Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_rustvalley_rc4_rev_exp_reclamation-1653128028.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Run 2/3

Team Lineup:

• DaMno (Soldier)
  
• Bazooks (Sniper)
  
• watermelon (Medic)
  
• CEO Fortknight (Pyro)
  
• Aegis Impervious (Engineer)
  
• royal (Scout)

• This mission is very ruthless to projectile classes (Soldier, Demoman) and mobile classes (Scout, Spy, Pyro, Knight) and as a result encourages stacking Heavies, Engineers and Snipers. While this mission does have an Expert rating, it shouldn't make playing projectile or mobile classes hell while not doing much about the classes that are infamous for actually steamrolling missions.
  
• If a player is standing on the gate entrance while a gate gets recaptured by red, they get stuck.
  
• Recapturing a gate as blu does not reopen the entrance.

• The 500 health Frontier Justice Engineers can use a bigger scale.
  
• The blu Giant Pyro this wave was constantly airblasting Soldiers, making playing certain classes frustratingly annoying.

• The wave was literally unplayable as the spawn doors do not open.

• The small Deflector Heavies are incorrectly named.

• Tankdozer can fall onto players.
  
• Spies being able to spawn behind players makes babysitting the blu Captain Punch feel like a labor an unfortunate player has to do in order to not lose.

• Adding to the concerns already mentioned in the previous feedback, the boss still has a ludicrously large stun distance that does not match its visual, making it very difficult to tell whether you're still in its stun radius or not.

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_hideout_b3_rev_adv_galois_judge-1653129735.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: Pass

Run 2/3

Team Lineup:

• DaMno (Sniper)
  
• Bazooks (Scout)
  
• watermelon (Medic -> Soldier)
  
• CEO Fortknight (Spy)
  
• Aegis Impervious (Engineer)
  
• royal (Heavy)

• Solid overall. But...

• The bomb bots this wave are very slow and made us wait a good while before deploying. Either make bomb bots this wave faster or let players deploy.
  
• Upon finishing this wave, somebody got kicked out via buffer overflow. This might be a one time thing but we'll keep an eye out for it.

• The Steel Gauntlets with knock-out effect could use its powerup icon above their head.

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_cliffside_b8_rev_adv_scrapyard_slaughter-1653126352.zip

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

Run 3/3

Team Lineup:

• DaMno (Medic)
  
• Bazooks (Heavy)
  
• watermelon (Engineer)
  
• CEO Fortknight (Demoman)
  
• Aegis Impervious (Sniper)
  
• royal (Soldier)

• Solid overall. Not much to say other than maybe consider making teleporters not involuntary.

Originally posted by Space Jockey:

Since it is very hard to predict where players will be at any given moment, is it better to have bots spawn all around the map?

Another solution is to use the tank or the bomb as an anchor.

Originally posted by Space Jockey:

Originally posted by Bazooks:

Wave 7:

• The boss' stun ability can disarm players from a great distance away, and is spontaneous. Something as severe as severe as stuns and are not something the weapon does by default (e.g. you expect shotguns to shoot bullet, and nothing else) should be telegraphed in some way so that players don't get stunned out of nowhere and then feel like "hey that's unfair!". HHH executed this mechanic pretty nicely, if you need a reference.

The mechanics of the boss are based on that of VSH gamemode, and hale naturally has a large stun radius. He does have audio whenever he stuns, so would you like me to have him say it before he stuns players?

Yes.

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_akure_rc1_rev_shifting_gears_judge-1652703314.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Run 1/3

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Scout)
  
• MIKObscura (Heavy)
  
• DaMno (Soldier)
  
• Dylan_Is_Legend (Sniper)
  
• Mudun (Pyro)
  
• royal (Demoman)

• Bot spawns are still all over the place. Frequently we were trying to chip down hatch defenses while the main wave was spawning way behind us. Try to make bot spawns move as players do.
  
• Bomb bots are so much stronger than tanks that it feels like a reward to let the tank die so that you can get their help. Especially when some bomb bots have health equal to the tank.
  
• Bots sometimes randomly teleport in a certain area, please refer to the demo for information. This happened with the Spec Ops Sniper.
  
• Hatch sentries are incredibly strong, especially on later waves. They make the hatch guardian look weak.
  
• Players sometimes spawn in the main spawn despite the checkpoint spawn being enabled.
  
• Giant Medics on the hatch are hard to hit with how they clip inside their patient.
  
• Bots sometimes take a very long time to get out of spawn. Encourage them to walk out of spawn more rather than stay and attack visible targets.

• Steel Gauntlet Pusher weapon is a very annoying knockback weapon. Knockback weapons are generally very unfun to play with especially as Sniper.

