I made a post in the announcement thread about the rule changes about a week ago, but after thinking about it for a bit I realised it's probably a better idea to post this in the suggestions forum. I've taken my post from that thread and just reworded parts and added a few details in. Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes, I've never been very good with those.
I really think that the rule that any human in a hiding spot had to keep it 2x2x2 blocks should be reinstated. I feel that the current situation allows for far too many "cheap" spots. As an example, I'll use the map dinnertime. This is a map which I'd say leans towards the pro zombie side, but after looking around for less than a minute, I was able to find a spot where I was able to win a round as the final human for five minutes. It wasn't that the spot was creative, and it wasn't that it was difficult to get to, it was simply because the only way to find the spot was to look directly at it to see my name. A similar thing happened right after that round on the map derailed. Had the 2x2x2 rule still been in effect, I wouldn't have been able to survive those rounds in either of those spots as in order to make them 2x2x2 I would have had to have made them much more obvious. I'm not the only one either.
Over the last week I've noticed quite a few people using spots like this. They're not in an area where you might stumble across them by accident, they're simply in spots where the only way to find them is to find their name while scanning around. This isn't the same as scanning for names underground, that's a situation where you're actively looking for names.
There are plenty of spots availible even when you need to keep your hiding spot 2x2x2. Maps like sunspots and pandoras_box are already very easy to survive. When you add the ability to hide in 1x1x2 holes it unbalances these maps even more.
I also don't quite understand the arguement that the game is better because it makes it easier for less experienced players to survive. Getting better at the game so it gradually gets easier to survive has always been one of the things about this game that I really liked. Making it easier to survive doesn't make the game any better, it just takes out some of the satisfaction of winning a round.
As for the confusion over what defines an open hole, I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that it's never really been properly defined anyway. If that could happen, then I think that this would no longer be a problem. On the subject of confusion, something else I saw in the other thread that I really liked was Maxyz's idea for dealing with some of the confusion over the wording of the rule.
I really think that the rule that any human in a hiding spot had to keep it 2x2x2 blocks should be reinstated. I feel that the current situation allows for far too many "cheap" spots. As an example, I'll use the map dinnertime. This is a map which I'd say leans towards the pro zombie side, but after looking around for less than a minute, I was able to find a spot where I was able to win a round as the final human for five minutes. It wasn't that the spot was creative, and it wasn't that it was difficult to get to, it was simply because the only way to find the spot was to look directly at it to see my name. A similar thing happened right after that round on the map derailed. Had the 2x2x2 rule still been in effect, I wouldn't have been able to survive those rounds in either of those spots as in order to make them 2x2x2 I would have had to have made them much more obvious. I'm not the only one either.
Over the last week I've noticed quite a few people using spots like this. They're not in an area where you might stumble across them by accident, they're simply in spots where the only way to find them is to find their name while scanning around. This isn't the same as scanning for names underground, that's a situation where you're actively looking for names.
There are plenty of spots availible even when you need to keep your hiding spot 2x2x2. Maps like sunspots and pandoras_box are already very easy to survive. When you add the ability to hide in 1x1x2 holes it unbalances these maps even more.
I also don't quite understand the arguement that the game is better because it makes it easier for less experienced players to survive. Getting better at the game so it gradually gets easier to survive has always been one of the things about this game that I really liked. Making it easier to survive doesn't make the game any better, it just takes out some of the satisfaction of winning a round.
As for the confusion over what defines an open hole, I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that it's never really been properly defined anyway. If that could happen, then I think that this would no longer be a problem. On the subject of confusion, something else I saw in the other thread that I really liked was Maxyz's idea for dealing with some of the confusion over the wording of the rule.
I could go on and on, but I'll try and keep it this short. The 2x2x2 needs to come back. It being gone is having a negative impact on gameplay, it's making it easier to survive rounds when it's already relitavely simple for a decent player to survive fairly frequently.I agree with Rane;
What about changing the text "No holes smaller than 2x2x2 are allowed" that seemed so vague, to
"Closed hiding holes have to be at least the size of 2x2x2" ?
I think that would be a simple solution.