Aesthetically, the maps used to feel like I was raiding/defending an actual house, or an old theme park, etc. Now it just feels like I'm raiding/defending a multiplayer map.
I get they don’t want maps to all feel the same but they should definitely look at why maps like Oregon, clubhouse, and chalet are considered the best maps. All the new maps are confusing and half the rooms are just put there to fill space and it either makes it too confusing or hard to roam clear the entire map
I think a large part of why those are good maps that I failed to mention is just that the layout flows well. If you start at one staircase and start walking, you'll end up at another staircase rather quickly. Newer maps aren't so streamlined and there's a couple spots that just play with my mind
That's not true, the Siege community are too stupid and lazy to actually learn maps. OGs and pros are able to play any map including Emerald Plains and Theme Park.
I think you really nailed the atmosphere aspect of maps. After 8 years of siege and playing from everywhere in gold to champion, one thing stays consistent, and it’s bans (at least after they were added) The FEEL is more important than impact with both operator and map bans People ban Jackal more than any other operator, despite the fact that several other attackers have a far greater impact on the game. Ying and Dok for example are arguably even stronger and also annoying, but nobody wants to be Jackal tracked because of the feeling. Kapkan’s ban rates have increased purely because he’s annoying. Feeling is more important than impact
Banning kapkan constantly ironically makes him more annoying because my teammates and I forget he exists sometimes. Of course, that’s on me, but I wish he didn’t get banned so often because I certainly hate when randoms will run into the traps and get both of us hurt even though I context pinged it and was attempting to shoot it out as Monty.
Themepark is my favourite map especially the feel of it, idk why, but it could be cause it's one of the first maps I actually went out of my way to learn after its rework. Same with border.
I miss when maps had unconventional features that made them stand out. Stuff like nonconforming windows on old House or Chalet kitchen, or semi breachable walls that were on most old maps; hell even weird jank like Tower bomb site on old Oregon. New maps sometimes feel like they were made in a lab and the homogenization sucks. Great vid.
The maps are just amalgamations of rooms, the maps used to have inspiration and solid architectural design. Now they're just a bunch of rooms clumped together
That was back when feel, realism, and creativity were the focus over competitiveness. But corporate made them push esports hoping that would be higher revenue than being a fan favorite. Typical greedy myopic C suite story.
Very big disagree. Night maps were my introduction to this game and I always found them very cool. The overly dark thing never once applied to the interior, therefore defenders should simply not challenge outside windows or doors if they don't want to die in the first 60 seconds.
I played mainly in that era, and now having a 2nd wind of feeling like playing the game. First day felt fresh, I was on point with everything, second day I got maps like theme park, which the old one I got somewhat used to, but the reworked one aint for me. Also got introduced to reworked outback and consulate. Outback is just meh imo, almost felt like a maze, kinda took away it's previous charm.
@@DeViL11019 Yeah. And every time I've tried to get back into the game I've been too put off by the new characters and wacky cosmetics. I feel like the game jumped the shark with operation outbreak (which was cool at the time) and it's just been getting sillier from there.
i don't think i have played siege enough yet to really understand the fundamentals of map design in this game, but for me i generally feel like maps like chalet, bank or clubhouse are really intuitive and easy to understand, meanwhile for me maps like emerald plains or especially lair just feel like a mess of random hallways and same-looking rooms, that last one especially on lair another thing, i really like the style of this video, it's really informative and easy to follow, like another person said i'd expect you to have a lot more views and subscribers, good job man)
That's a pretty understandable opinion. Emerald Plains and Lair are some of the newer maps, and it feels like Ubisoft is trying to make more competitive maps in the game to appeal to pro league instead of making them easy to memorize for new players like Chalet, Bank, or Clubhouse. This is odd because a lot of their other changes like the addition of the defender AI playlist caters much more towards newer players. Glad to hear you liked the video, it means a lot to me. It took much longer than I would have liked to make, so videos moving forward will probably be of a similiar style (as I do like how it turned out) but have a little less clips required so it doesn't take a literal month to edit a 10 minute video
@Minotaur4005 probably true that they now more focus on the pro league for maps, just kinda sucks for newer or even more casual players (which i think take up a majority of the playerbase) since it'll take a lot more time for people to get used to them, but i can understand that approach as the pro scene in any game is very important for the game and yeah, i think you can try to find some type of way to make this style of video take less time, but of course try not to fall into that trap of quantity over quality, but i think you got this man, no pressure. excited for the next upload)
