I gotta criticize the current canals map.
Considering it's copy pasted from the HL2 route kanal levels, slapping the prefix "rp_" does not stop it from being a singleplayer map with heavy emphasis on airboat shenanigans. The map is huge but mainly bland and inhospitable empty space.
While it by definition is as atmospheric as it gets, realism does not automatically imply that it is beneficial for the RP. Due to the linear, open and large design of the map it is incredibly difficult for resistance to prevent isolating from each other, which is always terrible terrible terrible for any kind of roleplay in general.
Effort put into improving airboat gameplay converts into effort put into ensuring the resistance has no actual bases or hiding spots for them. Every bit of the surface is a complete no-go, half of the map is crossing linear tunnels which lead to no backrooms for them to even set up a station and the rare few places that seem worth bothering are so far away from spawn and so extremely risky to reach that people feel discouraged from even connecting to the server in the first place.
The map caters to Combine patrols so much and does so very little to give the rebels any sort of helping hand, literally forcing them to expose themselves out in the vast great open for any Helicopter, APC or ground troops to detect, just so that they can even reach a zone where resistance roleplay may actually happen.
Even after you've put up with the tedious miles of aimless sprinting and do your very best to avoid getting shot down/captured by patrolling Combine, you are rewarded with tiny bases incapable of accommodating over 5 people, much less a whole server of rebels. To make matters worse, even daring to poke your head out will result in getting it blown clean off because it is exposing directly into the Combine's FOB (warehouse or red house).
The conclusion? The map is severely unkind when it comes to forming hotspots for rebel RP, it is extremely tedious and time-consuming to reach the first viable one and the map does everything possible to ensure maximum discomfort for the resistance in their attempts at simply hopping from A to B, even if the only reason for such is to find any kind of RP in the first place. People in the mood to RP change their minds and would rather not connect in the first place because no man should be forced to sprint for 10 minutes and be constantly exposed to the very real risk of being captured by the enemy. Threat of char loss for committing the crime of looking for people to rp with.
The solution? For a canals map to be deemed all good and proper it requires solid RP hotspots that are easy to reach and can accommodate enough people. This is why the pit of the outercanals map was so popular despite great outrage from bored Civil Protection units whose patrols never amounted to anything since everyone was holed up in the ground. Rather than coming up with a solution, it seems as if people decide to take a step backwards and remove such RP hotspots from the resistance without bothering to compromise and allow them to have some leniency to be out in the open without fear of instant surprise detection by whatever excuses available, even if they are completely realistic within the HL2RP universe (thermal images, helicopter patrols, having deployed units spy them from a distance, etc.).
I would much rather see a return of outercanals and the whole pit circlejerking for it at least gave the resistance the opportunity to generate roleplay, thus allowing for progress and dynamic stories to emerge, which is always better than no RP whatsoever. It was for these reasons also that cheap lazy maps like stalker redux were so immensely popular in the past, for it makes up all of the lack of effort by providing the players with wonderful RP hotspots, even if they were frequently attacked.
In order for an area to be considered a rebel hotspot it must:
1) Have enough space to accommodate a minimum of 15 roleplaying rebels shifting around and moving in-between one another.
2) Provide protection from the enemy and be defendable or at the very least possess the possibility of fleeing.
3) Allow for the basics of resistance RP to be present (medbay, stockpile, beds/couches/seats, workshop. Bar is also great but optional)
4) Be easily accessible from the designated spawnpoint.
- Fuxx
I don't think there's a easy fix. That's why the smaller, crappy coast map is usually used.
Basically the moment you could, on basic draw distance see NLO, the game would begin to rubberband and then crash. I fixed it by turning HUD off, but you have to keep it off at all times there.Rowtree said:rude
Also this is the first time I've ever heard of the map crashing with that reason. I'll take a look and see what I can do. Was it only around NLO? What specific part?