KOTH Soot
#1856-
KOTH Soot is a small, fast paced king of the hill map designed for competitive play.
Soot has been in development for almost a year and has been tested several times in TF2Maps Competitive tests.
Current Version: a20a
TF2Maps Thread
TFTV Thread
More Screenshots -
Keep in mind I’m approaching this entirely from an HL PoV. I just realized you said it was designed for 6s after typing most of this up, but I think it’s got a lot of potential for HL as well.
I go into most new maps with a heavy dose of skepticism, but honestly? This looks really well done. I can’t speak to how exactly it’ll play in high-level comp because that’s impossible, but there’s nothing in the geometry that seems eminently unplayable. I’d love to see more testing on this.
Some feedback -
-I’m worried about the amount of healthpacks on the map. Regardless of the actual size in HU, I’m getting product/ashville vibes from this rather than lakeside. Ash/Prod both have two medium kits on each side with a central contested pack, with lakeside having 2 mediums and 1 small pack on each side and a contested full, with the caveat being that only one of the packs is somewhat accessible during point fights. Soot has 3 mediums and a small, with 2 of those mediums in a spot where you could conceivably contest point from them. The concentration behind house is especially ridiculous. The pack outside cave is also concerning imo, as you could reasonably park a medic there and still be in beam range of a demo fighting point on the stairs. My initial thought is something like this, but it’s your call. If it was my map, I’d probably get rid of the small in house and leave the ammo as well, but I can’t say anything for certain without playing it.
-Tying into the prior point, removing a medium somewhere gives you the ability to add a contested pack into cave. It’s really desolate in there atm, and I don’t think there’s currently a lot of incentive to control it, outside of ‘well if I’m here they can’t be’, which is ultimately a mediocre reason to play in a location. Dropping a medium pack or even a small dead center of the structure in there heats it up immediately and makes control of it much more desirable.
-This is more conjecture and I could easily be off the mark, but given the lack of sightlines onto the point, there might be a new-cascade problem where forward holding is too powerful. IMO, a really good principle of koth map design I’ve noticed is “the point should be the best place to hold/be but not the safest” - something clearly shown in why product and lakeside are played, and why maps like warmtic (point is too safe), ramjam (point is the worst spot on the map to be), and synthetic (same as ramjam) aren’t very popular. If you were to hold a medic close on the shed on point and have players orbit him, what’s realistically threatening him? Any bombs would likely be spotted very early, there’s very few sightlines a sniper can manage, and any combo approach outside of a straight headbutt through the one-way glass is going to get called ahead of time. Could be a non-issue, but as a medic player sitting on point has me feeling extremely comfy and that’s usually a bad thing.
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[ A19 Update]
Changes mostly based on feedback received during the experimental HL pug.
General changes:
- Shifted around and added some pickups
- Lowered jump blocker
- Raised the height of some doorways to allow for better jumps
- Ensmallened the lobby outside of cave, just a bit
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[ A20 Update ]
Change Log:
- Attempted to nerf scout a bit by removing jumpy spots
- Opened up cave more
- Added some health to one of the lesser used routes
