Hey, I don't know where else to complain about maps, so I made a special topic to flame mapmakers in.
There are a few new maps in the EU1 rotation that I'd like to see either removed, or vastly improved. No offence to the mapmakers in question, I'm glad there are people who do this, but you need to design your maps better.
So, firstly: indigocylinder.
Your maps are generally very laggy. Please optimise them better.
Of the ones I played:
Boulevard: This map is too big. Most of it never gets used. A lot of time ends up being spent chasing the other team around the map. Aesthetically its really dull - my eyes hurt from all the cobblestone textures. Also, its laggy.
Frontier: Again, far too big. 90% of the map never gets used. And why did you add a fort? The teams either camp the fort or camp the village. Again, laggy.
Cradle: For some reason you decided to add a million trees for lag fun. Also, why add the tower? Endless camping. The village area is ok, but the teams are forced down the same three routes each time.
Dryport: This map is really boring. There's no option for cav, and the infantry are funnelled into the same two chokepoints each time. The only room for manoeuvre is for archers and xbowmen, who camp the roofs. Not fun at all. Plus, as with all your maps, it lags.
Your maps seem to be focused around a concept, but disregard optimisation and playability.
Secondly: Thranduil
We only have one of your maps on EU1 I think, however its the one I hate most. Its called Burning of the Ships.
It is really, really poorly designed. You have two camp spots (the gateways), both near the team's spawns. There are only 3 possible routes to reach the enemy from those spots. You can either walk along the walls, being shot at all the time, and meet in the middle for a melee clusterfuck with no room to manoeuvre (good for shielders and hammerers I guess), or try to travel down one of the other two routes, which will get you shot. There is no-where to avoid being shot beyond camping the gatehouses, and the ranged troops on the walls are protected by virtue of being on the walls.
Horrible, horrible map. People need space to move around in a fight, and they need a place to hide from ranged troops.
Again, really good that there is a mapmaking community, but please make better maps. And can the bad/laggy ones be removed?
There are a few other new maps I'd whine about, but I can't find the authors. All the pics of the maps I have whined about are in the Finished Maps thread.