@sheik: Are there many complaints about Gazala 16? That one at least was already a fight over a single flag so they they didn't have to change the flag layout at all to convert that into a KOTH mode map. I played Gazala 16 just last night and found it as fun as it ever was. Not at all like bub 16, where to convert it into a KOTH they had to reduce it from two to one cappable flag which totally messed it up.
@Carrion(and still Sheik a little): I do also like some of the new small maps we've gotten and I do appreciate them. I don't want this to sound like a total bitchfest on my part that I'm saying 2.45 is total crap just because of bub 16. Overall I LOVE this latest patch. The new small maps:
-Vossenack 16 is a fun fight over that awesome church at the center of that map. Even on the big version of this map, that church is pretty much my favorite area to fight over anyway so the 16 of that reduces it down to the best part of it.
-Keren 16 is a FUN fight over the train station on that map.
-Falaise 16 has a lot of potential and might possibly become a new 'classic' 16 map. My only issue is that the last couple times I played we Canadians got totally STOPPED before we could get a single flag. Don't know if it needs moderate re-working or if the Canadians just need to learn to fight that one over time.
-I like the two new night time 32's of Keren and Eppeldorf.
Some of the big maps are much nicer now too:
- Bardia: OMFG! It looks amazing now! I had always liked this map but many didn't like to play it simply because (as an original 2.0 map) it was kinda fugly next to newer maps that had been released over the years. Won't have that problem anymore.
- Op. Cobra: Not only does this one look much nicer like Bardia but also plays better with push preventing back capping of the church or airfield.
- Crete looks nicer and has more vegetation.
I could go on.
Overall I LOVE this new patch. I just wish they didn't have to mess up a FAVORITE, POPULAR, CLASSIC original map to bring us all these other positive changes.
I guess part of the problem is that most of the devs are in Europe and they mostly play on European servers. Those servers are full most of the time so many of them never had smaller maps on their rotations. So they were just never aware of what a 'cult favorite' some of these 16's(Bub, Lebisey, Luttich) had become on the other side of the Atlantic on our "not always so fully populated server".
@ Eightball & Kingtiger: I certainly would not miss the 32 of Giarabub if the devs wanted to bring back classic bub 16 in the form of the new 32 version in the next release. It played well with anywhere from 20 to 40 people.
[Speaking of 32's, and not to get my own thread too off topic but my only map complaint other than Giarabub 16 is the 32 of Mt. Olympus. The original was completely wiped away and replaced with some deathmatch 'thing' with no flags, no objectives, no nothing. But the loss of Olympus 32 is somewhat compensated for by the fact that they did tighten up the 64 of Olympus with the removal of at least one (possibly two?) flags so that it should play better now with only 30-40 people.]