175 replies to this topic

[Forestal]

Herr Vorragend, on 21 March 2013 - 09:01 AM, said:

What i am missing is: different "floors". More layers where you could walk. Atm it´s always one layer, except the bridges in the city map. Of course, you can climb thos crystals in tourmaline, or use the mountains in the other maps. But usually it´s one layer. The tunnel in the upper city comes a little close to my idea. you can walk the tunnel, or get up the hill and use the small bridges to cross the tunnel on the second "floor".

What-- haven't you tried climbing the Tourmaline Crystals? Maybe it only works if you're a light or medium, or if you have jump-jets...

But sniping from the 5 or so accessible Tourmaline Crystal Peaks is way cool (finally some use for the full range of the ER PPC)-- nobody will even know you're there if they are not looking, cos the metallic sheen of the peaks vs the mech is not instantly distinguishable.

Not to mention the 2 "Crow's Nests" next to the bases are obviously natural look-out points begging to be used in "tower defence"-- and now that lrms have nerfed, enemies will be forced to charge uphill against your advantage of height and cover... it's a camper's heaven!

Edited by Forestal, 22 March 2013 - 01:28 AM.

[The Cheese]

Hands down, best map so far. Very interesting fights to be had. Take some lessons from this and put them into Alpine.

[SgtKinCaiD]

Great map so far.
But the map is maybe too big for 8vs8.

[jper4]

Scop, on 21 March 2013 - 10:38 PM, said:

A heads-up in case no one's pointed it out yet: Tourmaline is currently absent from the Map Stats tab.

was coming here to mention that myself.

[BlueSanta]

This map is an improvement over Alpine Peaks. They are both similarly large, but Tourmaline has much more cover and is very appealing visually, both literally and because it is an alien environment.

My only gripe is that mechs are still climbing up unrealistic slopes and doing so without any kind of speed penalty.

[ho1mes]

I love this map. I was underwhelmed by alpine. This on the hand, rocks. Kudos.

[JeremyCrow]

Great map but I only played two games there (was lucky to win both), but in the stats I get 7 wins and 7 losses. I think the stats are screwy.

[Mackensen]

My map stats for Tourmaline desert is wrong. It says 36 matches but I have played less than 10.

[AnubiteGroove]

Lower left base loses 75% of the time, has 0 cover if they take the left route. What is up with this? Great potential, extremely one-sided.

[Forestal]

The main body of the crashed personnel carrier (with the 2 dead guys inside) fits a light or medium just fine and can be a perfect camping site for a last stand-- since the enemy (nor friendly) fire cannot get through the "broken/see-through" portions of the hull.... and I loved the detail inside, though I'm not familiar enough with Battletech to detect any specific references (Mission-based Game Modes?).


However, the broken-off cockpit of the personnel carrier allows me to "clip/fuse" through it, when it should be too small/shallow or mangled to fit even a light. Similarly, the hollowed-out engine core in the center of the map allows a medium to "clip/fuse" through it-- so that it cannot fire out or be fired upon... need to improve the collision detection on such objects.


P.S. I have completely forgotten how to get up into the "crow's nest" at C8 without jump-jets! Did I dream it the first time? And do the Dev really intend to give the advantage to jump-jet users-- especially now that lrms are nerfed?

Edited by Forestal, 22 March 2013 - 05:27 PM.

[Eraos]

I haven't posted back yet on either this map (Tourmaline Desert) or on Alpine Peaks; but it is time to do so.

The TL;DR of it is that I detest both of them with an unholy passion. As others in the thread have said, I play the game to have giant walking robots fight other giant walking robots. On these maps, there are far, far too many cap wins; and far too much time walking around and not seeing any enemies.

I don't want to just drop into a giant room and immediately be brawling with the enemy; but the other maps (like Forest Colony, River City, etc.) have a nice balance between "need to move a little to gain position" and "able to get into a fight". These larger maps take it way too far in the "wander around randomly to find the enemy" direction.

Additionally, both maps have clipping problems (walking around at 80 kph and all of a sudden your legs take damage).

Finally (and I freely admit that this is probably exacerbated by my utter hatred for these two maps), it seems like I see them far too often in matches; which just makes the entire experience that much worse.

As a related note: I would give my HBK's right torso for the ability to blacklist maps so that the matchmaker would stop wasting my time.

[Eraos]

Immediately after posting, I drew Tourmaline Desert. The PUG held together for once, and headed towards the enemy base in a straight line. We ran into a Cataphract in F5 and killed him; and then the rest of the enemy team capped our base and we lost.

Hate. Both. These. Maps.

[Elder Thorn]

only played 1 match so far, so i will nto give feedback on strategy possibilitys and all that nerd stuff
However, i love the looks of the map, and the first impression is very good.
Finally not another snow map, if we would still be using CRT displays, we would have white color baked to our screens...

[jay35]

Okay, time to weight it evenly already. You're burning us out on this map quickly by forcing us to play it so much.

[Daihiam]

Love the new map, this is the first time you feel as though you are truly on an alien world. The detail is great, hope that all the new maps are as full of detail as this one. As said in the other posts you can do a little bit of everything on this map.

Great job

[Fpsling]

Map is nice the first few times. I feel like it's the only map in my rotation of maps now though...not sure if it's just me, but 7 rounds of tourmaline in a row gets boring.

[jay35]

Just got it close to 10 rounds in a row. Ridiculous.

[Brethgar]

Currently my opinion of this map is that it is a complete nightmare! I hate it overall. It is way too big to actually be fun. Currently with Matchmaker being so sadistic, frequently one team will end up with four lights who immediately cap the team that has none. Base defense? Plu-lease!!! Seriously, who wants to wait 5 minutes for the enemy to show up? It's bad enough that you have to wander around trying to find them in the first place.

For some positives though, I do find it to be alien and very beautiful and well detailed. I do like the spires that mechs can climb and snipe or spot from. Those parts are cool even though the temperature is not.

I would like to echo the comments that it is in the rotation WAY TOO OFTEN right now. It's driving me nuts!!!

To make a suggestion that probably won't help, I would say chop it into smaller chunks. Cut it in half or quarters or something. Seems like a lot of wasted space, art, and detail that aren't getting seen or utilized. Oh and fix the rotation. Please, please, PLEASE fix the rotation!

Brethgar
Murphy's Law

[Dreamslave]

It's great and I love it. The mix of open areas and cover, chasms and pitfalls and lets not forget the climbable cliffs of crystal. Having said that, for the love of god please turn down how often we get this map.

Edit: Also, my personal opinion is that maps should never be any bigger than this, as Tourmaline is already too big. For the vast majority of mechs, it takes a very long time to traverse the terrain and get anywhere.

Edited by Dreamslave, 24 March 2013 - 12:27 PM.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

Brilliant map. Congrats to all involved in making it. It feels more like a real place than does Alpine. I echo earlier comments about mechs being able to climb slopes that should be too steep (much worse on Alpine). Overall, I think this is a superb addition to the game.