Originally Posted by
ZAB1019
The majority of the hive fighting is in the south west portion of the map, either in omega (the real tiny one that doesn't have a biome) or Gamma (snow) and 3/4 of the map is usually just area to die as you're walking to the front, or for new squaddies to get lost and have a large portion of the marines not fight the xenos, then the other portions dying because their numbers are significantly less than what would be optimal to fight with.
A lot of chokepoints have outdated roofing. You cannot OB or do anything to them, they are heavy reinforced ceiling. The walls near them being heavy reinforced I believe too? The only way to break the chokepoint is for a spec, queen or xeno to do some crazy good/bad stuff that tilts the momentum in the other sides favour. A lot of the heavy reinforced metal just so happens to be in the south west portion in omega, where hives choose a lot of their locations. As well as chokepoints that connect some biomes together. Theta chokepoint to Research Complex Omega is also a classic hell choke that just isn't fun and is heavy reinforced.
A lot of the map is usually ignored and I think that's a shame, I think leaning into the nature of CORSAT being a different structuring of diverse biomes that would only make sense in a science facility should be the map's strength, and it should be focusing on that aspect the most. Adapting the kinda bland just square research buildings into more habitats that the colonist scientist guys live in would be a fresh take. Removing things like Academy and Admin to make the map more compact would also help alleviate the issue that the map is just a little too large, and a lot of it isn't interacted with unless the marines are retreating to FOB. So replacing/altering or just removing them i guess idk.
Pushes are stalled usually at the chokepoints at the beginning and ends of biomes, which you can't OB half of em, I think having them at least being OBable would help alleviate that issue. More flank ability is also needed
The scale of the map is a bit wacky, and pop reliant to an extreme. But I think large maps are needed in CM. It's so large that squads have to be together, (thats true on all maps somewhat) but even more on this map. Which means it's just Solaris Filt curse 2.0 but you go to Gamma Dome. It's not played much and people get lost, which will get sorted in time, too. Reducing the clutter between them and focusing on the current and even new bio domes would be cool. Really the only ways to push decently is the giant choke point gates at the biodomes, or tiny doorways that are few and far between in them. All the heavy walls at the tiny doorways do not help. Adding the shutter doorlock things from Science Annex to a couple places would help alleviate this issue I think and break up the map a bit.
Moving LZs so they're not basically next to each other would be better, maybe move LZ2 near Engineering Sigma. Then moving LZ1 kinda around Academy area? Idk im just spit balling. It would make it actually be a choice though, not sure how good of a choice it is, but its better than nothing. Currently you're basically picking if you want LZ2 and run further and die more in retreat, or be at LZ1 and die quicker but win faster if you're winning. Moving the LZs to around where I think might make hiving Sigma more fun, but some alterations to Theta would be required for an LZ2 spot near there. And moving LZ1 to Academy would threaten Gamma more, so that too I guess.
In general the map is just too big for no reason, and most of it is either empty and never used, or always used, always choke pointy because its generally pretty difficult to do micro flanks, and the LZs are so far away from LZs its insane in the membrane. If there was a heatmap it would avoid such a large percent of the map, and compressing the map down while keeping it's unique flavour of "Science biomes that simulate different environments" (We want an excuse to use different wacky turf in the same map) can shine properly, instead of mostly science buildings.