Let's talk about Ice Colony

[4000daniel1]

Popular opinion is that pretty much it's the worst map in CM.

Why do you think that is? What could be done to improve it and etc.

If you'd ask me, I'd say it's the size of it that is the main problem. Compare it with LV and you can see quite a difference. Even with just the surface it's big. And it being big adds a lot to the complexity of it and murines are probably more likely to get seperated and picked off one by one by xenos.

What do you think?

[Nimiety]

Best map in CM

[Grubstank]

I've come to like it more and more. The topside gives plenty of CAS opportunities and the bottomside in turn favors the xenos.

[Renomaki]

To be honest, I like Ice Colony... Or I would, if it was just a single layer map.

it is the underground section that ruins it for me. I'd rather be up top, building snow trenches and fighting in big open spaces blanketed with snow and ice than suffer the tight confines of the underground.

For me, Prison is the WORST MAP. Not only is it cramped, it is also a popular map for metarushes that, unless the xenos up their game, often results in short, anti-climactic rounds.

[kamenkuro]

I don't mind Ice, but more often than not command sends everyone to their death. The worst part is that everyone knows that ladders and elevators are a death trap, but we can't say anything because meta gaming. I feel like at this point it's a map where command is specifically told to get us killed.

[SolarMacharius]

I wish CO's would stop rushing squads down via lz2. The aliens are almost always able to set up an ambush before enginners get the blast doors down and everyone dies. Also it gets kind of predictable. The aliens will rush through the aerodome and fuck the FOB up, tcomms will get cut off and surrounded. Its not as linear as prison, but compared to Solaris ridge or LV it gets predictable.

[Dok]

I actually prefer Ice over LV with my only issue being that filling sandbags is even more annoying than on other maps.

[Maxim Inc]

It's ok I guess ,7/10 Unga's.

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

I make sure that if it's ice I'm not a marine, because it's absolutely unfun unless it's a DS2 landing.

The map's too big, and the two levels makes it absolute hell to play.

I will admit, it's alot of fun as xeno, especially queen, as I tend to make my hive directly below telecomms and it results in some hilariously funny rounds. Like the time there was 3+ squads standing at the top of the ladder, and all I did was just climb up, screech, and kidnap them one-by-one until I had about seven captures.

[Sora9567]

The main issue is that the Upper/underground is a complete deadlock on both sides: marines don't want to go underground since they'll get flanked and die, and xenos don't want to go topside because they have very limited avenues of attack. If the LZ2 rush ends in a failure, the round just becomes a slog, hence the meme of 5 hour Ice Colony rounds.

[Sicikat]

I like Ice look and feel, but 2 layer design is making it eh.

[Jarek]

I enjoy Ice as a survivor, It's the hardest map to survive on because of how spread out survivors are and how scarce the guns spawns are.

That being said, as a marine, it's not nearly as fun. Command love to send marines on suicide pushes down elavators or down chokepoint corridors, and you typically die when you follow orders. This leads to waiting out what usually ends up being a 3+ hour round, and that just isn't fun.

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Not to mention the fact that humans die without a coif means that if you facehug anyone and don't nest them indoors, they're guaranteed to die. Which is really annoying for when you want to make a hive somewhere.

It also doesn't help that the game doesn't even explicitly TELL a xeno about this, so alot of drones will just nest them on ice anyway, and the hosts will die.

[Garrison]

No mans ladders. Those are the worst thing in ice.

[DriedMilk]

ALL SQUADS GO LZ2

RUSH UNGA BUNGA

DIE OR WIN

[carlarc]

Ice is gay because it doesn't have any unique unga bunga guns. LV and bread have doublebarrels, Prison has approximately everything, but Ice has what? HGs and an incendiary slugs box that's hell to get to as survivor? No thanks.

One thing I like in Ice is that it allows me to play as MT and still take part in the game via the Almayer boarding.(Unless i get myself BE'd beforehand)

[misto]

theres already an identical thread for talking about ice colony

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=15869

which contains my examination of the fact that many of ice colony's ladders are impossibly placed

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=15869&start=25#p186593

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Remove Ice underground, and create more unCASable and non-OB places above ground for xeno to fight in.

[CABAL]

0/10 can't wear breathmask for my tacticool set.

[Madventurer]

It's better than Prison.

But I am inclined to agree that the two-layer system really holds it back.

I would say reworking the map big time.
Perhaps adding a tunnel to the underground section and turning it into a cave system similar to LV, except on the south side, could be a nice change.
Functionally, it would require a large rework on how the map works, but the end result would be superior to the current one.

And as a clarification: Remove all ladders and elevators, change the underground section into a cave system / cave base south of the surface area.
Please.

[Maxim Inc]

We can keep the underground buildings if it all stays on the same level.

[Ketrai]

It's better than Prison.

But I am inclined to agree that the two-layer system really holds it back.

I would say reworking the map big time.
Perhaps adding a tunnel to the underground section and turning it into a cave system similar to LV, except on the south side, could be a nice change.
Functionally, it would require a large rework on how the map works, but the end result would be superior to the current one.

And as a clarification: Remove all ladders and elevators, change the underground section into a cave system / cave base south of the surface area.
Please.

Why do people hate stairs so much! STAIRS I TELL YA!

[BrianL]

Ice is a great map because you know marines are going to lose the moment the round starts, so you can devote all your resources to RP and story-telling. The bleak atmosphere of the map contributes as well. It's not a question of whether we're all going to die, it's a question of how we're all going to die. It's like a time capsule that'll take you back into mid-2017, when the marines lost pretty much every round. Also, going down the elevator is fun; it's like a D-Day, meat-grinder sort of scenario, only this time the attackers still lose in the end. Good stuff.

[Simo94]

I hate it as both sides, snow slows marines and xenos, and I especially hate how both the underground layout and ladders make no sense.

[Drevenshekel]

Ice is a great map because you know marines are going to lose the moment the round starts, so you can devote all your resources to RP and story-telling. The bleak atmosphere of the map contributes as well. It's not a question of whether we're all going to die, it's a question of how we're all going to die. It's like a time capsule that'll take you back into mid-2017, when the marines lost pretty much every round. Also, going down the elevator is fun; it's like a D-Day, meat-grinder sort of scenario, only this time the attackers still lose in the end. Good stuff.

How I miss the days of marines losing almost every round and where the very occasional win felt well earned and to be talked about