What are your thoughts on it?

Viaduct is great fun. A close tucked in map but I like it's hour glass shape. Tight at the middle then widening out. Some nice strats and would love to see what a 6v6 match looks like on it. Games I played last night were a lil crowded.

koth_Sawdust is also pretty dope. Nucleus is a bit more deathmatch-y, but also a good map.

Think this will increase the level of skill on public servers? Or will these just turn into cluster-f*** DM?

Pubs will never get better.

Pubs will never get better.

You're probably right. Though the one time I played KoTH I found I had more room to do whatever I wanted. It was mindless fun.

To OP; the only map I played was Nucleus and it really was like a deathmatch like you said.


Think this will increase the level of skill on public servers?

From my brief time playing KoTH, definitely no. Skill only really comes from experience, whether it be TF2, CS, Quakelive, or any other multiplayer online game. At least that's what I think. I would be shocked to hear of a person who has never played a muliplayer online game, just log in and be very good (even decent) within the first few weeks of playing.

/rant

In my opinion, KOTH creates a single point of focus that adds more deathmatch factor. It isn't near as bad as PL, because PL requires guaranteed continuous focus, while in KOTH the point can potentially sit there unattended for minutes if one team is on fire. Still, if it's a well balanced match, KOTH is basically a continuous focus on a single area, and even worse it's a static battleground as opposed to a moving one with PL.

For Viaduct, I doubt this will improve pub skill level because the map's tilt encourages spam and engineer races. For 6v6 this may be a needed adrenalin boost, and the height differences and opposing design is quite good. I just don't know if the sustained focus factor will be palatable to the competitive mindset over the long term.

I have been so busy working on a summer course that I havent been able to try out KOTH yet, when I actually have a second to lauch tf2 come next week I cant wait to give it a shot

I don't think KotH will work that great in a 6v6 setting. For Viaduct, it will eventually turn into a yard camp fest. Once one team caps the point, the demo takes one door and the combo and scouts handle the other two. It just doesn't seem like it will prove to be a lasting excitement. Whatever team wins the original mid fight will have exponentially increasing odds of winning the entire round.

Nucleus seems far too large and open for competitive play. The team with the best sniper will win this map every time. Sawmill looks like the most promising map out of the three KotH maps that have been released. Plenty of flanking routes with a good amount of vertical battles.

The time I spent on the koth maps was entertaining. It feels like arena and CPs blended into one. How it'd work out in comp I have no idea. It's great pub fun though. Id be willing to pug a few 6s on it to see how it plays out.

I think that if there is a division for KotH in comp TF2 it would change a bit of how the game is played. No pushing and defending at the same time like on 5CP's but only one or the other. I can already come up with many strategies to play this. I hope there will be a few pug groups dedicated to KotH.

I can't seem to get to a point where I enjoy it.

My first impression is that the team who wins is the team who spams the best. It's a nice reprieve from the norm, but only in small doses.

For pub play it's tons of mindless fun but I don't know if this would work for competitive play....doesn't seem dynamic enough.

ETF2L has a KotH tournament (http://etf2l.org/about/rules/#33) going on right now with rules similar to those used for arena. (4v4, medic and engie banned, class limits at 1.) I'm interested to see how this turns out, it might be an interesting side-show to the standard format.

That being said, I'm not a huge fan of KotH in general. Teams don't actually need to occupy the point for the timer to count down, they just need to have possession of it. (Contested control points still count down as well.) What this means is that it's usually a contest to spawncamp the other team while they wait the timer out. Of course, removing medic (and engineer) does mitigate this issue somewhat, so the game is at least playable.

One of the things about the 4v4 format that has me curious is what the standard lineup will be. Demoman, soldier, and scout are all obvious, but the fourth could go to either heavy or sniper. It will probably vary heavily based on the map (garbage day seems really conducive to sniper play), but I'm thinking that heavy might become more popular due to the fact that scouts are incredibly powerful in this format and the heavy doesn't get wrecked as easily as the sniper does against scouts. He also has the only source of healing in the game via his sandvich, which he can also offer to his teammates in a pinch.