New Red Sands

Now that it's been a couple of months since the map was altered, I want to say that I am both happy and unhappy with the changes. I think they went in a good direction overall to unclog the map, but they probably went a little too far as well.

• The transformation of the side lanes that connects them all the way between oases and enemy spawn point has the advantage to make pushing the crystal in the last stretches a little easier on a map where otherwise it takes the longest amount of time getting back to your team when you die up there. This map has always had a bigger defender's advantage then the others and I do not feel strongly against or for that change helping this a little. My problem with this lane however is that it connects both ways and offers an avenue for retreat to one's own oasis on top of adding a potion right in the middle, which I do find a little toxic when you try to catch people using the lane during engagements in the middle. I do not like that anybody can just sprint back to their own oasis with all impunity after gulping the potion on the way back. I liked better that this was a one way only, because I do not think that the oasis should be a constant backup plan for free. Both lanes being connected in a single long way is probably a good change, but the fact that they removed the one way from the oasis to a freeway is bad in my opinion. Bring back the quick moving sands please but leave them connected to the lane.
• I do not like the diagonal lane they have added connecting the side lane with the middle checkpoint. I do not like this at all, because not only it's a highway which boosts speed like crazy, it also introduces a free escape avenue that allows people to just shrug off any bad outcome in the middle (antlion or sabotender), again with all impunity. The absence of this lane forced people to commit and fight and play around the environmental effects happening in the middle, or retreat. It had tactical implications that have just gone with this lane and I find it a bit of a shame. I do understand that this was added for melee jobs that otherwise have to fight in the wide middle open area, but so do they in Palaistra in the middle point as well, so I don't see this as a problem. Melees shouldn't always have it their way.