30 replies to this topic

[Foxfire]

I see people going to the crater time and again only to sit at the ramp and snipe.

There is NO REASON at all to go to the center of the map unless you are prepared to push into the center to take it.

All sitting at the ramp and sniping does is allow your enemies to spread out, putting targets further apart, while allowing them to focus fire on one or two points. Tactically, there is no reason to ever go center if all you plan to do is hill hump the ramps.

I don't mind the heat of the map. I don't mind the lay out.. heck, I even like the size of the map.. but this is the single solitary thing about this map that annoys me.. and it isn't because of the design of the map.

[DaZur]

106+ Likes

It's like moths to a flame (or a UV light as it were)...

The concept of "choke points" is apparently beyond the comprehension of 97.3% of my fellow PUG compatriots.

[Sephlock]

The reason people do this is because 99% of the time in a PUG when you enter the center, EVERYONE ELSE STAYS BEHIND AND LETS YOU DIE LIKE THE GUY IN THE MECHWARRIOR 4 INTRO!



You can try to corral them via text (aka squint-o-vision) but that's a crapshoot.



Granted this isn't quite a prisoner's dilemma style situation because we CAN communicate, it's just that people may or may not listen (and you need ENOUGH people to listen, and they have to be in the right place at the right time, etc).

[jper4]

yeah i find about 8.5 times out of 10 the team that blobs up by the narrow path to the center ends up losing. and of course if you try flanking in that situation you end up dying because everyone else is waiting for their turn to step to the front and get killed.

every once in a while though you get a group that actually pushes in and uses the paths from the center to flank the other side, or only uses a small force to keep the enemy's attention while the rest of the team flanks them. generally i can tell the success of the drop in the first minute or two by how many of my side heads to the center.

[Sephlock]

TBF the best solution to that that I have found is simply to exploit the hell out of it.

No, seriously.

This works best with lights, but YMMV:

Just rush to the nearest enemy choke point and drop arty in the middle of them, followed by an airstrike (or vice versa, depending on the situation and/or their exact positioning. There shouldn't be too much variance since they'll all be on that narrow ledge and the ones in back won't be able to see what is going on).

Do this over and over until your ELO rises to the point where you are no longer matched up with guys that do the choke point traffic jam thing (or you are, but not as frequently).

That is exactly what happened to me, and I was really REALLY saddened happy that I no longer encountered those free points inferior opponents.

[Davers]

DaZur, on 28 February 2014 - 06:46 PM, said:

106+ Likes

It's like moths to a flame (or a UV light as it were)...

The concept of "choke points" is apparently beyond the comprehension of 97.3% of my fellow PUG compatriots.

Well they didn't want us all to stand there why did they call it a 'choke point'?

"Everyone to the PUGZAPPER!"

Don't forget that the highest level of play is determined by either jumping up and down, or walking forwards and back. Brilliant!

Honestly most people just follow the first mech that moves, so do your team a favor and take them a different route. By the time they realize they are NOT going to Theta it will be too late and they will have to follow a different strategy.

[DaZur]

Davers, on 01 March 2014 - 02:44 PM, said:

Well they didn't want us all to stand there why did they call it a 'choke point'?

"Everyone to the PUGZAPPER!"

Don't forget that the highest level of play is determined by either jumping up and down, or walking forwards and back. Brilliant!

Honestly most people just follow the first mech that moves, so do your team a favor and take them a different route. By the time they realize they are NOT going to Theta it will be too late and they will have to follow a different strategy.

LOL!

Back in closed beta I bet my son I could lead mech out of bounds before they could realize what I was doing...

Yes, it was really "poor form" but yes... I did manage to lead a couple mechs to their death.

[IceCase88]

It is not a hard concept to understand. It is a terrible map that is horribly bugged and fundamentally flawed. It should be named Terrible Therma. The vast majority of people hate not because of the heat but the horrible movement around the map. Everyone congregates in the center to bring the map to a merciful end. The only thing worse than playing on Terrible Therma is playing conquest on Terrible Therma.

[Foxfire]

Eh, the map isn't bad. It is just that people are lemmings when it comes to movement, tactics, and overall strategies most of the time.

[Hannibal Chow]

Hehehe, I love Terra Thirma for all the reasons folk hate it I think!

Peoples temperatures and blood pressure spiking - rage quits - rage overheats - lemming syndrome, I love it all

Join the dark side ......

( and fit more heat sinks ! )

[Ghogiel]

Just stop going to the F6 choke point to center you ******* nubs. Do anything but that and I can probably carry several bads to a win.

[Daekar]

People who drive slow mechs hate this map. People who drive fast mechs don't. Kind of makes it the foil for all the maps that cater to poptarting and massive alpha tactics.

[Odins Fist]

Sometimes if you take center first you can sit there and alternate arty/airstrikes on the ramps leading up where people like to cluster, then after a few kills push that spot with 6 mechs.. Rinse and repeat.

[Foxfire]

Odins Fist, on 02 March 2014 - 12:11 PM, said:

Sometimes if you take center first you can sit there and alternate arty/airstrikes on the ramps leading up where people like to cluster, then after a few kills push that spot with 6 mechs.. Rinse and repeat.

Which is why I said that if you go center, push into the center instead of ramp humping.

[TB Freelancer]

Foxfire, on 28 February 2014 - 06:20 PM, said:

I don't mind the heat of the map. I don't mind the lay out.. heck, I even like the size of the map.. but this is the single solitary thing about this map that annoys me.. and it isn't because of the design of the map.

The Mechwarrior franchise has always been overloaded with guys who feel the need to pat themselves on the back and proclaim that they play a thinking man's shooter. Usually some negative attack on COD goes hand in and with that proclamation.

The unfortunate thing about those guys is that they believe thinking = intellect, but lack the intellect to understand that it doesn't.

[Foxfire]

The thing is.. this isn't about being some elitist 'I'm a thinking man!'

It is that this is something that is simple to do. Running up the crater and then sitting on the ramp is akin to running through a door that you know is being camped hardcore by a sniper... and those who refuse to change are the same as those who keep running through that door over and over.

[Sephlock]

Foxfire, on 03 March 2014 - 05:37 PM, said:

is akin to running through a door that you know is being camped hardcore by a sniper... and those who refuse to change are the same as those who keep running through that door over and over.

You realize that the vast, vast, majority of the playerbase of the most popular games would do exactly that, right?

[LastPaladin]

I always push into the center if my team is standing at the chokepoint. This can lead to only two results:

#1 - The team follows my lead and pushes in behind me, and then we may have a fighting chance.

or

#2 - The team doesn't follow my lead, and I get killed quickly, and can drop into a match with a better team instead of banging my head against the desk for the next 5-10 minutes.

It's a win-win strategy for me.

[Hillslam]

I would take the OP's post and expand it: there's no reason at all to play this map.

I expect CW may magically make every world of strategic value a volcanic map - because if what I've seen is true, the moment the player base has choice on where they fight that map is going to be like school in the summer time...

[Foxfire]

Well, as I said, I don't mind the map design itself. I like that it makes you have to be weary of controlling your fire.

That said, I can easily see it being a ghost town map when players get the ability to chose their map.