ONS-CBP2-Tropica
Title: Tropica
Author: Ed Duke Cox
Game: Onslaught
Volume: 1
Node Setup: Click Here
This cluster of exotic, tropical islands used to simply be the sacred grounds of an ancient temple. Now it is just another battlefield in the Tournament to be fought over. Combat often comes in many forms, be it guerrilla tactics in the lush vegetation, or screaming aerial assaults high above the jungle canopy. Those who make best use of both will become the ultimate victors.
hal: Highly reminiscent of Far Cry with its lush vegetation, there is plenty of opportunity here for ambush tactics. The nodes are very close, but there are at least two included link setups (one of which is smartly the default) that spread out the action some. Lots of obstacles and limited vehicles force the flow nicely but two super-weapons might be overkill in a small map like this. The Raptor has more than enough cover to be one of the most effective vehicles here.
The map is certainly good-looking and the nodes are smartly placed. The Ion Cannon is used effectively to deter players from straying too far off of the island. It sure beats running into an invisible wall and helps to support the suspension of disbelief that is so important to immersing players in the map.
RaptoR: This map scores top marks for visuals. Tropica is a great example of how static meshes, terrain and good old fashioned BSP can flow together seamlessly to create a truly breathtaking visual experience. The lush, tropical island style draws from elements of Far Cry and Unreal 1 to create an original feel to this stunning map. However, as you’d expect all this eye candy takes its toll on both frame-rates and loading times. Even on a machine with a decent CPU and a gigabyte of RAM, you’ll still be waiting for well over a minute for this map to load, and while modern systems will handle Tropica without too much trouble, you can pretty much forget it if you’re running a pre-GeForce4 level graphics card. The map’s default node layout is a five-node linear Z-shaped affair, with the occupant of the central node being rewarded with the only Raptor in the map, as well as an enclosed, easily-defendable temple structure. While power nodes are fairly exposed, the layout of the nodes helps to deter node-camping by attackers. The inclusion of the temple structures also helps to bring some variety in both graphics and gameplay.
I only have one major complaint about Tropica - it’s virtually impossible to launch an effective comeback if you’re pinned into your base in this map. This is partially thanks to the fact that the map’s only flying vehicle is located at the central node, and will always be in the hands of an attacking team when a power core is vulnerable. The Raptor can easily hit the power core from afar and disappear behind the foliage, making AVRiLs useless and leaving the defending team to fend off air attack using energy turrets alone. But it’s not just the Raptor; vehicles in general are problematic in this map. Yet again, there are just too few of them given the size and layout of the map. Scenic as the map may be, every node in this map could do with the addition of at least one or two fast vehicles in order to speed up the action a bit. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to give each power core a Raptor, rather than letting one player dominate the skies.
To sum up, I’ll say this: Tropica is a visually stunning map with promising gameplay that’s unfortunately compromised by an overall lack of balance.
Zenny: I'm a big fan of the way the base is oriented in this map, the turrets and Keg O' Health really help a team that is down on their luck hold out long enough to stay in the game. The temples in between the center node are also pretty cool and well placed. The only thing I really don't like about this map is the excessive use of the tall fern. It isn't too bad on the sides of the mountains, but its placement around the center node makes player v. vehicle combat even harder then it already is for the player by blocking his view almost completely.
Raffi_B: This map is a blast to play online. Last weekend at FragBU, several teammates and I piled into the vehicles and wreaked havoc. The map is suited perfectly for this kind of “ambush” gameplay. The map is a pretty large strain in performance, but I think the stunning visuals are worth the cost in framerate, in this case. The node layout and vehicle placement are great, lending an excellent online game every time you play. The one thing that concerned me, however, was the super-weapon placement. I think two powerful super-weapons are too much for a relatively small map such as this. One would suffice, in my opinion.