@@sketched1462 I think out of all the things that could've been targeted towards pro league I'd prefer it wasn't the maps. Nighthaven is a great map on one hand, but on the other hand, Lair is the only map I haven't memorized yet. There was a whole extra minute of the script that was essentially me complaining about Lair but I decided to cut it because it didn't feel necessary and the video needed to be out sooner rather than later (this was around the 3 weeks mark). I should be able to shorter production time a little while keeping quality, but that'll require some thinking ahead. I think you might have more confidence in me than I do lmao
@Minotaur4005 true aswell, i think the approach of focusing on pro league with maps works better for games like csgo or valorant due to their map designs, but with how complex siege is i can imagine simplicity is key and that's normal, i'm working on a video myself on a different game, so from one to another, i know you got this, i'd say trust your gut and try not to overthink things) and i know we basically only seen eachother over youtube comments lmao, but if you'd like any help with clips or anything like that i'd be ready to help)
@@sketched1462 I completely agree that simplicity is key. Oregon and Clubhouse haven't changed in a long time, and yet they've remained as some of the most popular maps in siege. The fact that you can go up one staircase and the map seemingly guides you to another is crazy. I'll have to check your channel in a bit, you've gotten me curious now. I might take you up on that offer, as the only dude I know who owns siege hates it, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get him online to help me record some clips. It took 20 minutes to record everything, but a week of convincing him to hop on.
One thing ubisoft has done the most is limit the amount of angles and long sightlines with cover. Everything is these claustrophobic corners and placement of indestructible objects that are clearly there to prevent a certain angle. The best use of this i could find is the gauges on the long stair hall in the chalet basement that lines the wall to stop an easy angle to hold for anyone there and forces a bit more of their body to peek out
This is fantastic. I am studying game design at university and I want to focus on level design. I decided to get into siege very recently to see how developers design levels around seemingly complex systems, like a roster of 70 unique characters and gadgets, and destructible environments with objective based gameplay. It is very difficult to understand, even with it as my field of study, and you break it down fantastically. Thank you!
Ubi really need more maps like chalet. I think the maps are what people mean when they want realism. Noone cares if the ops arent realistic as long as its scifi. I hate lair and nighthaven because there way too big yet still defender sided somehow. I personally like villa as much as chalet but that was my 2nd ever season, so i was just starting to be competent. Also smaller maps works well for the short round time.
This is honestly a pretty good and informational video that i would expect to have more than 60 views and come from a channel with thousands of subscribers. Good work, and good luck on future videos.
Clubhouse, Oregon, and Chalet are probably my current top 3. For back in the casual however I loved plane lol. Man that one event that was like toy theme with Mr bear and stuff was my life
I honestly miss Secure Area in Ranked for that exact complaint about Villa. Secure Area was a mode that utilized every floor on a map and was just a nice change of pace from Bomb. People would dump on Secure Area and say it’s only for noobs or people who don’t want to think and just run in with no tactics. But what the hell has Bomb been for the last 4 or so years. Brain dead TDM. I remember playing Secure Area in ranked on PS4 for most of my Diamond seasons. But the reason Secure Area was so fun IMO was because it was to tell apart who is a team of rushing Lions, Finkas, Blitz, Ash’s, so on. VS who is a team that is actually tactical. Sure you could just stack traps and wait for the push but that’s Bomb also. Secure Area meant that every part of a objective room is free ground to secure. As opposed to Bomb where there’s “Default plant spots” and angles, walls that are pushed every game. SA spiced things up, offered different line of thinking on how to defend a room that’s utterly non-defendable. House, when it was ranked was a good example, you had to defend kids from outside because actually staying in that room was suicide. Or Villa Basement, you actually had to patrol basement and deny the Garage and Barrel pushes. Bomb also relies on person with diffuser not dying. When so many times I’ve had teammates run in with diffuser and die right away. Secure Area let anyone clutch a game regardless of relying on plant. And man was there so many stand-off situations I’ve had in SA. Like the famous Laundry stairs on Oregon. At that point it was up to who had more balls to swing. Basically, Secure Area offered different game plans for each map, and actually utilized not so high traffic rooms. Instead of Bomb where only 1 maybe 2 sites are really good. Rip Secure Area. Yes, there was casual but we all know that was tdm warm-ups for Bomb. I don’t even know if they still offer SA on the new maps.
