We've got hot new features in the pipeline, such as a colored map view, new loading screens, an updated camera manager, and improvements to our Join-In-Progress feature. They’re so hot that they needed an extra week of development time to ensure last weekend’s Alpha was playable. While these features continue to undergo development, we decided to use Alpha-12 as a chance to check out how old maps stood the test of time.

Every Alpha Weekend we've included a brand new set of maps, recorded their wins and losses, and then archived them for reference. This week we brought back 14 levels that had relatively balanced win/loss ratios and threw them at our testers to see how these maps held up against the many changes we've made. Weapon damage has been tweaked, barbwire made destructible, and jump heights have been adjusted, all of which could take a once balanced level and turn it on its head.

With these old levels coming out of the archives, map knowledge reared its ugly head as older testers began using their tried-and-true tactics that had won over in the past. With foreknowledge of levels, veteran testers shared their expertise and the optimal strategies quickly emerged.