XYZ

Description
I know what you may be thinking, and no, this map doesn’t have anything to do with letters of the internet, in fact I find its name quite puzzling, but I’ve seen stranger in my time. ;) It is in fact a pretty impressive clan map and its nice to see that JK2 still get some clan attention even after all these years.

As the readme states, this map is the authors attempt at combining the best features of several of the best loved clan themed maps into one map. What is more, from looking at the map and the readme, it doesn’t appear that this was made for any specific clan or guild, though the readme does not specifically say one way or another. Nevertheless I found no clan symbols or logos of any kind when I play-tested it and I think this would be an excellent map for any JK2 clan or guild to use! The map itself is very big and has many rooms for the various purposes you would expect of such a map, such as obstacle courses training rooms, bar areas, outdoor areas and a secret council room, though considering the amount of detail the author goes into in his readme about its location and uses, it isn’t really that [i]secret[/i]. :P One great feature of this room that Is definitely worth revealing though is that you can change the map to either a day or night mode via two switches on the wall in the council room below their corresponding day or night sky, very clever!

The main hall area is strongly reminiscent of Sith Council and Jedi Council GC and I presume it took its design queues from. This leads off to various other rooms, although am quite disappointed at the number of doors that do not open and behind which is nothing. Something like this is ok for an ordinary map, since unopenable doors are often used to make the map feel bigger, but on a clan/academy map you kinda expect something to be behind each and every door! The map is also quite difficult to navigate as several areas are either accessed by teleporters or through various corridors and rooms, rather than all neatly leading off the main hall. While I’m not fond of this personally, it can make the map feel more sprawling and more fun for clan exploration.

My favourite room was the one with the great pillars and the vaulted ceiling down from which dangles cobwebs, this room has a great atmosphere, sort of like a crypt, or some ancient mausoleum, its just a shame it isn’t a bit bigger. I also liked the large outside area, its a good place for FFA\'s or duelling and I am quite impressed with the terrain work for a JK2 map! I also enjoyed the cave rooms, the rock walls being very good for a JK2 map, I particularly liked the way you get into the admin room, via a deadly crevasse. I would spoil the secret, but lets just say you will need some form of protection or god mode. ;)

There are many more things to see and areas too explore, too many to cover here, but I hope I have touched on some of the best parts! There are various, generally small, things that could be improved upon, such as adding some more architectural detail to certain areas, but the only major thing is the somewhat difficult to navigate layout. That and the soundset that plays in the lava caverns, which got quite annoying after a while, I know JK2 and JKA don’t have much in the way of proper lava sounds, but perhaps something else would be better suited for these areas. Personally for lava I always used a nice lava bubbling sound that Sith J Cull was kind enough to give me, if you would like it, give me a shout! The music is excellent though, and fits the theme of the map very nicely, so good choice on that!

In addition to the main clan map there are also two duel maps included here which are duel versions of two of the rooms featured in the main FFA map, for your duelling pleasure.

Overall a good clan themed map here, one I would recommend for JK2 clans to try. Keep up the good work Invalid, I hope to see more from you! :)

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] Yes
[b]New Music:[/b] Yes
[b]Game Types:[/b] FFA (For main map) Duel (For the 2 duel maps)

~Nozyspy~