Map Submission(s) | Minisiege

[Off-Brand]

Sorry I have taken so long to get back to you. I was busy over the past day and was also thinking about some of your comments. First of all, I appreciate that you took the time to look at them and critique them (I would have been suspicious if you did not have any notes!). I would be very comfortable with most of your recommendations and I will address them below.


Custom Map 1:

We'd probably keep this to a smaller map, voteable, with a small player count e.g. like max 80 players.

I completely agree, this was my first map ever so I was concerned it was a bit small and that is why I overcompensated on custom map 2 and made it perhaps a bit too large.

Minor; but the edge of the main bridge doesn't connect properly to the sand
Probably best to move defending spawns into the "captains quaters" part of the main ship, as spawning them in the direct line of the enemies might be a bad idea from a gameplay perspective

Easy fix, I can get that done super quick for both matters. Should i do something specific with that front deck spawn or just leave it empty as an extra room (add details)?

Mortar on attacking side may be OP as hell, if it clips the boat right - which it might not - but can't tell until play testing

Probably, play testing would help that. If it does not work out we can go from there. It was intended to help clear some of the roofs that are hard to attack/reach but I can see how it could just splash on the flag and kill 5+ people (teamkilling too).


Custom Map 2:

I love the small details you added such as the little map of the map in the map (map-ception). I'd recommend using a different prop for the table tho, so the "view campaign map" button isn't there. I'd recommend mm_tablebig2, for example.

Another easy fix, I added the map since I know its a complex map that would be confusing for unfamiliar players.

 I like the different approaches you can go to reach the flag, so the gameplay isn't repetitive and there's many ways to play the map. The tunnels are a nice touch, but need some work on the entrance from attacker side, as the players head clips there slightly 

Thanks, another quick fix but a bit tricky since the ground level tool is annoying, might add another ground prop(s) if I cannot make them work.

There's some texture glitching with overlapped props on the rear wall, another minor thing but I like them to not do that in all maps where possible 

Some props don't connect properly to each other, so they're floating slightly or there's gaps.

Arty ammo boxes auto generate with cannons, so to check they spawn in their proper location switch your gamemode to siege then spawn in to see where they spawn

Got it

Attacker spawns on this map seem rather far to me, would lead to a long run which a lot don't like. I usually stick by the rule of attacking spawn is where their arty is situated. In this maps case, it isn't too far away but cuts some walk time over that hill etc so helps. (another thing, some bushes back there are floating, probably due to you editing terrain later after adding them). 

Terrain is the ultimate thing that adds map size to your download, so try to keep editing that down to a bare minimum. Props make no where near the size of the map compared to raising or lowing a slight bit of dirt. On that note, some of the terrain needs to be checked over, so it doesn't look so "jagged", in the tunnel it's probably fine but on land it's nice to keep a natural look to the whole map.

That was also a concern for me, just behind the arty seems fine but should I spread them behind each redoubt or behind only the center redoubt with the howitzers? I will work on smoothing the terrain and maybe cut down a bit on file size by hollowing the back of the mountains to the right of the fort.

The stairs out of the tunnel are quite steep - you could possibly replace this with a ladder and teleportation doors instead of the steep climb into gun fire

I would prefer a staircase if possible so I will experiment with it first and try to make it flatter, I do not feel that teleport doors would work for the flow I intended so at most I would switch to ladders. Also I found a bug that allows sappers to block players from climbing the stairs that were very hard to destroy since the stairs were steep. I will experiment with it.

Some detail on the bit that sticks out towards attacker spawn on inner fort, where the brick fountain is, would be nice too. It's very "red" with all them bricks, some crates, barrels, weapons etc would liven that up

Sure, on a related note I noticed that it is a bit hard to spot where your shots are going with arty since the walls are all red (i.e. Hard to have depth perception). How would you go about making each part of the fort more distinguishable from eachother?

Custom Map 5:

 I like the idea, a lot, I always wanted a map like that but like you said yourself I tried too and failed haha. However, would need to also ask Duesdas explicit permission considering the base is theirs too. 

I contacted Duesda on his workshop page and added him but his profile is private so I do not know if he is still an active steam user anymore. What steps should I take if I cannot contact him? 
I got a reply from Duesda on his workshop page stating he is fine with me modifying his map. I attached a screenshot of it.
   

Map size is large, so would be exclusive to out of rotation

Yup. I can try to cutoff some of the buildings so there are no unnecessary streets and flatten the river terrain beyond the water entrance by the bastion. The goal would be to create a square of detailed land around the Bastille and flatten the rest out.

The map seems rather "linear" to me, where you have to run in straight lines with cannons facing you every route. That would make it very hard for attackers and make for a long run, something a lot of players don't like.

I attached my proposed edits to the ground leading up to the fortress entrance.
   

To summarize the goal is to create two flank routes: Secondary Flank: one along the moat that is faster but more deadly for attackers. Tertiary Flank: one that goes around the outside of the buildings leading to the staircase that has no cannons and flanks the cannons along the main route. This way the goal of the attackers would be to push the main flank (to close the teleport shortcut) and the tertiary flank (to counter cannons) at the same time. Once they secure both of those routes they can use the secondary flank to shorten the length of time it takes to reach the castle entrance. 

Conclusion:
All of your feedback was very ingratiating and I want to thank you again for spending the time to work with me. I agree with all of your tweaks and will work on all of them this weekend and update you map by map. One last question would be if there are any specific recommendations you want to do personally or if I can do them all and send them back to you for review? Let me know and I will get on it!