Kuat: Canyon

Description
For those of you who remember the December 2009 mapping contest (and you should, as it was only a couple short months ago), you will be familiar with Darth_Spiderpig's newest submission, Kuat: Canyon.

The map itself is a fairly nondescript canyon map. It uses several Tatooine assets on top of a generic grassland base, and unfortunately I think this is a bit of a strike against it. Since nothing has been retextured from its original form, it looks a lot like exactly what it is - several Tatooine assets on top of a generic grassland base - instead of looking like a unique location. The map also adds some rain and lightning, but it is a very unique rain and lightning in that it is completely inaudible. The author should consider adding the correct sounds to go with his weather.

Another issue I see with the map is one you will only notice if you play on low water detail - there is some shockingly red water. This is due to the unfortunate choice of using the unchanged Dagobah water assets. I don't understand why people just leave this bug unfixed, simply because it was an error in the assets - the texture is red, just switch it for a different texture. Not terribly tough.

Aside from the map, there are sides. Rather than using stock CW or GCW, the map has a specific clone legion fight against the Death Watch troopers (as seen in the Clone Wars TV series). Unfortunately, this creates a problem - the author is suffering from the "oh wow this is so cool that I just saw this on TV" syndrome, and this manifests itself in the balance of the sides.

Now don't get me wrong, it's great to take a concept you enjoy that you just saw on TV - but the problem is that when people think something is just [i]too cool[/i] for school, they focus on that to the exclusion of anything else. In a roundabout way, I am saying that these sides are very poorly balanced. The Death Watch side is populated entirely by jetpack users with weapons stronger than normal, and they also start with a CP advantage.

There were a few bugs with the sides too - I noticed several floating HUD icons, several instances of the awards weapons bug (freezes game), Jango Fett voiceovers for all the Death Watch troopers, and no vehicle sounds. Also, both sides had all their units unlocked initially, including the "heroes," which are playable like normal troopers. This offers no incentive for playing as a regular trooper when the hero is available from the get-go and all the time.

While we are on the subject of heroes, the Death Watch hero has some serious issues. The weapons setup for this particular hero is of great concern, as it is quite buggy. The rifle this hero initially has is unselectable after switching to the lightsaber, and the controls are mixed up (this is going to happen anytime someone makes a unit with weapons set up like this, but it can be worked around without forcing messed-up controls on the user). A minor nitpick, too - the lightsaber texture has no core, it's simply invisible in the center. I understand that it was supposed to be black, but I am confused as to why it was invisible. This should be fixed.

In any case, it is a decent map, despite its issues, but the sides - most notably the balance - really throw it out of whack. It's worth a try if you're a fan of the TV series, or perhaps even if you're not, but it definitely has some serious issues to be worked out.

-Maveritchell