Map balance - Tier list time.
So, after watching a map-related video posted on Youtube, I wasn't all that impressed with the rankings, clearly showing a bias towards the more killer-sided maps, ranking them a lot higher than the ones that skews more towards survivors. Therefore I figured I'd make my own tier-list.
An in-depth description, and reasoning for each map's placement (from my own point of view) can be read below. The TL:DR can be summarized from the tier-list image.
Pretty balanced for both sides.
MacMillan Estate - Coal Tower. There is a good reason why this map is ranked so high, because it offers just the right amount of loopable tiles for survivors, and is also sized well for the killer to have an impactful prescence. It has a good gameplay-flow as well.
MacMillan Estate - Groaning Storehouse. Also a fairly balanced map. Not too big, and not too small. Has a decently strong main structure, but not overbearingly so, with plenty of ways for the killer to shut down the loops.
Tile-wise, this map has a decent spread of loopable tiles, and good spacing.
MacMillan Estate - Ironworks of Misery. Like the ones mentioned above, it is not too big, and not too small. Main building is decently strong, but not overbearing for the killer. Has decent loops for the survivors, with enough pallets, and the spacing is fair.
Autohaven Wreckers - Wretched Shop. Like the MacMillan maps mentioned above, this one has the right size, the right amount of loopable tiles, and decent spreading of tiles. Has a weaker main structure, but it is made up for by having more pallets around it.
Ormond - Ormond Lake Mine. One of the newer maps, and a damn good one at that. Perfect size, decently strong main structure, and a nice little underpass area through the mine. Tiles are well-balanced and spread out decently well. Has a good gameplay flow, and matches can go in either direction.
Withered Isle - Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. One of the better recently added maps. Decently sized, and has a nice main structure. Decent spreading of loopable tiles, and matches can go either way on this map.
Raccoon City - RPD East Wing. Easily the most balanced, and the smaller one out of the two wings. Offers a good amount of loopable tiles, and a decent amount of pallets. The killer has a much easier time patrolling, since the pathways are fairly straight. The gameplay loop is undoubtedly the best out of all the indoor maps.
Decent balance, but could be better.
Autohaven Wreckers - Gas Heaven. This map used to be horrendously suvivor-sided at one point, but the version we have today is a much more balanced one. However, the spacing of tiles, especially in the middle of the map allows a sizeable deadzone to occur, especially once the resources has been exhausted around the main structure.
Autohaven Wreckers - Blood Lodge. Pretty balanced in theory, but there are usually a lot of "dead tiles" situated around the main structure, making it harder for survivors to pressure this part of the map. Pallet spawns are also nearly non-existent around main.
However, the outer "ring" of the map has easily chainable loops, which makes it harder for the killer to keep up.
I remember when this map used to be called "Pallet Town"
Autohaven Wreckers - Wreckers Yard. Fairly balanced, but the spacing of tiles are sometimes a little random, which can create deadzones or very chainable loops. Better consistency goes a long way here.
Coldwind Farm - Torment Creek. Arguably the best out of the Coldwind maps, with good spacing of tiles, a decent amount of pallets, and a decent main structure. The only lacking bit is the side that has corn, which is very open, and offers very little for survivors. Denser corn could help a lot here.
Coldwind Farm - The Thompsons House. This map is pretty good, with a decently strong main building, and a good amount of loopable tiles. It does have a wide open field in the front of the house though, which is not the best for survivors to utilize. However, the tile placements around the edges makes up for that. It could have used a couple more pallets, since once those are gone, the map offers little for survivors to utilize.
The map could easily be 10% larger as well.
Forsaken Boneyard - Dead Sands. One of the newer maps added recently. Offers a decent balance between open spaces and loopable tiles, however some tiles are questionable, with the small walls and unsafe windows. Overall though, this map is well thought out, and decently sized.
Ormond - Mt. Ormond Resort. Pretty balanced, with a strong main structure, though outside of the main structure, most loops are low to the ground, with little to no protection against ranged attacks. Other than that, the spacing between tiles is good, and the gameplay flow is decent.
Dvarka Deepwood - Toba Landing. Fairly balanced, and offers good spacing between tiles. Has a decently strong main structure as well. It is on the larger end of size, as far as maps go, so slower killers has some problems with patrolling generators.
Withered Isle - Fallen Refuge. Decently sized. It is a bit inconsistent with tiles, but it offers a good balance of open spaces and pallet loops. Generator spawns tends to be a bit dense in some cases. Bit of a letdown in terms of aestethical choices, as there could have been done a lot more in terms of making it a full-blown Walking Dead map.
Red Forest - Temple of Purgation. Offers decent balance, with a large main structure that offers good looping, but at the same time, it is not too dense with outdoor loops. However, pallet spawns tend to be highly inconsistent, and the potential for dead-zones is fairly high.
