42 replies to this topic

[bad arcade kitty]

i recall a line from a teammate in one of my games on that map

'i just spotted a huge crayfish, never saw it before... try not to catapult!' (:

[BearFlag]

I'm here to fight other mechs, not maps. I'm here to have fun, not be frustrated.

Speaking generally, any map, map feature or atmospheric effect that detracts from a good fight and good fun, is BAD.

As has been noted, Snag Swamp offends in numerous way. I too have little difficulty navigating it...now. But that's because of memorization, not visual clues.

ALL maps should:

1) use atmospheric fog to simulate distance only, never obscure. Exception: smoke plumes. Weather, as in Frozen City, is a bad idea.
2) never require a whole-game, visual mode change just to be playable. River City Night, Frozen City and even Viridian beg you to switch to night or thermal mode.
3) be a good mix of openness and congestion.
4) limit pass-through, but vision blocking foliage. Viridian and Taiga, too much.
5) be fairly clear about what can walked through, walked over or walked up. Tricky or gamey snags just piss people off.
6) probably avoid a large central map feature (Caustic, Terra Therma, though oddly HPG seems to work well).
7) meet minimum performance standards. RCN and Frozen City are sloooooow maps.

I've heard that PGI is working on destructible terrain features. I'm actually disappointed by this. Any effort at map dynamism should directed first at things that affect game play. Variable exclusion zones (out of bounds), rotating base locations, programmable start locations, selectable drop points.... These would add a lot of variety to ~existing~ maps instead of fighting every Alpine Peaks game at the Hill of Death.

Edited by BearFlag, 17 May 2015 - 12:28 AM.

[Lightfoot]

QuantumButler, on 16 May 2015 - 07:00 AM, said:

The stupid steps your mech can sometimes walk up and sometimes not, the roots that stop all movement despite being 1 foot tall, the invisible forcefields around the trees that block shots even though they looked like they should have been clear...

All the above plus the unnatural green intensity. Atmospherics and light wavelength bending always result in spectrum and intensity shifts over the distances in Viridian Bog. Remember the mechs are 20-30 meters tall so atmospherics and some spectrum shift are present and tell the viewer the mechs are that large.