The new, official community maps. What where the influencing factors to choose Turbine and Fastlane (Especially allowing for Robins comments on Redstone a few weeks ago)?
We had a variety of criteria when evaluating the maps. We collected player comments on maps from forums everywhere and emails we’ve received, and combined that with the gameplay data we get from all the TF2 servers out there, to build a list of over 30 interesting community maps. We ran playtests on all of those, and eventually settled on these two. We regard this as the first of several community map releases though, so you can expect to see more in the next class pack. We’re still developing maps internally as well, so you’ll see more official maps from Valve too.

Some people are saying that the stickies for the demo are to strong. To the point where 3 stickies can remove a sentry, a dispenser and a full health Engie. Is this something that can/is being addressed or is it classed internally as “balanced”?

We agree that they’re a little too overpowered right now. In fact, internally, we refer to them as “winbombs”. We haven’t reached a decision on what we’ll change yet, though.

The payload map GoldRush seems to have gone down very well. Personally, I love it. However, what’s the chances or timelines for any additional PL Maps being released by Valve or is it down to the community to get some released?

It’s been great to receive such positive feedback on GoldRush, and that feedback made it really easy for us to invest in more. We’re already playtesting the next Payload map, and it’s likely it’ll be in the next class pack.