Author: xeonshockwave
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There are many maps that are just simply fun to play. DM-IronDeity no exception. Personally, I find it a very fun map to play due to the many floors in the level that leads to interesting, yet frantic battles and because it isn’t too cramped in terms of space. Some people like the map since it easy to focus on killing due to the overwhelming grayness of the map. Other players find it a great map to play on since they know how to manipulate the map’s mechanics to win the battle. Unfortunately, the last reason mentioned is a problem that many players have complained about. While DM-IronDeity is a pleasing map to play in a free for all or large scale TDM, it is not without balancing issues that may turn a battle into a severely lopsided one, especially during competitive matches. Hopefully this article will inform other players of the problems of this map and that a solution will arise to those problems, making this map useable for tournament-style play.
On a balanced map, the map is constructed so that there will not be any flaw in design to be taken control of, giving a keen player an unfair edge over other players. In DM-IronDeity, many casual players may not notice the balancing issues, but a keen player will learn to take advantage of those issues.
Problem #1: Item and weapon placements
On the top floor of the map, there is a double damage pickup, a super shield pickup and a lightning gun right beside each other, and a shock rifle. While some players may not even bother to notice this, these item placements may pose serious problems in matches, especially 1on1 or 4v4 TDM matches. All a player has to do is loop the top floor, timing the double damage and super shield pickups and spam the only two lifts up to the third floor with shock combos, effectively blocking the opponent from reaching far into the top floor. With these items, a skilled player may easily decimate the opposition. The shock combo easily covers a fairly large area, with the double damage drastically increasing the damage done by the already-powerful shock combo and with the super shield easily protecting the user from many attacks. The lightning gun can also be used to pick off people from a distance and can quite easily kill somebody who is riding a lift upwards. Occasionally, the skilled player will go down to the lower levels with the double damage in order to rack up kills, but usually returns to the highest level in order to pick up the same items again. All in all, this exploitation in item and weapon placements is enough to make this map not suitable for tournament-style play.
The logical step in correcting this particular flaw in this map would be to shuffle the item placements of the more powerful items. Since all of the powerful items are on the top floor, most of the items would have to be moved to different floors. The double damage and super shield are quite easy to get in this map, so I would suggest that they would be a little more difficult to retrieve. Perhaps obstacles such as crates or barrels should stack the pickups high up that certain jumps would be needed to get up there. A teleporter on a small platform surrounded by molten iron could be another method of reaching those super-powerful pickups. The lightning gun should also be moved far away from a powerful pickup such as the super shield as it gives the user a much needed defensive edge while using the slow-shooting but powerful lightning gun.
As for the shock rifle, it is too easy to spam the top floor with shock combos since the top floor has long and relatively narrow rooms, permitting the shock combo to cover large areas of the hallways. Perhaps the shock rifle could be switched with another weapon, such as the flak cannon. Although the flak cannon is a spammer’s dream, the spread of the flak primary fire and splash damage of the flak secondary fire aren’t enough to cover much of the area, so kills require much more patience and effort. However, the flak cannon could easily be used to suppress the only two lifts that lead to the highest level, so that problem will be discussed next.
Switching weapon placements and moving items are critical steps in improving the playability of a map. Not only do they promote even gameplay in a map, but they make it more enjoyable for others since they all have equal chances of winning the round.
Problem #2: Lack of ways to reach the highest level
There are only two ways to get up to the highest level, and they are both lifts. The problem is, those lifts are much too easy to defend, especially since the shock rifle is up there. The shock combo makes it quite easy to suppress the two lifts, making sure that anybody going up the lift will be fragged or critically injured, making for an easier kill. By doing this over and over, a manipulative player may hoard all of the powerups for himself, making him a much harder target to kill, and may easily win the battle by a large margin. Now, in public servers, this may not seem like a problem (especially since many players do not manipulate this flaw simply because they are uninformed). However, within the competitive community, this poses another serious problem when it comes to playing this map.
Quite simply, there needs to be more ways of getting up to the top level! While lifts are easy to place, it is too easy to spam due to their constricted nature. Stairs and ramps are simple, yet effective methods for reaching higher levels. They can be made wide, just like the ramp leading up from the second-lowest level to the next higher level. A wide ramp makes it much harder to defend since an opposing player may scale up the ramp without getting hit as much and without being a sitting duck in a lift and may allow many players to access the top floor at the same time.
An alternative to a ramp or a flight of stairs would be a teleporter. I think that this would be an excellent addition to the map in terms of getting to the highest level simply because it can be nearly impossible to predict when the player is approaching the teleporter and traveling through it is instant. A lift can easily be defended, and ramps and stairs aren’t severely difficult to defend. With the unpredictability and instant speed of a player going through a teleporter, it makes the higher level much harder to defend and much harder to camp all the items.
I believe that the teleporter and the ramp used in conjunction with each other, bringing the total number of ways to reach the top floor to four, help balance out the map a lot more. That way, a single person cannot guard the entire top floor single-handedly. There are other methods that could be used, such as jump pads that can also be strategically placed in order to access the top level. All in all, whatever methods help make accessing the top floor easier make tournament games much more gamer-friendly.
In Conclusion
Balancing issues in maps like DM-IronDeity may effectively make the map less desirable for players due to the fact that a very controlling player may unfairly gain the upper hand. The most powerful item pickups, a powerful long range weapon and a very powerful area-effect weapon all on the top level, and the lack of entrances to the top floor easily ruin the map for competitive play. However, these issues can be resolved. If the weapon and item placements are moved around so that players may not hoard them on a single floor and if the top floor was more accessible, then the map would be a lot more enjoyable for everybody and a lot more tournament-friendly.
I recently learned of this problem and saw how it was a huge detriment to playing this map competitively. I know many players have complained about these problems in an otherwise great map. Although I still have fun on this map, the fixing of these problems would be absolutely welcome. I hope that you all are aware of certain problems in maps including DM-IronDeity, and if you were unaware about the problems in that map before, I hope that this article was of use to you. I’m eager for your feedback and thoughts of balancing issues in DM-IronDeity, as well as other maps.
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