Daily reminder that compact maps != boring maps. There's nothing wrong with Spark or Drill. Don't add unnecessary enemies to the background to distract players (It's a huge problem on MM2BUB btw)
Every map has its flaws, and Spark and Drill are no exceptions. Granted they are pretty small in comparison to other maps, but I still think they suffer from bad design choices.
Drill's biggest issue spawns from the presence of two weapons that don't fit the layout: Super Arm and Power Stone. The former is unusable in portions of the map because the ceilings are too low, and it keeps hitting the top of the map, rendering it completely ineffective. Even when you can use it, such as in the outside portion, it's outclassed by Drill Bomb, Crash Bomb and Homing Sniper due to its clunky wind-up. The latter isn't conducive to the map's cramped layout, and its zoning capability is nullified. It's basically been reduced to a makeshift melee weapon (which isn't really necessary given Napalm Bomb's presence). If anything, they should be replaced by weapons that are more suited to the map's layout. Water Wave or Ice Wave would work well in the long stretches of hallway and serve as a faster-firing, long-range option down the stairs and in the rooms as opposed to Napalm Bomb's close-range attack. Danger Wrap could be used as a weapon to space opponents away from the user while using the low ceilings to overwhelm them with the dropped bombs. Either would work better than the current two on there (Super Arm especially).
Spark's issue stems from the pit, where it's always been way too easy to punish people coming up from there. The ladders are still slow as balls, and with Napalm Bomb and Spark Shock present you can beat the pulp out of anyone who comes up from there. Sure, you can jump up using Rush Coil, but that doesn't really eliminate the problem since the jump is arguably more disorienting, and it leaves you hanging in the air for a while. Pretty much the only way you can get up there safely is to hope that your opponent isn't on your side and scramble up as quickly as possible, which is made harder by the changes instituted in v3 because they can just dash through the middle.
Oh yeah also sure compact maps aren't always boring, but the fact of the matter is that Drill and Spark
are boring. They're just big squares. That's
boring. Honestly, Drill is just four of the same rooms with two long hallways that connect the outer portions. Sure, they punched a hole into the middle to increase flow, but that doesn't make the layout any better. Spark Man is even worse- it's just a giant square with a huge pit in the middle. Once again, they punched a hole in the middle to make it flow easier, but that doesn't add anything to the layout, it just slightly alleviates a problem that's caused with such a stagnant design. Sure, compact maps can be designed well-- MM6FLA is designed well with plenty of height variation and twists and turns, MM4DUS has plenty of compact design elements that are done neatly, MM3GEM, MM3HAR, MM3DW1, MM4SKU, I could list plenty of compact maps that are designed well. But MM4DRI and MM3SPA aren't among them, because no matter how great you can make a square, it's still just a square. That kind of layout features very basic combat system that isn't very enjoyable, and it's only made worse because the maps (the latter in particular) are so freaking small that it delves into chaos the moment you have more than six players. I know I attempted to protect the original MM1FIR (unsuccessfully, God rest its soul) and used the exact same argument that some maps should be reserved for smaller player amounts, but that's because it's design wasn't a boring-ass cube. A design like that should only be reserved for a sparse variety of maps like MM1CUT, and even then they shouldn't be so bare-bones like Spark's layout (oh hey look I'm a square but I have two things in the middle and another square that's higher!!!!1!!!!) Drill is better, but I'd still push for both to be changed.
We've already been clearing out some of the other square-maps or improving upon them much more than their previous incarnations (MM2HEA, MM4BRI, MM3TOP, MM3MAG). It's time to start tackling the other ones. I'm not opposed to having them keep compact layouts, but their current layouts are boring and uninspired, and should be changed for the overall improvement of the game.
Now let's just see how wrong I am when the blue text inevitably comes { ?• ?? ?•}
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