Family Name: Garuwashi
Region (NA/EU): EU
Suggestions/Comments: Three out of five new maps are terrible for Arena of Solare. They have a number of issues. It is an overall downgrade from last season as far as maps go that I am convinced we waited extra time for. It is unreal how somebody could think these maps will be fun to play on after playtesting them unless they didn't do that. Three of them should not make it to the global servers and the other two require changes to be good. Did we really had to wait 4 months for this? It would have been better to release AoS with old maps instead.

Shimnidae Forest(bamboo forest)(MAP GOT REMOVED HOPEFULLY PERMANENTLY):

-game performance is terrible on this map, fps tanks and the game stutters on all kinds of settings, it's unplayable.

-player character is getting stuck rubber banded and desynced around the trees if there is a need to chase someone into the forest, it's not fun it's just annoying.

-camera gets stuck on trees even on the lanes that we are supposed to fight on.

-there is no good places to fight since there is not much space that does not have trees and playing between the trees is just impossible due to how camera and movement (dis)functions in this game.
Overall the map is a terrible mistake unfit for the pvp game mode. It has no redeeming qualities. It needs to be removed like Cadry map because it's arguably even worse than that one.

Donghae Office (Lee Duksoo’s residence)(ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST GOOD RIDDANCE):

-again too much clutter that camera and player can get stuck on rubberband and desync around.

-players can climb on the roofs to avoid combat or use range abilities without risk as well as contest red buff in that manner which is really bad, here is a relevant example why it is bad and how it happens timestamp is 2h20m17s https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1879886763?t=2h20m17s

-classes like Lahns or Berserkers with their flying/jumping movement will desync against the buildings for other players only to appear next to them and instantly grab.

-it is too small and closed off for a lot of classes movement, lack of space also heavily favours certain team compositions(shai based teams for example).

-it has too much clutter that camera or player can get stuck on.

-the flame buff is TERRIBLE it has way too much impact on the game. It can be easily abused by range classes on the roofs or classes with high pve damage which almost always guarantees the buff for them. It turns alot of games into a coinflip of who last hits the buff. It's just not fun or competetive at all.
-IT'S A SAFE ZONE SO TAMER CAN'T BE DISMOUNTED FROM HER PET VIA BSR XD honestly how does this even happen... a safe zone in a pvp arena, really?

Overall a bad unfun map that should be removed aswell in it's current state.

Dalbeol Village Maehwa Road(REMOVE THE TREES AND WE ARE GOOD :)):

-vision obstruction is terrible here. Leaves and branches are constantly on the screen.
-it is a plus that it is a relatively open and flat map.

-players can climb rocks on the edges of the map, that is really really bad. It allows to avoid combat completely with no possible outplay.

-heals on the map are bad in general they have too much impact on the game and benefit mobile classes more than others.
It would be a good map if trees were removed.

Dokkebi Cave(REMOVE THE BLUE BUFF ALREADY):

-the blue buff is bad in general it has too much impact on the game. It favours classes with alot of pve damage/alot of hits on abilities/high damage in general that almost always guarantees the buff for them which is really unfun or it's a coinflip who gets the last hit. Both scenarios are unfun, unrewarding and really bad in a competetive pvp game mode. There is no counterplay to dp buff other than avoiding combat for it's entire duration and if you can't because of the mobility difference then it's an auto defeat most of the times. Remove all buffs from aos.

-too much clutter to get stuck on such as rocks, fences, trees and other objects.

-the fact that it is an open map is a plus.

If the blue buff and most of the clutter was removed it would be a decent map.

Gowun Plateau Reed Field:

-terrain level change is not a good thing for a lot of classes. It causes them to miss abilities often or causes falling animation

-the grass is too high and there is too much of it, it is an unnecessary clutter on the screen, it makes it hard to see what is happening to people on the ground.

-the wind buff is the least opressive of them all, but it does favour classes with alot of pve damage that almost always guarantees the buff for them or it is a coinflip on who last hits it which I don't know what that has to do with pvp...
-the huts allow players to hide inside as well as climb on top of them and avoid combat. The game doesn't work well when fighting inside buildings due to camera issues especially since the interiors are really small and dealing damage near the walls seems to distort hitboxes of abilities which causes them to miss damage.

-it is a plus that we have another open map.

It would be a good map if it was more flat and the grass wasn't cluttering the screen.

Overall I would like PA to make custom maps for Arena of Solare instead of copy pasting existing parts of the world so all the aforementioned issues can be avoided. The most important things are:

- maps being properly optimized meaning no stutters no fps drops no falling under the map etc.
-maps being relatively flat so there is no issue with falling animations or abilities hitboxes missing due to terrain level change or that there is no climbing required since a lot of classes do not possess protected vertical movement

-maps not having too many obstacles that would obstruct player or camera movement since it often causes even more desync and rubber banding which is extremely annoying same for vision obstruction while camera gets zoomed in and out because it collides with various objects such as trees, walls, props etc
-maps not having any trees or bushes because those obstruct vision and negatively affect game performance which is also annoying and unfun to deal with

Here is a quote from the official patch notes:
So, new battlefields, Land of the Morning Light, have been added.
Now you can enter and fight in a beautiful sceneries.
I and many other players that enjoy Arena of Solare do not care about beautiful sceneries. Many of us put their game on low or lowest possible settings to prioritize game performance and smooth gameplay. Fun, quality and good performance of the maps should be ALWAYS a priority. We have open world to enjoy beautiful sceneries there. 

Forgot to mention maps going dark at the start of some matches as well as some of them have storm weather effect that also makes the game dark, fix that please it's annoying and doesn't contribute to the game mode in any positive way.

Couldn't be agree more, like I understand the Loml maps but they could ve chosen better places for me it just looked like they been chosen with 0 thought

Sorry PA , but I agree.. 

Ps.: please delete the Donghae Office as soon as possible... after yesterdays solar , which was so frustrating to stuck everywhere,  I think I skip this season too.. :(

100% agree with your post, thank you for putting this togehter. This summarises all my gripes with the new maps really well.

Last seasons we had several maps being removed due to bad performance and unfun playstyles. Please take out the maps that cannot work (Shimidae Forest, Maewha Road, Donghae Office) and try to improve the other 2 maps a bit in terms of flattened terrain / less clutter, and add the old & proven maps to the season. 

Adding something to a PvP setting just for visuals( especially when the best way to PvP already is to turn down visuals as much as possible to avoid screen stutter, lower desync and actually being able to see something due to huge animations / sparkles and visual effects on skills) is not defensible at all. When adding a competitive PvP mode, changes and additions have to be made with the competitive aspect in mind, not a performative / visual one.

Please fix this as soon as possible, these maps are extremely unfun to play, and reduce PvP skill in favour of rng of who gets their camera / character stuck where at which time 

Can you at least removed the carts from the office map thx https://streamable.com/awagqr

Pearl Abyss really struggles with PvP map designs.

They're the same guys who used Valencia as an RBF map.

I gues they either don't have the expertise, or their engine limitations forces them to put every map somewhere on the main map, without the ability to create real independant maps for specific purposes, forcing them to use phasing to serparate players, so they use already created maps and assets.

Maybe it's the 2 at once actually.

Imagine (not that hard to  imagine actually) PA applauding themself for creating those maps and how well we will recieve them.

It's hilarious how poorly optimized the bamboo forest is in all aspects. Both as an AOS map and the bamboo legion boss arena

Preach brotha, there is legit only 2 semi decent maps, the rest is bad. I can't believe I miss the effin cadry map. And I main awak drakania...