Personally, I find Ice Colony to be a monotonous and boring map. The map lacks the clear flow of all the other maps, the only other map that comes close to this feeling of loss is Trijent, but even that map has a clear sense of progression for both sides.
On Ice, there is no clear direction to push and pull. For example, on LV-624 the usual play for Marines is, Nexus > Hydro > Tfort > Containers > Caves+. Ice lacks a clear sense of direction. Everyone can go everywhere, Xenos can run in and out from all corners of the map, Marines have no clear area to defend except for their Landing zone, it's a disaster.
If Marines make LZ2 the primary drop, then the map just turns into 'Prison Station Lite' except with less room to maneuver.
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Ergo, my suggestion to try and reinvigorate the map is to rework its premise.
Here's a quick level overview of my sugged changes to the Surface of the map.
Red Stripes = Removed areas
Green Stripes = Expected areas for Marines/Xenos to move and fight over
HIGHLIGHTS
- Landing Zone 2 is now on the surface
- All entrances to the underground are removed except for three new areas at the far north of the map. A Central bunker entrance and two small side entrances.
The general overview. LZ1 landings will see the Marines move over a long areas, securing the central buildings, and making a strong push northward towards a new BUNKER entrance.
This bunker entrance consists of two large stairwells and an elevator, large enough for the Tank to enter. My general idea (which I'm too lazy to open Dreammaker and mock one up) is the Bunker is somewhat open but is surrounded with rock formations to offer xenos some defensive cover. these stairs/elevator lead to the old LZ2 staging area, which should be enlarged to make it harder for Xenos to defend the lower level, encouraging them to retreat backwards.
The Xenos want to fortify the bunker entrance and the southern areas to repel the Marine push.
You'll also notice on the map two alternative stairwell entrances to the West and East of the bunker, they'd function simply as alt ways for Aliens or Marines to move around, more ground for the Marines and Xenos to cover, but they offer good flanking routes.
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Xenos also retain their usage of tunnels, so they can maintain pressure on the surface even if the fighting gets underground
LZ TWO offers the Marines a alternative start. They start much closer to the bunker, so they can resupply a push easier. However, the LZ would be very exposed, with very little natural cover to the North, East and South. So a FoB defence would be far less successful than at LZ1. Essentially you are trading defensive staying power for a better shot at securing the Bunker, your also ceding more surface map control since most Marines will move North, meaning the South and East will be less secure, more so for Intel runs.
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I also propose that there be a Landing Zone THREE feature. If the Marines secure the lower bunker entrance, ergo the original LZ2, then if a Engineer repairs the power they can open the surface doors and allow a Transport ship to alternatively land in the new LZ, thus giving the Marines a stronger desire to secure the Bunker to make offensive operations into the underground far easier to conduct, and moving the battle to the next part of the map.
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Thanks for reading. If you want further elaborations I'll be happy to hop into Dreammaker and mock some designs.