Your field preferences

[Hinalyte]

Fields/Boards/Maps

Let's talk about your favorite field, your least favorite field, fields that you disable on the random filter option, and such!

Currently there are 24 fields:
Practice Field - used to be my preferred map, I still like it due to its simple layout (aside from not being symmetrical lol)
Space Wanderer - not a fan. Only good when Random Warp is removed, and then you can rig the game by using a Lonely Chariot to circle around your home.
Pudding Chase - my preferred map if I want to do challenges faster lol.
Christmas Miracle - avoidable encounter panels.
Planet Earth - contains a lot of draw and bonus panels, it's good.
Lagoon Flight - split map. I think most people don't like it, myself included.
Warfare - too much drop panels in the inner circle, with all the bonus panels being in the outer circle.
Highway Heist - contains a lot of bonus and draw panels. My only problem is that there's a high chance of landing on the encounter panel when the boss is around.
Sealed Archive - huge, idk how balanced that is. I sort of like it.
Sunset - same as Lagoon Flight; a split map.
Tomomo's Abyss - lots of encounter panels, so it probably favors characters who love beating up the npcs. I personally have it off in my random filter option because it's laggy for me, lol.
White Winter - one of the maps that most people don't like? Probably because of how isolated the home panels are.
Night Flight - the one with the cursed warp placement, which can get you stuck for a good amount of turns. Not a fan.
Clover - it's good due to multiple x2 draw panels, but it's just as bad due to x2 drop panels, which are placed right before the home panels.
Farm - our favorite map for anything that requires rigging.
Star Circuit - I don't like this one. Distracting background, and most of the time I played on it I get no cards, or get little amount of stars.
Training Program - avoidable encounter panels, although doing so makes traveling around a bit longer.
Vortex - it feels like a compressed Tomomo's Abyss, with wacky directions that makes traveling a bit confusing?
Sweet Heaven -
Starship - it's an interesting map, but the possible forced x2 drop panels kinda kills it.
Frost Cave - I like this one. It looks balanced. The ice panels on the outer circle makes traveling around easier.
Shipyard - no opinion on this one yet. Haven't tried it out that much.
Treasure Island - this one looks balanced, but I haven't played enough games on it.
Treasure Island (Night) - a semi-split map, although you're guaranteed to be on any side due to forced warps.

I don't look deep into these, like which field favors what character... maybe someone else does. I'd like to know what you guys think!

[Iridium]

space wanderer is not only the only map where random warp is good, but it's only good with random warp

my least favorite maps are warfare, christmas miracle, highway heist, sunset, and treasure island
to a lesser extent i also don't care much for lagoon flight, star circuit, night flight, and white winter but i'm fine with them every now and then

i have a love-hate relationship with starship in that i know it's terrible but sometimes i just want everything to return to dust

[UnLuckyCat]

Originally posted by Iridium:

space wanderer is not only the only map where random warp is good, but it's only good with random warp

This. It's why I keep the first event slot as Default so that Space Wanderer isn't terrible, among other things.

Other than split maps, including Treasure Island (♥♥♥, my least favorite are Warfare and Highway Heist. Starship is thoroughly stupid, but sometimes funny stuff happens there. White Winter is better in a sense, but it's now proportionally got way more encounter panels, so it's basically alternate Tomomo's Abyss with unavoidable warps.

Why do I hate Warfare? Both the inner and outer paths are bad ideas for different reasons. Bully types can own the middle without much trouble, but anyone else has to get stuck outside for seemingly forever.

Highway is really biased towards certain home panel locations, and is the worst with Random Warp. Ok, split maps are worse with that, but HH is still pretty bad. Most maps at least put you close to somebody's home, but there's huge strings of nothing here that you can easily go for half the match without ever crossing over a home of any sort.

[Solidus]

Before I give my opinion, I gotta say that, unlike many players, I don't have a problem with asymmetrical boards, as long as the gimmick is fun. With that being said:

