10 reasons why i hate the santa map

[masteriamamind]

This map is great for kiting and breaking line of sight of the fp. Just keep moving. If you have a Support, get that S.O.B. in the front. A Firebug in the back keeps your buns warm. Put the SS smack dab in the middle and you have a mobile fortress.

 

[Spicy]

The fact that there are spawn points all over the damned map make it feel much, much more frantic. Since it's a map for a special event though, I guess that makes sense. Actually beating the map feels like more of an accomplishment, especially since sharpshooters can't immediately neutralize fleshpounds.

 

[BenioX]

especially since sharpshooters can't immediately neutralize fleshpounds.

Their skills fail it seems. Mostly it takes 1-3 seconds even at HoE if they teamwork.

 

[sverek]

got that map on suicidal yesterday. We got way to santa's tron. 2 Demolition (1 law + 1 m32 + pipes), 2 berserkers, Commando and Support.

I took care of most incoming little bastards and zerkers covered sides, when FP appear, I just set pipe, wait till fp blow up on it and another demolition send LAW along with my m32 spam.
I think we didn't lose anyone on Pat wave.

So map has it places where teamwork can safe the day without glitching map.

 

[Spicy]

Their skills fail it seems. Mostly it takes 1-3 seconds even at HoE if they teamwork.

I just need to get Filth's Cross on hard and then I'll be in suicidal games all the time. I'd only ventured in about a week or two before the xmas update. Damn achievements! *shakes fist*

I've started to see more Support players than Sharpshooters, so hopefully that will bode well for me. I'm sort of torn. I love that I'll generally need my team to help me take down a fp, but I'm not used to having people that respond positively to "as soon as I headshot the fp, focus fire on him" and having it actually work.

I definitely want to hop into HoE so I can start wearing my big-boy pants.

 

[timur]

I definitely want to hop into HoE so I can start wearing my big-boy pants.

we'll be happy to see you there

as of yet, it seems like winning HoE games fair-and-sqaure is pretty uncommon. They are a garunteed challenge. In fact, I suggest you say "screw the suicidal acheivements" and hop straight into Hell. You'll want to play a few suicidal matches at first, of course, but why bother with every map in that difficulty? In my opinion, the goal is just to have fun, not some acheivements

 

[-[SiN]-bswearer]

colored comments are mine

1) It's so badly optimised.
i also don't have the world's greatest machine, but it's by all means not terrible...i play on the highest settings and still manage a decent 70fps avg on most maps. on this map i do experience some weird freezes in the beginning and some pretty low fps in most of the confined areas. the map's still playable though....

3) Ammo placement seems completely arbitrary.
that's actually pretty typical for every map....

4) Theres no space for a full team (6)
the long hallyway leading down from the "throne room" is pretty defendable. they will only approach from two directions, the exits of the hallway, and mostly in pretty straight lines. our team held there for 10 waves using a support and commando on each end, SS and medic in the middle watching both ends waiting for FP/Scrakes/Husks or to heal players at either end. also, all of the trader locations are within a reasonable proximity and not difficult to find

5) The player clipping is morbidly over zealous.
these days, this is common in most every map to prevent people jumping on top of objects where they can't be reached. i also agree that it's quite absurd in most cases as the places wouldn't be difficult to reach irl, but since it prevents exploiting, meh....i can deal with it.

6) The density of detail is too much.
i actually appreciate all the details they put into all their maps, especially this one. although that partly annoys me because with all that time spent in details, you'd think they would've tested it enough to not allow for such ridiculously bugged spots.

7) For some reason this map is just full of crawlers.
i've got no problem with that....actually makes it a bit more challenging. just play as a commando and you've got no worries

8) There are almost no doors to weld and those that are are in completely none useful locations.
there's actually a ton of spots where welding doors can work...although every time i find a group that likes to weld in the commonly used spots, i try to convince them to use the throne room hallway because it's really a waste to have a guy welding the whole time in addition to having to cover 2 or 3 directions.

9) The map lends itself to griefers because of the many small doorways and corridors that litter the map..
it's not so much the hallways/doorways that cause issues, but the couple bugged spots that people are exploiting....those are what really irritate me.

