Capital Strike 2: Cross Canyon

Description
I know everyone is [i]nuts[/i] about the Capital Strike maps so I have some good news -- DarthDaddy has finished a new one. Though I'm admittedly not a [i]big[/i] fan of the capital strike maps I found this one to be a significant improvement over the previous ones, ergo this is the best one yet.

The map (somewhat big) takes place in the center of a very large canyon in a Geonosis-like setting. In the middle is a large droid control ship armed with auto turrets. The remaining CP's are located directly north, south, east, and west of the ship. And in the sky are two capital ships where the player can spawn and hop into a starfighter. Needless to say the map has a whole bunch of vehicles at the player's disposal. There's plenty of action going on all around so the likelihood of anyone finding themselves bored while playing is small.

Even though I like the map, for the most part, there are some serious flaws that need to be addressed.

[list][*]As would be expected, having two capital ships which you may spawn at in a land map creates a big problem with the AI. Rather than hopping into ships most of the AI will bunch together in a corner of the capital ship because they're trying to get to pathing hubs down below which are obviously inaccessible to them, given their location. Unfortunately there really isn't any remedy to this problem other than to completely do away with the capital ships which I'm sure would spark several objections from fans of the map. My suggestion would be to find some other way to incorporate starfighters into the map without having to use capital ships. Don't worry you could still keep the capital ships as decorations but nothing more -- meaning that they can't function as Command Posts or Spawn Points.

[*]Another issue that the capital ships present is well... only being able to win the game by killing every single last enemy. The Command Posts inside the Capital Ships are incapable of being captured so you can't win by traditional Conquest means. That means you have to knock the enemy ticket count down to zero. Sure, you probably do that all the time but it's not all that fun on a map of this scale. Though you'll typically find a gold mine of enemies gathering in the corners of the opposing capital ship there will still be ones running around down below that can't be detected on the mini-map. But I suppose if you enjoy games of "cat and mouse" and goose chases then it's not all bad.

[*]As mentioned in the ReadMe there are some missing sounds as well. You may notice that music will only play once you enter a vehicle so I'm guessing that the map is using shipped space sounds. [/list]

To add some detail and variation to the map I would suggest adding some rock foilage from Geonosis, uneven the terrain height some, and use the color tool to create different shade patches on the terrain. It should make the map look a lot more elaborate.

I know I say this in just about every one of my reviews but this map is probably best enjoyed online where players can cover every aspect of the gameplay that this map presents. This is definitely a team-work map so it should be treated as such. Unfortunately the online community has diminished considerably since the game's initial release and the chance of seeing a mod map that [i]isn't[/i] featured in the [url=http://starwarsbattlefront.filefront.com/file/Star_Wars_Battlefront_Conversion_Pack;70164]Conversion Pack[/url] is next to none. 'Tis a shame.

Despite it's flaws the map is still enjoyable, to say the least, and is the best Capital Strike map thus far. Good work DarthDaddy! I look forward to the next version!

Download and enjoy! :thumbsup:

-[GT]EraOfDesann