This is a newbie map and I try not to be too harsh with it. I didn't put it directly on my
butcher's block because IMO the author has potential for making very good CTF maps.
The arena is a box (read canyon) that has a castle in each side of it. The space between the bases
is divided into three parts using walls. There are two bridges over the center part where we have the
Berserker and Nali rabbits guarding the redeemer tree.
In addition to the straightforward routes we have the underground, wet route and very tight
tunnel route in side of the canyon.
The map looks a bit boring and plain as the lighting and textures are as they are. The suggested
player count 6 to 16 is well out of range. The six should be considered as maximum. Playing with
16 will end up in a rampant massacre. I had some fun trying to get rid of the Berserker, finally
telefragged that creature.
The map has a decent poly count staying always below 150 in intensive areas and well below 200
at sniper posts. The map may be a weeny bit jerky with the oldest machines in use but generally
You should be able to play the map no matter what sort of abacus is on top of Your table. The node/poly
ratio is 2.45 which is not too bad as the polygons are pretty low. The player starts have been
placed in each base behind the flag room. Hard time for the flag carrier....
The bot support needs an overhaul. The coverage is poor even though it is introducing some of the
shortcuts to the bots. The pathing of the lifts is wrong. Apparently the author should do some
reading of the manuals around.
If You want to win against bots, play red as the red flag is inaccessibe to bots because of some
missing lift exits. All in all the pathing seems to be half done the blue side being more finished.
There are some flow problems in this map. The worst being the cramped side tunnel that has a
lift setup making You loose Your marbles. The bridge setup across the middle area is nice though.
The map has very nice weapon selection and placement. IMO this is one of the strongest sides of
the map. Take the Rocket launcher for example: It is located on the upper bridge and retrieving it
will be very hazardous as if You fall, You will be facing the Berserker. If You move carefully,
You will be hit by the defense. The items are not placed beautifully (as they should) but their
location and selection is very good including the health and armor. The mannable turrets at each
base are a nice touch.
The architecture is simple using unmodified basic brushes. However, the bridges across the central
area and the side tunnel openings have some brushwork on them. The map does not consist entirely
of boxes but it looks exactly like my first map; rough. The layout is interesting and I encourage
the author to keep on it even if this review "sucks".
The author has payed some attention to selection and alignment of the textures. However, there are
a lot of bad transitions around and some of the surfaces (tower roofs) have been left unaligned.
The skybox looks horrible and it has way too hasty clouds.
This is a daylight arena and as we all know, the lighting for that is very hard to do. The author
has succeeded to cope with it in some degree. The zone has the FogZone setting true but there are no
fog around. Many of the lights have way too long radius making the map look plain. The torches are
emitting light, unfortunately the radius is too long loosing the right effect, and so forth.
The map has only one ambient sound. The water ripple from the cellar. Otherwice the canyon is cursed
into silence. The music track is WarGate (included) from Unreal1 and IMO it suits the map very well.
To the author:
Cooperate with the folks at Nali City. There are no dumb questions, just more or less dumb answers.
I like the layout and weapon placement/selection in Your map. It is a very common mistake to
exaggerate with the weapons. Looks like You have been playing UT a lot but have just started mapping.
Better late than never.