Holy... i totally forgot about the oregon basement standoffs lmao... you would camp the stairs for like a minute or two and wait for the other guy to peek.. the memories
Removal of secure area is honestly a change that had a huge negative impact for me but nobody talks about it. Thanks for outlining what made it so good. I firmly believe eSports ruined what made siege fun. Maps feel the same, and the need for perfect competition could be achieved through operator balancing rather than massive, boring, cookie cutter maps
This was so well said, SA was so good man. The standoffs too were so intense. I’ve lost so many games because a random just decide to donate the bomb to the defense
I agree with MOST of these, but I gotta add that Favela was one of my favourite maps, especially back when there was a night mode. I just loved the fireworks around the Jesus statue, and the fact that you could see the rest of the favela around, which made it feel bigger than it actually was. I love Chalet, but it's missing that aspect of freedom. I like being able to think to myself "Hey, if I was here in real life, I could just leave". Same reason I like Skyscraper - you're in the middle of a city, all you'd have to do is go down the stairs and go to the closest McDonald's and get a BigMac
I haven't kept up with Siege in a while this helps me get familiar with how literally everything in this game is played again pretty informative, good video 👍👍
I really liked this Video. Not only bc you perfectly explained what everyone is feeling but doesnt exactly know why, but also the style of the video is pretty amazing. All the different shots look great and the way you sometimes look at the "camera" just feels very nice.
i find that border is another example of a good map, it uses breaches, soft floors, and good rotates. easily one of my favourite maps. also, clubhouse sucks, its just two hallways with some rooms sprinkled in, its a pain for both sides
incredibly well made video, honestly. you can tell how much time went into it and it perfectly articulates a lot of the gripes i have with the map design. the newer maps genuinely feel like oversized mazes, just chores to navigate and painful to play on. only 1.1k subs is crazy.
This was super interesting! Chalet has always been my favourite and I always thought it was because of the atmosphere, but after considering how attacking/defending actually work, I can say that I love this map because it's well designed. I think my overall map ranking probably looks similiar to yours as well. I tend to prefer being able to outthink the enemy as opposed to taking gunfights that I have a fifty-fifty shot of winning - which is why I play Seige and not COD.
I didn't really grow up with shooters, so my gun skill is crap. I much prefer making a good setup work rather than throwing myself at the sound of gunfire
As someone who does tend to like new maps, I agree with your assessment overall. More maps need to be designed like Chalet. Oregon and Club do get stale but Chalet it always feels like something is going on. Labs I think has a very good competitive layout but it is upset by the very dull grey walls and atmosphere and poor readability. Plains has quite clean visibility but a wacky layout. Lair is… well it definitely feels like an evil villain’s lair. But that doesn’t mean it’s fun to play on. It’s got such weird tones from the dark 2f to clean basement. Unclear paths and strange room placement. I like window and rappel fights and Lair doesn’t provide that either. Outdoor Breaching comes from 1 wall for the 2F site despite that site being very defender-sided making attacking annoying. It’s a cool map and concept but it just doesn’t work for Siege.
Out of all the "new" maps I actually like Labs quite a bit, I just don't like the unrealistic and almost sci fi nature of it. I like Lair's 2f site, and both 1f sites, but everything connection them is confusing for me to traverse because it's just so large. I'm also not a fan of Deimos turning into a cliche villain with a knock off batcave, so I'm going to be biased whether I want to be or not.
Hey dude! What a lovely video, I know how much effort it is going into match replay to get those freecam shots. And your use of top down views, first person, freecam, etc was just perfect! Really good job and I loved this analyzation. Looking forward to more!!
Something that I really enjoy about emerald plains is the decoration and detail. It’s fun getting creative with gadget placement. That paired with good information/cams can win easy rounds. I do agree about the highways with the shades
The car garage on Chalet can also be used as a runout spot on people rapelling outside multiple windows in master bedroom, so even thats not wasted space
Chalet has such a cozy feel. Good think piece on maps. I happen to enjoy most maps now that I have knowledge of what to do on most of them, but I understand why ranked players don't like the cramped dark maps like Favela. But I really enjoy those maps for what they are, catered towards casuals
I agree in almost everything, but the points you made to say Theme Park looks wrong is why I like it- because it looks like a real abandoned place and there are so many nooks and crannies to execute shenanigangs (except the bathroom, that yes, makes no sense, but it's not worse than the bathroom in Presidential Plane that is completely empty)
I think Kafe is such a beautiful map, the gold details, the classic paintings, the rappel gameplays that now replace the Consulate.And Outback I really love Outback,I'm from Brazil and here we love a gunfight
Id like to say too, its easier to learn maps when they actually make sense. Chalet for example, there's a bathroom right next to the bedroom. A bar next to the pool room. A central room with a grand fireplace. It all makes sense. Compare this to a map like Lair, night haven or new consulate. Half of the rooms dont serve a real world purpose. They exist for the sake of existing. Oh heres the Exo suit room. And this one here, its the...the....the weird room with like some Foosball tables or something. And oh, lets not forget about random room with a huge obstructive montior in it thats the size of a closet.