Practice Field: The perfect map to learn to hate the choice between Boss or Drop Panel. Not much else to say about it.
Space Wanderer: Idem as Iridium, not much to add.
Pudding Chase: I like it, games can go fast here, or so long depending on the events.
Christmas Miracle: Battle Panels are optional, unless you decide to warp for some reason. One of my favorite maps.
Planet Earth: I.HATE.THIS.MAP. ...but it's a personal thing, since for some reason my worse games are always in this map.
Lagoon Flight: Can be quick, or extremely long depending on your luck. I have it unchecked from my random pool since the challenges are a thing.
Warfare: An unpopular map that I actually like, except when I warp to those corners that makes me take long to reach home.
Highway Heist: One of my favorite maps. It's long, but the outside part is not so painful.
Sealed Archive: My favorite map for no particular reason.
Sunset: My best games as Saki have been always here, but again, since the implementation of challenges, I have this board unchecked.
Tomomo's Abyss: Reach level 5 with Mixed Poppo, play President's Privilege and then Lonely Chariot.
White Winter: Now that there are Ice Panels and Freeze, it's actually playable. Still, I'll never forget that game... *Vietnam flashbacks with the final of a tournament that you can watch at Ryuukarot's Youtube Channel*
Night Flight: We are trapped in an infinite loop, no matter what you do, the result will be the same, right? That's because you're facing it the wrong way. I'll be perfectly clear, that mortal loop can be avoided. I spent two years developing a technique to break that loop, and that's why you're seeing this, because of our shared desire to skip that loop and reach Home;Gate. You know why I called it Home;Gate... it means nothing... right? I'll explain now the parameters of the final mission, operation Skuld. Use the Dash card to get out of there, and reach Home;Gate. Good luck. El... Psy... Kongroo Ahem, other than the mortal loop, is always fun to combo Specs on those Move panels.
Clover: I swear those x2 Drop Panels are magnetic or something >->
Farm: This map lost its charm *badum tss*.
Star Circuit: Cool map, not particular good or bad feelings about it.
Training Program: The coolest background so far imo. The map itself is fun since they changed the Drop Panels for Blank Panels, wich was soon after release.
Vortex: Loved the background because I played Sora not long before the Breaker Pack was released. The map itself is nice.
Sweet Heaven: It gave me diabetes.
Starship: My second favorite map, and my only complain is about those x2 Drop Panels at the center of the board, so by extension, I hate being on the second or third home.
Frost Cave: Another board that gives me headaches because of my bad luck. So like Planet Earth, for my own personal experience, I dislike this board.
Shipyard: ...
Treasure Island: As Broken Matt Hardy would say... DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!
Treasure Island (Night): Way more fun that the day version, by far.

[Kitty]

I was going to post something along the lines of this but glad someone saved me the trouble. I find most boards tolerable as long as they: 1. Don't give blatant advantages to certain characters (Warfare, Tomomo's Abyss) 2. Make it impossible to catch anyone (White Winter, Shipyard) or, in the same vein, are split-screen stages (Lagoon Flight, Sunset, Treasure Island (Night)) 3. Have some annoying gimmick that drains you just playing on them (Night Flight, Farm). Any map mentioned above is permanently blacklisted in my lobbies.

Maps I dislike for miscellaneous reasons include Clover and Planet Earth for their forced boss tiles and just generally bad tile setup, and Star Circuit for its blindingly bright background. I don't disable these maps though, because they effect everyone similarly. Highway Heist I consider an exception, in that home position can make or break the match for 0/-1 defenders, and I do end up disabling most of the time. Sealed Archive, while a map comparable in scale to White Winter, is well-structured enough not to earn my ire, and I will only disable if it's getting drawn a lot consecutively.

So I guess that narrows down my list mostly to small/medium stages where battling players or effective hyper use is what earns you the win, rather than mindless star or win farming outside of any interaction between players, the former being far more engaging and satisfying to me personally regardless of match length or ultimate position. At the end of the day, I think most lobby hosts use the random filter as a reflection of their preferred playstyle, which they are perfectly entitled to do.

[Iridium]

i actually kinda like treasure island night
on paper "dude what if we combined lagoon flight and starship" sounds like a recipe for disaster but
it just works

i mean it's not like my favorite map in the game or anything but i'd choose it ten times out of ten over the day version

[Kitty]

Originally posted by Iridium:

i actually kinda like treasure island night
on paper "dude what if we combined lagoon flight and starship" sounds like a recipe for disaster but
it just works

i mean it's not like my favorite map in the game or anything but i'd choose it ten times out of ten over the day version

I suppose I see too many players abusing the warp-moves to gain a fleeting sense of isolation and secure their own star reserves, however measly, rather than pursue leaders that are already several normas above them.

Although I have found that playing Castle on the map can flip that idea on its head and bait players into making very poor decisions, in the long term. He still has trouble winning afterward, of course, but what else is new there?

[UnLuckyCat]

Originally posted by Iridium:

i actually kinda like treasure island night
on paper "dude what if we combined lagoon flight and starship" sounds like a recipe for disaster but
it just works

i mean it's not like my favorite map in the game or anything but i'd choose it ten times out of ten over the day version

They really should not be Warp Moves, it breaks the map pretty hard. Do Solidus's strat from Tomomo's Abyss here and you're nearly unstoppable.

[★カオス (Chaos)]

The night version of Treasure Island is complete garbage to be honest. The day one is kind of bad too as it's just an alternate Warfare. Clover has the x2 drop but at least that board makes sense. Treasure Island Night is pretty much what an amateur artist would make while under the influence.

