Korriban Valley of the Dark Lords

Description
\"Korriban: Valley of the Dark Lords,\" by martin105038, is a large map set on the Sith planet Korriban, which has been featured in many different kinds of media. This looks like it probably inherits the most from JKA\'s Korriban, but it\'s certainly not slavish in its design to any other game\'s map.

It\'s a pretty ambitious map for a new mapper, and I\'ll definitely say that it has more positives than negatives. There\'s been a really good job using a combination of stock props and, I assume, some new models to make a pretty solid Korriban map. I don\'t know how much of the tunnels section is newly modeled and how much of it is simply repurposed stock models, but the work done there is easily the most impressive part of the map. The choice to open up some of the tunnel areas and have it surround lava pits looks really nice.

On the other hand, it\'s a large map. Really large. [i]Too[/i] large, if I may be so bold. There\'s a lot of running to get from one CP to another, and while it\'s not as egregious as it is on some over-large maps, it could definitely be toned down here. The biggest size-related issue is simply the number of AI, which goes hand-in-hand with the map size and the relatively low number of CPs to make for a map on which the human player doesn\'t get to feel like he\'s doing a whole lot. Rarely will the human player be able to capture CPs (even as a hero!) because of the large number of AI spawning at any given time. You can rack up impressive kill scores, to be sure, but it\'s a wild transfer - from the easy (getting to the CPs, killing large amounts of AI in tunnels) to the unnecessarily difficult (trying to stay in one open area long enough to capture a CP without getting shot). Also, having tried it in both eras, there really looks to be a significant starting CP (placement-wise) advantage given to team 2.

If I were to offer any suggestions, I\'d say that the map would work a whole lot better without the exterior stuff. It\'s not quite as exciting as the interior portion of the map (and a lot of it is comprised of unfortunately overused Yavin props), and if you cut down on the size of the map and maybe move those CPs inside, you\'ll be able to reduce the AI count and have a battle that \"moves around\" a little more, and one that allows the human player to feel like he\'s making an impact.

I\'d also like to see the lighting done a little better - it\'s clear that there was thought put into this (I could see lighting changes associated with fires or lava), but the global lighting was pretty boring, and it really made some of the outside parts of the map clash with each other. I\'d like it more if it were darker overall, with a relatively darker interior part to the map - to help the lights in there stand out more.

The lava was nice, as mentioned above, but it would work a lot better if it appeared to be moving and if units didn\'t land on it (because it is solid ground). It\'s also worth mentioning that two of your Jedi units in CW Assault were missing lightsabers.

All in all, it\'s certainly a well-done map - not without its flaws, but no map is - and it\'s definitely one worth trying out. I\'d love to see some general fixes made to it, but even as it stands, it is fun to play around in. Try it out!

-Mav