Map Check-in: Disturbed Ward

I agree completely, friend.

One of the Swamps used to be even bigger than Mother's Dwelling, back in the day.

Yeah it had that angled double tile thingy, with a couple of the docks on it. Several gens would spawn on the map's edges consistently. Now it's kinda rare to see one there.

I know, I have seen pictures of it and have no clue why they made a map that big to begin with...

Disturbed Ward is one of my least favorite maps in the game. A large size with sections that jut out making patrolling as a killer difficult. The main building having strong pallets, windows, and being in a central locations makes sure that any given survivor is never too far from safety.

The maps are fine, both buildings were fixed when breakable walls were added to the game removing the infinites. The only people who complain are newer killers learning the game.

The main building on Disturbed Ward is certainly too strong for survivors (and although there is outplay potential for killers that many players are neglecting or oblivious to, attempts to outplay can be fairly risky because it is easy to lose a survivor in there), but it is a bit of a saving grace because the map spawns few filler pallets, leading to many deadzones with playable tiles being in isolation. I think the gameplay of survivors having to try to outplay the killer at isolated outskirt tiles such that they can make enough distance to not "die at sea and instead make it to the isle of safety that is the main building", as it were, is fairly interesting. And qualities like this that distinguish the gameplay on different maps are arguably just as important as their balancing.

But if some rebalancing is in order, the obvious adjustment is to spawn more fillers and nerf the main. Hell, you could remove the pallets from inside of main completely (perhaps replacing them with unsafe windows instead) and spawn 3 more fillers instead. Or give the map more of a Nostromo layout, with the main occupying one corner, i. e. not being central and therefore not as accessible and chainable.

Something that could help with the "filler" issue both in terms of there just being more stuff to play and some of the weaker filler pallets offering more outplay potential is to spawn some of the edge map window tiles around the map as well. This is something that would benefit various maps. A weak filler pallet chaining into a Z-wall window is still weak, but it's something, it still yields more creative/interactive play potential.

In general I find the map one of the more difficult ones to orientate oneself in, as much of it looks the same, with few identifiable landmarks, and even the main building being difficult to use as orientation at a glance. This however too plays into the map's uniqueness and isn't something I would necessarily want changed, not least because that sense of being a bit lost and confused is rather apt for a map revolving around an insane asylum. Although I suppose it could perhaps be neat to make the moon much larger on this map, serving as a point of orientation while further distinguishing the map visually.

Ward can spawn some problematic 3-gen setups, especially with the gens in and right around main, as well as with those located deep in the two "pockets" of the map. But I suppose this will be less of a map balancing issue in the future, with whatever it is you're cooking up to combat incessant 3-genning.

Some of the collisions not only on main but on various filler tiles can be frustrating, particularly for killer abilities. Could clean those up (even if even this could be argued as part of the unique "insane asylum" experience, ha).

The new version reminds me of unseasoned chicken...needs more umph .-.