Demo: https://sgp.potato.tf/demos/mvm_doppler_b12_adv_drastic_danger_judge-1677316264.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• colonel (Scout)
  
• Bazooks (Pyro)
  
• Lemonee (Soldier)
  
• totalnoob (Soldier)
  
• Whurr (Demoman)
  
• watermelon (Medic)

• Mission is severely lacking in variety.
  
• Remember that variety doesn't just mean different bot types!
  
• "Variety" here refers to the variety of threats sent by the mission, not necessarily the bots themselves, but how differently red should react to different subwaves/robots
  
• For example, players will treat a subwave with Giant Heavies and Uber Medics very differently from a subwave with a Tank with Giant Black Boxes.
  
• In this mission however, players can just rambo their way through everything since very few subwaves encourage players to think differently - almost all subwaves do low damage and have low hp, and the uniquely functioning bots often don't punish red enough for not respecting their mechanic.
  
• While Samurais, Giant Scouts and the Large Black Boxes do pose a unique threat that forces players to respect them individually, nearly everything else just meld into one big unmemorable harmless robot swarm.
  
• This doesn't necessarily mean the mission is too easy! Valve's 666 is a relatively easy endurance mission too, but each subwave poses a distinct threat from one another. Try looking at it for reference.
  
• Remember: quality over quantity. We always prefer shorter missions where every subwave is relevant instead of longer missions that are bloated with harmless filler subwaves.
  
  
• Please get rid of the debug text.
  
  
• Red bots don't do much and are annoying to play around - most red bots come in to do 300 damage and die immediately after, while making bots more unpredictable since now they can randomly look at red robots (which would suck if you're a class that relies on aggro, like Spy)

• The boss' slow rockets don't accelerate when reflected while slow, look into it and find a solution.

Demo: https://sgp.potato.tf/demos/mvm_rustvalley_rc4_adv_spy_sheriff_juj-1677220168.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• royal (Scout)
  
• Bazooks (Soldier)
  
• washy (Engineer)
  
• Retrowave (Heavy)
  
• watermelon (Demoman)

• Please test your mission publicly before submitting it for judging! If you've been testing privately, try to test with other testers to see different points of view on your mission.
  
  
• When you put two active wavespawns at the same time, where both wavespawns have a maxactive lower than their totalcount, one of the wavespawns is bound to finish up earlier than the other one, leaving the other wavespawn helpless.
  
• An example of this would be wave 1's Giant Buff Demomen and the Soldiers/Flare Pyros that come alongside it.
  
• When red gets pushed up by ^ that subwave, the Soldiers/Flare Pyros will stack up to as many as the maxactive allows it, as they are always faster than the bomb carrier.
  
• Once red regroups and handles the bots that pushed forward properly, there will only be one more Giant Demoman squad to take out, but still 24 more Soldiers/Flare Pyros to deal with.
  
• If that scenario repeats, red is left with 12 leftover Soldiers/Flare Pyros, which are harmless on their own and just feels like they drag the wave on.
  
• The solution here is not to just chop off 12 Soldiers/Flare Pyros! If red never got pushed, the Giant Demomen will finish basically immediately while there are still a lot of Soldiers/Flare Pyros waiting to die to the sentry gun.
  
• If a subwave consists of multiple wavespawns, and there are wavespawn(s) that become helpless once the main wavespawn(s) dies, consider making the said wavespawns support limited. If this subwave is in the middle of the wave, don't make the next subwaves wait for said wavespawns.
  
• This problem occurs many times throughout the mission, this is just one example.
  
  
• The bot firepower doesn't scale too well with the cash red is given throughout the mission - resulting in earlier waves being difficult while later waves become very easy. This doesn't necessarily mean that the problem is that the later waves are too easy, it could also mean that the early waves are too difficult. Wave 5 and 6 sends more or less the same robots as wave 3 in terms of firepower, and red has half as much cash on wave 3 than on wave 5/6.
  
