sketchyhere

Based off this tweet:

Extra:

Spot the difference between shuriken and greenlink

Katana's Relationships:

Scytana:

I'm gonna be so for real with yall, I love scytana. It is one of my favourite non-playgrounder ships because oh, the lore, the dynamic, and the horrors! Also, I ship this in a butch lesbian way with both of them being the butches; no hetero bullshit here! I don't think they'd ever work out though but that's the appeal!

I love the idea that both of them found solace in each other—and the church I guess—after the scorch, sharing their youths, and just the dynamic of budding love. It is sweetness in the middle of their godawful lives, a sugar that hasn't been marred entirely by life's responsibility.

I like to think that Scythe taught Katana how to braid hair, and in some bitter way whenever Katana braids her own hair she thinks of her—of these moments they shared.

Anyway, I HC that they're just in a situationship, Scythe was Katana's first love but she was too scared to confess despite everyone with eyes knowing it was mutual. Katana left the church and tried to get Scythe to leave with her but she refused, Scythe in turn ratted her out to Father Overseer; irrevocably breaking their relationship. Scythe still loves her, and wants her to come back to Lost Temple, believing that she could amend her traitorous ways. And, well. Katana wants to eradicate them. Doomed yuri!

Hypertana:

We all know the appeal of this ship, drinking buddies, a respite from one's job and the other their impending doom. No happy endings here, doom yaoi only.

Hyperlaser seems to me like the type of person to drop their entire life, to move oceans for the one they love, and I think Katana knows this. He doesn't want them to give up their entire life for them, especially when his mission takes priority. Katana doesn't want to place more burden upon him when this is something he must face himself, this is his strife.

Katana would never let their relationship be official because he knows it won't last long (but they could! saldy, its martyrdom is what makes this so good!). Hands held under bars, whispers in the moonlight, but a departure in the morning.

Subspace's Relationships:

Subkit & Sublaser:

Whenever I ship Subspace with anyone, it will always be one-sided because I hate this motherfucker but also I find them so so interesting.

Subspace reads to me as someone so incredibly lonely that hating Medkit is the same as loving them. Medkit is the only one who knows who Subspace is now and before, and is the only person who has interacted with them without obligations; he's not their boss nor their creator. I think Subspace and Medkit are soulmates in the truest way, not in the romantic sense, but in every universe their fates would be tied together; for better or worse.

For Sublaser, I think Subspace is just lonely, shrug. I think affection would bud in his heart like a parasite towards anyone who interacted with and tolerated him enough. Which, Hyperlaser does (cause that's his boss lol). I'd also like to think that he's kind of possessive. Subspace stalking and just monitoring both Medkit and Hyperlaser to make sure that they don't tell anyone his secrets, or whatever. It's kind of like his version of being affectionate.

Also noted down that he hates Katana cause Katana and Hyperlaser hangs out alot. Kind of like a kid who hates sharing his toys.

Medhammer:

Banhammer who falls in love easily but with avoidant attachment issues of the extreme and Medkit who can't afford to fall in love. Don't have much to say about this one cause it's my self-indulgent ship that makes no fucking sense but I like it!

Preface: I’m a flex player (lvl600+) and opens warrior so I’m not speaking on a scrim/pro experience but rather the average player.

PROS:

Very beautiful map design! The interior are gorgeous, and each level seems to created meticulously!

Lots of good hiding spaces/entry for dive, you can go below, or find a nice pocket underneath the stairs.

Intentional structure placement to hide behind at the bottom level. Especially good for melees.

Good objects for looping (mostly for supports). The structures help block enemies from getting to you.

The open top level is wonderful for phighting, good view and sight view between enemies.

That’s it. Now, onto the—

CONS:

Lots of hiding spots for dive, this map is a dive’s daydream if the team isn’t grouped up/aware.

Range-sided when you bunker the team fight in the open.

Dive-sided when you bunker the team fight inside the HQ

Melee left to rot once again. Map in general sucks to tank at as mobility is very much so needed because of how spacious it.

Decreased sight lines as a result of props, harder to aim at when you’re not at the open areas. If you're phighting in the HQ buildings, this will gut hyperlaser. Not that it's bad though, fuck that guy.

Confusing spawns. Once again, the spacious map layout doesn't really do it any favours. This is not helped by the fact that spawns are not on the same level, I often see players wondering about as they have no idea where to group up. Not really intuitive.

Trampoline. Absolutely needed cause map is big but annoying as shit. Would be better if there were structures that allowed you climb to the second level.

MAIN ISSUE:

As the map is still very new some of these cons/pros will be resolved, gotten rid of, etc. For now though here this is main issue I can see occurring from HQ:

Passive play style: Bunkering down at spawn on old HQ wasn’t a massive issue as brawl (most melees) would teach you why that’s a bad idea fast.

New HQ makes bunkering at spawn viable. The many vantage points to poke out, escape, and such makes it so the enemies play at a disadvantageous position if they attempt to push in. This also makes playing on this map an absolute slog feast. You’re either defending or attacking but either way you're being extremely cautious about your movement.

CONCLUSION:

I dislike the varied spawns and how extremely open but crowded the map is. Anni maps in general are at a weird state where they either suck balls or is mediocre—what can be agreed upon is that conquer is better. Some anni fan favourites is chaos canyon/train demolition and I think what these maps do well is how constrained they are. Or if they're open, the wide sight lines for range (domino valley, sfoth).

What needs to be done is for the spawns to be centered on one level only which helps for clarity/grouping up (bottom, middle, top; whichever). Decreasing the map size (specifically the inside the HQs) to make it easier to play on tanks/melees, or if not that then decrease the amount of props to increase sightlines for range.

As much as I bitch about how many range-sided maps there are, on anni it kind of makes sense? You have to put some incentive for players to push out so you don't get sniped which forces players to play aggressive. There isn't that incentive on reworked HQ promoting a passive playstyle.