jackpot

jackpot: http://unfortunate-maps.jukejuice.com/static/previews/22239.png

1
the map is empty because that's the intention, kinda.
like, i know the gates in base are turbo gimmicky/innovative/shitty/awesome, but my actual focus with this map is the neutral boost in mid which the rest of mid is built on. the bases are built to complement the mid, not the other way around.

2
the empty space is there to put more emphasis on having to plan ahead and to give players major choices (in regards to maneuvering across the map) more frequently than on the current rotation maps.

2.1
planning ahead: since the neutral boosts give so many options but are also so accessible they'll require flag carriers to time them if they want to make use of them/avoid getting sniped by them.

2.2
interesting choices: the openness essentially has the effect of constantly making players have to choose where to go. basically, because there are no lanes to follow the players have no lanes they can just follow, if you get what i mean.

3
i get that the boosts don't have a lot of defined boost lanes for being such a central point of the map, but i argue that the lack of defined boost lanes comes from there being too many useful boost lanes.

3.1
like, here's a map with the boost lanes for the neutral boost: https://gyazo.com/40525ed349ae186a1b562c7b7ce459d3 (NSFMTC)
obviously all i did was draw arrows in a circle around the boost, but that's the thing: all of these lanes are relevant.
there is no bad direction to boost, every single on of them is viable. there aren't few boost lanes, there are too many.

3.2
there are no defined boost lanes because i don't want to give up versatility for intuitiveness. i know how anathema that sounds when it comes to public rotation, but i don't see anything wrong with having a complex map in rotation as long as it's fun even when you don't understand it. its complexity scales with the level of cooperation among the team, not the best player; meaning new players won't get stomped just because there's one good guy in the game.

4
the flag gates are still a work in progress, but the things i'm having in mind when thinking of where to put the gates and buttons are:
>whether they block too many or too few boost lanes
>whether they give offenders the option to push a defender into a gate (especially with an out of vision boost)
>whether poost deaths are avoidable (mostly by not putting them right across of/too close to each other)
>how chaotic the base gets when 2 players fight for button and the gate switches back and forth
>how viable it is for a support offender to try to assist the flag carrier by limiting the defense's mobility
>how a grab would play out if either/both defenders were on a button at the time

5
holding the exit gate's button does not let you block 2 of the 3 base exits.
like, just standing in the middle of a more than 7 tile wide exit is not going to reliably lock in a flag carrier, and because there are no walls after the exit you can't back track either. imagine a flag carrier trying to juke past a defender on IRON's mid or Duel, except even easier.

i know the base buttons aren't intuitive whatsoever, but i don't see a reason to sacrifice gameplay for intuitiveness.

the corners in mid do look like they could use a bomb or something, but i don't want to put one there just to make it seem less empty. i haven't playtested it enough yet to tell whether the advantages of a mid bomb would outweigh the disadvantages, but that corner might still be changed.

since the whole map was built around the versatility the open space gives the boosts i don't plan on making it less open or more lane-y. jackpot has a pretty obvious goal/style/curse/gameplay and i'll continue trying to make it even more jackpot than it currently is, but if that direction proves to be wrong - which is totally possible like idk what i'm doing pretending the map is objectively good lol - then that's that.