10 replies to this topic

[50 50]

Hi all.

I happened to watch Appleseed Alpha the other day and noted the imagery of a city that had experienced a war.
It occurred to me that bar a few craters, fires and some slightly damaged buildings on River City that they don't really give the impression of having been in a battle.

Now admittedly, we might expect cities to be repaired and rebuilt so fighting in nothing but ruins all the time wouldn't provide much variety.

Given the advances made with the maps recently I think it would be brilliant if there could be some different 'Battle States' that could be randomly determined at the start.
This is akin to the proposal for having weather effects implemented at some stage and follows on from an earlier post made by Mordric here:
http://mwomercs.com/...new-map-updates

I am recreating this post with a poll to gauge player interest.
While it would be a huge plus to be able to create the damage ourselves, and perhaps we will see that at some point, the suggestion here is to have the map start with certain variables that provide both atmosphere and immersion to the battles as well as some changes to the landscape resulting in some randomness to the game play.

As an outline:

New

• This location has not had any recent fighting or is away from the main battle areas.
  
• Buildings are intact
  
• There are no fires or debris.
  
• No back ground noises such as explosions, AA or aircraft.

eg. Crimson Strait


Moderate

• This location is on the outskirts of the fighting.
  
• A few buildings may be damaged
  
• The odd fire, a few craters, a destroyed bridge make some areas harder to traverse.
  
• Occasional explosion, AA fire and the odd aircraft.

eg. River City


Heavy

• This site is in the middle of some intense fighting and we are in the thick of it.
  
• A large number of buildings are destroyed, the place is in ruins.
  
• Numerous fires, plenty of smoke and numerous craters. The terrain here has altered making different paths and obstacles for us to navigate. It's not the same map anymore.
  
• Plenty of explosions, AA is seen repeatedly in the sky and we can hear aircraft fighting overhead.
  
• Dropships could be seen in the distance travelling to other sites, there could be a downed dropship that is now a significant landmark on the map.

eg. None yet.


There could be some additional battle states to create different levels of immersion, the background effects can be raised/lowered in volume and frequency.
The more difficult part is the damage to the terrain and objects which change the landscape, preferably with some level of randomness, would add a lot to each battle we fight.

Edited by 50 50, 12 October 2015 - 06:03 PM.

[Vellron2005]

This is a great idea!

This would add SOOOOO MUCH immersion to the game... In an ideal game, each map would have several of these states, and several configurations of the states, so its not always the same crater on the same location.

However, when it comes to PGI, they are currently focusing on revamping old maps.

What they SHOULD be focused on is making new maps and new game modes.

So your idea, great as it is, is somewhere on the back-kitchen back-burner (a burner not even in the main kitchen).

Sad, but, realistic..

[50 50]

It very well may be, but we can sow the seed of the idea in the minds of the devs while they remake the maps.
And if it is a worthy idea with enough interest, who knows.

I am all for some brand new maps, but am loving the upgrades as well and this seems like something worth considering.

[50 50]

Not necessarily restricted to the city maps either, that was just an example.
If we look at a map like forest colony, if the area was experiencing intense fighting then:

• some of those giant trees could be felled creating barriers and walkways
  
• the small colony buildings could be in ruins
  
• we could have a dropship, mangled and burning against one of the islands
  
• have the majority of the small trees already knocked down

One of the side effects of having the map be randomly altered would be to shift battles to different areas.
While it can be the prerogative of a team to set up for a fight in a certain location, which only works for skirmish, by introducing some random terrain changes you could expect battles to happen in different areas.

One additional element that should be considered is more random placement of base locations for assault and the capture points for conquest.
It would also be quite interesting if these locations (except your own base) were not automatically visible on the map/compass or radar until they were detected and identified. ie. scouting objectives.

[50 50]

Seeing a few extra destroyed mechs and other vehicles around the maps would be an easy addition.
A crashed jet or helicopter.
Some burnt out tanks.
A bit of battle carnage that visually adds to the experience.

[50 50]

I am going to bump this idea again as after watching the number of times Outpost has been contested back and forth in Faction Play over the last few weeks, the planet should be absolutely ruined now.

[MechWarrior4023212]

I would prefer a city with no major open areas. We lack in close maps.

[50 50]

There is a post to have a 'Ruined Metropolis' map be added.
I do hope we see one to that effect.

This is more about using the existing maps and having a few variations on them to reflect different states of battle.
If it can be done by adding props, background noises and some special effects and not require the remake of the whole map, I think it would be great to see.

The background noises and special effects I would think would be fairly simple to add.
Objects that affect where a mech can move or not is a bit more complex, but think about the capture points on the assault and conquest maps... or the turrets... as objects that can be added to the map.
A variety of points around a map could be setup to have a different obstacle which can be randomly determined at the start of the map.
Look at how the scout intel points are done randomly.
We do something similar for obstacles.

[Shiney]

Couldn't we just start with a pristine city and destroy buildings, start forest fires and make craters ourselves? Much more sensible and saves having to do new maps that look the same, to which I'd rather see 'new' maps. Of course new maps could be ruined cities.

[Fox the Apprentice]

I would rather have level designers working on level balance, but I do think this would be a cool idea.

[50 50]

Shiney, on 05 June 2016 - 03:12 AM, said:

Couldn't we just start with a pristine city and destroy buildings, start forest fires and make craters ourselves? Much more sensible and saves having to do new maps that look the same, to which I'd rather see 'new' maps. Of course new maps could be ruined cities.

There is some destruction that we can cause on the maps now which is great. I rather like the exploding columns on Crimson Strait. Great fun seeing a stray shot clip a column and BAM off falls a chunk.
Would love to see more of that.

This suggestion is more about the state of the map when we start and even tilted towards one state or the other based on real time of day. Eg: At the start of the hour the map is relatively untouched. But by the end of the hour, the maps show more damage. That way when you happen to get the same map 3 or 4 times in a row, it will feel like you've really been fighting over that location and will see the effects of the battle become more and more dramatic as you go along.
That would be cool.