Feedback on the new Map

[Youbar]

Overall, I must mention that the new map is a step in the right direction, and is brilliant in some places. However, there are a few issues with it that I'd like to point out (and please feel free to add on to this).

The largest issue is the size of the marine shuttles and pods. They're tiny - with around fifty marines, you'd be struggling to find space at all. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth about this but they need expanding.

The other issue is that the planet is just too big. It's brilliant, yes, but the openness creates a situation that is not like the enclosed spaces of the Alien franchise. Runners will charge you, slash off your foot, and then leave, running into the open field without anything stopping them. Likewise, marines are often spread out trying to find a single alien on the map. The idea is great - we no longer have to deal with pressure problems and we experience a randomised world every time - but it doesn't seem like it works. On the Nostromo, finding an alien is never an issue, nor is finding a marine with a gun ready to shoot you. On the planet, I spent thirty minutes in a maze resulting in me finding one alien runner.
Ultimately, the issue with the open map is that it doesn't result in fast paced action that the Nostromo does, and will end up dragging the rounds out for longer than Apophis' magical number of 2 hours. I personally would love a fixed colony map, but I don't think people like that sort of stuff. In that regard, the only real option is to reduce the map size.

[Artyom]

The South part of the made is really good, we just need more landmarks in the middle to tell where we're going and enclose spaces.

[Surrealistik]

Medbay desperately needs more APCs. The central APC which powers the sleepers, scanners _and_ cryochambers drains _wwaaaayyy_ too fast when Engineering fucks up (as it always does) and there's no power input.

Medbay also needs an SMES back up battery.

[CptBlack]

Well basically your lay out is shit and un-ergonomical. In order to save time i'm not going to rip on the dorms for being to small or minor things like that, What i am going to do is point out a whole bunch of other flaws that i see immediately. For starters why is med bay in the middle of absolutely nowhere, its supposed to be a colony right so why would it make sense that med bay would be so far away from everything. And also why is Hydroponics attached to med bay, what practical use does it server? Your dorms are somewhat centralized, so that kind of makes sense but just going to mention size you got maybe to fit 5 people but moving on. There is no reason for science to be in the middle of absolutely everything. If you're dealing with potentially bio-hazardous material where does it make the most sense to put it? RIGHT NEXT TO THE KITCHEN APPARENTLY. Not to mention you would want science in its own separate dome as to add to the importance of it as it stands i assumed this was a mining colony and was corrected by one of my peers. You should swap where med bay and science are and hydroponics should be next to either the kitchen or engineering. The engineering choice would be the whole deal with plants produce oxygen and the best place to store it would probably be with the atmospheric generator, and the only place to store that would be engineering. Next why is your bathroom legitimately larger than security? Why would a place where i go to take a massive dump be larger than the office of those people who are in charge with enforcing laws on the colony? Another thing why is your shuttle so damn small, I have legitimately seen smart cars that could fit more people than that shuttle I mean this is a marine shuttle we are talking about so it should either have multiple shuttles of that size for the various squads or you need a significantly larger shuttle because really there were people laying down to get to the planet the late time i played. And finally why is it not set up in a nice fantastic looking grid? Every and i mean absolutely every city builder that you will ever talk to in your entire life will tell you that if you don't have a gird you are wasting a good lot of perfectly usable space not to mention the lay out you have just plain out looks so bloody ugly its not even nice to look at its just make me want to find a ruler and a tool belt to rebuild the domes by my self.

[Youbar]