10) Zombie entrances are everywhere.
refer to my comment on 4)

even with the couple bugged spots and some other little issues, i still generally like the map. it's something different and presents a decent challenge, plus since it's holiday themed, it puts me in a nice little Christmas mood.......they only really annoying thing for me is the fact that apparently the suicidal map achievement is bugged. beating it 3 times and nobody on the team getting the achievement was frustrating

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

I personally really like the Santa map. Overall I get average to great fps when I play it but there are times where I do get lagging and brief freezes.

Unfortunately for me, my computer suffers from Event ID 4101 Display Driver Timeout Detection and Recovery, which means those brief freezes trigger Windows 7 to reload my display driver and 90% of the time it crashes KF. Only once have I ever made it to the Patriarch without the Santa map crashing.

That particular event only happpens about every 2 weeks (most of the time) with other maps or other games compared to several times a gaming session on the Santa map. I sure at some point thought TWI will take care of it.

 

[gusone]

I like it and it's free. Every map has had exploits and that is just not an excuse not to play it. I will, however, miss the new zeds makeover when TWI hit the switch in January. It be an 'ewwww' moment going back to the old KF.

 

[Euclix]

I don't even have a video card and this map runs perfect on my machine. The map can run fine.

And my favorite part about the map is the detail, it's much more detailed and well thought out than most of the other official maps; well it should be, the devs are more experienced.

It is in fact a really difficult map, but that's what makes it good. And i've only seen two glitchers, eventually the husk would get them.

 

[Salad Snake]

Aside from the fact that my machine chokes badly on the outside areas, I like this map a lot.

I do agree on the over abundance of Crawlers, though. Most of the spawns seem to be Crawlers and Stalkers, while the Bloat spawns are nearly non-existent.

These. It is a bit more hefty then a normal map performance-wise I think, but since the update there's been a lot more spawn lag; as in the 1-second pause when all the Zeds spawn has turned into a 7-second pause for me that gets me almost killed many times. I'm not sure if the game itself has become more hefty due to the added content of the updates (like TF2 has from the time it was released), but I've tried validation and defraging what I could.

On the plus side, the Christmas music is awesome, wish it played on every map for this event.

I don't even have a video card and this map runs perfect on my machine. The map can run fine.

How do you not have a video card?

 

[Skalli]

How do you not have a video card?

I think it's onboard.

Have these brief freezes only on Santas Lair, too.

 

[driftwood]

10) Zombie entrances are everywhere. No location is really more advantagious to hold than any other and besides going outside (where zombies potentially spawn right on you) there's almost no way to put a distance between you and the specimens.

I always thought this was a positive trait and make it top priority for my own maps. It negates the need to spawn zombies in the same areas players can exist in and makes circuit running viable and fun.

 

[grazr]

I cannot believe how many times I have heard this and I really just cannot understand it. Do you people have COD and L4D2 running in the background at the same time or something? or do you just not have any idea how to set up a pc correctly?
I have a 940 AMD and 9800GT running and never have I experienced the issues you have all mentioned with a much more powerful pc! NEVER!
This is nothing to do with either the engine or the game, it is your pc which is giving you the issue....nothing else

Why would it be a driver issue when it's only 1 map in 1 game? I run several current/next generation games on max settings with no issue.

Most of these nit picks are speaking as a novice ammatuer level designer, although i've mostly worked with Source/GLDSource engine.

Regarding the level of detail; "just because you can" is no excuse to do something, level design is about comprimise and reason (as is all design). There's no respite from all the "junk" which makes it difficult to play the map for long periods of time as you are bombarded with relentless visual information. It's also not a question of fog adding ambience, there's fog outside, there would be more ambience if inside had lower fog settings so you felt like you were moving between different environments.

 

[aerrow]

1) It's so badly optimised. I have a 2 month old machine (i7, GTX 460 with 4GB DDR3) and this map makes my game freeze for a second or two fairly frequently. It's not even a top of the range engine anymore (but that in itself probably explains some of the poor performance, see 6).

i have noticed it to that the game freezes for a second on that map and i have the same graphics card so yea maybe it's the card ?

