WAR-Bittersands (PC) Download + Pics

[brianxm]

Name: WAR-Bittersands
Version: 1.0 Final
Compatibility: UT3 (PC patch 2.0) and TITAN Pack
Players: 8-32
Author: brianXm

Description: This is a UT3 conversion, based on my UT2004 Onslaught map. This is not a strait conversion. I have made a few changes in this UT3 version to accommodate Warfare game play.

Comments:

• Two prime nodes per Core on default link setup. Some nodes will be disabled for initial player counts less than 16.
• Mines can be triggered by presure plates at the two prime nodes. These mines work independently of node ownership and can be used by either side.
• Each core has pressure plates that raise the base maintenance doors leaving the core exposed.
• Two additional link setups are available. A single prime setup with 3 node serial links. The other, a single prime setup with 5 node serial links.

PC Download:


Link: WAR-Bittersands.zip


Screenshots:







Enjoy!

...

[sithus]

looks great!

[Waffnuffly]

This isn't a bad map, but I think there's some more stuff you could do to improve it. This might not mesh well with your design goals, but I think one of the bigger issues with this map is the overabundance of vehicles. Of course this is a really really big map, so you need them to get around, but there's probably a few too many, especially at the start. You also tend to get a ton of extra Vipers and things at almost every node, as far as I can tell. There must be like 15 Vipers on this map.

I'm also not a huge fan of mixing Axon and Necris vehicles together at the same node (or the main base). I'd rather have the spread act more like Downtown Necris, where both sides start with one faction's vehicles and then get the other's at certain nodes. If you made the bases start with Necris vehicles (Darkwalker, a few Vipers, a Nemesis or two) and then awarded more vehicles to other nodes, it would not only make the other nodes more valuable, but it would make better thematic sense.

You could have the nodes indoors unlock Axon vehicles, and have the outdoor stuff give you more Necris, or something like that. You could also have a single or a couple out-of-the-way nodes award a Nightshade.

As it is now, there's little incentive to go after more nodes than you need to attack the enemy core, and with so many vehicles, it's REALLY easy to just steamroll bots and blaze straight to their base and wipe it out.

I played it with about 22-24 bots and there was still barely anyone at their home base available to stop me from doing severe damage to the core with a Viper, not to mention the Viper's huge self-destruct damage. If you cut down on the number of vehicles and/or make it so you have to cap more nodes to get more stuff, you will naturally wind up with some players straggling behind to catch up.

This may sound bad, but think about it; if everyone goes way ahead to the middle, on a map this size, it only takes one player to dart around them and start capping nodes, and then attack the base unchecked. If there are a few stragglers hanging around at each node, it's more difficult for a lone player to zoom around and wreak havoc while everyone in the middle wonders what's going on. Teleporters help, of course, but bots don't always use them, and it still takes time to GET to a teleporter if you are in the middle of this very large map.

Still, though, it's a good map otherwise. I really like the vehicular combat indoors, but I would like to see more of it! It's just a little too easy to get around right now