Well basically your lay out is shit and un-ergonomical. In order to save time i'm not going to rip on the dorms for being to small or minor things like that, What i am going to do is point out a whole bunch of other flaws that i see immediately. For starters why is med bay in the middle of absolutely nowhere, its supposed to be a colony right so why would it make sense that med bay would be so far away from everything. And also why is Hydroponics attached to med bay, what practical use does it server?
Your dorms are somewhat centralized, so that kind of makes sense but just going to mention size you got maybe to fit 5 people but moving on. There is no reason for science to be in the middle of absolutely everything. If you're dealing with potentially bio-hazardous material where does it make the most sense to put it? RIGHT NEXT TO THE KITCHEN APPARENTLY. Not to mention you would want science in its own separate dome as to add to the importance of it as it stands i assumed this was a mining colony and was corrected by one of my peers.
You should swap where med bay and science are and hydroponics should be next to either the kitchen or engineering. The engineering choice would be the whole deal with plants produce oxygen and the best place to store it would probably be with the atmospheric generator, and the only place to store that would be engineering.
Next why is your bathroom legitimately larger than security? Why would a place where i go to take a massive dump be larger than the office of those people who are in charge with enforcing laws on the colony? Another thing why is your shuttle so damn small, I have legitimately seen smart cars that could fit more people than that shuttle I mean this is a marine shuttle we are talking about so it should either have multiple shuttles of that size for the various squads or you need a significantly larger shuttle because really there were people laying down to get to the planet the late time i played.
And finally why is it not set up in a nice fantastic looking grid? Every and i mean absolutely every city builder that you will ever talk to in your entire life will tell you that if you don't have a gird you are wasting a good lot of perfectly usable space not to mention the lay out you have just plain out looks so bloody ugly its not even nice to look at its just make me want to find a ruler and a tool belt to rebuild the domes by my self.

I've turned this into something a bit more readable for the devs. I'm not going into correcting spelling and grammar.

To sum it up (and this focuses on the colony map):
- The medical bay is in the middle of nowhere
- Dorms are centralised which is nice, but they can only fit five people.
- Science is in the middle of everything, and is right next to the kitchen which logically would pose a health risk to the crew. It should be in its own dome to represent its importance.
- The bathroom is larger than Security - it doesn't make sense that I'd shit somewhere larger than Security.
- You should swap medical bay and science's location, and put hydroponics next to the kitchen
- Shuttles too small

[Felkvir]

Agree with most stuff here, except the shuttles being too small .. Shuttle's shape is already fairly accurate and the marines being too many in there is usually a server overpopulation issue which i think could be fixed in other ways... But the map is going to need to be filled with something that makes it easier to navigate or simply add more and make it smaller, yeah.

[Abbysynth]

Well basically your lay out is shit

Stopped reading, thank you for your input.

[Surrealistik]

Another thing I'd like to see is some kind of alert system for cloning/cryo.

Basically there should be the option to set the cryopod and cloning pod to broadcast a conspicuous, bolded alert over the Medical channel when someone is at 100% health, or has finished the cloning process; this is so they can be promptly tended to.

There should also be an 'autoeject' option for cryopods per Paradise where an occupant will be automatically ejected when at max health (we should honestly just import the Paradise cryopod, and machinery code).

Further, I'd like to see the option to change the access levels of the cloning lab so that marines can enter and clone without requiring medical staff on hand; this would eliminate a lot of unnecessary delays and help optimize Medbay's performance while reducing the load on said staff who tend to be extremely overworked.

[Mindtrixx]

Having played on the 'Alpha' recently, the first thing that struck me is how the prep rooms were shaped.

It really wasn't a good idea to make them a single tile wide and filled with lockers in an awkward row. The Sulaco's Prep rooms are nice and roomy, allowing marines space to move and not push each other around.

I share the opinion that the map is placed awkwardly, not only the ground but the ship as well.

Deployment is centralized while everything else is off in every other direction, it doesn't make much sense in a ship. Sulaco has a equally awkward -department- placement but at least there is a flow to spawning in:
Spawn > Assignment > Gear > Briefing > Deployment. (except flipped from right to left.)
The current ship layout is: Spawn v < v gear ^ < briefing v > deployment, it's very confusing to a new player and hectic looking in general.

The planet is a maze, I have no idea where I am going and it makes what little communication people put forward incredibly difficult to act on. I see 2-6 marines each round just sitting at the pad lost from their squad unwilling to move with their SL shouting "JUST STAY THERE" over and over at them. It could be improved by adding more landmarks.

Overall I'm liking the new systems in place but I'm not enjoying the new map.

[Youbar]

Agree with most stuff here, except the shuttles being too small .. Shuttle's shape is already fairly accurate and the marines being too many in there is usually a server overpopulation issue which i think could be fixed in other ways... But the map is going to need to be filled with something that makes it easier to navigate or simply add more and make it smaller, yeah.

