I just wanted to put up a thread where all forms of feedback, criticism, suggestions and complaints on Caged can be posted for people who don't visit the NS2 mapping forums, which I assume is most people. :}

Currently Caged is very marine biased, and according to the feedback I've been getting it's primarily because:

o Marines can too easily and quickly get to Central Processing and control the map from there.

o Aliens have a hard time expanding due to distances between the hives.

o Sewer hive is the worst start position for aliens as marines have easy access to Purification.

I'm hoping to address all these issues soon---the original plan was to update between the week 3 and week 7 matches, but since matches aren't actually played in their respective weeks it looks like some teams may start their week 7 matches before other teams have even played their week 3 matches. I suppose this means I can't update until after this season.

What I've been working on specifically:

o Move marine start further away from the center of the map. I am re-entering the original corridor between Marine Start and Monitoring, and as a result from the shift the long corridor from Marine Start to Satan's Butthole will also be broken up a little. Overall this change is still fairly subtle, and I might have to make eventual changes to how Satan's Butthole connects to Central Processing.

o Redesigning Purification to make the room generally more alien friendly, and move the corridor that connects Purification to Ventilation Access further south so it's inside the Purification room and connects to the bottom of the ramp in Ventilation Access instead.

o I am considering somehow lengthening the backdoor exit from Central Processing to Ventilation Access, as it's a short trip from Central Processing to the Ventilation Hive. I would really like feedback on this, though.

o I am wondering whether the 'long travel time/easily sniped cyst chains' problem for aliens exists between Ventilation and Generator. There's no doubt Purification is easily severed and accessed by marines, but I would like to know how people feel about these possible issues on the east side of the map.

When I started remaking Caged my plan was always to make it competitively viable, while retaining at least the feeling of the original map, which is why changes have been a little slow at times. If it wasn't a remake, I could make more drastic changes when issues arise, but I have to try and stay true to the original to some degree. Please bear with me while I try to find the best possible middle ground.

I think your list should address some of my first list problems. I wouldn't have much feedback until I see the changes and play on them a few times, but I think you have got a good handle and plan on what to change.

Regarding the Generator to Ventilation sniped cyst problem: I think it is a bit of a problem, but not as drastic as it was from sewer to ventilation (with the vent access tube being so close to marine territory). With your changes, it might very well become the problem point.

I know you want to keep the asymmetry between the sewer hive and the generator hive, so instead of non-constructively saying you need to move Gen closer to Vent, I might offer another change to experiment with. Upper Shipping Access currently grants access for marines to both the res nodes, giving two points of attack for the marines to try and stop a second hive expansion. The first is aux, the second is shipping. With Purification, there's only one point of attack between the two hives that aliens must defend. What I suggest is instead of closing off upper shipping to one of the RT's entirely, make one of the paths a "one way" lane. For example, in biodome, where canopy meets Falls, there is one such "one way" lane where a marine can jump down, but not back up.

I think I would change the path to aux generator to one way towards the RT. Meaning as a marine travels from central to aux, there is a drop which results in a path of no return for that marine back to central (without jp or beacon or death of course). It is still a lane to protect, but cuts the aliens a little break defending that long path.

let aliens get 4th rt more easier. for now, cant even get 3rd rt if aliens lose first encounter.

If you made the distance between Marine Start and Central longer (equal or greater travel time than from control to nano on veil) you could put the 2nd node back in central, which would fix a lot of the problems for aliens.

If you give the aliens time to set up in Central, similar to how they can set up in Nano on Veil, I think they'd be in a much better spot. And if you give them the ability to hold a 2nd res node from there, that makes the eco game a little easier for them, which is a huge part of the problem imo.

move generator a little to the south, and fix the natural expos for aliens.
and see how its played out.

dont creat a second veil pls ;(

This video might not be too interesting to the NSL crowd, as it doesn't showcase any of the layout changed ahead, but at least it shows I've been working on the map. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKmG3td1GQI

New build of Caged is out! It includes some layout changes, so have a look at the mini map:

http://i.imgur.com/tq8yKhU.jpg

CHANGELOG [17th of october 2013]
o Moved Marine Start a little further away from the center of the map
o Replaced the corridor outside the north exit of marine start with the original NS1 version
o Redesigned Purification
o Moved the Purification -> Ventilation Access vent south
o Detailed the Stability -> Generator corridor
o Detailed the Shipping Tunnels -> Upper Shipping access vent
o Added room around the Stability res node
o Changed Lower Sewer due to ARC distance
o Made Caged seasonal

CHANGELOG:

There is an invisible wall on the path between Marine Start and Monitoring. :P

Is there any chance that gets corrected... there is a match tonight on this :)

Woah woah woah you said it wasn't being changed til after the season!

w0k, thanks for that, I fixed the issue. Can't believe no one noticed it during the three rounds we played on it last night. :\

Simba, that was the original plan. Recently I got a lot of feedback of people wanting me to update the map because of the imbalance, and I checked with Swalk who agreed I Should publish the new build.

Of course, suddenly Swalk's gone now and Caged has been pulled from week 7, so now I'm gonna have to rely on pub feedback instead again.

We plan another custom map cup right after season, you'll get feedback for fixing it towards s4 ;)

Several things:

Marine start feels too far from the rest of the map. I think it should be moved about halfway back in.

I think Purification Station is too hard to push as marines now. I would suggest removing the wall that makes the entry the hallway.

I'm not a huge fan of Bypass, but I see the need for it... not sure how to change that area.