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I think MW:O has 3 major problems and a bunch of smaller ones. The 3 major problems are:
1) No role warfare. PGI has said they've abandoned their old ideas, so this won't happen.
2) Too few game modes. PGI has said they're not really working on anything new, except the ability to choose mech based on a map. Still Assault & Conquest for months to come.
3) Map design problems.
Since it's pointless to talk about 1 and 2, I'll go with problem 3 in the hope that it has some effect.
Five easy and critical steps to improving maps.
1) Make the map easy to read.
By this, I mean "make it easy for the players to identify and understand everything they see on the map". For example, the players should be able to see where they can walk and where it's impossible for their mech to walk. They should be able to see where they have cover, and where they do not. They should be able to see where they have line of fire and where they do not.
It's weird to use this as an example, but Mass Effect 3 actually had fantastic maps in terms of readability. It was always very easy to see where you had cover, where you could move and where you had line of fire.
In Mechwarrior: Online, this is not the case. It's very hard to see which slopes you can climb, which is a huge problem. You'll often start walking up a hill, only to find that it was 2 degrees too steep, and then you end up zig-zaging untill you find the magical angle which lets your mech continue walking. That's not fun gameplay and it breaks immersion. It also puts less focus on strategy and more focus on either luck or knowing every square inch of the map, neither of which are positive, in my opinion. Gameplay would be a lot more fun if players were able to easily assess the battlefield and make decisions accordingly.
On maps like River City, there's also the problem of running between buildings or underneath certain constructions when you're not really sure if your mech will fit. You'll often find that your Awesome is just a bit too wide or that your Centurion is a bit too tall. Again, you're left with experimenting, trying to zig-zag and worm your way through, and it's not fun gameplay. It would be better if players could easily recognise areas where anything bigger than a light mech cannot pass, for example.
On maps like River City, Tourmaline and Caustic Valley, there's also the problem of invisible geometry absorbing your shots, so you never know when you have a clear line of fire. This is a big problem, but PGI is aware of it.
2) Make it easy to adjust course.
Instead of having 3 different courses (left, right, middle) with few options to switch from one to the other once you've started moving, I think maps should be less rigid in their design. Some maps do this very well. On Forest Colony, you either go left, right or middle, and it's fairly easy to adjust positions, so you usually have a good fight no matter where the enemy has gone (except for the occassional cave base rush in 8 vs 8). In other maps, such as the new Lava map especially (though to some degree, the same applies to Frozen Colony and Canyons), you have a certain number of routes, and it's hard to move laterally between them. If you choose path A and the enemy chooses path C, then you often end up in each other's bases without seeing each other
3) Use the maps to reinforce role warfare
There are some elements of very good and interesting readability on some of the maps. Forest Colony, for example, has some crates or buildings in the water, near the lower team's spawn point. Those crates are excellent for light mechs to hide behind, while assault mechs will tower over them most places. I wish more maps had more of this kind of cover, which really sets apart light mechs from bigger maps and encourages some sort of rudimentary role warfare. I hope future maps have more features that are particularly useful to certain mech sizes, for example cover that will only hide a light mech (or 50% of an assault mech), tunnels where only a light mech can fit, or buildings that only assault mechs can shoot over.
Certainly, jump jets are a part of this, as mechs with jump jets can reach places other mechs can't. But I'd like to see this principle extended to all mechs. Like some kind of trench system where light mechs can cross great distances without being seen, while heavy mechs would be easily spotted and fired upon.
4) Avoid large, simple features
The ship on Forest Colony. The ship on Frozen Colony. The biggest mountain on Alpine. The center crater on Caustic Valley. When you have such large features dominating the map, it leads to very predictable and, thus, boring gameplay. If both teams move to each side of the Ship on Forest Colony, you have a fairly good idea of what's going to happen. People will peak around the corners, there might be some LRMs flying over now and then, and both sides are just waiting for someone to break through. There are only so many ways that scenario can play out.
The most interesting gameplay, in my opinion, tends to take place in areas of the map where there are many different features and factors to consider, many different variables that will lead to many different outcomes. Different cover of different sizes, different levels and platforms for mechs to engage each other from different heights, etc.
Of course, maps can also have flat and open areas with little cover. That can be fun too. My problem is primarily with areas that are dominated by a single, large feature, such as the ship on Forest Colony.
5) Avoid open corridors
This is somewhat related to my point above about the ability to change course, but there's more to it. In the new volcano map, there are several corridors where there's basically no cover, and both teams often reluctantly butt heads. Because there's no cover or room to maneuver, the gameplay suffers.
Usually, by the time both teams have engaged, the first guys on both teams realize that it sucks to be on the front line in a narrow corridor with heavy amounts of incoming fire from the front, and even some accidental (even careless) friendly fire from the back. So neither side is willing to engage unless they perceive a clear advantage in numbers, and there's a lot of stalling, stepping on toes and mechs bumping into each other.
The same principle applies to the cave / tunnel on Forest Colony and Frozen Colony.
There are a few large open corridors on either side of the canyon map, but those corridors are actually fairly well designed, with different levels in height and certain amounts of cover, so that an engagement rarely turns into a stalemate. The guys on the front line have an option to run for cover, instead of just being shredded by enemy (and friendly) fire and then desperately trying to push back through their own team to find cover.
How many of us have tried to limp back from safety after a brutal beating in the glacier tunnel on Frozen City, only to bump into the undamaged Atlas lance behind you, who are somewhat hesitant to move out of the way and almost prodding you back?
So yeah. If you're going to make long corridors, at least make them interesting, rather than a meat grinder.
TL;DR:
- Make it easy for players to see where they can go, where they have cover and where they have line of fire
- Make it easy to adjust course so that the teams don't run circles around each other
- Use the maps to reinforce role warfare by creating elements specifically for mechs of certain sizes
- Avoid large, simplistic features like huge mountains or huge buildings that lead to predictable gameplay
- Avoid open corridors without cover (i.e. meat grinders)
Edited by Alistair Winter, 12 August 2013 - 08:16 AM.