Gideon Meat Packing Plant - The Game. The most pallet-dense map, but it is balanced out by the fact that windows are almost non-existent. Has a few problems, where breakable walls would sometimes create dead ends, and the middle part of the upper floor is extremely open.
Silent Hill - Midwich Elementary School. Small in size, but the stacked floor configuration makes up for that. Decent pallet density, and offers a few windows.
The middle courtyard area offers very little of interest though, and is very RNG dependant. It did get a lot better when stuff was added to the open hallways, and it was clearly a step in the right direction.
Withered Isle - Greenville Square. Decent map, although it is on the larger end of the scale. Interesting placement of the main structure, being more off to the side, and it is fairly strong to loop. It is a bit difficult for survivors at times, if the generator spawns favors the middle area around the shack. There definitely needs to be a spawn point for generators in the parking lot area, as this part of the map is severely under-utilized.
Other than that, it has a good amount of loopable tiles, and a generous amount of the double pallet loops.
Slightly balanced, but it needs a lot more TLC.
MacMillan Estate - Suffocation Pit. One of the more problematic maps, where it is essentially split in two parts. This makes it easy for killers to hold a 3-gen. Aside from that, the middle area is densely packed with tall wall loops, that is easily chainable, and offers a lot for the survivors. Other than that, the tile spawns are somewhat inconsistent with two "dead corners".
MacMillan Estate - Shelter Woods. It has improved considerably from its earlier iteration, but it is still quite inconsistent. Some loops are spread too far apart, and others are packed close together. Generator spawns are also very inconsistent. Pallet density is okay though.
Autohaven Wreckers - Azarov's Resting Place. Another one of the "two halves" maps. Like its MacMillan counterpart, it has some issues. Mainly with generator spawns being very inconsistent, where it can sometimes spawn 5 generators on one side. Other than that, it suffers from a couple dead-zones in two of the corners. This design makes it very easy for the killer to lock down and exhaust one side of the map.
Coldwind Farm - Fractured Cowshed. Decently balanced in terms of tiles, but suffers from being a tad too small, where mobility based killers has a very easy time wreaking havoc. Some parts are a bit open though, and could need some fillers. Definitely on the lower end for pallet density.
Crotus Prenn Asylum - Father Campbell's Chapel. Has a strong main structure, where certain killers might struggle. This structure also chains well into certain tiles. It could have used some more space as well, to spread out the tile spawns a little bit. Other than that, it is decent.
Backwater Swamp - Grim Pantry. This map is more a victim of being the last of the original maps, that hasn't really been updated much. It is serviceable, with decent tile spread, but the random edge-spawns is a bit weird at times. The main building is pretty strong for survivors though, but the map is serviceable enough.
Backwater Swamp - The Pale Rose. Similar to Grim Pantry, but with a weaker main structure. Serviceable, but in desperate need of an update.
Forsaken Boneyard - Eyrie of Crows. Has gotten somewhat better after the update, but it is still quite strong for survivors, with easily chainable loops, that wrap around the entire map. It could use a small size increase, that allows for loops to be spread slightly more apart. At least the main structure has gotten a lot weaker, as compared to what it used to be like.
Léry's Memorial Institute - Treatment Theatre. Pretty strong map for survivors, and stealthy killers. Some rooms has very long walls that is impossible to circumvent, and depending on the tile placement, multiple windows can be chained together in a very long loop. Pallet density is fine.
The Decimated Borgo - Shattered Square. Suffers from low pallet density and lots of dead loops. Very cluttered as well, making it hard for certain killers to properly use their powers without bumping into stuff. Size-wise, it is a fine map.
Dvarka Deepwood - Nostromo Wreckage. Pretty balanced in terms of tiles and main structure, but suffers from being way too cluttered, making it hard for certain killers to navigate without bumping into things.
Grave of Glenvale - Dead Dawg Saloon. Decently balanced in terms of tiles, but it has a strong main structure, a lot of dead zones, and very unfavorable generator spawns. Very inconsistent.
Red Forest - Mother's Dwelling. Has a decent main structure, along with a decent second structure, but suffers from bad pallet density and a lot of dead zones in the outskirts.
At least it was made easier for slower killers to traverse, thanks to the reduction in size.
Yamaoka Estate - Family Residence. Decently sized, but suffers from low pallet density and lots of dead-zones, especially around the middle. The main structure is also riddled with breakable walls, that can create really bad dead ends. Needs an extra tile with pallets at least.
Yamaoka Estate - Sanctum of Wrath. Another one of the "two parts" maps, where the middle is occupied by the main structure. This map does not suffer as much from inconsistent generator spawns, but the problem with 3-genning is still there. The main structure offers little for survivors to fully utilize, and also serves as an easy lookout spot for the killer in the end-game.
At least it does not suffer from low pallet density, as there are some decent tiles on either side.
