Oh nice Gravelpit is back

Gravelpit was a map last season. Steel is back. Not feelin the two A/D maps tho.

cp_steel is the pinnacle of tf2 map design

Oh alright, I didn't play last season so i have no idea.

What's wrong with two A/D though? Just not as fun or something?

i fuckin love steel, glad i'm getting back into HL this season.

I'm not thrilled to see Borneo as a regular season map and Barnblitz exiled to preseason. I know Barnblitz last is a pain, but I think in general it's a far superior map to Borneo. Also, no Granary? Thank God.

is badwater always a playoff map or something cause that's dumb it's one of the best HL maps
regular season borneo too wtf

Steel and gpit use to be alternated each season so it's weird to see them both in at the same time. Should be interesting I guess.

I'm definitely not thrilled about coalplant instead of ashville. Coalplant is too tight and the sniper lines are way too good. Ashville was already probably the most balanced koth map for HL (the only one where sniper doesn't completely dominate). Not sure why we couldn't just stick with that version.

Also confused about barnblitz preseason. I mean we know exactly what the problems are with that map so I don't really see the need for further testing unless it were a radically different version of the map. I would've liked to see snakewater for preseason. People have been asking for it for a long time and it's seen play in pugs for at least a year.

OH SHIT NO GRANARY. FINALLY MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!!

Overall good map list. I'm going to predict that week 4 coalplant will be VERY interesting.

Borneo...

Heh, they should have switched borneo and barnblitz. At least we get steel back.

rip granary.

Great, more swiftwater....

i think it's great except for coalplant.

Barnblitz was actually one of my fav's to play on, too bad its only in Pre-Season now :,(.

Borneo will be interesting, hopefully good.

Ashville was good, I wonder how good will Coalplant be for HL.

c u l8r Granary.

Then again, who the heck wants to play the same map rotation over and over, might aswell try new maps.

http://i.imgur.com/o5fbyQP.png?1

@_@

do people actually play on coalplant in HL..?

yes
it's ashville's manly brother with facial hair

I don't think anyone plays Borneo really. Its inclusion is somewhat baffling.

why process, why not try out metalworks?

That sounds awful, process is already apart of the hl map rotation. It would have to either be a summer season or a preseason map to test it out

steel is the cancer of tf2.

Wish we could for once, get a glimpse of upward in the regular season.

Upward is week 3 what are you saying dude

Sorry not all maps are DM based in HL. This map really shows off who has strong teamwork and comm's.

I'm actually pretty excited to try out borneo for serious. Not that many people put a lot of effort into it last season cause ~preseason~, so it'll be cool. I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

Kind of disappointed. But I guess everyone likes doing the same things they like over and over again.

Borneo swapping with Barnblitz doesn't seem like a good idea.
Steel, thank god.
No granary is great.
I didn't see the issue with Ashville (although many complained about it), and I don't see what's really changing by replacing it with coalplant, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Oh well. I shouldn't complain because its not in the general best interest, but I personally would love to see a fresh variety of maps. As much as I love Lakeside, Gravelpit, Upward, Process, Swiftwater, Viaduct, Gullywash, and Badwater, I really would like to see different/new maps played or bring back other HL custom/stock maps. There's something fun about adapting play to a setting you've never experienced, but unless you're brand new to highlander, I can't imagine many of these locations offering any new experiences.

I digress, as teamwork is the bread and butter of highlander that keeps me interested.

If teamwork is what keeps you interested then you should want consistency, teamwork gets eroded if you keep adding tons and tons of new maps for the sake of it. It's much more beneficial to have a single new map (test it out seriously, test people's ability to adapt to something new), your standard maps (tests teamwork/DM skill), and an A/D map (tests teamwork/gamesnese/strats over DM), since that variety helps show who the best team really is.

Also those maps change strats often enough, it's not like they've been played the same way forever and ever. Swiftwater is an easy example, it is not really played the same as it was 6 seasons ago.

If I gave the impression I thought overwhelming players with endless new different maps was a good idea, I apologize. I simply would favor a system in which maybe two or three new or unplayed for a while maps are added to the schedule for each season, so that we could work towards a system of rotating through 20-30 good maps, rather than seeing lakeside, viaduct, badwater, gullywash, and swiftwater be played half a dozen seasons in a row. This is the type of system I personally would be fond of. It was an error on my part to say that re-occuring maps discourages new strategies, however I don't see why non-inordinate implementation of different maps couldn't offer the same advocacy for "changing strats".

Quite frankly, I don't have nearly the experience you do to argue against or for the relevance of consistency and teamwork. I just wouldn't mind some less conservative diversity.

Well, with them starting to give out prize money now it's even more important that they make sure their map rotation is incredibly solid and well balanced, rather than risking multiple new maps that might be rather broken. Really though, there really isn't even 20-30 good Highlander maps, let alone great ones. A lot of the custom maps they've tried to push in the past were pretty bad (Vitalism/Haunt, Arctic, etcccc) for example, and there's way worse customs out there by the truckload compared to those.

Why does steel require teamwork any more than another map? There is no reason to keep throwing new maps into the rotation, especially during a season where thousands of dollars are being decided. Teamwork comes from mastery of fundamentals, not learning how to play vitalism/haunt (for example).

Sorry that highlander isn't the DM shitfest you want it to be