[Illius]

Practice Field I definitely enjoy because of the simplicity of the map (which means games tend to go buy pretty fast)

I also really enjoy Clover just because of how hectic games can get due to the small size combined with Roll Again and Warps.

Starship earns a bit of credit here because RNG can't really screw you from your home, just delay you.

Training Program just because how fun it is to take a gamble and the fact those x2 Bonus spaces are so tempting despite the fact your odds of ever getting them are almost non-existant.

Also with the change on Farm from having the stupid warp spaces any time you wanted to go to a Home Space

[Yoshister]

I'm indifferent to most maps, but there's some I do really dislike.

Planet Earth - The shortcuts in each corner are warps, and I swear half the time I'm stuck picking between the warp panel and the draw panel. Having to pass through a ton of bonus and draw panels just to get to the next home because of that is really annoying.

Clover - I despise the x2 drops right before each home. They slow down the game early on and losing up 60 stars (If you're norma 5) from a single drop panel just isn't very fun.

Farm (Before the panel change) - The amount of times you'll have to skip going to your home because of warp panels was ungodly.

Literally any split map - I hate all the split maps in this game, mostly because home are often on both islands, and since which island you go to is dependent on warp panels, it's very easy to be really behind on norma just because you're stuck on the wrong island.

[Team Orchid]

If you ask me, split maps are somewhat bad but there's nothing worse than maps that force you to take a path with a warp in the way to get your norma. It takes so damn long to get norma that I sometimes throw a game just for the thing to end.

[tulicloure]

Just the other day I played a Highway Heist that had Random Warp and Backtrack for field events. I think I ended the game at Norma 2.

Not much later, something similar happened with Warfare, but this time it was another played suffering. :P

[Kitty]

It's been so long since I've touched Farm that I didn't even notice it got revamped; looks slightly more bearable now. Maybe CPUs will finally be able to play the map with any degree of intelligence. To be fair, I'll add it back into random selection.

Still, I don't entirely approve of recent new maps overuse of warp-move tiles. If Sweet Heaven has taught us anything, sometimes less is more.

Now here's hoping they'll do a similar revamp for Night Flight: Even adding a single other warp space would make it infinitely more playable. Perhaps in place of the existing drop tile in the bottom middle.

[[FAUCᴇT] Psychopath]

There are some criteria I have that -- if any are met -- puts the field into my lesser-liked playfields.

• Home tiles within 6 of each other.
  
• Home tiles exactly 5 or 6 spaces from each other or a consistent starting point (ie an exit warp)
  
• Roll/Move chains that are exactly 5 or 6 spaces away
  
• Split map
  
• Encounter tiles being too easy to avoid wholesale
  
• Entire wings of the map are useless or even bad to traverse down.
  
• Asymmetry that doesn't take rotation into account.
  
• Dead end Warp/Moves (but only when Miracle and/or Sprint are active)
  
• Battlefield

Each and every field in the game fails this test except for Star Circuit, Clover, and White Winter. I'm really strict in that regard, but I still enjoy a good game when some of the less-intrusive criteria are present but not obnoxiously in your face.

[UnLuckyCat]

Originally posted by Voidsword:

It's been so long since I've touched Farm that I didn't even notice it got revamped; looks slightly more bearable now. Maybe CPUs will finally be able to play the map with any degree of intelligence. To be fair, I'll add it back into random selection.

I actually don't really like the Farm change, though it probably is better than before. Instead of denying everyone trying to go home, it now highly discourages anyone from ever diverging from the shortest route back to their own home. Before, if you warp away from home, you could be right in front of someone else's, which isn't that bad, or you're half the map away from home, which does suck, or you're the furthest possible distance from home, which is the worst. Or if you warp when it's not your home loop, you can either be slightly closer, which changes nothing, right next to home, a good thing, or slightly further back, which isn't too bad.

Now, though? If you warp while going home, you're 100% guaranteed to be the furthest possible distance from home, so it always sucks. Or if you warp while leaving home, you're halfway across the map, which is closer back to your own home, but you lose the opportunity to pass over the other players' homes.

I dunno, it's not enough to make he hate it, but the warps aren't really any good still, they're just... less.

Now here's hoping they'll do a similar revamp for Night Flight: Even adding a single other warp space would make it infinitely more playable. Perhaps in place of the existing drop tile in the bottom middle.

Wouldn't that be even worse? Instead of getting stuck in a loop at the top, you're now stuck in a loop of the wrong half of the stage. You're still no closer to your home. Meanwhile the others get to loop their own home repeatedly. It'd almost be like a split map.