5punk

We're all getting the feel of the maps now, so it's time to tweak the maplist and get rid of some of the horrible ones. First up, I'm going to put the Conquest tickets back to 100%, as we're filling the server now. I'd also suggest going back to 2 conquest / 2 rush, although switching the CQ maps rather than playing the same twice. I'm going to try to 'review' each map, and hopefully other people will follow suit so we can get a feel of which ones people like.

Grand Bazaar
Conquest - The main road that borders the map in a square is a good field to channel intense combat, with the alleyways providing flanking opportunities. It's a claustrophobic map better suited to CQB than snipers, and it's vehicle-light. Whether that's good or bad depends on your play style, but I like it.
Rush - I always get lost when defending on the first point. It seems to be a popular Rush map, but I'm not keen. with only two avenues of attack on every point the attackers are really challenged and it pretty much comes down to whether they get a lucky breakthrough or not. I'm not all that keen.

Teheran Highway
Conquest - A nice, open urban map with no air vehicles but enough armour to keep the (many) engineers happy. Kind of reminds me of the old BF2 maps, fighting around the streets and roads. The battles are very much focussed on the capture points, which I also like.
Rush - I honestly can't ever remember playing Teheran Highway on Rush.

Caspian Border
Conquest - One of the big boy CQ maps, with a full compliment of vehicles and some very open terrain. It's pretty much the poster child for the game, and while I don't think it's the best map in the game it's not a bad one. All the capture points, apart from maybe Hilltop, are fairly well balanced for attacker and defender. I'd say it was the baseline game.
Rush - I do like this map on Rush. The first points are always brutal, but because of the vehicles and open run of attack it's not a chokepoint slugfest like the urban maps. In fact all the points offer decent approaches which lend to tactics, and the last points have been tense and close matches every time I've played them.

Seine Crossing
Conquest - Not a bad map. The banks of the river with the capture point on the bridge offers snipers somewhere to play and makes everyone else think carefully about approaching, while the rest of the map is another close quarters slugathon. There's plenty of variety of routes though, and it's not often I see it getting clogged up at choke points.
Rush - Unlike the CQ map, the Rush games do get clogged up. Smart attackers can actually get to the first points before the defenders do I believe, but if they don't they're in for a hard time. It's not a bad map, but it suffers from the limited attack route problem that quite a few BF3 Rush maps do. The river points are quite fun though.

Operation Firestorm
Conquest - I do like this map on CQ, it offers a good variety of terrain and the full array of vehicles. The oil refinery in the middle is a 3D nightmare to attack or defend, in a good way. Currently it's first on our cycle so it never has more than a few people on it.
Rush - A decent, open map. So open that it's actually pretty hard to attack, but on the few occasions I've played this one we've generally been pretty tactical, which can only be a good thing.

Davamand Peak
Conquest - One of two CQ maps which take on the characteristics of a Rush game because of the choke points. The tunnel in the middle turns into a grind, and even though flying helicopters into the tunnel is fun, and you can occasionally get in behind the enemy and cause some chaos, I'm not very keen on it. A good team will fly over the top and paradrop a squad onto one of the rear points to relieve the pressure in the tunnels, but it's rare I see that. Which is a shame, because the outside areas are quite nice.
Rush - This is probably my favourite Rush map in the game. All the attack routes are open and allow the players to use tactics to get around the defenders, but the cover around the points make them viable to hold. The last points with the attackers base jumping off the cliff is a stroke of genius, really adding a frantic fight for both sides as they mix it up. The vehicles aren't game makers either, but can be useful. It never seems to be a foregone conclusion, which surely has to be the sign of a good map.

Noshahar Canals
Conquest - Possibly my favourite CQ map. The map is nicely divided between open space and close cover, and there are lots of routes around the map. The vehicles are used to good effect (I love the amphibious APC thing), and are possibly a little too game-affecting, but there are always plenty of engineers happy to take a pop at them.
Rush - Again, a good map. The approach from the carrier should make it difficult to attack, but in reality I've never seen the attackers have a problem. The second point across the railway seems to be difficult to attack but I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's too open. Either way, I enjoy it.

Kharg Island
Conquest - A fairly standard map with the full range of vehicles. A bit more uniform in the terrain variation than Op Firestorm, meaning the fighting tends to be less focussed around the capture points. The 64 player map is definitely the better version, but the 32 player map we have is perfectly playable.
Rush - A very open first few points make it tricky to attack, particularly coming from the carrier, but still pretty enjoyable. It's late in our map cycle so I've only really played it with a handful of people, but that's not too bad because of how open it is, the attackers can always react. The vehicles are kind of white elephants when the players are sparse, but should make life (or, more accurately, death) more interesting on a full server.

Operation Metro
Conquest - Widely considered to be the worst CQ map in the game. Almost the entire map is squeezed into two or three routes which just turn into standoffs wherever the lines are drawn. It's almost like the first world war, just turning into attrition unless one team can make a break. Occasionally that breakthrough can be elating, but more often than not both sides feel frustrated.
Rush - Another one of those tight Rush maps which channel everyone into a specific approach to be murdered. The first points aren't too bad, same with the last ones, but if they've got to the last points chances are the defenders will be so frustrated from the tunnels they'll get a pasting anyway. The tunnels are just hellish pushes, with the only real movement made by making the other guy respawn more than you do.

