Right I've just played through it and I've got to say it's excellent
I could hardly find anything wrong with gameplay or flow, and imo fixing the crouch / gravjump thing really helps - it was already too easy for attackers to get directly to the pads and flak the Cells in one run.
@ Solar - I couldn't find any way to get stuck behind the little bump where the pads used to be - I dunno how you managed it but I don't think it should be a major problem, as it's an empty dead end anyway. I'm sure if Pyke can fix it he will.
The island with the boots on it is deliberately surrounded by damaging icy water, but you can reach it with one side-dodge and take no damage. Again hardly a major issue, and people should have to work for very helpful powerups.
And yes the new jump-pad thing outside will take a bit of getting used to, but it's no different to the one in Dungeons and it's not quite as easy to use. You might think it makes it too easy for the attackers, but I fail to see why it's tough to snipe a guy out of the air who has used that jump-pad. Attackers will have to be pretty lucky to get the Cells from the pad alone, and the def will have to be rather suckage to allow them to. It's one of those things you use only when you think you can get away with it, and the only way to really turn it into a useful feature for attackers is if they co-ordinate themselves so that three or four guys use it all at once, thus spamming the def sniper - again this is something the def will have to ensure does not happen.
@ Pyke - All other changes as far as I can see are good, and I only have a few more piffling suggestions before I would consider it about as good as we can make it:
BUGS
Still a tiny HOM under one of the trees to the right of the attack spawn on the hill (screenie below).
Still a weird bug with the radar dish where if you crouch on it for long enough it very suddenly snaps around to its starting position unexpectedly for no reason.
Inside the grav tower there is a little block floating in mid air which prolly shouldn't be there (screenie below).
At one part of the final run there is an ambient noise of running water which probably shouldn't be happening, as there is no running water nearby
(screenie below).
DESIGN
People will quibble about the jump-pad to the sniper nest, and if there's one thing that will stop people voting for this version into the league it's that feature. But if you can just learn to accept that it's there it's not nearly as big a change as you might think. It's not a huge gift to the attackers, it's hardly ever open and it doesn't stay open for long. It's kinda like a shieldbelt - it only happens every so often, gives a big help to whoever gets it, but once you lose it you have to wait for it to come back.
The one thing that pulls this map down for me is still the way the def come into the low grav tower once the attackers have opened the low doors. Assuming the attackers are going to take the most helpful gravlift - the one to the left of the low doors - they all appear outside the def teleporter and naturally throw some spam at it on their way past. This makes it very tough for the def to get out, particularly since the only weapons they can grab in their own spawn come with no ammo packs, they get no armour and no cover from turrets or whatever. There is a very short space of time between an attacker dying outside that spawn tele and him reappearing there - less than ten seconds I think. Maybe a bit of help for the def eould be good here - mb have them spawn inside the tower with a minigun or sniper on the circular pad? Or put a turret above and behind the pad to help them out when they come through the tele. Or put some ammo down inside the def spawn room so that def can pick it up as they run to the tower tele. Something needs to be done there though because it's tough deffing the tower with constant waves of attackers running past and you with no ammo or armour.
I also think the Cells could be made a bit tougher, especially since the flak is so easy for an attacker to pick up before he even enters the tower, with lots of ammo for it as well. Mb make it four flak balls to bring each one down? This would prolong the tower section of the map but not in a bad way, as it's unbalanced in the attackers' favour atm.
Only got two points about the last section of the map:
The ship is now virtually perfect, all clipping bugs removed, no weirdness about its shape etc. But the block in front of it to cover the invis platform looks very out of place. I understand why it's that shape but a few textures wouldn't go amiss on it, a bit of decoration. Atm it looks like what it is - a shabby rug covering a stain on a carpet.
And the def don't exactly spawn with much in the way of useful weps or ammo
They spawn too far forward to pick up the scarce ammo in the room behind them, and of the weps they get only one of them is instant hit (mini) and no good for (eg.) sniping people out of the air as they get launched past. The def need a shock or sniper to protect them against launchers, then again there is a sniper rifle under the belt outside. I would suggest swapping the shock behind the little pile of snow and the r/l in the def spawn - just swap them around so the def spawn with the shock in front of them - this would also help them combo any lurking spawn-campers on their way out of the spawn area. I don't think more ammo is needed in the spawn room though - as there is more than enough near the ship.
---
I think that's all I have to suggest at this point. Hope fully Pyke and I can work on this stuff if he agrees and this version will be completed
Sometimes it does funny now
