As a season comes and goes, the never ending debate and discussions about the mappool seem to arise every single time, and to no avail it seems to always end without an agreement or permanent solution, every person has a different opinion and a different perspective to every map. The majority of the community will agree that ET needs a decent map to add to the mappool, maybe even two for that matter. In this column I will try to conclude, using facts and my opinion, what makes a map legendary, and what makes a map good, obviously this can never be fully objective, but I will try to be as objective as possible throughout the column.

Be it 6on6 or 5on5, ET has always had the tree famous maps, supply, goldrush and radar which are undoubtedly the bedrock of every mappool and almost every single player will agree that his favourite map might be one of these. But what makes these maps legendary? To try and find an answer to this dilemma, we must first rip every map stage by stage. Let's take one of the most played maps in ET for the past six years, Supply, and let's talk about it's first stage.

[img=right]http://image.www.gametracker.com/images/maps/160x120/et/supply.jpg[/img]Only a short time needed to attack the axis. It only takes the allies 5 seconds when passing through main, 4 seconds if going from up and 8 seconds when passing through cave to attack the window and/or the forward bunker gate. This meaning that the allies have 12 to 15 seconds to break the axis' defenses before they respawn. It takes the axis 3-4 seconds to set up their defense, giving this first stage a perfect combination of on-going action and the allies can attack the axis defense for more than 10 seconds, lowering the possibility of the allies team ending up on full before damaging the defense. These 3 pathways to attack the axis defense seem to be a standard thing to have in any decent map, having 4 entrances would be too much in 5on5 and even 6on6, as this would mean the axis defense would have to defend with one guy per entrace and another being an allrounder, launch a 5 man attack on one entrace, and you can kiss the stage good bye.

Having only 2 entrances will make it much easier for the axis, they can afford a minimum of 2 people per entrance and an allrounder free roaming, or 3 in one entrace and 2 on the other, making it pretty difficult for the allies side to break through the axis defenses, unless the axis defenses play stupidly, i.e are static and grouped next to eachother (and get gibbed by a rifle grenade/panzer) it will almost be impossible for the allies to break through, or else one will see a boring 5 minute fullhold. It is also important that these entrances are next to eachother, ET is teamplay based and thus it is important that the (three) entrances are situated next to eachother, so both allies can try regroup and revive eachother while the axis can try to set up a crossfire, balance is always important when creating a map/stage, and the layout is also a very important factor (i.e: it is much easier to frag someone who is on a lower ground than you, in this case the axis benefit from having a higher ground than the allies.

What makes this first stage legendary? What is the climax of this first stage, if any? A flag cap in the last second before spawning or defusing a dynamite in the last seconds before blasting, i'll rush through the second supply stage, there's nothing really exciting about getting the CP, but having to build a CP as an objective is always important in a map, gaining a forward spawn and a faster charge is in interest of the Allies, but I think many will agree with me that there is nothing exciting by constructing a command post, and the only highlight of this stage might be planting the depot gate and getting a 3 man kill by a panzer in the final seconds or in the case of axis, getting a defuse in the final seconds, such as Night vs Rockit in the CIC7 Grand Final, but how often do you see these close defuses, and how exciting are they actually?

[img=right]http://image.www.gametracker.com/images/maps/160x120/et/radar.jpg[/img]This is where i'm trying to get, we've seen many new maps, and most of them get the objective placement all wrong, having a final objective of the map being a <planting x> is just wrong and plain boring, can anyone remind me of any exciting braundorf map? Sure you might be able to mention one or two, but compare it to how many exciting docruns you can mention in radar, frostbite, adlernest (and goldrush third stage). For all the new and old map makers, leave the exciting docruns for the last stage and the non-so-exciting objectives, such as flag caps, dynamites and truck/tank escortings for the introductory and middle stages.

This even applies to every day situations, leave the best for last, you are most likely to remember a good song if it is played in the end of the competition, you are most likely going to like a football match if it contains a huge amount of drama and excitement in the final 5 minutes of the match, you are most likely going to write a good composition if you leave the climax for the end and close it up with a great conclusion, so a point to remember, always leave the best for last, even if you have a boring and bad first stage such as frostbite or adlernest, it's final stage is a docrun and this is what everyone waits for and looks forward to, you may never be so sure who is going to win until the final few seconds of the match, and this is more likely to happen than having to dynamite an objective or escorting a truck, the probability of having an exciting supply final stage is much lower than a radar last stage, so I think that this is one of the many things that make a map legendary.

[img=right]http://image.www.gametracker.com/images/maps/160x120/et/sw_goldrush_te.jpg[/img]Keep all the things mentioned above in mind and try to create your legendary map now, try to make it as balanced as possible and dynamic, make sure you get your objectives right and pathways right, having to run a whole 20 seconds to attack the axis (such as oasis) will lead into boring fulls and fullhold maps and your map will 'fail', anyway, i think you get the point, tell me what you think, almost all these 3 maps have the standard number of entrances, short pathways, exciting objectives, open area to frag, crossfires, spam, etc so it's always important to have the majority of your map played outside, and not inside, having a whole stage being situated inside will kill one of the biggest factors of ET, spam and the field ops class, it is was seperated and distinguishes ET from other games.

Almost everyday there is a new map on splatterladder and yes, we all know these are public maps, but don't tell me none of these might be suitable for competition play with the appropriate touches here and there, the probability is like saying there is no other human life in the whole universe, but that's not the point, mapping is pretty hard and requires hours of dedication and sky-high motivation and skill, which I believe the ET mappers in our community do have, the only problem is that a map is created, it is forced by ESL/CB in its cup for a season, and next season everybody forgets about it, so what might be lacking is this "how to make a map legendary" and successful, I might not have the answer to this, and maybe not even the high skilled players might be 100% correct let alone myself, and this is where I end my column, we'll be setting up a mapping competition in the near future, and it will be nice to see the community's input which in your opinion, makes a great map!