Alchemist's Map Fixes

[CSN NewsBot]

Published early this morning on GotFrag, Counter Strike critic Jason “Alchemist� Baker put together a five-page write-up covering what he thinks are needed tactical improvements to some of Valve's popular Counter-Strike maps. In his article, Alchemist highlights spots on five maps, Inferno, Cobble, Aztec, Dust, and Prodigy, that create "choke points" where one team would have a much larger advantage for the majority of the game. It seems to be that bombsites are one of his main focal points in the article, while long corridors and sharp corners are offered up a few suggestions to help balance the advantages and disadvantages of both teams.

The first thing to understand about a good map is that all DE maps are inherently CT sided. It is just the way the game is...A map needs to lead to a bit of a T advantage to make things even but without having too many entrances into a bombsite. It is hard to really pinpoint what makes a good map. While the one entrance into site B works great for Dust2 and Inferno, a map like Cobble becomes almost a stalemate because of it...If the Ts can get to a bombsite before the CTs then it is a bad design.

Check out Alchemist's Map Fixes for a more detailed look at some of the tactial flaws that he sees in these maps and the improvements he suggests will work to make them more fairly balanced for both teams.

[xlokix]

Throughout the years playing Counter-Strike, I've seen close to no support for the competitive aspects of CS. Which was one of the main reasons I switched to Blizzard's games. I've never seen Valve accept anything that the community has created for them (with the exception of the hl2mp contest maps). That being said, while this article is insightful and well written, it's purpose is useless.



Not to mention that the last major content patch for CS was the introduction of 1.6 nearly 2 years ago.

[rizzuh]

An interesting read, I think the man has some excellent points. The irony is that if many of the changes we added, the gotfrag community would be the first to "complain." I add quotes because I absolutely understand a team getting upset when their strategies are made useless by Valve's interference — but in some cases the clan community has to accept changes as positive in the long run. Valve hasn't exactly proved this, though, with things like the shield :)

[Sava]

Some good points... but it's an exercise in futility. The author might as well just create an online petition.

[Urban Terror]

Guys just go back to CS 1.5, it's in the hands of the community now.

[FLeK0]

Edited by [user="3298"] @ [time="1126133968"]

I know why Valve ignores the 'esport' community most of the time. There are about 2-3000 cs teams in cal (or less?), let's say there are 5000 teams in the us, same for europe, 2000 for the rest. That is only 60000 gamers (and most of them are just "rush b") out of the 2 million active cs players. Esport = small thing at this point compared to the whole cs player base, and the hl series' sales.

[xlokix]

And these teams are getting $100,000 dollar rewards for this "small thing." I believe that the whole e-sport bubble surrounding Counter-Strike directly effects the mass popularity of the game. People are spending hard cash on this game and Valve hasn't done much so far.



Some maps are so one sided that you can be 90% sure a team will win the match if they nail down CT or T, whichever is the hardest to play on that map, in the first half.



And for the record, "rush b" is not a strategy. I know for sure that Team 3D has a playbook and SK had a playbook. If the teams have a playbook you can be sure the strats aren't "rush b."



Yes I agree, 90% (which is the percent of the day) of the GotFrag community is full of kids who don't know what they want. However we at CS-Nation are also given the image as skin customizing whores by most people.

[[CyW]-=BigBear=-]

Edited by [user="6035"] @ [time="1126139619"]

xlokix wrote..

And these teams are getting $100,000 dollar rewards for this "small thing." I believe that the whole e-sport bubble surrounding Counter-Strike directly effects the mass popularity of the game. People are spending hard cash on this game and Valve hasn't done much so far.

Yeah right, how many teams get $100.000 rewards? 99.999% of all CS players earn nothing playing CS competitivly.. And besides that, what does it have to do with Valve? Nothing imho..



E-sports is just not important when it comes to sales for Valve.. Since most of the CS e-sport people are stuck in a game over 6 years old refusing to buy and play the new stuff from Valve, why would Valve care about them??



And rizzuh is right when he says that if Valve would give them "support" by making these changes in CS, that same CS e-sports community would be the 1st to complain about it again..



So if you want to have any chance of getting Valve's support, you also have to support them by buying their new games.. I don't think it's to much to ask to buy and play a new version of a game after more then 6 years.. I think if all CS e-sports was in CS:S now, it would have a chance with Valve, but still in 1.6? Just forget it..

[cheesewilly]

CS:S is a poor, poor substitute for the real thing.

[xlokix]

Edited by [user="41447"] @ [time="1126143640"]

Money is important with anything involved. $100,000 is just one event, there are thousands of events each year in the US alone. People DO live by playing this game.



Also you're forgetting that a few teams actually get salaries from sponsors (very few teams have this luxury, but it's becoming more and more common). Teams have sponsors that supply them with computer supplies as well as anything they can offer, such as plane tickets. You tell the people getting paid for this that E-Sports aren't important.



It's not like after 6 years of Counter-Strike, we just started wanting updates for E-Sports. Valve has never complied to it, and how will CS:S change the story?



It has a LOT to do with Valve. Every time there is a LAN event, this attracts sponsors who invest into e-sports, mainly for Counter-Strike 1.6. Also, in order to host a LAN event, you need a special patent or something from Valve which requires you to pay Valve a certain amount of money to host the LAN. At least that was my understanding of it.

[Zips]

cheesewilly wrote..

CS:S is a poor, poor substitute for the real thing.

Joining the army, basic training, being shipped overseas, and placing your life on the line in a real combat zone?



All kidding aside, Source is just an updated version of 1.6 plus CZ. I see no wrong in that formula nor the execution of it.

[Scanner]

If you're going to risk the ire and kneejerk opposition of the competitive esporters anyway, I would suggest that it might be more worthwile to spend your time creating new maps instead of recycling the old ones.



The rabid zealots are going to bitch one way or the other, so it would be far more interesting to see fresh, new material instead of a confusing hack to a map everyone's already familiar with and has played a million times. Custom maps don't always work out, but you get a few hours of genuine interest and excitement finding that out. And the ones you like can stand on their own feet instead of having to perpetually defend themselves against their original version even if they're done well. (If only Valve had adopted that philosophy with CS:S).



--Scanner

[AceR]

VALVe doesn't give a crap about the eSports community, they say they do but what have they done for us? The de_nuke exploit has been in the game for years and valve didn't do anything yet... Just like VALVe releasing Updates to Games on the day of CPL.

[FLeK0]

imo there isn't a 'cs team' at valve anymore, they all work on $hl2$ content full time. Cliffe was working on that hl2dm map remake before assault, and one dod animator guy made the new player animations that was released when the summer cpl was underway. They just make random people fix some bugs and add two new things from time to time. The regular updates are gone too, the last big one was months ago.

[[CyW]-=BigBear=-]

Scanner wrote..

If you're going to risk the ire and kneejerk opposition of the competitive esporters anyway, I would suggest that it might be more worthwile to spend your time creating new maps instead of recycling the old ones.

After the upcoming release of de_nuke, that's what they're doing, only create and release new maps instead of remakes..



And Valve doesn't listen a lot to the CS e-sports community because that community doesn't have 1 single voice or opion to listen to.. It's made up of thousands of voices and opinions of all people in it.. If the CS e-sports community would have some of their own people make their own CS version they would still bitch and argue about it because they simple will never be able to agree on everything.. And that's why the CS-team at Valve just makes CS as they like it, with the community input they see fit.. They do listen every now and then (moneychange system etc).. In the end it's their game, not "ours" as some people seem to think.. And seeying CS became the most popular FPS online game ever, I think did they a very good job making CS how it is..