Like many people said before me, having only 1 main corridor leading into control room, which itself was right next to red door, is the main reason why people prefer the old jail over current one.

In the current version there's 2 main corridors + 1 additional passage leading straight into control room, while both red doors are far off to the sides. While, on paper, giving cops more different angles to approach from makes the fight more strategic and gives cops greater chance to stop the outbreak by exploiting any weaknesses in our defense.

The main reason people even start those massive jailbreaks usually isn't to help someone escape. We don't do that for money either, since the only criminals making money at JBs are the ones selling guns or drugs, while everyone else is spending. The reason we start jailbreaks is the DM that comes with it. The constant back and forth between the 2 sides. If the activity cannot last for long enough (it used to last for hours), people genuinely start to lose interest.

One issue I've noticed, that I think contributes to JBs being shorter is the inability to keep the defenders coordinated and informed. There are 3 different teamchats people use on the defenders side, compared to the cops using radio to communicate. With 25+ defenders (although recently it's been difficult to even reach 15) you can't rely on the party chat due to it's max member limitations.

With the old jail, you don't really have to rely on chats as much because of the map layout. You get 1 main corridor + 1 additional passage, both of which can be used by either side. They both merge into one, long corridor before even reaching the turn towards control room. This simplicity in design allows the defenders to focus on just 1 area. And since control room and red door are right on top of each other, the criminals can easily take it back as long as there are still people outside their cells and at least one to open the door. All those things together make the map more about grindy, linear fights than strategic approaches and angles, which generally makes it easier to sustain a good defense, since nobody needs to overthink their positioning at any given moment. It's simply more relaxing.

Having said that, I don't believe the current jail can be turned into something that plays out better, because the missing element is the simplicity and the linear design of the old jail. This jail is the opposite of that. The general idea of having 2 main lanes on opposite sides + a mid section between them has been known and used in many competitive games for a very long time, ever since it was first introduced in Counter-Strike's Dust 2. It is a great concept for competitive games, and it might be a decent mapping for Lounge-style 5v5 matches (or 3v3, since the map is a bit small for 5v5). But it isn't suitable for anything larger if you want to keep the activity going for hours, because most people attending JBs don't treat it like a competition. It's never been about winning for us criminals, it's about fighting, and keeping the fight going for as long as possible. And with this design, the fight doesn't last long enough and requires too much attention for us to bother doing it.

kikas (@kikas)

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