As members of the Pond can attest, King\'s Run was a wanted and nice change to the Siege game play and great addition to the community. Scattered within the folds of the terrain lay several defensive bases, five to be exact, that are placed in order with great ski routes to each other. The objective ... steal the crown (flag).
The offense has a single base at the start, which is approximately 250 meters from the offensive team’s primary base. A good offensive player may be able to quickly gear up and stop the flag carrier before he reaches safety. If the \"King\" is not stopped then the destruction of the bases in order is the only way to get to the crown.
The defense has five bases in total, each houses a generator and a flag stand. The defense spawns at the Primary base were the flag resides at the start. The defense ultimately needs to get the flag to the final base where they can drop it and let it reside there until all other generators have gone down. Each generator with the exception of the final is non-repairable. As the offensive team destroys a generator it becomes their new base.
To be honest in terms of balance, it has to be one of the most balance Siege maps in existence. This map relies on player skill to contend on the map instead of the map contending for the players. You will see with inexperienced mappers that they will create the \"defense\" for the defense with base placement and turret placement. Leaving the decisions on what barrels to place on turrets should for the most part be left up to players in game, of course, as like and rule or guideline there is always exceptions. King\'s Run accomplishes balance better then some original Dynamix maps.
Between the flag chasing and sometimes mortar \"spamming\", the playability is unbelievable. There are enough hills in the way that it takes a couple extra seconds to get a view on a target and doesn\'t necessarily allow for major spamming all the time. The final base, where most of the game takes place (usually), is setup perfectly to allow a heavy to guard the flag or let a light run around with it outside (if skilled enough). There is a nice wide open area between some hills right in front of the final base that allows for great duels and for lights to hold of heavies with shocklances.
For those who know me, they know that I am a perfectionist (well for the most part, I do get lazy sometimes.), and that I am most picky about the Attention to Detail aspect of maps. Nothing is more annoying then having interiors not aligned properly or inventory stations hovering off the group or sitting to low into the group, and list just gets longer. As far as I can tell there wasn\'t anything really out of place. Forcefields were aligned properly, generators, inventory stations, etc. King\'s Run detail is excellent.
Throughout the map there are plenty of inventory stations for the defense to gear up with real quick to maintain their defenses, and as the offense captures bases they obtain those inventory stations and bases. However, at the start the offense only has a couple inventory stations, but it works out. There is only really one item placement issue that exists in my opinion, and it really only affects the defense, the large sensor near the final base. It sits on the ridge which allows for offensive players to sneak in from the right flank. All in all though, everything else is placed pretty damn well. Bravo.
The major difference in the mechanics of this map is a flag is used instead of a switch as most maps use. Besides the fast forcefields and the forcefields switching teams when the offense destroys a defensive team base there is nothing specials about the way things work. Just touch the flag to capture, which makes the game interesting because the objective moves.
All in all, this map rocks. In my opinion, it is one of the best Siege maps every created and to this day, at least on the Pond, is played continuously. The map is well suitable for 10 v 10, or even 18 v 18 (might be really difficult to capture with this many people). Download, play, and enjoy!
-Sfphinx