Let's talk about Ice Colony

[CABAL]

How I miss the days of marines losing almost every round and where the very occasional win felt well earned and to be talked about

You can bring back this state by simply going CO and ordering 3 squads to deploy underground. I don't miss those days and I usually miss those drops if you know what I mean.

[Avalanchee]

Terrible map in my opinion, being on it feels like playing chess.
Only xeno mains like it because they can delay and do nothing for 4 hours.

Only good Ice round are Pred rounds.

[simonset55]

Fighting aboveground on Ice is very fun imo, while underground fighting is incredibly tedious since it's just a bunch of hallways xenos will stomp marines in. Can't even use OBs or CAS underground either.

Tcomms is usually very well fortified by the time the xenos get up, so it usually leads to large battles for control of either tcomms or the bar. Although it takes a long ass time, it's really fun to watch both sides keep pushing each other back and forth.

[Audi_Gzz]

Ice is NICE, in lowpop it can be hell cause its xenos hiding underground and a small outpost at tcomms and LZ1 fob being set up but not really caded that much. Highpop Ice is the best though I ain't gonna even lie chief.

[starmute]

Ice colony needs a rework in the following ways:

1. Its far too big.
2. While the up down system is interesting it really shouldn't be allowed except in a few areas. It really REALLY creates havoc for the marines
3. Smocks suck

[Her0zz]

The map xenos will win 7/10 on, like seriously xenos cant lose unless the queen is bald or the hive just plain sucks, like beyond sucks.

[misto]

Ice colony needs a rework in the following ways:

1. Its far too big.
2. While the up down system is interesting it really shouldn't be allowed except in a few areas. It really REALLY creates havoc for the marines
3. Smocks suck

the two-level system would be ok if
1. the underground was less cramped
2. the ladders and elevators matched up properly above vs below, which they dont. ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y64bJPnBoXc observe

[ThesoldierLLJK]

Real heroes vote for ice then quit the server.

Its not that Ice is a bad map per say, it's just so big and so vast. It seems that 40% of the map doesn't get used by ethier side at times, especially on the surface.

[KennyTGuy]

As a relatively new player I feel a large part of the northern map never gets used, for me the map may as well not exist north of tcomms, I do absolutely love the feel of Ice though, taking shelter in buildings or near heaters was fun when I lost my hat as a survivor, but when I was eventually captured by xenos all they had to do was place me in some buildings north of LZ1 and no one ever came close to finding me.

[Swagile]

im just waiting for a queen to meme the entire marine team by making a hive in disposals

NO ONE, and i mean NO ONE, goes there, EVER

[Dolth]

Imo.

Both levels should be a different map.
LV is just a single map you know. And is as big. Same for BR and prison is even smaller.

[AcuteCircle]

It's the worst map for me. I avoid playing marine on it, if I do it's shipside roles. It's painful to even play a xeno on it. I get lost all the time, and the map on the wiki helps little, especially since the ladders and elevators are not even lined up. It's horribly designed and I still don't know why they won't remove bottom layer of it. The top layer is enough to be its own map.

[awan]

Ice is cool

[Swagile]

arguably, the best part of Ice is the top portion

its big enough and if you add a few more mini cave sections like far West and far South parts of top portion (excavations, and that cave area near Warehouse) it would be a great map

remove tcomms and it'd be a better LV at that point, as the snow at the top actively discourages metarushing (due to mass slow down and mini stuns)

heck if meta rush gets bad, just add "snowbanks" that only disappear after the "snow storm" is over (just like fog in LV)

and it would be a superior map at that point

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Ice is a bad map

FTFY

For real though, Ice Colony's ladders, LZ2's literal immunity to assaults, and the cold make it, in my opinion, the absolute worst map in CM.

[Dolth]

FTFY

For real though, Ice Colony's ladders, LZ2's literal immunity to assaults, and the cold make it, in my opinion, the absolute worst map in CM.

I highly disagree. LZ2 advantages marine more than xeno. 4x4 hallways with maints? That's just Prison Station but with even more room to maneuver and even tho if we can win on prison that has the same design then we should win on LZ2.

[CABAL]

I highly disagree. LZ2 advantages marine more than xeno. 4x4 hallways with maints? That's just Prison Station but with even more room to maneuver and even tho if we can win on prison that has the same design then we should win on LZ2.

On prison xenos can't escape "above ground" and there is a lot of "dead end rooms" where there is only one entrenance. ICE LZ2 let you assault only from two(three, but that one is one title and is usually welded shut) points that are always covered in sticky and sometimes also resin walls. Hallways are long, but they have a lot of doors that xenos force open to lounge, slash few times and escape. This does not exist in prison.

