The Triple Threat! Thread - The Afflicted

Greetings all!
My name is Estevan Lopez and I did the initial design for the level Single Point and I'm also Lead level Designer for Autonomous Games!
I'd like to discuss a major design element of our game which is the fact that our game only allows up to 3 teams to compete. On the outset we wanted the layout to cater to the core concept of the game which is a struggle for survival. For obvious reasons most current multiplayer shooters have even numbers in mind when maps are made but in our case we wanted it to feel a little more chaotic. Three teams adds a level of game play which allows for strategy while still allowing the game play to be much more divergent. This goes along with plot elements of the game which also tell a story of an unknown force that sends everything into chaos.
The initial drawback was that three almost always guarantees one team comes up short handed which was one of the major challenges the Level Design team had to face early on in production. What you will play in early 2012 is the result of countless iterations and testing done to ensure that the map is not only balanced but works for the games main focus, resource collecting. I really feel that one of the aspects that helped was the fact that the game shares a lot in common with and RTS as it does with a shooter which gives us some leeway as far as making maps.
So what are your thoughts on 3 teams? What would you consider if you had to make a map for the game?
Let the discussion begin!