 

[Euclix]

I think it's onboard.

Have these brief freezes only on Santas Lair, too.

Yes the 'video card' is built into the mother board. And it's about the worst quality you can get. But it allows me to play games based on old engines such as source and UT2k4 with acceptable performance on low resolutions (800x600).

 

[DysprosiumJudas]

This map is going the route of Icebreaker the second that the Christmas event ends, i.e. a beautiful map that is too difficult and big for most players, and so will get absolutely ignored. That's why I think the Twisted Christmas nonsense should be permanently endemic to the map, to make it special and unique and worth playing after the event. But seeing as Tripwire doesn't want to do this and people refuse to rally around the concept, I just can't help but feel that this map won't be run at all in short order.

 

[Spicy]

You'll want to play a few suicidal matches at first, of course, but why bother with every map in that difficulty? In my opinion, the goal is just to have fun, not some acheivements

Good point. I've played every map enough times already to know what areas people generally like to hold. It's just that "completionist" mentality of wanting to unlock everything. >_>

 

[ashxu]

I'm having performance problems on this map too.

and my laptop can run Bad Company 2 on medium.


Heck at times Crysis runs better than Killing Floor on my laptop

running on:
i7 720 1.6ghz
Mobility Radeon 5730
4gb ram
1600x900

 

[Hemi]

this is my opinion :

1) It's so badly optimised. I have a 2 month old machine (i7, GTX 460 with 4GB DDR3) and this map makes my game freeze for a second or two fairly frequently. It's not even a top of the range engine anymore (but that in itself probably explains some of the poor performance, see 6).

No problems here.. My gf has this problem (on a 5 year old laptop lol) and it seems to go away once your playing for a while.

2) The fog distance inside is atrociously low. There's just no respite from the fog.

Ambiance.. Its a design choice...and its a free map... so get over it.

3) Ammo placement seems completely arbitrary. Hiding in corridors that rarely get used, in rooms out of the general trader-to-trader paths or several found in extremely close proximity. There seems to have been no method to such madness.

I dont see the problem here... since the map itself isnt the easiest one. And again...its free...so I dont mind

4) Theres no space for a full team (6) to comfortably holdout, anywhere on the map besides 1 room where zombies literally rain down on you from the rafters all rooms/areas are of similar sizes besides the spawn (which you only fight at when you spawn).

wrong... There are allot of places to stand your ground... srry m8 but I really dont have this problem on a 6 player server

5) The player clipping is morbidly over zealous. Things that look like they can be walked over or jumped onto cannot (not even for exploitation, but just so other players can get a line of sight). Edges of large props/models with wide bases that look like they can be walked past... specimens will trap you against invisible collision boxes with 6 ft of room.

No problems with that either...m8...do you even like killing floor?

6) The density of detail is too much. It's just everywhere. It gets in your way when walking. It gets in your line of sight. There's no justification for the density of detail.

JEEEZZZ... its a free map... get over it. It looks fine m8.

7) For some reason this map is just full of crawlers. Everywhere. a good 50% of the zombies i see are crawlers. Not sure why, but it's really annoying.

no problems with this... stand somewere else maybe?

8) There are almost no doors to weld and those that are are in completely none useful locations.

santa is very open about things... since his line of work concerns children. He's trying to avoid lawsuits.

9) The map lends itself to griefers because of the many small doorways and corridors that litter the map. It hasn't been too much of an issue because most people are achievement farming; but if i felt like it the trader positions can be so distant i can stop and force a team to fight with practically no ammo because i stood in one of the many narrow doorways. This is problematic enough when there's a small door on the trader entrance.

then position yourself outside.. srry I dont see a problem here...again. Maybe because the WPC bans griefers lol. INSTANT!

10) Zombie entrances are everywhere. No location is really more advantagious to hold than any other and besides going outside (where zombies potentially spawn right on you) there's almost no way to put a distance between you and the specimens.

mwa...There are places were you can move arround enough to get the distance. Even inside

Again its my opinion...

Its a free update peeps...and allot of people like it so stop wining allready...Its Christmas m8s!