With around sixty players it was pretty full up when deploying and when retreating. There's a line that's constantly drawn on this server, and in this case I think I'd prefer a more gameplay focused shuttle compared to the current accurate representation. I've already seen marines shoving each other just to get in and out, leading to fights.

[Feweh]

Abby, regarding the map there are a couple of major issues that need fixing.

-Some of the colony pods are WAY too small for squads to even fit in, like one tile wide hallways.
- Gearing area needs a re-work, it's cluttered and turns into a shit storm.
- Landmarks would be a good idea
-Some of the tunnels in the north are impossible for marines to advance in, if one alien stands in a certain spot you cant hit him until youre right beside him.
-Things on the colony actually arent that well placed out.


Aside from this I'll bring up another major issues.

The fucking Engine exploding every other round. Honestly fuck this shit, every other round the engine explodes and ruins game-play basically. You get radiation, you go crazy and you have to leave Sulaco or call the shuttle. Seriously, change the engine.. it isn't fun to rely on the engineers not to fuck up the round for the 60 other players.

[Whiteagle]

Abby, regarding the map there are a couple of major issues that need fixing.

-Some of the colony pods are WAY too small for squads to even fit in, like one tile wide hallways.
- Gearing area needs a re-work, it's cluttered and turns into a shit storm.
- Landmarks would be a good idea
-Some of the tunnels in the north are impossible for marines to advance in, if one alien stands in a certain spot you cant hit him until youre right beside him.
-Things on the colony actually arent that well placed out.


Aside from this I'll bring up another major issues.

The fucking Engine exploding every other round. Honestly fuck this shit, every other round the engine explodes and ruins game-play basically. You get radiation, you go crazy and you have to leave Sulaco or call the shuttle. Seriously, change the engine.. it isn't fun to rely on the engineers not to fuck up the round for the 60 other players.

Yeah, while the concept of the map is pretty sound, it needs some serious tweakage all around.

The Small Dome design is WAY too small to be sub-divided, so the Dorms and Medical definitely need bigger Domes.
Sulaco itself is a mess, there are a number of knots and nooks far too small to be traffic'ed, and while I like that their is an Atmos system, the setup needs serious work...

[Dingle]

>lifting a marine and stretcher up the ladder in under a second to get to the medbay on the top floor

MUH IMMURSHUNS

[Clayton_Kelly]

Sulaco layout is good and I haven't had any issues with the planet layout.

[Surrealistik]

Atmos tanks have no output vent/piping.

Atmos has no cooler and no cooling loop (SM's cooling loop doesn't count).

Doctors need access to the cloners from the first floor.

Prosthetics fabricator should be in Medbay, and surgery or the Medbay store room in particular.

[LordLoko]

I think sulaco is OK: the combat personnel has a very small place that they will transit over the rounds. This is great, they won't bother other sulaco crewmembers and will jump directly into action.

My main criticism is on the ground map. I loved those maze-like jungle walls, how everything looks like it was abandoned while they were hurry(and signs of combat, opposed to old nostromo) and specially that river crossing- UGGGHHH, so beautiful! It looks like we are on vietnam war crossing some river, yeah! +1 for all things I said.

However, as many pointed out, the locations of the places are weird. I'd like to suggest into changing the science area into dorms/recreational/shops(?)/living area, it's starnge how the first place that the ship land is the science facility, where all the answers for this strange infection may be located, science may be moved to the opposite side of the map, maybe taking place of that strange "vault thing", move the "corporate office" area (and remove the booze-o-mat into a snack machine, please) to somewhere near the dorm area.
And what about old dorms, pool and botanics, what we do to them? Well we change into the medbay (which is too far away and small IMO) and make a small (maybe the size of the old medbay/dorms) security area, with a armory and prision (and make it with some HEAVY comabt signs).
I have something different to say about botanics, instead of our old classic SS13 hydroponics, we could remade it into some kind of greenhouse, make all with window walls, make the floor grass (the bright grass, not the dark grass we have now) and some patchwork trays intead of hydroponic trays.
For last, I suggest something simple: remove the phoron walls from the cave complex. They are so weird, they don't fit the "dark,dangerous caves" because they are BRIGHT PURPLE, changing into normal rock walls.

This are mine suggestions, sorry for the bad english and thanks for reading.