Hawkins National Laboratory - Underground Complex. Suffers from the same kind of issues that Léry's has, minus the windows, and more pallets. Generator spawns can be wildly inconsistent, from easy to hold 3-gens, to evenly spread out. Inconsistent gameplay loop, that is for sure.
Aesthetically though, the map is true to the source material, and very well recreated.
Raccoon City - RPD West Wing. Suffers more from the typical "indoor map syndrome" where it can be very strong for survivors, and stealthy killers. Can be pretty inconsistent in terms of generator spawns as well, where sometimes the westernmost hallways and rooms will not spawn a single generator.
This wing is also on the larger end, making it difficult for certain killers to patrol properly.
Very unbalanced (Killer-biased).
Coldwind Farm - Rancid Abbattoir. This map used to be pretty survivor-biased at some point in time, but now it is absolutely horrible for the survivor side, with the least amount of pallets available on any map, huge dead-zones, and filler tiles. Loops are almost non-existent, with the exception of the main structure, the shack and the "cow tree". It desperately needs more loopable tiles to be a decent map again.
Coldwind Farm - Rotten Fields. Need I say more? Map is a huge dead-zone with little to no loopable tiles. The reduction in corn density also didn't help the survivor side. It is a tiny, wide open map, where killers can run rampant.
Haddonfield - Lampkin Lane. This used to be the de-facto Survivor map in the game, but a few updates later, and it flipped completely to become one of the the most killer-sided maps, thanks to the massive size reduction, the huge dead-zones around the Myers house, the useless edge-tiles, and the wide-open street (or rather, the wide-open highway). Where are the trees and fences?
Not to mention the horrible 3-gen that spawns in and around the Myers house.
The Decimated Borgo - Forgotten Ruins. Has a few decent loops, but that's it. If the killer decides to lock down one part of the map, either the outside, or the dungeon, the survivors does not stand a chance at all to do anything about it. Very bad map layout overall, and it would have been a lot better as a single-level map. Easily the most killer-sided map in the game.
Very unbalanced (Survivor-biased).
Springwood - Badham Preschool. Strong main building, and strong side buildings, chained together with loopable tiles all over. This map is a nightmare to hold for most killers. Generators are fairly consistent too, with a pretty even spread.
Crotus Prenn Asylum - Disturbed Ward. Strong main structure, with a fairly chainable outside. Has a few dead zones though, but good survivors will always last long in a chase on this map. Pallet density is somewhat fair, but a few too many inside the main structure, that could be moved elsewhere.
Withered Isle - Garden of Joy. Arguably the strongest survivor map in the game, thanks to the main structure, and the long chain of loops around the edge. The middle part, and the street is also inconsistent, thanks to clutter, and raised parts of the road surface, where killers can bump into seemingly nothing.
Comments
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Pretty good tier list overall. Though I still feel Haddonfield is in a league of it's own in terms of imbalance
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I preferred the old version, but Tobas got something for everybody.
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I thought so too at first, but then I remembered that I have gotten more good matches there lately, in comparison to Forgotten Ruins. Don't get me wrong, Haddonfield is still bad, but in my opinion, Forgotten Ruins has it beaten.
Absolutely. But this version is not bad either, and I really don't mind getting matches on it.
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Except Hillbilly, who finds it impossible to navigate the piles of random s*** everywhere
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I'll admit, as a non Billy player i consider it one of the positives of Toba haha. those odd Toba shaped loops make some mobility killers struggle which is a plus in my book.
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I think everything about this list is fine, but Fallen Refuge, it's a piss poor excuse of a map. It's a slightly bigger version of Vecna's map. Small, generally weak tiles, and gen spawns are tight. In the few times I have played on this map nobody has ever managed to finish all 5 gens and escape through the gates.
I honestly might argue this is the contender for the most killer sided map. At least on Haddonfield, the pallets on there are sparse, but loopable, and has a chance to get decent window spawns in a house or two. Vecna's map can spawn an okay setup, I was able to loop a Drac for a while on a decent set up I got and only went down because I pathed poorly. The same things cannot be said for TWD map.
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This is a very respectable tier list. There's a few maps I would shift up or down a tier, but for the most part I agree with your sentiments.
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I've had some decent matches on Fallen Refuge as survivor. It's pretty densely packed with pallets and loopable tiles. The generator spawns are my biggest gripe with it though, as they can spawn really close together near the "TWD tile".
Thanks for the feedback :) Which maps would you shift around?
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Solid...
I feel Haddonfield and Badham are the 2 maps I get most upset spawning in on each side respectively.... both are an "Oh #########... here we go again..." sits up deal.
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I always feel bad when playing survivor on Haddonfield, Rancid Abattoir or Forgotten Ruins, or killer on Garden of Joy, Badham or Disturbed Ward.
That's when I know that I'm in for a hard match.1
