Exilyth, on 21 June 2014 - 10:44 AM, said:
If there was a lance on lance (4 vs 4) gamemode on smaller subsections of the existing maps, with a shorter match time limit, all the action junkies could go there and have their instant action fun. And while they're out, we could have some serious discussion about improving tactical & strategic gameplay in the 12 vs 12 queue.
Bigger maps would be great, but they would need meaningful objectives and more sight cover than alpine.
Many maps in the mechcommander series had destroyable walls with high health/hitpoints, which provided cover but could be slowly destroyed (or, if JJ were equipped, jumped over). Sending in a JJ equipped mech to capture a door control could turn the tide of battle. Bases also had defense installations like regular and popup turrets... do you ignore them? Take out the linked power generator? Go and try to capture the turret control tower? Or just shoot the turrets to scraps? Lots of tactical choices right there. Ofc, there have been intentional weakpoints too... like a fueltank placed near a wall section, which would level the barrier upon explosion. Add to that sensor towers, minefields, e.t.c...
What would be really nice would be a map like that, but with one base on each side.
I'd love to see secondary objectives in maps, different per map, that could give you a good advantage by taking/holding them.
If you could send Lights to knock out the Turret Control System so your Assaults could storm their base while they were turtling, that'd be cool. But even more fun if your Lights could have the option of destroying it or capturing that TCS in order to turn their turrets back on them.
I'd love to see Communication Towers on the map that enabled/disabled shared targeting depending on whether or not you controlled it in certain areas.
You could also tie it into the Battlemap, needing to take those Towers in order to build the Map.
A problem with secondary objectives though is that for as long as "Kill them all" is a win condition, and it is faster/easier to do that, that is what people will gravitate towards.
Another problem is game time. At 15 minutes per match, There is very little window to complete secondary and tertiary objectives before simply running out of time.
So you would need not only bigger maps and the assets in place for those objectives, but also extensions to the timer to allow you to fulfill those objectives.
Problem with that? There are already players neurotic enough to complain about having to wait a few minutes to unlock a dead 'Mech that is currently ingame.
Such a mode/system would need to be totally separate to the current modes we play now. I'm one who would support hour long campaign type missions with multiple/dynamic objectives.
But i can't imagine the whole playerbase would get behind that.