ok.
Here is my issue with Crimson Straight.
It's a beautiful map, with lots of great textures and good buildings, right up to the point where you realize none of that is being utilized. The entire map where you fight is WIDE OPEN with zero cover.
Which means brawlers mechs are absolutely screwed on this map. They don't have a way to get into the fight without crossing the no-mans land and getting annihilated by sniper and lrm mechs.
Now this makes it great if you are a Sniper or LRM support mech but If you are a brawler, this map becomes thee absolute most frustrating map in the game.
I am using an older screenshot here but it still holds true. The Pass, above the docks and below the docks there is absolutely zero cover for a brawler mech to try and advance into range.
Even Aspen has a route and method that brawlers can use to advance on the enemy without crossing some sort of no man's land and getting absolutely decimated by enemy snipers and LRM mechs.
If you drop in C.S. as a brawler mech you have two choices.
Choice A. Hang back and watch as your team is whittled away and picked apart by sniper fire.
or
Choice B. Attempt to charge across no man's land to try and get in range.
Good luck with either of those.
A light pilot with a lot of speed may be able to manage it, but a hunchback going 64 kph is going to be decimated attempting to push into range.
So here is how we fix it.
What we do here is add a lot more cover.
A Lot.
As you can see I added more ships.
Now these ships are the lowest points so they only really provide cover to people in the water, people across either side of the bay are still able to snipe each other unobstructed.
Also we add a ton more cover to both on the docks and under the docks to at least give brawlers a path to advance to at least getting within range utilize some cover.
Also the Pass should have a lot more structure up there as for a short cut for brawler, it isn't. It's way too open.
There should be at least one path available for brawlers to play on this map too!
You might be one say "Just wait, you'll get used to it!" or "You just have to learn the map, bro"
None of that changed geometry, cover won't randomly sprout up because I know the map better.
There physically isn't a ROUTE for a brawler to take that doesn't involve crossing 500+ meters of open ground with no cover. Even below the docks there is zero cover, those poles do nothing. At least add some walls down there, maybe some stacks of crates or containers, or structures. Something to help the brawlers out.
Edited by Carrioncrows, 02 October 2013 - 05:16 PM.