  
• Bots with increased hp should have increased scale, and bots with any sort of attribute change (such as wave 1 Flare Pyros) should have at least some way of indicating that they are different. It doesn't feel fair to die to a bot that you can only know has unique stat changes after you've died to them.

• The majority of the bulk in this wave is surprisingly, from the constant support of minigiant scouts. It's not great to be constantly pressured by an infinite amount of fast moving walls of health. You may want to consider moving them to main wave and giving them a number, or just don't use them in the first place. We're leaning towards the latter as the wave demands a lot of damage output for an $800 starter as is.
  
• See general feedback.

• See general feedback. Except in this case the Conch+Giant Pyro pair are also helpless on their own.

• EXTREMELY DEMANDING for a wave where red has more or less $2k - the Giant Pyros and Bowmen spawn at such rapid intervals they present as much health as tanks AND they can also fight back.
• The Soldiers, Demomen and crit Bonk Scouts being sent at high volumes also make it very hard to damage the giants as close-ranged classes. The Giant Bowmen are already presenting a challenge for the long-ranged classes as well.
  
• And to top it all off Giant Medic pairs are sent back-to-back with normal-skill Scout swarms to support them - the latter Giant Medic pair makes it very difficult to take out the first one, and it's still an absurd amount of damage output demanded on a ~$2k wave.

• The last subwave with the Uber Medics drag on for a very long time. Players tend to get bored after shooting at the same exact bots for a minute, let alone 5.
  
• We did tell you to put support this wave, but constantly active Jarate Snipers are incredibly unpleasant to fight against especially as close-ranged classes. If you get jarated, all those Shotgun Heavy swarms hit for WAY harder, even if you have crit resistance.
  
• ^ made worse by how those jarate snipers do very little against classes like Heavy or Engineer.

• See general feedback. Incredibly tame wave overall where the only thing that poses anything remotely threatening are the quad Giant Scouts at the end.

• See general feedback. Those Samurais take forever to finish up after the giants die.

• The chiefs do a pretty good job at pushing, but this wave is very tame and tedious without them. Try to cut down the amount of bots between each chiefs, or make them stronger instead.

Demo: https://sgp.potato.tf/demos/mvm_nox_b3_int_cold_emerald_judge-1677135289.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• Damno (Engineer)
  
• Bazooks (Demoknight)
  
• watermelon (Demoman)
  
• Quantum Apple (Scout)

• Most of the waves seem to greatly favor Engineer and screw up close-ranged classes like Pyro or Scout.
  
• While some waves do try to be unfavorable to Engineer (e.g. wave 4), the majority of the waves had robots that can't do much against a sentry gun but will mess up other classes hard.
  
• Even though it is Intermediate, missions should try to balance out matchups for each class. Try to make things easier for other classes and less favorable for Engineer.
  
  
• There was a LOT of downtime in the mission where players were only fighting against commons that don't pose a threat at all, waiting for the relevant robots to spawn.
  
• ^ Ideally there should always be something threatening on the field at all times - if robots stacking up is a concern, try experimenting with subwaves with multiple spawn conditions (ask for elaboration!)

• Pretty much a great example of the concern general feedback has; Sun-on-a-stick Scout and Pyro swarms are very unfavorable for other classes but can't do anything against a sentry gun. Flare Pyro swarms and regular Giant Soldiers don't help much with this.

• Like the other issue general feedback pointed out, this wave's commons can't push by themselves but make up the majority of the wave time. This wave NEEDS the giants to do anything. We wouldn't recommend making the commons stronger, but rather significantly cutting down the time between each relevant threats (i.e. in this case, giants.)

• See general feedback. This wave also has way too much break time between each subwaves.

• See general feedback.

