Havok said:
Team Skirmish 1-sided objectives on maps like Zanzibar were some of the most fun I've had in any game in my life. Specifically with Zanzibar, the decisions made going forward to Halo 3 were just baffling. Zanzibar worked because it was the perfect size for a 4v4 game, and pretty specifically offense/defense games, although Slayer worked just fine as well. Last Resort was too big for 4v4, too complex for 8v8, and since Squad Battle may as well not have existed for the number of people in the playlist. Honestly, when I saw that the inside of the base was just a giant empty space with a useless walkway and a shipping container, I couldn't understand why the change was made. It served no purpose and seemed like change for the sake of change. Scale has been Reach's problem as well, maps like Hemorrhage seem way more massive than their predecessors (on a side note, I'm not sure I can name any Big Team maps that I actually like in Reach outside of Hemorrhage, which holds a special place in my heart due to its history). Countdown, Atom, and Boardwalk don't belong anywhere near a Big Team game, it's a clusterfuck, and Boneyard and Spire simply don't work with traditional gametypes. So that leaves us with what, Tempest, Paradiso, Hemorrhage, and Breakpoint (which isn't great as-is)? The Reach map list seems terribly unfocused and half-hearted, which I certainly hope the Defiant pack helps fix. I guess I just don't understand where those great designers went after Halo 2.
I guess it's a symptom of the problems I feel the player base has created, or maybe it's just the reaction to a problem with the game: of course they don't put emphasis on creating really great objective game maps, because nobody plays in the Team Objective playlist. Probably 3/4ths of the Big Team games I've played have been Big Team Slayer, with Invasion being the outlier (although it suffers from there being a whopping two maps to play actual Invasion on, neither of which are particularly good). Looking back, even some of the worst Halo 2 maps, ones that I thought I didn't particularly love (the example I recently rediscovered was Burial Mounds), were miles better than most of the current selection.
Big Team's map selection really kill the playlist IMO. Gametype weighting and gametypes in the playlist need work as well, but lets just talk maps right now.
These are the maps currently in Big Team:
Atom (Bad map, and not a big team map)
Boardwalk (Not a big team map, don't like it much either way anyways)
Boneyard (An invasion map, doesn't play for big team very well, not to mention only uses half the map)
Breakpoint (Plays pretty well in Big Team (exception banshees), but the DLC maps don't show up, so this map basically isn't in the playlist)
Countdown (No. It's one of the smallest maps in the game)
Hemorrhage (Good stuff)
Paradiso (Horrifically bad)
Spire (An invasion map, doesn't play well in big team (everyone hangs out on the top of the spire), weapon and vehicle placement is odd, randomly spawning at the invasion starting spawn is awesome)
Tempest (Fantastic map, but like Breakpoint you will not ever see it)
Now keep in mind with these opinions that I don't consider myself one of those maps that rips every map out there.
So maps that I like in Big Team: Tempest, Hemorrhage, and Breakpoint. I have NEVER played a DLC map in the big team playlist, so that is a single map that I enjoy.
As for gametypes, the amount of slayer is gross. Less slayer, much much more multi-flag and assault needs to be added into the playlist (Both one and neutral bomb).
So in a couple of weeks, we are getting another big team map, and it looks to be good, but it will never come up in the playlist. If the gametype selection gets fixed and if somehow DLC actually came up in the playlist, I would have four maps in big team that I like, would would be pretty solid IMO.