[MISSION] Skangus - Sporulation

This mission is very deserving of a strike and it's surprising that it got this far without any strikes.

Demo file: https://eu-testing.moonlight.tf:27107/de...28.dem.zip

If an expert mission is defined at the standards that were used for Anniversary Annihilation, then this mission missed the mark very badly. It is a pure two-cities spamfest that is primarily a test of how much [crit] damage the team can shell out above all else. The only redeeming feature of this mission is the engineer getting behind the front lines and dropping a teleporter near the hatch, which at times (depending on the location of the bomb) caused a multi-sided assault (left, right, and behind), which is a worthy feature for expert difficulty. Aside from that, most of the difficulty derives from throwing tons of giant robots (especially a massive overuse of giant scouts, with more than half the waves using giant scouts) and slapping crits onto every other robot. The last wave alone featured 40 giant robots and 4 tanks. The wave with 2 tanks and 6 dragon fury pyros (wave 3?) should not have 1200 HP bowmen on infinite support, which is essentially pseudo-infinite giant support.

This mission would be better suited as a high-cash, spammy advanced mission after dialing the difficulty down in some places but it is not appropriate for expert and should not be admitted to an event in its current state. We have not tested this with a 2 cities meta but we predict that most of the rubbish that is thrown by this mission can be quickly neutralized with a heavy-medic combo, which is likely what the public would use in a live event.

While I have made some major changes to the mission, there are still some statements in this post I disagree with.

It is a pure two-cities spamfest

Higher cash warrants more bots. The mission gives plenty of cash to kill plenty of bots. The cash given is adequate to deal with everything.

that is primarily a test of how much [crit] damage the team can shell out above all else

This is just MvM in general.

most of the difficulty derives from throwing tons of giant robots ... The last wave alone featured 40 giant robots and 4 tanks

While some waves have been reworked to rely on stronger common robots, I don't see much of an issue with throwing a constant stream of giants at the players. The same way how throwing tons of commons at players can work, throwing tons of giants at players isn't always a bad thing. Valve missions like Desperation and Broken Parts already pull off similar feats.

especially a massive overuse of giant scouts, with more than half the waves using giant scouts

While the giant scouts usage has been lowered, I don't see much of an issue with liberal use of giant scouts, especially in expert. They act as a sort of skill check, forcing players to pay close attention to them, well suited to being commonly used in expert missions.

This mission would be better suited as a high-cash, spammy advanced mission after dialing the difficulty down in some places

I don't see why a high-cash, spammy expert mission wouldn't work. Compared to an advanced, the mission applies much more pressure each wave, provides less room for error, and overall, just requires more player skill to progress. This makes it an expert in my eyes.

we predict that most of the rubbish that is thrown by this mission can be quickly neutralized with a heavy-medic combo

Anything gets destroyed by a heavy-medic combo, balancing around medic in general is not a good idea.