Demo: https://sgp.potato.tf/demos/mvm_shiverpeak_rc3_int_perfect_freeze_judge-1677137388.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• Lemonee (Demoman -> Pyro)
  
• Bazooks (Demoknight)
  
• watermelon (Scout)
  
• Quantum Apple (Soldier)

• Most of the waves seem to EXTREMELY favor Engineer and screw up close-ranged classes like Pyro or Scout. Wave 1, 2 and 4 are MAJOR offenders.
  
• While some waves do try to be unfavorable to Engineer (e.g. wave 3), the majority of the waves had robots that can't do much against a sentry gun but will mess up other classes hard.
  
• Even though it is Intermediate, missions should try to balance out matchups for each class. Try to make things easier for other classes and less favorable for Engineer.
  
  
• Subwaves often last way longer than they should - players tend to get bored after shooting at the exact same bots for a minute straight, let alone 3. It's better to make short waves than boring, repetitive long waves.

• This wave literally cannot do anything against an engineer whacking his sentry, while being incredibly unfavorable for other classes (soldier/demo gets screwed over by low cash, pyro/heavy gets screwed over by the high firepower close-ranged bots, etc.) Put more robots that can destroy sentries while making things easier for other classes.
  
• These Giant Bowmen are very brutal against most classes - they have high firepower and high accuracy, finishing off most classes quickly. Them stacking doesn't help. Once again these robots favor classes like Engineer since their firepower isn't high enough to be untankable.
  
• The demomen and revolver spies stall out the wave due to their low maxactive, ESPECIALLY if red gets pushed.
  
• Spies cloak away if the Demoman in their squad was killed. You can use rafmod features to prevent this from happening - nobody likes playing hide and seek with the 1 spy that is stalling out the wave by cloaking in a corner.

• Same issue as wave 1, which was already said on general feedback

• This wave was doing ok at being less favorable for Engineer, but then Scorch Shot pyros make you wish you didn't play close-ranged classes.

• See general feedback. Putting scattergun scouts at a skill higher than easy is bound to decimate close-ranged classes, even if they are mixed alongside easy skill scouts.

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_harz_rc2a_adv_point_of_impact_judge-1677053661.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Demoman -> Engineer)
  
• washy (Soldier)
  
• watermelon (Medic)
  
• territori64 (Engineer -> Heavy)
  
• Lemonee (Pyro)

• A consequence of the map being extremely tight with not many routes to maneuver around (and the existing routes are either unintuitive or very long) is that soldier bots become very strong, even with direct hit, and bots that require players to get behind such as any kind of medicbots also become extremely strong. It really did not help that the mission seems to be unhinged on sending both of those bots.
  
• The map being extremely tight and the only usable high ground being on the front also causes dodging attacks to be incredibly hard, causing classes like pyro and scout to be really bad while choke-holder classes like engineer and heavy become insanely good.
  
• Missions can always be designed around maps, so it's not right to say whether the map is problematic or the mission is. But as of now, it is safe to say that both of them do not work well with each other as is.
  
  
• The tanks deploying the bomb at NOT EVEN ANYWHERE NEAR THE BOMB HATCH is extremely unintuitive and I guarantee you it'll catch the majority of teams by surprise, no matter how hard you try to scream at them "tank deploys bomb here" in other ways.
  
• On top of that it also reinforces the tank slave mentality where one or two players are usually (reluctantly) assigned to fight tank and nothing else, and the players who hold bomb cannot contribute to the tank busting due to how much distance is between the bomb and the tank. With how there are no bots near the routes the tank takes, this role is extremely boring and unfun to perform. Even if other maps/missions do this it is not a good excuse to make this ten times worse.

• Direct Hits are incredibly hard to dodge on a map this tight, on top of the map forcing you to engage them in close range and the high ground being very uncomfortable for most classes to use outside of sticky demo and soldier. Giving them crits practically forces red to have medic or camp choke or die.
  
• This wave has an incredibly ludicrous damage demand for $900 - FoS support, giant medics, giant pyros that also have improved airblast because soldiers and demos aren't useless enough apparently, 20k tanks, a map shorter than decoy and backups. This wave screams engineer/medic or die in many different ways.
  
