Rework Sponges, they are lame af.

Hey,
thought it's time for my annual forum post. q:^)

Looking at some of the maps that have been added recently, some map creators seem to underestimate how much influence sponges have on the gameplay. In my opinion lots of sponges shoot you way too far and/or are put in poor spots. Why would you build a gigantic map when there's sponges that allow you to skip like 50% of it? Just build a small one then lol. Why would you put a sponge somewhere on a tower that is best accessable for soldier and ninja, classes that already have great mobility?

Don't get me wrong... not all sponges are terrible and I mainly talk about sponges that shoot you half across the map. Sponges that give u vertical height to reach a highground faster a kiiind of fine to me (still busted for ninja pearling).

But yea. To me the only two things that most sponges currently accomplish are:
1. making mobile classes even more mobile
2. "fixing" maps that are way too big

So aside from rethinking some currently present sponge placements, I suggest adding team belonging sponges, that usually can be found on your teams side of the map and can only be used by your team.
You could make them identifiable by red/blue particles around them or a coloured name tag.

This should buff recovery play in general and give players that are not on Ninja or Assassin better odds to catch up on a flag carrier. The reason why you usually have Ninjas and Assassins chasing you down is because these are the only ones that can catch up on you. With teambased sponges a Heavy/Necro/Pyro could shoot themselves after a chemist and try to force at least one more fight, instead of just running after them never catching up. Another thing that I think should be considered is disabling ninja-pearling during a sponge launch to bring it's mobility more in line with that of the other classes.

So yea summarized:
- Please put more thought in sponge placement or simply go without them.
- Consider adding teambased sponges.
- If teambased sponges get added, consider disabling ninja pearling when using a sponge.


Note: I'm aware that the past changes to flag pickup delay was an attempt to buff offense play... and what I'm proposing certainly does not. But the problem of having heavily defended flagrooms you can't get out of is an entirely different story, than what's going on once the flag carrier got out. I feel like CTF should be balanced in a way where it easier to get out the flagroom but harder to make it back to your teams side, because chasing a flag carrier down and getting that sweet recov is a lot more fun than having them already dead inside the flagroom. (at least for me, lol.)

Thanks for reading.
- Billy

 

Just to give an example.
You don't have to call it Jumppad obviously. You can also alternate the particles. I used dripping lava and water there.
You could also add a chat message advising people that are to trying to use an enemy team's sponge.

 

No no I wouldn't want them to be on the midfield. Basically sponges that are close to the spawn or flagroom and shoot your towards map center should imo be team specific. Sponges like on Canadian Fort or Platforms (if these maps are still in rotation lol).
Or in other words all sponges that are supposed to get the "home"-team faster into to action. This would nerf cheesy Soldier/Ninja pathing and give more immobile classes the ability to catch up.


It's about giving your team on your teams side of the map a mobility advantage.
Having something like red sponges on the blue teams side would be a no go.