81 replies to this topic

[Gorgo7]

-The rocks in the river look like garbage. Wow! Who came up with that? Sean Langs illegitimate child? Looks awful. Consider shaving them down or half submerging them or placing a ship there instead.
-Wider river looks good.
-the new terminal looks good.
-the new ship port looks good
-Expansion looks good generally, although there seems to be some wasted space to the west (left) where the drop-ships are placed.

Good effort. 12 maps to go, get them into CW rotation. Figure out a way of tying them together so that the victors may move on to greener pastures!

Edited by Gorgo7, 08 May 2015 - 02:35 PM.

[_____]

Glad that RC is getting fixed but please stop with the random-rocks-everywhere technique to provide cover. They look out of place.

As pointed out earlier, the SE corner is wasted space if there's only 1 place to exit from that area. It should be better connected to the rest of the map so teams/lances that go there are not going to be trapped.

[DarkExar]

As mentioned in posts above left down pocked makes no gaming sense at all. Needs at least 2nd entrance, or corridor to left down. Otherwise.... meh. 3 choke point exits could be nice if a cap point was there instead of a dropzone. Thing to redesign.

Overall map upgrade is a great thing.

[sycocys]

Looks much better, and a lot less cramped.

That being said, I do have to agree with two points that are already made -

1. The lack of additional city on the one map named "City" is disappointing.
2. The bottom, and particularly bottom right corner of the map should be opened up so its not useless space.

Mountain paths that were embedded in the back side of the mountains that only lights/mediums could cross while not being able to fire on the rest of the map would add some nice role type combat. Or paths from the back of the map that only small lights could fit into going up, and a center path anything could wind around up on with a little arena area carved out to brawl in.

Or tunnel it out and have a bunker/cave/missile silo with 3 main and 3-4 tunnel entrances if that's just mountainous anyhow. Would be super, super cool to have something on the map that completely changed up the way people can approach certain areas.
Lack of more city though, was really expecting that to be the bigger part of this maps expansion.

Edited by sycocys, 08 May 2015 - 02:30 PM.

[Zekido]

Looks great.
Not sure about those rocks in the river to be honest. They look too arbitrary and too big in my opinion.

[Dennis de Koning]

I'd like everyone to keep in mind that the pics are of a work in progress.
The rocks in the river for example are just proxies, there are no trees in the planar view, the lighting is not changed etc, etc.
Do not take any of the images as literal representations. All images show the RC redux in an incomplete state.
So please, keep this in mind when you post your critique.

thanks.

DdK

[TyphonCh]

Looking at the screens I'm definitely wowed. Good work. But then I saw the out of bounds overhead few....

I'll quote everyone else: the bottom right section of the map is totally wasted space. The mechs that spawn there will leave and that will be the end of that for the entire match. I'd like to see a path, something like Frozen City, for mechs to fit single file

[Bors Mistral]

I like it.

The only thing that's disappointing if that it seems there are less buildings now. I was hoping for a more extended city environment.

[OznerpaG]

ditch the rocks - looks weird, and even as the map is now they arn't needed

wish there was more city, but if the spawn points are randomized as per Malleus then every battle on the map could occur in a different area in different matches. no matter how big you make the map, if you have the spawn points the exact same every single match then the battle ends up happening in the exact same area every match anyways, wasting most of the map. worst offender: crimson straits. start implementing random spawn points now while you are re-working on the maps so that the entire map has a chance of being used

like what i see overall though - nice work!

[Siej]

Thanks for the screenshots. Interesting start, will be interested to see where it goes. Seems to promote the current NASCAR movement on this map while being less... uh... how to say this nicely... tactically unsound to do so.

Couldn't watch the video, it was just too painfully slow, awkward, and boring... glad the screenshots are up.

[Groutknoll]

Looks like the old sniper hill at c1/d1 will be inbounds again

[Kyynele]

ZhennZ, on 08 May 2015 - 05:16 PM, said:

Thanks for the screenshots. Interesting start, will be interested to see where it goes. Seems to promote the current NASCAR movement on this map while being less... uh... how to say this nicely... tactically unsound to do so.

I don't really see how this promotes NASCAR...

I personally believe that the prime reason why RC typically crumbles down to a NASCAR right from the start, is the way the starting positions are laid on such a small map. The starting points in the corners are so close to enemies, that it makes perfect sense for any faster mechs to try and intercept slow enemy mechs trying to cross the river to join the rest of their team and get a lead in kills for free, while slow mechs desperately try to catch up the main group of their team to avoid said fate.

Having the starting points of the teams much further apart will likely make regrouping a much more reliable starting maneuver, at which point I would hope NASCAR isn't the only obvious option to go to. Maybe I will be proven wrong. We'll see.

[Pjwned]

Appogee, on 08 May 2015 - 12:31 PM, said:

One fifth of the new map (most of the bottom right quadrant) is a complete waste of space... a pocket of nowhere that will never play a part in the battle once the lance that drops there has walked out of it.

What a waste. Son I is disappoint.

If the large greyed-out mountain area in the bottom center was actually playable map, instead of out of bounds, there'd be far more interesting battle options.

