Date: 29-12-99 Teams: 2 File: street.zip Players: 16-22 Game: TFC Size: Medium to Large Briefing: An interesting idea, but not very consistent.

Street

The street.

Nice design...but out of place.

Bring your detpacks!

Author: Casserole | Reviewer: Borg

Objective:

Standard Capture The Flag.

Scoring:

10 points per capture. 2 points for unlocking the enemy gate.

Special: A demoman can detpack the rock piles in the underground tunnels and he can also detpack the grate inside the enemy's flag room to create a quicker escape route.

The key is underneath the main stairs. The lock is just inside the entrance.

Evaluation:

This first official effort from the author had some good promise, but being the illegitimate offspring of 2 other designs had really hurt it's chances. Going over the readme.txt brings to light the spotted history of this design, and I think that the author should have scrapped his existing design, rather than try to cobble something usable out of failed attempts. The map itself is not by any means horrid, but rather, it just has that "incomplete" and "unfinished" feel to it. It was submitted for the Opposing Force map pack contest that was held a while back, but was not included.

Construction is this maps largest failing. Referring back to my mention of the readme.txt included with the map, the author himself said that he had basically "stuck" sections of a couple of failed ideas together with the interesting "street" section. That being said, it's understandable why most of our testers agreed that this map has a largely unfinished look to it, but has many good elements that showed the glimmer of hope. I noticed quite a few comments on bland texturing, and this also reflected my own thoughts on this. A bit more finish work, and perhaps a larger beta-test of this map might have helped. I have to give the author some points for the theme, due to the fact that, yes, there is a "street" in the map, and he obviously took some time to get a certain look for that section. However, since there are remnants of other maps stuck in here, the consistency took a hit.

Layout and mobility also got a slight beating on this map. While it's not to hard to figure out where you're going outside, once you get into the bases, it becomes a bit of a hunt. There are way too few signs around, and with some of the bizarre corners, it's easy to get turned around in there. The respawns and resupply areas are neatly combined, and are prevalent, without being overly generous. I also noticed that it was pretty easy to hold the flagroom with a concerted effort of 2-3 players, and this shows the lack of alternate access that a lot of areas in this map needed. Having the key that opens the gate looking like "the enemy just dropped it", was also something that most players noted. This was not a good place to put this thing, and it struck me as just being an afterthought. Sure, you could get to it from the lower tunnels, but you had to have  few detpacks to get there. This was an altogether frustrating example of poor connectivity, and could have been avoided. Another concern that was raised a number of times was reference to the lag experienced in the actual "street" section of the map. While the area does look impressive, there are some design details that need to be addressed to enhance it's performance. Less detail on the outside, more on the inside, describe the needs here quite well.

Teamwork was about average on this map, but conc-jumping could easily put you ahead of the game. Due to the wide open design of the central area of the map, medics and scouts could easily soar over the heads of the defense, and go on to the flag. As such, the strategy of the day was to crowd your defense into the flagroom area, and hang on for dear life. For the most part, this worked quite well, due to the limited points of access that were available to the flag. Sniping could be had on this map to some degree, but the bright, harsh lighting on deck made you quite visible. Engineers could easily dominate this map, with all the wacky turns that could be found here, so you had to be on your toes, and heavily armored, whist making your capping attempts. This map does have some nice features, and some interesting ideas, but the quick change in design objectives ruined the overall result. 

Verdict:

Save getting this one for a rainy day. While the author had good intentions when starting this project, his failed attempts, and change of heart, had left this map without a purpose. An interesting twist on the 2fort concept, but not enough to make it worthwhile.

Delta Bravo Final Score: 
- 20/50 -