The (lack of) vertical play on Villa you mentioned is one reason why I really don’t like that map. The two best (or at least most common) sites are on the top floor, there’s not much vertical play as you mentioned, and not a lot of flank opportunities for roamers form the floor below. My friend group that plays Siege says Villa has 1.5 floors. It leads to the map being very repetitive and every round feeling the same. That’s something you didn’t mention, at least directly, variety, although a map having some of these qualities leads to more variety between rounds.
Theory comes easy to me in siege and I'm loving the game. I am a big thinker and I loved spending tens of hours just roaming around in custom and setting up and learning perspective from all the angles.
Wow, I watched only 2 mins of video and can already say, that montage is amazing! Not just random gameplay or running around map, but many views from different angles. Well done, wanna watch full video later
This is a really well made video. Personally as someone whose played this game since year 1 I feel like a lot of the new maps lack character and my main gripe with them is they have built in cover and half walls that are made of metal or stone. It just feels like lazy design. Idk when I’m playing the OG maps a lot of rooms have less cover and allow for more interesting gunfights and dynamics
I feel SO different about most maps, I love Oregon, Coastline, Kanal, Emerald Plains, Chalet, And Lair. To me they all offer a unique experience with different tactics, without it feeling overwhelming. I specifically dislike Bank in Particular, as there are many big open rooms, like office and main entrance, and breakable walls and hatches EVERYWHERE. I get how it gives Attackers a lot of options, but I feel like it may be too much…. Attacking on the map feels good, as you can change plans, breach walls, and just cause mayhem… But as a defender, it feels like you can never prepare enough, especially on 2F, the amount of windows, doors and breakable walls, make the experience terrible. No matter which side they push, they have or can create about 3-4 different angles on site, from 1 direction. Choke points make a map flow, hence I like Oregon so much, it feels like there is enough creativity for attackers while balancing it out with choke points that require to take the gun fight. Bank is the ONLY map I have never played an enjoyable match on, whether I win or lose, it just feels weird. For me Kafe is similar that way, but only for 3F, I actually really enjoy the other sites.
Ngl, split is one of my favorite sites on Consulate. And I'll admit, dirt isn't exactly a useful entry point for the rest of the map, but for split specifically, it feels like a pretty serious focal point to the site. And the coolest part about it to me is that the best wall denial isn't even a bandit or a kaid. It's a tachanka or impacts from the 2nd floor, which is just so cool to me.
I think you missed a huge point being creativity with drones/cameras. You lightly touched on it when talking about chalet, but being able to set up drones that reward creative or smart players is huge on attack and a lot of maps implement a mini drone parkour game. This is one of the things I find most impressive when I'm looking at a map because you have to make them seem natural from the defender perspective and opportune from the attacker side. There's so many spots where cameras can be placed and they had to think about that. A very small detail I love is places drones can hide that defenders can actually destroy. The raised plants can be shot by a defender, but if it's not a drone could be placed there and it's both vertically hidden from the defender's sight as well as having the plant cover the drone as well. The same goes for many shelves, other plants, speakers, and basically any small destructible object.
I definitely enjoy chalet more now rather than before the rework. Personally nighthaven labs has grown on me but lair has to be one of the worst feeling naps i’ve played. It’s dark everywhere and feels like there is not only wasted space but intentionally confusing areas. Kanal is another map that I feel gives both sides ways to compete, aside from the unfortunate spawn peaks
I think this is pretty good. I wish you mentioned Lair. I feel like it has the safe defender spots, but it lacks those breachable walls into objective. One of the 1st floor sites has a great attack wall, but defenders never pick it. 2nd floor has an outer wall, but 2 windows look into it, and one window you can't even put an OSA shield, so it's literally a death trap if defenders figure that out. Lab has one decent attack wall into connector, but it would be better if it was directly into a site for planting.