• Crit Demoknights don't make things any more favorable for the classes that are already oppressed by EVERYTHING aforementioned here, even considering they have -50% melee range.

• See general feedback, this wave exacerbates on those issues

• This Giant Soldier straight up one-shots everyone it meets because it shoots 4 rockets at once, effectively giving it quadruple damage. Not even a maxed wrangled sentry lives 3 seconds against it.
  
• See general feedback again

• Please DO NOT disguise stock rocket launchers as rocket jumpers. Anyone that has read rocket jumper stats will think these bots do no damage.

• Crit immune tanks aren't exactly very interesting to fight against - it's not fun to be faced with a threat that says "refund or die lmao". All it does is encourage players to refund off anything that relies on crits as its main source of output.
  
• These tanks also have RIDICULOUS dps demand - 50k health total and these tanks are "weaker than usual"?! Keep in mind that even a 45k normal tank on Decoy is extremely strong even for expert standards at even more cash.

Demo: https://sgp.potato.tf/demos/mvm_quetzal_rc5_adv_metal_scorn_juj-1677049967.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Team Lineup:

• royal (Scout)
  
• Bazooks (Soldier)
  
• watermelon (Medic)
  
• ihaz (Heavy)
  
• washy (Demoman)

• We did not like the amount of time between each core and how there is only one core at a time. This results in teammates fighting each other just to see who gets the core.
  
• The spammy nature of the mission exacerbated on this ^ and made it so that Scouts have a very easy time picking up the core while other classes like Soldier or Demoman have a very difficult time reaching it without team support (which they probably won't have if your teammates really intend to grab the core for themselves).
  
• On top of all that, bots try to pick up the core again after it has been dropped, causing them to pile up on the core attempting to pick it up. Not only do they make the issue above even worse, they also don't contribute to the horde trying to get the bomb to hatch while they are busy idling on the core.
  
• There are many solutions to this issue, but one we're thinking of right now is to simply give more cores to players. Of course, you're free to think about a way to tackle this yourself.
  
  
• There is a lot of variance as to the overall power of the robots you get from cores - take Scout's list of possible giant core transformations for example, FaN Scout has, best case scenario if you chain crit on kill, HALF as much output as Shortstop Scout, all while not even taking into account how Shortstop Scout applies 8s milk on hit and has 400 extra health.
  
• Try to balance out the output of each possible transformations, and try not to have a crippling transformation that makes the player wish they hadn't picked up the core. It really sucks to transform into a Cleaver Scout when you're trying to take out a sentry.
  
• This sheet may help calculating the output of a custom weapon: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kDvAtOpNiXJG53lQO9VYddxLkVsdqCj3yOgVBmxT1hA/edit#gid=0
  
  
• Disable the debug text, we kept seeing "dies" in chat.
  
• If the player transforms back to human while a robot is next to them, the robot gets the core, allowing the player to kill that robot and pick up the core again.
  
• Heavy transformations still felt way stronger than other classes. Even with the overclock mechanic in Giant Heater Heavies just do TWICE as much as the best transformation for other classes, on top of having a lot more hp and being better at close range.
  
  
• A lot of the waves felt overtuned/spammy and it does feel like it's made that way to compensate for the power that the cores give - if this is the case, we do think it's better to pre-define every single core-carrying bots than leave them to the hands of fate and have it effectively random. e.g. during the wave 5 chiefs, send a lot of core-carrying bots.

• This is where the mission starts getting very spammy. The volume of deadly bots being sent out is enough to weed out pyros without much support and make it suicidal to dive for the core as most classes if you aren't being helped by Medic.
  
• The crit Giant Shotgun Soldier is *very* tough to fight against if you're not Medic/Engineer. Due to how much support is being sent out with him, circle strafing becomes not viable and his expert-skill aim makes his shots extremely difficult to dodge at a distance. Sure, players can just buy crit resistance but it really isn't fun to halve your damage output just because one bot demands it.
  
