Four Seasons: a forest of four quarters
Four Seasons is one forest cut into four: spring at the top left, autumn at the top right, summer at the bottom left and winter at the bottom right. Each quarter has its own colours and its own weather, and they all meet in a clearing in the middle, where the bazooka lies. It is the more open of the two maps, with long sight lines between the groves.
The map
Seen from above, the seasons do not meet in straight lines: the border between them wanders, so a step can take you from grass to snow. A ring of forest closes the map on every side, and nobody walks into it. The twelve player spawns sit along that ring, three in each quarter, so nobody starts in the middle.
The four quarters
| Quarter | Where | Weather | Weapons besides the shotgun and the tazer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Top left | Petals drift down | The sledgehammer and the SMG |
| Autumn | Top right | Leaves fall | The bat and the flamethrower |
| Summer | Bottom left | The sun glows on the grass | The bat and the flamethrower |
| Winter | Bottom right | It snows | The sledgehammer and the SMG |
Spring has pink trees standing on their own, summer has its green trees in groves, autumn lines its yellow trees up in two rows, and winter keeps a grove of snowy trees and the bare trees that stand among them. The weather is only for looks; Options turns it off.
Where the weapons and health packs lie
The map holds seventeen weapon spawns. Each quarter has a shotgun and a tazer. The sledgehammer and the SMG lie in spring and in winter, the bat and the flamethrower in summer and in autumn, each pair on opposite corners of the map, so no side starts better armed. The bazooka lies alone in the middle clearing, and after someone takes it, it takes longer to come back than anything else on the map.
There are six health packs: one in each quarter, and two more where the border between left and right runs, one near the top edge and one near the bottom. Each heals 30 and comes back after 25 seconds.
Cover and hiding
The trees themselves are solid: you walk round them, and so do bullets. Logs, big stumps, fallen trees and the bare winter trees stop a man but not a shot, so you can fire over them. Every tree's canopy hides whoever stands under it, but the crowns sit on solid trunks, so you fit under the edge of only some of them, not deep underneath. Hiding here is a step under a branch rather than a hideout; for a real one, try the gazebo on the Community Centre.
How a round goes here
A round lasts five minutes. Everyone spawns at the edge with a knife. A good start is the shotgun or the tazer of your own quarter; the clearing in the middle, with the bazooka, is where the fights end up. With the SMG or the bazooka you can hold a long line between two groves; with the knife and the bat, use the trees to get close. Bots walk to better weapons, and to a health pack when they are hurt, so expect company at both.
Four Seasons is one of the two maps. What each weapon does is on the weapons page, the controls in how to play. Play it now.