Lair was in my original script, but I cut it out due to the fact that I had been working on the video for a month at this point and just wanted to get it out. It was essentially just a rant that had little point to it so I didn't feel bad about cutting it.
So the window part at the Liar top floor breach is quite an easy one to deal with, you have nothing to worry about if you take Sky bridge. It at same time opens up the opportunity to open up the wall into R6 room so you can set up a pinch into the site
Generally, make the maps small and each location recognizable. Makes it easier to navigate even if you dont know the map aswell as making learning the map easier Thats why i like Bank or Clubhouse mire than lair or Nighthaven labs
First off, great video! You did well, and i enjoyed watching it. I agree on Chalet being my favourite map, although not perfect in my opinion because I personally despise garage breach. I also think the idea that the aesthetics of the map matters so much is an interesting one. I always see people on youtube complain about the removal of old lightning and such but to me the gameplay reasons for the changes are always what stuck out more and im thankful for them. I suppose ultimately, this visual aspect is simply something that has never mattered to me. This is interesting to me though because i am one of those few people who actually like Emerald Plains a lot, I feel they wanted to make something in the spirit of coastline and it was an absolute success. But obviously that is not a popular opinion and i have always wondered if me and my stack are just crazy or if someone liking coastline but not EP was just irrational. I had never considered that the visuals might be subconsciously making a huge difference. PS I looove that outside wall on New Consulate and use it all the time attacking garage. You suggest that its redundant because there are already other ways to get down into servers. But outside wall allows you to get into servers without needing to enter the building and risk dying to someone holding lobby, plus not requiring a drop which is what a lot of defenders tend to listen for thus giving a decent chance of you being able to just sneak in. And even if you were going to have someone pushing those hatches, it gives you a way to have someone flank and make defending servers that much harder.
I think it's odd that when it comes to vertical play you talk about Villa being poor and Bank being good. Bank's basement site does have 4 hatches, but way too much hard ceiling, meanwhile Villa's top floor is almost exclusively soft floor barring the top of one of the stairs and a small square in statuary. Both ground floor sites can be held vertically because of this. Border and New Consulate are also standout maps which have loads of relevant soft flooring, with every site on Border having verticality being relevant, even the specific bit of hard floor they added in the rework for armoury which is exposed horizontally, but safe vertically (alike in statuary). Still, its nice to see map discussion. They are what make the game after all.
3:17 small correction: only one of them being accessible without a soft* breach the barrels can be breached with any soft breach, a hard breach isn't required Otherwise this is a cool analysis, I personally don't agree with a good amount of opinions you have but that's what opinions are for. I definitely enjoyed watching this and it gave me another perspective towards maps and how i will observe them in the future.
Extremely well done video, very educational that was condensed to a not too long and a boring video. IMO could have been longer because I got hooked and was very immersed in the video. But all in all a very good analysis.
I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong about Theme, but as a Theme lover I'll tell you why I enjoy it. first off, the aesthetic and the darkness. I love Theme since its one of the most consistent and really makes sense within it's own world. Its an abandoned theme park where a gang as decided to hold up and make drugs. No room betrays that story. For the darkness, it makes sense with that story; though more importantly it's for gameplay. Siege maps need a certain level of clutter or general noise to actually hide drones and valk cams. Making stark maps is how you get the stadium maps where its basically impossible to set up a preplaced anywhere. I will admit the 2 bottom sites arent great design wise. Throne is way too tough to attack and would greatly benifit from some Throne side vertical. Drug/lab is basically the exact opposite. The top 2 sites though.... Those are near masterpieces. No other pair of sites feel so enjoyable to set up extensions on, Villa could never. The defender movement just feels so nice, moving from arcade in to cafe hall in to the rotate in to daycare where you can hold cafe door and yellow stairs with some headholes and when you get flushed out you have the choice of falling back though either the Office or Shrine rotate is just soooo nice. It's also THE best teaching tool about extensions for new to comp players, mainly due to both sites' set ups being mirrors of each other. You teach 2 halves of each set up, mash them together, and just who ever is roaming is the ones responsible for setting up the other site as an extension. I will say there is some issues with the top floor. not all map design though. I believe its too hard to get out of cafe and in to the rest of the map as an attacker and attacking cash is really tough. I'd replace either cash door or dragon window with a breach. I'm not too sure about Cafe side
for some reason my monkey brain could never really put my feeling to words but you explained it perfectly. The ability as a defender to have several power positions or rooms outside of the site where you can quickly rotate between important entry points explains why I dont like the maps i dont like (for the most part). Newer maps have so much dead space, the more you get to the center of the map the less dead space there should be
I think a good map that was never really understood is fortress. It has all the points you made in the video, think about it. In general i don’t like maps with too much “objects” inside. Like i find emerald too “messy”. The best maps are very linear , the rooms are pretty clear. For example Oregon is very “plan and simple” but that’s why i find it more attractive and intuitive. Great video, love to see content like this! You nailed it.
