Map Wave XIII - Full Release

Hey there, CTFers!

We're here! After a busy month and a half, Wave XIII is up and running on CTF servers right now! We can't thank our mapmakers and community enough - you guys have really been a pleasure to work with, and your contributions are a huge part of what make these servers great. Things really did go smoothly this time around; live testing went as planned, and we hit our deadlines on time. We even came just one response away from reaching our 'ideal target' of 100 on the voting form! So again, thank you for all of your engagement as we worked on this wave - we quite literally wouldn't have been able to do it without you!

So, to kick things off, we have a trailer for our new wave from the wonderful @Xelasi!

After compiling the hundreds of votes cast on each map, we ended up adding 15 maps to the rotation. They are as follows:

Original Maps:
370442 - Celestial Gardens by Snowleak
382785 - Chernobyl by Shawn_ and Xelasi
378708 - Cuboid by GalaThundR
376577 - Molten by GalaThundR
376623 - Skytown by November and Pizze
362115 - Waitomo Caves by EddKrumbs

Reworked Maps:
369399 - Airlock I by Miskey and aefrogdog
381337 - Aquafus V by Xelasi, Birdgirl, and b0squet
381351 - Large Hall I by Xelasi
380335 - Martian Outpost I by Xelasi
380956 - Moria V by Snowbreak and TBF
371262 - Night Raid II by Insomniac__
369228 - Opposites Collide VII by puhdgy and lauten
331935 - Skyworlds V by puhdgy, lauten, Creux and MegaRainbowz
377015 - Woodcastle Arena I by Xelasi, Nightowl and Daniellll

The final vote tallies for all of the maps we tested can be seen here.

After some deliberation, we set a cutoff point of 62% for our average voting totals. As a result, this map wave is a little heavier on reworks than some, which is intended - more on that in a moment. You may have also noticed that some of the reworked maps have their variant numbers change since the live testing period. This is a result of us correcting these numbers to reflect the chronological order in which each variant entered the rotation. The most notable change in this regard is 'Night Raid III' being changed to II, as the map previously known as 'Night Raid II' is now simply I.

Removed Maps:

Spoiler: Removed Maps

- Castle V
- Clocktower V
- Kauwela Shore
- Kill Creek V
- Kingdom Islands I
- Martian Outpost
- Molokai
- Night Raid I
- Opposites Collide
- Platforms V
- Shattered Rift VI
- Sphinxes
- Whiteout
- Willow Pass
- Wisteria Grove

We're removing a fairly large number of maps this wave. Some of these maps are getting the axes for low ratings alone, while others are faring significantly worse than other versions of the same map in rotation. Three of the maps on the above list are being directly replaced by new variants (Martian Outpost by Martian Outpost I, Night Raid I by Night Raid II, and Opposites Collide by Opposites Collide VII) as well.

Much of the feedback we received about the rotation leading up to this wave centered around the lack of variety in the current rotation, with multiple variants of the same map being quite common. This was partly because we ran a number of new variants from the last wave (such as Clocktower V, Platforms V, and others) alongside previous versions in order to gauge community preferences. As such, the variants being removed in this wave are those that saw significantly lower ratings than their predecessors. While our new wave does have quite a few reworks, only one will run alongside an existing variant of the same map (Skyworlds V running alongside I), and many are breathing new life into maps that were removed years ago.

Anyhow, that more or less wraps up the Wave XIII process! We'll be looking for feedback now that these maps are playing alongside the rest of the regular rotation, so be sure to let us know what you think about the new wave. From here, we'll be shifting our focus onto developing and implementing class reworks, so keep an eye out for those in the not-so-distant future! We hope you enjoy Wave XIII, and wish you all the best!

Happy Capping!
- The CTF Committee (and Xelasi and Gala, who finally got that raise)

Wave XIII Quicklinks:
Announcement & Introduction Post
Status Thread for Map Submissions
Update I - Assorted Info
Live Testing Announcement​