cp_pro_fastlane

For a long time high profiled players have argued that the respawn times and capture times on cp_fastlane were unbalanced. On the ETF2L forums cc\\Moose explained it like this:

Yeah, fastlane sure is different from well, granary and badlands. Those maps at least give you a moderate chance to reclaim the center and second CPs once you have lost them. In fastlane that’s pretty much impossible (assuming both teams are skilled) unless your opponent screws up with their push compeletely but you’ll be needing a lot of help from your opponent if you intend to do this. Even if you manage wipe out almost the entire enemy team at your second CP, a scout who has just spawned can easily run past your team back to the second CP when you’re trying to cap the center and he will cap the second point faster than you will cap the center even if you have your whole team standing on the point. Of course you can leave some ppl back to defend the 2nd CP while you try to cap the center back but the whole enemy team will be back at the center point long before you have it capped so it will be really hard to get it back. I’ve seen a recovery back to the center only a couple of times in all the rounds I’ve played the map and in each of these, the other team pretty much handed it over on a silver plate when they didn’t back away from the 2nd CP early enough when things started going wrong.

As it is, the outcome of the map is decided by the opening fights at the center point. The only way out is to set up a good turtle defence to the last CP and try to hold on until the time runs out and the round ends in a stalemate. This happens quite often since the last CP is easy to defend when you can just stay inside the respawn next to the health lockers. But if you’re only going to fix the last CP, then the map will be even worse since you can pretty much forfeit the round if you lose the first center fight.

I don’t know if all the 5-point CP maps should follow the game mechanics from Valve’s maps where a good defence leads you to a succesful counter-attack but I for one prefer that to the one that fastlane currently offers.

Now a guy called jiiven has created cp_pro_fastlane_b1. It has the following changes:

Spawn times on caps 4/5 have been increased a little
Capture times for cap 3 and 1/5 have been reduced
Last cap is reworked, and a resupply locker removed, to prevent teams from defending inside spawn.
Added some detail around the map so it doesnt feel so empty

Here are some screenshots of the visual changes:

Capture Point 1:

This is the only resupply cabinet:

Capture Point 2:

Capture Point 3:

You can download the map here.

16 January 2009 in Map News

14 Comments

numlocked says: 16 January 2009 - 19:00

awesome map

Fean0r says: 16 January 2009 - 19:34

nice work, I’ll give it a go!

cRz says: 16 January 2009 - 21:32

looks really nice! 1-day-cup needed :>

destructo says: 16 January 2009 - 21:54

nice map

Glufse says: 16 January 2009 - 22:06

I like the fact that they actually changed the first/last CP, that they changed the respawn time and all that. But i dont like that it looks like a 5-year old just dropped random objects in the middle of the map, looks totally retarded and isnt helping at all.

skre says: 16 January 2009 - 23:06

im with glufse on this one!

Player Thirty-Two says: 16 January 2009 - 23:18

I don’t think first point should have been changed – only resupply cabinet moved and respawn times reset. And Glufse is right – those blokes are completely out of place.

Darn says: 17 January 2009 - 0:42

with glufse, but something similiar should be added on cp2

Renegade26 says: 17 January 2009 - 2:04

If work needs to be done to a map to make it good, is it worth the time and effort, rather than just saying “its not good enough as is”, let pubbers have their fun and find more freight_b3’s (ie customs that were picked because they were fun as 6v6 maps, not because valve thought so).

bybben says: 17 January 2009 - 5:01

LOL whats up with having the capture point up top on cp1? Let’s say you put up a defense up there, you’re gonna get fucked from rockets exploding through the floor. If you focus defense below the point, well you’re just gonna get raped when opponents attack from top and get the high ground. Sure you’re gonna spread your defense, but imo it should have been left as it was, just change the respawn doors etc

Mick says: 17 January 2009 - 10:16