• ^ on the other hand, this giant is as helpless as a baby if it decides to look at a sentry gun.

• The last subwave with the Giant Rapid Fire Buff Soldier, Giant Medic, Giant Heavy, and Backup Soldier swarms is overtuned overall. There's not a single culprit to this, there's just too much going on at once.

• Relatively tame wave that pales in comparison to the previous wave, especially if you didn't get pushed by the boss.
  
• The spies' icon count didn't go down on the wavebar upon killing them.

• This wave has a lot of health in general and the bots also have very strong firepower (especially those bisons!)
  
• While this might be fine considering the cash amount, the chiefs that come at the end of the wave definitely isn't
  
• Due to the aforementioned dps and resistance demand it's normal for red to get pushed back hard by the wave, and not uncommon for the tank to break the barricade too.
  
• The chiefs are just unacceptable to fight against if red got pushed by the earlier subwaves. You get 40k worth of health moving at the speed of conch-boosted giants while being assisted by crit Backup Soldiers 20 meters away from hatch. We had a stock uber Medic and a Rspec Soldier dumping ammo canteens while a maxed out Heavy fights at point blank and it STILL WASN'T ENOUGH.
  
• Knowing how difficult it is to fight the chiefs this wave if red got pushed back, you could either make the earlier subwaves significantly easier so that red is unlikely to get pushed back, or put the chiefs first and the other subwaves later, since the other subs are definitely easier to hold at hatch.
  
  
• ...the samurai chief gets one shotted by half-zatoichi. If this was intentional, please don't make such a polarizing boss.

• The boss materializing out of thin air is just jarring to see. He can also spawn on top of red players which will cause many problems.
  
• The bomb carriers being extremely quick forces red to dedicate player(s) to babysitting the bomb 24/7, lest a bombslinger slips past and causes a swift defeat.
  
• Babysitting the bomb isn't a particularly fun role to do, and even more in here as most classes can't do that and fight the boss at the same time (essentially, you're forbidden from playing the actual wave while you fight bombslingers which are pretty bad at fighting back).
  
  
• This boss is basically untouchable if you are a close ranged class. On top of having intense support streams assisting him, he outputs a ton of damage and there is no way you are dodging his airborne projectiles at close range. You're basically forced to stay away 50 meters from him at all times and if you're a class like Pyro or Heavy that means you're SoL.
  
• Making the above issue even worse is that this boss does nothing if you do stay far away from him and just snipe at a safe distance. Sniper can quite literally unbind his movement keys and do 100k damage on the boss while the rest of his team suffers and are forced to guard the bomb from the supports.
  
• While close ranged classes are riskier by nature, everybody wants to participate in the boss fight and not be relegated to bomb duty. Try to give the boss a way to deal with players at long range (or just not make him stand still in the middle of the map) and make it more favorable for close ranged classes.
  
  
• We're really not sure what the boss changing phases do. It's pretty vague what each phase does.
  
• The boss also takes basically forever to change phases, it's not fun to stare at an ubered robot for 5 seconds.
  
• Once the boss gets to middle area he basically doesn't contribute to the bomb horde and felt more like a chore than an actual threat. He just stands there and holds ground instead of making it more difficult for red to guard the bomb.

-Removed 50000 health from boss alongside its last phase.
-Reduced boss special move fire dmg to 75% of original
-Added $400 to w2 payout
-Changed w3 small deflectors to tomislavs

• Extended time between the last two subwaves on wave 3.

b6b
-Fixed a spawnpoint being invalid
-Cheapened particles

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_skeleclipse_b6_int_crescent_calamity_judge-1663729724.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: Pass with changes

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Demoman)
  
• owo Inky (Engineer)
  
• watermelon (Soldier)
  
• Skin King (Scout)

• Move the commons on the last subwave to support limited.