maps, and the pub players mostly tend to ignore every map except cursed ravine at the moment. either way it is just very hard for a mapmaker to introduce a new map that is not underplayed a lot.

[Kamykos]

Yes this is true, but I can't find another reason why they don't play them, just this which I already wrote: people just like this few maps more. Pub players play mostly Cursed ravine because they love "campy" maps when they can play on 120 pt and speed x1000, and make an army like in this movie which just came to cinema and there is fighting and stuff. I must say terrain looks very good and map can be played 2vss2vs2vs2 4vs4, top vs bottom, right vs left(there are few maps good for that). I really don't think they play it because they don't want to try something new, because I saw many games played on special maps for example (look: The Siege ).

[Ben]

THe Siege was played a lot initially. Not so much anymore. I'm assuming that it was a group of friends playing the map several times a day and eventually got bored of it.

[Michalpl]

The Muliplayer should have option to choose random to fit enough players so 2 players would be able to pick maps with 2 or more slots

[dicsoupcan]

THe Siege was played a lot initially. Not so much anymore. I'm assuming that it was a group of friends playing the map several times a day and eventually got bored of it.

the siege is just like any co op map. it does not offer nearly as much replay value as a competitive map does, so naturally it dies eventually.

[thunder]

Well, I think to this list could be longer of course.
Maybe the public release overused some maps like Cursed Ravine, CCL and his friends. I know the reason behind is the most players are playing after jobs, schools and university...and they dont have too much time to thinking on new maps. Best if they have a well know location/-s and fighting zone where anytime can make a "good" game with in tired state also. They just learn some maps.
The TS players arent using any version of CR because maybe too campy. But my personal opinion is TS players wont play on any map which has a single chance for camping on it. Played only some "very" opened map.
This is why some maps are over and some is underplayed by the TS users also.

I learnt from better players- a good player can play on any location with any setting;) Call it with on one word mapindependent players;)

[Leeuwgie]

Interesting topic I think the 2 main reasons why hardcore TS players stick to certain maps are not yet mentioned. First of all most players don't play for fun alone but also have a reputation to hold high, and that's pretty hard nowadays when the difference between skill levels are getting smaller than before. Since finding the best balance for a game is not easy teamwork is really important so the ''rage factor'' is pretty high on TS (compared to public release) if someone makes a mistake. To avoid this some don't like to play on/test ''unknown maps'' because even decent players can screw up pretty bad there as well. Probably the guys who have the most trouble on new maps are the ones who can't perform ''their build'' on every loc. They have difficulties using the best strategies for a certain loc and want to build the same everywhere. Someone asked me once to remove a mountain because he didn't had enough space to lay out his build the way he had figured out was best for him Anyway, let everyone use the build he wants to use but for me it would be very boring/unchallenging to lay down the same build over and over again. And last but not least over 90% (I think) of hardcore TS players use prebuilds every time to improve their building part to have a maximum PT army. For me, I always like to test new maps if they are different than the maps already out there, can't be abused by campers, if the looks are good enough and they're not too easy or hard to play on.

[dicsoupcan]

that is a very good pointTo, nowadays most ts player do rely a lot on their prebuilds to create a good base within pt which defeats the purpose of using your building skills right off the bat on the map you are playing. the only thing i do is check in the editor where my important resources are like gold coal iron and trees and go from there. but what i also noticed on ts is that players sometimes want a hrder map, and when someone creates a harder map they disregard it as not interesting and still play on the old maps. it's one of the reasons i took more of an interest (besides the fact that sp maps also needs a story) in sp maps instead of mp maps. it is just very hard to introduce a new mp map that will be liked somewhere, and that includes scripted maps too while sp lovers will just try to beat sp maps anytime thus making me feel that sp maps are more playable value over mp maps.