Don't think I dislike any of the maps enough to want to eliminate them from the rotation, though some of them are very hard for attackers on rush mode but that adds to the challenge... and the rage-meter.

As for my favourite its probably a toss-up between Firestorm and No Sharhc Anals. Both are superb in both rush and conquest.

Okayday, I'll stick my oar in.

Grand Bazaar

I like this map, it's got some route problems namely the inaccessible courtyards in the middle and passage ways that lead to deadends when they seemingly shouldn't, but they're a trivial issue on Conquest.
Conquest - No real problems, it's decent as far as maps go considering the urban CQB maps are the worst in BF3.
Rush - Suffers from the kill zones on the left hand side for the first points and the general route problems in the middle of the map, meaning defenders or attackers can't flank and it turns into a bit of a grind. Not so enthused about this mode on the map.

Teheran Highway

Conquest - It's ok. Think it could do without the tanks and some more IFV/Jeeps, but it seems to work fine as you can generally scarper around and nick points.
Rush - Only played once or twice, seemed ok.

Caspian Border

It's the best map in my eyes. Not flawless, but rather good.
Conquest - Works rather well. I think point C (Forest) should be moved considering the oodles of open space on the right side and its closeness to D, but that doesn't stop it playing really well even if it does heavily favour vehicles. Needs more rocks on the big open plain between A and B I think.
Rush - Works well as well. Although considering the size of the map, some of the points could do with spreading out to seperate the defenders so they can't watch both at the same time from one position.

Seine Crossing

Conquest - Works well. Suffers from issues on the bridges, a compentant team can shut down the streets on the opposite side and stop their enemies making it across. All I think it needs is passage ways from the platforms by the water up to the side streets to make it awesome. Possible issues with point E being open to fire from the bridges and only have 2 ways to get to it, but overall, conquest works well.
Rush - As Pants noticed, it's easier on the first points for the attackers to get to A than the defenders. However, B's a terrible grindfest for both teams. I think the rest of the map's pretty good but the LAV can completely overpower the defending RU team in the hands of a single competent player once you get past the very first two MCOMS.
That said, when no-one bothers with the LAV it's a pretty awesome map. I think if we could set infantry only mode on a per map basis, this would be an ideal candidate.

Operation Firestorm

Conquest - I'm half and half on this. It's a corridor map if you take E out of the equation, and I think it could have done with a point located between the massive oil tanks on side of the map. I tend to play it, but not necessarily enjoy it too much.
Rush - Due to rush's altered playstyle, it's handled differently. Kinda works.

Davamand Peak

Conquest - The tunnel. Eugh.
This would be a great map if there were some more passageways either around or over the tunnel. Can become a grindfest.
Either side of the tunnel is quite good though.
Rush - The first two sets of MCOMS are a bit weird, they're a bit too close together and the map has only limited routes of approach. Personally for the first MCOMs, I think the big rocky hill should be the middle of the map not the left side, but it does seem to work. Similar tunnel issue as conquest later on.
The base jump is a touch of brilliance though.

Noshahar Canals

Conquest - I like Nosehair C-anals. I think it's quite good. C's a difficult point to take occasionally if you've already got A and B, but it's pretty balanced.
Rush- Yeah, this works quite well. Not too stuck on the MCOM on the top of the hill though.

Kharg Island

This is an odd map as it's quite bland yet plays ok. Could be good with some more tweaks. Everything is pretty much clustered around the water's edge, but there's shitloads of nearly empty space on the side between where B is on the bigger conquest maps and the RU spawn point.
Conquest - Ok, but C is a non point and could do with moving somewhere more interesting.
Rush - Ok

Operation Metro

Conquest - I loathe this map on conquest on 32 or 64 players (not played with less). The lack of corridors from A to C, forcing you to use the escalators and single staircase turns the game into a horrible grindfest at the 3 chokepoints. The fact you can lose C as USA and just get spawnkilled from there with no way to actually get out and grab A or B totally ruins it.
Rush - First couple of points are ok. Possibly too close again, and I think, a bit too close to the attackers, but are generally ok. The subway section has the same problems and is why I loathe this map on conquest. No fucking routes to flank/get around.

Personally, if it was up to me, I'd remove Op Metro Conquest from the rotation and only consider adding it back in if DICE heavily modify it with the coming patches.

Couple of quick points -

I find Caspian border badly designed in terms of conquest points - 1 point out on the hills and wide open would open up what is a quite linear attack line.

On rush, the second set of points can be easily insurmountable due to their close proximity.

Generally a nice paced and even map though.

Operation metro - I've played this a lot. The only map in alpha and beta but I still enjoy it. I enjoy the horrific choke points as you need to try different things to break through them without just losing points throwing bodies at it.

But more cover on the routes up would certainly help a lot in terms of a well defended set of points being cracked.

Tehran highway - I really like the map, but I barely play it as it seems to be infrequent on most servers.

Grand Bazaar, rushing for point defence and getting lost in some fucking dead end is so bloody infuriating. But as it's meant to be a bit of a maze I don't hate that.

My opinion is that we should remove Op Metro CQ and Siene Crossing Rush from the rotation. Outside of those two, I'm fine with everything else.

Grand Bazaar is my favorite CQ map in the game. Tehran Highway is awesome as the only night time map and we should move it up in the rotation.