Alright alright. Before y’all start with the “What the f*ck is this guy on about now?” hear me out.
First of all lets give Credit where credit is due. @Lifeless and @Johanna are two exceptional mapmakers and honestly without em we wouldn’t have such wonderful maps.
That being said, I’m now going to take the liberty of kowtowing Emission through the dirt because there’s sh*t that I’ve got with this Vaporwave-reject map. (Sorry Lifeless!)
Anyways, Let’s start with the Art Style.
First, lets look at Waterhole, a favorite of mine:
As you can see, Waterhole has a very interesting, unique art style reminiscent of a family-friendly minigolf course you’d find at like a campground or some sh*t. Its bright, green, and sunny. There’s even background area with mountains to give this map a bit more depth for its small size.
Now lets look at Emission.
If we look past the menagerie of moving, rainbow TRON pillars, this map doesn’t have much going for it. While it has some rocks around the courses and the appearance of some kind of space asteroid, there’s no real depth to the outer bounds of the map, and it feels very shallow.
The courses for the most part look bland save for 1 or 2. Most have some kind of offhand name, and most of the time they don’t really come off as visually appealing.
Now there’s the Mechanics.
First off: The Teleport.
These Teleport points are in EVERY Hole. Most carry the ball through the way it was shot, but some have a fixed trajectory with no visual difference. There’s no real interesting way the Teleports are used save for a few later holes, since most are either an easy-to-get-to shortcut or a passing gimmick.
Second: The Light Bridge/Walls.
These also come up in nearly every hole, and while they’re put to use better than the Teleports, they still aren’t very interesting to me, as they’re all timing based. They’re also not very well smoothed with some courses, as I’ve hit stray edges and bounced weird when I’m connected to a host with high ping.
Third: Anti-Grav
This is literally the ONLY Mechanic that I really think is neat for Emission, and only 2 holes use it: 13, as its ending coup-de-grace, and 18, as a Guaranteed HIO provided you don’t f*ck up your shot. I really hate that this feature isn’t used more in this map.
I’d also like to take a note and say that a lot of edges, corners, and holes are very buggy and often times can bounce a ball way differently than it needs to. Hole 9’s Hole in 1 has been broken for this very reason because the speed at which the ball exits the tele is too fast and it just skips around the hole.
With that being said, I’d like to propose changes for consideration:
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Make better use of the map mechanics. The Teleporters and Light Bridges are good ideas, but I feel like they’re too simple and not very interesting. Perhaps more usage of Timing based patterns would be good. I would also like to raise the idea of the Anti-Grav mechanics to be used more often too, as it provides an interesting avenue for the playstyle of the whole map.
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Give The Artstyle more Depth. Right now the Art style on Emission is very flat. Perhaps some more environmental elements such as other floating geometrical structures or asteroids could give this map the artistic depth it needs.
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Adjust and fix curves and corners to be more consistent, as well as adjusting the friction of the course. Emission’s courses have always had buggy curves and corners. 9/10 times you’ll hit a curve and get ricocheted completely backwards. If we could have this, as well as slightly bigger holes (or hole edges that don’t let balls slip out easily) then this would be a great improvement.
And so concludes my rant. Now here’s the part where you get to leave your input! Do you agree? Disagree? Wanna burn me at the stake? Praise me as a god? Offer my soul to the immortal catsack guardians? Bequeath your answer below!
Ciao!
-Alex
