I booted up the map sometime this morning since I had planned to look at it and Botana, and I’m inclined to agree with the judges. The map is gorgeous for sure, but some stuff just feels out of place.
Canyon Arena
Of course, a majority of the assets used are from Canyon Arena (and not your own). Personally, I just didn’t think the assets fit the map (even though they fit the theme). They worked on Canyon because they’re almost literally the only assets you see (including the actual terrain you fight on being actual models).
But the assets aren’t something I’d ever really expect to see in vanilla Unturned, mixed with other vanilla models and a map meant to actually show normal ground terrain. Several assets just feel overly cylindrical and over-touched (i.e., lanterns and fences).
Custom Assets
But then there’s the assets you guys made. For me, I found the sails to feel out-of-place. There’s not much of a reference for content creators to go on to begin with, but I would’ve added a wind shader so they at least weren’t static.
There was also this vehicle (of which I assume to have been the worst) which had a lot of these thin, narrow logs packed tightly together. It felt excessive, and I honestly just thought that fewer, thicker logs would’ve worked out better.
The weapon selection was nice enough (although the melee weapons and cannon looked a bit odd). The clothing variety was nice too, and I found the medicinal items to be quite clever.
There wasn’t anything graphically that made really me dislike the map though, I just found that some of the assets looked off.
Gameplay
At its core, it’s going to be feel like another run-of-the-mill arena map because it emulates an experience akin to Alpha Valley or Washington Arena. That’s perfectly fine by me, as long as it’s an enjoyable experience.
I loved the boats. I also realized that they’re super slow and leave you quite exposed. I really wanted to enjoy the boats, but they’re just not worth it.
Loot spawns felt kinda inconsistent. With how much moving around players might have to do to get loot (especially ammo sometimes), and the likelihood of people dying in water (which means their loot is basically gone), it’s just not that great sometimes. Too much RNG in hoping the map spawns decent loot.
At first I thought maybe you guys didn’t put down enough loot spawns, but I checked in the Editor and you guys have put down quite a bit. Yet, I end up with something like this (with the rest of the items not picked up being shirts and melee weapons):
IMO, I would’ve made all players spawn with clothing, and at least one of the weapons (+ ammo if you guys made it a firearm). Alternatively, I’d say just redo the spawns so that there’s more consistency in it. It’d make the map more predictable, and gameplay would be more meta since people would know where certain loot is going to most likely spawn, but it also just makes the gameplay feel more fair.
Post-MapJam Suggestions
Since you can publish updates to your map now that the MapJam has ended and judging won’t be an issue for the MapJam team, I have a few suggestions.
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I think a shader should’ve been used to make the sails affected by the wind, which would’ve both been “totally radical” and probably have helped make it look better.
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Increase the usefulness of vehicles. They’re quite slow, and very exposed. I really wanted to enjoy them because I really liked them otherwise.
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The blades on the melee weapons should’ve been thicker. As it stands, they’re about half as thick as something like a vanilla knife.
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Add a safezone to the spawn.
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Tweak loot, or add loadouts?