Closed spaces favours single strong units as xenos are. Open spaces favours numbers, becouse you can actually use them. This is why LV is liked by many, becouse it has both: Caves and River. Closed and open spaces.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

Ice slightly benefits xenos, and thus needs to be nerfed．So chop chop, get to it.

I need more marine buffs in my changelog.

[kastion]

It's the worst map for me. I avoid playing marine on it, if I do it's shipside roles. It's painful to even play a xeno on it. I get lost all the time, and the map on the wiki helps little, especially since the ladders and elevators are not even lined up. It's horribly designed and I still don't know why they won't remove bottom layer of it. The top layer is enough to be its own map.

The top layer sucks for xenos. It wouldn't be even remotely balanced.

[kastion]

I highly disagree. LZ2 advantages marine more than xeno. 4x4 hallways with maints? That's just Prison Station but with even more room to maneuver and even tho if we can win on prison that has the same design then we should win on LZ2.

The blast doors at lz2 are the most broken thing in the entire game. I don't know why marines don't use LZ2 on ice every time.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

The blast doors at lz2 are the most broken thing in the entire game. I don't know why marines don't use LZ2 on ice every time.

It's because they simply don't have that much of a chance to push out if xeno set their shit up. Between hallways, sticky spam, a ridiculous amount of flanks, and the blast door button being meltable which prevents them from closing the blast doors if aliens are cheeky enough; LZ2 is seen as a "Yolo underground rush let's try to end this shit early" than a "we will hold here with the blast doors" thing

[kastion]

It's because they simply don't have that much of a chance to push out if xeno set their shit up. Between hallways, sticky spam, a ridiculous amount of flanks, and the blast door button being meltable which prevents them from closing the blast doors if aliens are cheeky enough; LZ2 is seen as a "Yolo underground rush let's try to end this shit early" than a "we will hold here with the blast doors" thing

Lol xenos literally cant fight back. Oh no boiler gonna shoot gas, we are so screwed, oh wait no we just close the doors. Oh no crusher is coming close doors, oh no 50000 xenos coming, close doors. They can literally attrition the xenos into doing dumb stuff until they win. They don't have to launch all 4 squads to lz2 they can have the others picking off the idiots xenos up top while drawing xeno manpower to lz2 for a retarded battle they can never win. Just cause marines don't know how to use it don't mean they cant.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Lol xenos literally cant fight back. Oh no boiler gonna shoot gas, we are so screwed, oh wait no we just close the doors. Oh no crusher is coming close doors, oh no 50000 xenos coming, close doors. They can literally attrition the xenos into doing dumb stuff until they win. They don't have to launch all 4 squads to lz2 they can have the others picking off the idiots xenos up top while drawing xeno manpower to lz2 for a retarded battle they can never win. Just cause marines don't know how to use it don't mean they cant.

I was explaining the reasons why marines don't use LZ2 that often and why most LZ2 rush fail. Also, once you close the blast doors, nothing's stopping xeno from just melting the button and keeping that door either closed or open

[Dolth]

I rarely see a fully weeded/stickied LZ2 and again full marine forces are from far enough to cut some weed and pewpew ayys.

Now to you whoever said xenos can escape on Ice by ladders and not on prison, that's my whole point, the map is gigantic enough the aliens shouldn't have to delay even further.

[CABAL]

I rarely see a fully weeded/stickied LZ2 and again full marine forces are from far enough to cut some weed and pewpew ayys.

Now to you whoever said xenos can escape on Ice by ladders and not on prison, that's my whole point, the map is gigantic enough the aliens shouldn't have to delay even further.

That's becouse LZ2 is closed for xenos. But hallways leading to LZ2 are always covered in sticky and resin walls. The map is gigantic enough especially leading xenos to delay by retreating from those hallways and waiting for marine's push. They rarely attack directly, only when they see that only one/two squads were deployed. Otherwise it's waiting for marines to spread across 4x4 hallways and just spitting and slashing and gassing behind marines to cut them from the rest.

Yes... LZ2 is great for defence, you can defend there for years. Wait... How to win with xenos by "attrition"? They have limited healing supplies? They have limited ammo? They have perma injuries? They lose T3's and never get them back? They are starting to get hungry? They are vulnerable to ICE temperature? The answer is no. You have to kill fast and tanky beings that can regenerate wounds by taking a quick nap.

This gives me an idea: What about xenos would get their maximum amount of health reduced when they receive damage? Rav got his health below 50%? Now he can heal only to 80% of his original health. To regain lost "maximum cap" they would have to go back to the hive and stay there a while near Ovied Queen. Slap them even faster health regenaration and there you have it. Xenos lose something that they can't easly replace.