HPG Manifold syndrome is a serious condition that must be treated promptly.

I would like to see a tunnel going through that section of the map, and for that matter the outer reaches of Manifold shouldn't be so inaccessible either.

Dennis de Koning, on 08 May 2015 - 03:30 PM, said:

I'd like everyone to keep in mind that the pics are of a work in progress.
The rocks in the river for example are just proxies, there are no trees in the planar view, the lighting is not changed etc, etc.
Do not take any of the images as literal representations. All images show the RC redux in an incomplete state.
So please, keep this in mind when you post your critique.

thanks.

DdK

That's good to know, but personally I'm more concerned about the map's design rather than how it looks, so I hope it's not set in stone like having that southeast corner pretty much disconnected from the rest of the map.

Edited by Pjwned, 08 May 2015 - 05:44 PM.

[Thunder Child]

It would be nice to have that bottom corner have a second pathway, just to involve it a bit more.

But more importantly, this video EMPHASISES THE NEED FOR A FLAMER BUFF!!!!!

Even TREES are unaffected by it.

(Seriously though, good work guys. RC, FC, and FzC all need an overhaul, and it's looking good, except for the random cover rocks. Keep up the good work).

P.S. Are we ever going to get some seriously Deep Water? A lot of these bays and rivers have a tendency to not be deep enough for boats to navigate. Could we look at that in the future? ANd perhaps have a slow down effect in the deeper water? Improved Cooling perhaps too?

[Sereglach]

Very happy to see the work in progress. This was a highly unexpected treat to log in to see. For the most part there was amazing things to witness and have come out of the video. A few comments overall:

1. Concur with previously iterated statements on the usability of certain areas of the map. The single-lane choke points and spawn points being pushed as far into the map as they are eliminates a large portion of the map's expansion for nearly any game mode and scenario. Even if a single capture point is put back there, if it's left in the back with nothing but a singular choke point to reach it, then it will become the oddball point of Alpine, where no one captures it unless desperate, lucky, or it's basically handed to them by the other team. As it stands, if you put an assault base back there then it'd be the winners by default, as it'd be obscenely difficult to push through the choke point, beat the turrets, beat whatever team mates are holed up back there, and capture the base.

2. Malleus011's concept is genius, emphasizes a suggestion I just put into the Feature Suggestion section last night, and should be implemented on EVERY map, not just this one. Those multiple spawn points make every inch of the map useful in some scenario or another. Even if you can't do that sort of dynamic spawn points, then please push the spawn points as far back against the border of the map as you can manage. Make as much of the map used and usable as humanly possible.

3. I really hope that we are given another opportunity to review and provide feedback on the reworked map closer to implementation. As long as PGI continues to listen to us and makes feasible changes to maps in concurrence with community feedback I think these map overhauls are going to be incredible. Thank you for the ever improving communication and opportunities to leave feedback.

4. I'd love to be able to actually light trees on fire. Having actual smoke and visual cover that truly mitigates sensors and/or thermal/night vision would be awesome. Please consider looking into that.

5. While on the subject of trees, since they're going to be physically rendered . . . PLEASE make impacts with trees slow down mechs before they fall over. Same goes for the light poles. Make it take some serious force to knock them over. . . . This is even coming from a pretty dedicated light pilot, of whom this would hinder the most. That way copses of trees/forests become more than just bullet/laser stoppers and people think about pushing through a forest when they might be receiving LRM rain courtesy of a well placed UAV. It also makes Jump Jets a desirable facet for maneuvering through terrain. If a light can maneuver through the trees (big IF given how tight some of the trees can be together) or quickly go around, then it makes it harder for an Assault or Heavy to follow, as well. On the other hand, a light going through trees would be far more bogged down than an Assault or Heavy pushing right through them, making them easier to catch in the right situation. It would heavily add to the role warfare aspects of the game with a minor physics change.

6. I also must concur with the above. If possible, please make it so we can stomp/shoot cars. It would be endlessly satisfying.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Malleus001's suggestion on page 1 would maximize replay value... And isn't that the point of a game like this? Replay?

[Will9761]

I love how the collision are working now, but when you shoot trees, they should burn. However, it is good to know that mechs will not act like ghosts now when they touch objects.

Edited by Will9761, 08 May 2015 - 07:49 PM.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Will9761, on 08 May 2015 - 07:47 PM, said:

I love how the collision are working now, but when you shoot trees, they should burn. But it is good to know that mechs will not act like ghosts now when they touch objects.

I think far too few gamers appreciate how graphically-intensive smoke effects are. I would prefer few smoke screens because they destroy frame rates.

[Will9761]

Prosperity Park, on 08 May 2015 - 07:50 PM, said:

I think far too few gamers appreciate how graphically-intensive smoke effects are. I would prefer few smoke screens because they destroy frame rates.

No arguments here, I am fine with smoking trees as well, especially for creative tactics, like raising enemy heat or making a diversion.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

I like what I see so far, the one exception is the boulders in the river, at the center of the map.

I would rather see something like a crashed plane or dropship there, over having big rocks.

Here is a poor mock up of why I think it might work since the runway is at a good angle for wreckage to be in the water instead of boulders.