Syrkres, on 07 October 2013 - 08:44 AM, said:
I think this may be a map towards some of the new game play we are hoping for.
Good point, and conquest is sort-of ok as it is. That's why I picked on Assault. Although, the lack of flanking options limits conquest pretty heavily too, but at least the multiple cap points draw people out of the parking garage.
The bottom line, to me, is that the map always plays out the same because Red (Left Side) has no options. I've seen various different things happen as they respond to Blue's different approaches, but it's always from a turtle/defensive response posture. The Island does have cover, but it's very poor, and only good for covering part of an approach. There's only one position where you can fire from cover, and only one path to cross the island because of the steep hills. So it basically ends up being a flanking path for light mechs.
I've played the map in PUGs and in my clan drops. On the premade drops, playing Red involves getting recon on Blue and setting up a firing line in the appropriate spot to meet them- and all of these spots are somewhere in/on the parking garage. Playing Blue, it involves coordinating multiple approaches and possibly sending snipers up the far right to keep them pinned down for a tunnel move. Red reacts to blue, and always in the same area. I'll admit there's more variety in the map then my arrows give credit to, but that's generally due to people running off in random directions because they are tired of the parking garage and are deliberately trying to avoid it. The map design itself discourages variety.
And that's a shame, because a lot of the map is brilliant. The urban areas are a mix of tight quarters and open, long streets, very interesting combat terrain. The give and take accross the mountains to the left / city to the right makes for some very interesting tactical choices. It's a shame most of it is to the East/South and never gets used because it's outside the funnel. This is a potentially awesome map with some really great design, but it's fundamentally flawed in some deep gameplay aspects. Some really minor fixes would open it up to true awesomeness.
Syllogy, on 07 October 2013 - 07:42 AM, said:
I notice that the far right blue path is actually much further than the sprint across the water from the left; by the time the blue team rounded the corner, the red team would already have crossed the bay and be in the city.
The same is true of the Far Left red path, and it's matching blue path. They're supposed to offer opposing sets of advantages/disadvantages without being mirrors of each other. So on path is open to fire with scattered cover, the other path is narrow with a more direct approach. It encourages tactical thinking to have multiple options.
DaZur, on 07 October 2013 - 08:43 AM, said:
I watched a lance of Altas -D and Catapults position on central island and under the canopy of ECM absolutely devastate the enemy...
All it took was a decoy lance to draw them to the ship-yard and whammo... LRM meat.
While I agree the topology does encourage the present linear pathing for the red, it's more of a product of blob mentality, when a little tactical communication can lead to a wider diversity of engagement.
I'm more concerned with the wasted topology south of blue...
Sounds like someone with some planning set up in a way that exploits the map's natural flaw. They knew where the enemy would inevitably go, and set a trap for them. Good thinking imo. Though while I'm sure it's nice to see a break from the blob, it's not a very good commentary on the map itself. Blue could do the same thing from the Upper Right City, and wouldn't even need a decoy lance to do it with because red has no choice of approach path.
Edited by RandomLurker, 07 October 2013 - 01:39 PM.
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