• This wave starts with two Giant Shotgun Heavies and a Giant Burst Fire Soldier in quick succession at $1200. Not easy by any means. Probably the hardest part of the entire mission next to the expert-skill Pistol Scouts on Wave 3.

• Infinite swarms of expert-skill Pistol Scouts. I don't think I need to elaborate this one.

• The vaccinator rainbow tank has a massive desync between its actual color and the resistance it is currently on, making it unnecessarily difficult to tell what its current resistance is.

• The bots that give powerups just look incredibly unnatural and unreasonable. Try to give powerups via more conventional methods.
  
• This wave's boss can barely take out the support Blu is given this wave.
  
• The boss' stun ability can disarm players from a great distance away, and is spontaneous. Something as severe as severe as stuns and are not something the weapon does by default (e.g. you expect shotguns to shoot bullet, and nothing else) should be telegraphed in some way so that players don't get stunned out of nowhere and then feel like "hey that's unfair!". HHH executed this mechanic pretty nicely, if you need a reference.

Demo: https://testing.potato.tf/demos/mvm_sequoia_rc4_rev_exp_woodland_pollution_judge-1652700520.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Run 1/3

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Heavy)
  
• MIKObscura (Scout)
  
• Dylan_Is_Legend (Sniper)
  
• Mudun (Demoman)
  
• DaMno (Medic)
  
• royal (Soldier)

• Hatch sentries feel a lot more like an annoyance or "gotcha"s than an actual obstacle.

• The Tank felt like a filler with not much happening and it does not pose a threat on its own.
  
• The boss felt more like a resolution than a climax.

Originally posted by PDA Expert:

any other spawn points that were particularly problematic, i'd presume the one in the main entrance to the hatch would be one of those spots.

That one's fine. The helipad spawn was the most notable one, not sure if the other spawns are as problematic. Maybe we'll get a clearer answer on another judging run.

Demo: https://eu.potato.tf/demos/mvm_hideout_b3_rev_adv_galois_judge-1652424761.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Run 2/3

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Demoman)
  
• washy (Engineer)
  
• watermelon (Medic)
  
• Skin King (Pyro)
  
• s4 (Heavy)
  
• Bonca (Scout -> Spy)

• There was a good amount of times where most of the robots are all behind barriers, unreachable by short ranged classes. Try to encourage bots to walk past the barrier more.
  
• "capped" and "pocket" are informal terms. Try to avoid using these words as they tend to break the immersion a bit since they sound unnatural.
  
• Some red bot spawns are too close to the playing area and sometimes result in bots spawning right next to, or even behind players. Ideally, you should try to at least make it look like bots spawned in the main spawn and not teleporting behind you. You don't have to literally make bots spawn in the main spawn, just make it look like they do. The spawn in the middle of the helipad in particular is the biggest offender in this regard.
  
• Since you can't deploy the bomb without taking out the main wave, maybe let players deploy the bomb so that they don't have to wait for blu bots to come and do the job?

• Maybe consider putting the emphasis on "HEADSHOT" instead of "WILL"?
  
• There was a good amount of time between the last subwave ending and the tank deploying, resulting in us grinding very weak infinite bots while waiting for the tank to arrive. Maybe consider making more subwaves and/or making current subwaves last longer? The focus is the gap time where players are left with very little to do while waiting for the tank, so whatever solves that will do.

Demo: https://eu.potato.tf/demos/mvm_rustvalley_rc4_rev_exp_reclamation-1652422978.zip

Strike, Pass, or No Strike?: No Strike

Run 2/3

Team Lineup:

• Bazooks (Engineer)
  
• washy (Demoman)
  
• Bonca (Scout)
  
• Clarity (Pyro) -> s4 (Medic)
  
• Skin King (Soldier)
  
• watermelon (Sniper)

• "back-cap" is an informal term. Words like these tend to break the immersion when used in an in-game text.

• This wave dropped $1153
  
• The chief's death resulting in powerups being scattered around the map felt redundant; by the time this happens, we were already stomping red spawn and going back to get powerups for a tank and some Giant Demoknights didn't feel worth.

• Powerup phase coooould be shortened, perhaps? It felt a bit too long, but we'd understand giving players time to choose.
  
• The boss' supernova stun can affect you from very far away, and is spontaneous. Something as severe as severe as stuns and are not something the weapon does by default (e.g. you expect shotguns to shoot bullet, and nothing else) should be telegraphed in some way so that players don't get stunned out of nowhere and then feel like "hey that's unfair!". HHH executed this mechanic pretty nicely, if you need a reference.
  
• At the same time though, the boss stuns very rarely to the point where it doesn't really stand out much and just ends up as your usual Crit Rocket Soldier Chief. If the aforementioned problem was dealt with, there could be a lot more room to experiment with the boss!