I was just telling my friends how Ubi's map design has been trash for a few years now. The last decent map design/rework was Kanals. I don't think new Kanals is that good either but it's good for what they were working with.
i count 9 spots on that Theme Park frame, and another to the hard right behind the staircase wall where there could be a rotate hole, and another behind you where there could be a rotate hole
Hot take Coastline Border Villa were the best dlc maps that ubisoft had added to siege. Coastline and border are the perfect summary of taking gunfights and breach game play in a condensed package. Villa while not being vertical game play friendly still allows you to Come up with good strategies for clearing map and opening lines of sight into the objective. From Base game Oregon and chalet and Clubhouse are the best for ranked
Did you really just say breaching on Coastline is a thing...😮 There is not a single site on Coastline where breaching a wall is your win condition. Coastline is like said all about who gets the kills
@rubanyan you can take vertical on coastline easy you play breaches on second floor from vip and penthouse idk what you mean. One default take is opening vip wall and playing off there as an example. You gotta play more and find better strats
As someone who doesn’t have a lot of hours in siege, one of the main things that bothers me about newer maps is that they are uselessly big and all the rooms look the same. Hard to tell where I am when I’m in a maze of 12 identical rooms. It’s very easy to tell rooms apart in other maps since the important ones have distinct features or a distinct color scheme
I think the big thing with admin is it allows almost total shutdown from all visa entrances when playing above, allowing you to waste a lot of time when the attackers need to enter there, or even get free picks
You just explained to me why Chalet is my favourite map! I never knew why I liked it so much more than many other maps and didnt realise it comes down to the map design itself Great video and would love to see more like this!
Man this was such a good video you've definietly dearned a sub! When I started watching this I thought this was from a youtuber with over 100k subs like no joke. I think that Chalet is an example of a timeless map that constantly is improved upon, you should told do a video on the design of it in depth and kinda glaze tf out of it. Thanks pookie.
Really solid vid. I agree with most of the points made as well, except... coastline *does* have breaches, several ones at that (90 breach to hookah, main breach to kitchen, vip breach to bedroom). I get that, to reach these, you have to expose yourself to several angles, but you can just clear/hold them with a teammate.
Maps where theres clear pathways for attackers to attack make the best gameplay. These pathways aren't necessarily overly strong but they create common simple pushes/callouts for matchmaking teams to work together on attack and defend against on defence. Master & blue on oregon, CCTV wall on club, chalet garage and balcony. Newer maps are so cramped and complex with no easy things for matchmaking teams to organise around and play together, on both offence and defence (which is why they suck)
The more it looks like a real building, the more you learn it fast. Latest maps that Ubisoft has made completely lack that and then they blame you for "not learning the map"
I get your point, but sometimes people are already complaining before the map has launched. Imo complaining before playing on it for a week is just bizarre. That being said, I do prefer more realistic maps
@@Minotaur4005 Yeah there are definitely people who do not want to leave their comfort zone, which is why a map vote would be horrible. But Ubisoft just can't always use that excuse every time they release a bad map.
i really liked this video, although i think that coast does have more variability then most people think,i agree with everything else. i hope you keep pushing out content bro
I think you make some great points about what defines certain maps. That being said, I think having maps which play differently adds important variety to the gameplay but I still understand where you are coming from with some of your criticism. Completely disagree with you on the atmosphere of Theme Park though. I think it has a lot more "character" to it that a more plain map like Chalet.
