I was just comparing the results of the raw vote to the Scottish STV, and it looks to me like Mindnao was robbed - it had more raw votes than Montis, but Montis came out ahead after all the rounds of suplus vote distribution.
I'll have to look more closely at why that happened later. Doesn't change anything about the 3 favored maps. Just curious about that result
I chose Montis first because it doesn't have a furball or tank island. There's always fights for all 3 teams normally. It's small. There's great CV action and the front's arent too far away. I find the biggest fights on this map because they are easy to spot around the map and the action is condensed.
Here's some thoughts.
Bowl MA was pretty decent. I actually had it 6th on my list. I think it being new, and having battle ships made a lot of people like it. It does have decent fights, but I still think it's overall just too big. You are correct about the new maps, but at the same time, buzzsaw is just so bad that no one likes it. The fights are still slow in the off hours and there's no real condensed action area for players to find fights once the #s die down. A lot of times I just saw a few planes here or there spread out around the map.
Ndisles was my second choice. Overall its very small. There's great fights on many islands. Fun CV action, I'm not a big fan of furball islands, but it's alright here. There's a lot of good aspects to the map that make some good fighter action in many parts.
CraterMA was my 3rd choice. Overall it's actually a pretty good map. I do think it's still too big. I'm not a fan of the TT though. It generates pretty decent fights around the map. One reason is because the bases aren't too far distanced. I think people chose it because it still produces big fights in many areas of the map.
I chose Mindano 4th. that's the one that looks like a big island country right? Very small map. Always easy to find fights. Can fight agaisnt 2 other teams at the same time on the map. It's easy and clear to find the fights. Everything is very condensed. The only thing about it is the mountains make plane altitudes very high and can lead to high alt fights, which are typically much more challenging and time consuming for players.
The SMpizza map was #5 for me. Still a small map with no TT which I like. Theres some good fights still. I do think the bases are a little too far apart for the Map size. You can have a really small map, but with far away bases it will still be slow. This map doesn't really have a flow to it, and I think that's why it scored so low. The sides aren't really symmetrical and I think it just throws people off. Maybe it gets won too quickly, but I just don't think players have played on it that much and people aren't as familiar with the fight flow on this map so they scored it lower. I still think it is decent map though. Just an observation.
Finally, the SFMA2016 map was 7th. The heart shaped map. It's one of the older small maps, I actually think it has great fights from A1-A19 and at the top of the map along the coast. But those 2 specific areas are always where the fights are. The south east part of the map is very week because bases are too far apart. I think if this area was reworked, it could open a lot more fights down south. It's the same ole same ole every fight on this map, and I'm sure it's just old for players.
Extra note:
Maybe another design that might work for a map is a donut, with a huge circle of water on the inside similar to SFMA2016, and teams would have to fly around the outside ring to capture bases. Sort of like a NASCAR ring. There would be 2 -3 bases as the width of the area. Put some CVs in the middle. I think it would be a fun map that would condense the action very well and spark big fights.