Maps: Thunder

Here’s an article on Thunder.

Mapper: EmperorJack
Version: beta 3
Status: released

By far our largest map, Thunder likely has more surface area than the largest Tremulous maps by an entire order of magnitude. The outside area itself is likely large enough to contain the entirety of ATCS in its volume, and inside, there are several enormous rooms connected by long corridors, multi-level rooms packed with ledges, a huge chasm of instant death, and ventilation ducts to hide in when a roaming tyrant comes roaring your way. Having taken many months of effort to put together, it is a complex beast of a map, and is perhaps the most forward-looking of them all considering the sheer number of players it is intended to be played by, not to mention the decidedly steeper hardware requirements. The map is a load of fun when you have a bunch of friends to play it on, however, and you can have a bit of fun picking off bots with a mass driver to get some well-needed target practice. Once we add the flying alien and the jetpack changes, the outside area will be a lot of fun to swoop around through, not to mention the large internal rooms. There are also countless spots to build bases in, and combined with out new gameplay scheme that allows for some impressively heavy expansion, future matches on Thunder will be truly epic.

Of our current maps, Thunder is the most likely to change. This is not due to the layout, which is practically immune to balance breaking, but more from the hardware requirements of the map. For instance, some further optimization could make the outside area less painful on people with slower systems. However, we’re interested in hearing what you’d like to say. What are your thoughts on Thunder? Have you explored its countless rooms and corridors? Did the addition of the minimap feature help you navigate around? If there’s something you’d like to change about Thunder, what would it be?