tbh, I haven’t gotten to play theme park yet, but everything you described about its atmosphere sounds great to me lol. It sounds similar to how Favela makes me feel: paranoid and like I shouldn’t be there. Not criticizing, just find it funny how subjective atmosphere can be. (cool video btw👍)
i agree with the chalet being the best map or at least one of the best but i feel like emerald plains is designed to encourage roaming over anchoring site, like the upstairs admin site is really easy to enter and plant but if you dont have a good roam clear you lose the round same with kitchen and bar. i think it being more for gunners is true but i dont think its for the default warden iana ones, its more for one who can clear attacks with vertical plays or very good flanks and with the attack i feel like its for the person who can take map control effectively instead of just a few rooms. TLDR: i think emerald is a good map aswell just not in the traditional sense like chalet
You are so fucking right, chalet is so good because it’s dense, there are next to no rat spots, no space is wasted, you have a few strongholds off of site and there is a lot of verticality. Contrast this with lair which is massive but you don’t go into half of the rooms because there’s no one there, you have a shit ton of rat spots due to that, to my knowledge I’ve never seen anyone try to play off of site except to roam, but there is some verticality on the lower sites. Thank you for being able to address this in a simple and constructive way!
I disagree with you on Theme Park to be honest. Theme Park is one of my favorite maps in the ranked rotation because of the sheer amount of potential site set-ups that you can create on the two upstairs sites, as well as the strength of hard breaching on that map. Take Initiation Office for example. A setup I like to do involves Castle and Azami. Castle can make cash headholes and reinforce vault and yellow walls to deny cash, but additionally, he can make holes all along the cash 90 and castle off top dragon and cash door, with a rotation into cash from top dragon. This makes cash practically unpushable for attackers and if you put a vaultable rotate and barricade on control, you force them yellow. If you bring Azami as well, she can make a strong setup creating hard to contest angles in that middle hallway between the sites that make her feel impossible to deal with, and the same is true on top dragon. Similar tomfoolery can be done with the daycare site, which allows you to hold arcade and cafe just from office with no flank pressure from cash. Attacking all of the Theme Park sites is really easy: bring a Thermite. Let’s use my Initiation example and counter it. Thermite can blow up any combination of the control wall, bunks wall, or yellow stairs wall to pressure and collapse the defense to get the easiest plant of his life. Not to mention, if he pushes break room and thermite blows the wall on the right by the fridge, he can take initiation without dealing with the wall denial because of splash damage. Theme Park also does not suffer from the same issues as it’s predecessor nor newer maps like Nighthaven or Lair. With the deletion of the train and many of the clutter rooms on the original theme, pretty much all of the rooms with the exception of the locker room entrance are purposeful and have a clear usage case. The only challenge is the lighting, but even so, the lighting is nowhere near the challenge of the old night maps or new Favela. Please give Theme a chance.
About the general feel of a map: border… i hate that map for some reason that idk. And i think its because it just feels so crammed, dark and worn down, i have no idea about map design but i totally agree with Chalet and clubhouse (Oregon also gives me the same vibe as border for some reason).
A clear distinction between good and bad maps that I've noticed is on good maps attackers are able to contest objectives from outside. Having to enter the building to attack an objective is a massive advantage for defenders. Think tower or fortress. Also some maps are overly complicated with too many angles, which is frustrating.
Yeah but maps that are larger means less spots or entry points to hold House and chalet are significantly harder to play on than skyscraper or Lab because they allow for the defenders to easily hold entry points into floors or into site in general They offer a differing experience in easy to hard maps and shake up how people play forcing them to adapt differently
its crazy how much people's opinions can differ with the atmosphere of maps. old siege players are constantly complaining that the game is too bright and not edgy enough these days while newer players hate the dark and grimy atmosphere of certain maps. personally I prefer maps with more moody lighting like villa, emerald (top floor mostly), and lair that's not dark but not too in-your-face. Maps like coastline and nighthaven are just too fluorescent they're almost sickeningly bright to me. though overall i care less about visuals than most people. also i think its kinda unfair to criticise orange on emerald for being too easy to clear cause of that window right after praising 90 on villa which has an even more powerful window looking right at the power position
Good point, but I was meaning more that orange has like double the spots that need to be watched than 90. Apologies if that wasn't clear. I do in general prefer being able to see, but that's because that's on some maps and not others. If all maps are dark, that's one thing. If half are light and the others are dark, that's another thing. The current lighting glitched consulate that's dark is one of the nicest looking maps imo
Chalet? Someone clearly didnt play outback, before solis, on those far far times of oryx/iana, it was my favourite map, holding bull with mozzie from site was one of the best experiences i had in this game
i know it doesnt matter since everyone plays bomb but on villa you can actually go basement on hostage and secure area I only know this cuz me and my friends only played secure ranked way back when ubi allowed fun