138 replies to this topic

[Derek Oldblood]

My Locusts love this map,
running around, with plenty of place to hide my small mech and harrass at close range the enemy team from behind or kill the lone LRM barge.
Scouting, calling up artillery , running away at full speed, just fantastic.

Alot of space and way to play on this map.

Great job!

Edited by Derek Oldblood, 20 January 2016 - 01:40 AM.

[Hades Trooper]

Beik Ross Norst, on 19 January 2016 - 12:51 PM, said:

as if the sniper game (meta) wasn't bad enough, gauss and erLL - clans will be even more OP on this one

If you think clans are OP, your delusion and i'd suggest medication.

[Kh0rn]

Feels MWLL like and that is a good thing.

[Scanz]

good map .. feels like mw4 sometimes at this moment

[Kjudoon]

I love this map too. I've only done 2 matches on it, but I love the fact scouting matters. Range is beautiful. You really need to keep your head down and think about what you're doing. Lots of cover, but not from LRMs, just DF spam so breaking lock and spotting is really emphasized in what I saw.

Of course if you run medium LRMishers, you're going to have a blast.

[NeoCodex]

This map sounds fun. I might actually reinstall again.

[Tuann]

it is a wonderfull map, the best made so far.
it feels incredibly vast and open, but so many hidden movement paths available, you really have to look for the enemy and they can be anywhere. majestic !

keep up tis work !

[Kjudoon]

Tuann, on 20 January 2016 - 01:54 AM, said:

it is a wonderfull map, the best made so far.
it feels incredibly vast and open, but so many hidden movement paths available, you really have to look for the enemy and they can be anywhere. majestic !

keep up tis work !

Imagine how crazy this will be if they ever get random spawn points put in.

[Yozzman]

Brought a lurm boat... It was glorious

[Jaqir]

In progress of skilling up my ECM Cicada as this map made appearance. Much fun was had.

Leaning towards really liking the map. Plenty of open space, plenty of places to hide, no obvious attack paths, enough room for flanking moves... Makes for a very versatile map with loads of options for approach. Sure, there are some builds and tactics that might seem favoured, but really it's just the map telling you to be smart and to communicate with the team.

More of these please. For CW as well.

[Dingo Battler]

What people are upset about is that brawling can only happen 50/50. You can try to move through cover, but if they decide to snipe or lurm in an attack line, there's not much you can do. There's only so far you can flank.

It's great for any other archtype, but brawlers really suffer.

[Zephonarch II]

It's an awesome map. You can make good use of ppcs and lrms in this map. But is this just a long range map? No, if you can stay low in the trench-like paths and avoid peaking over the hills where snipers may be waiting you can see your entire team slowly crawl up to the hill to about 200m away from the enemy.

My first match in this was a stomp based on a build of 4mls, an ac10, and ams on a slow non-speed-tweaked Enforcer. Just pushed slowly behind hills, co-ordinating with the VOIP players. Seriously, if you load up with a Close Range build, just proactively stay low, and you'll devastate the enemy. Just like Alpine, except in Alpine there are too many long open corridors ESPECIALLY up the main mountain. That map really depends on if you rush faster than the other team, but in Polar Highlands, there's WAAAAYYY more cover. Just no mountains. So watch where you walk.

And a point to note: Conquest on Polar Highlands is definitely Nascar based. The light mechs ought to just separate and cap points. Meanwhile teams should just focus on finding the other main body of mechs to eliminate their tails. It kind of needs a longer cap limit to make a cap war worth it, cause by the time a team wins with 750 pts you may only have just killed a few enemies. And everyone hates how unrewarding cap-only wins are. The pay-out sucks. No discussion.

Edited by Zephonarch II, 20 January 2016 - 08:21 AM.

[Luscious Dan]

My experiences on this map have been positive so far, win or lose. It's pretty, it has cover if you know how to use it, and it rewards good gameplay. Matches where we lose have generally been because our smalls don't scout, and/or chase the first Dorito they see and we end up with a poorly coordinated group. One big, passive group doesn't win here.

Main battle line plus effective scouting/misdirection from the lance of smalls and medium seems more important than ever here. On a map this big, whoever uses that speed advantage best will reap some serious benefits.

Edited by Luscious Dan, 20 January 2016 - 09:42 AM.

[PR1VATEER]

I really love the map too! Very realistic looking!

[Roadkill]

KBurn85, on 20 January 2016 - 02:31 AM, said:

What people are upset about is that brawling can only happen 50/50. You can try to move through cover, but if they decide to snipe or lurm in an attack line, there's not much you can do. There's only so far you can flank.

It's great for any other archtype, but brawlers really suffer.

I think it's more specific than that. SLOW brawlers really suffer. I played 2 games on Polar Highlands in a 58.5 kph Highlander IIC and it was fairly painful. I couldn't keep up with the team very well, and even when I could I had a hard time getting position to actually fight before the battle shifted again.

When I switched to my Hunchback IIC those problems went away.

Both are brawling builds.

Something else I noticed is that this map seems to punish gorilla arms more than a lot of other maps. Someone else already mentioned that the terrain boundaries seem to be a bit loose, so you'll often shoot a phantom hill when you think you're going to clear it. Low-slung arms make the map painful because you have to be really careful with your positioning to even be able to shoot.

[MischiefSC]

You can always flank, you just have to go way wide. I had a 1k match with 6 kills in a splatcat yesterday doing that on Polar. There isn't a place on the map where you're able to dig in 100% like other maps where you can be covered effectively on 3 sides from flanking.

This map strongly favors smart play. As such it results in more rolls when one side plays dumb and the other smart. One side settles in hoping to trade for the match, the other has 4 people flank. It turns into a route when one side rolls up the other side line, fighting 4 v 1 12 times. I've seen it 3 times. On was 12-0 match and a guy on the other team had a profanity filled "You stole my Cloudsong" grade fit. The others were in the 12-2 category.

Don't go middle, don't do a fast blitz when you push or you'll stretch yourself out. Scout and mind your flanks.

[Thunder Child]

Love the map. Need 3 more, though with different styles. Mainly it's the size. You actually have a proper skirmish, rather than an Arena Deathmatch in a 300m square box.

Next one should be something of similar size, but a proper Urban environment. I'm talking 30 floor skyscrapers, 8 lane highways (for sniper kill zones), and city blocks so that you have to travel down a 500m section of road before you can make a turn, rather than ducking between every second building. Maybe a couple of small side alleys that only lights can fit through, or low underpasses.

[TheCharlatan]

Finally got to try it.
IT IS AWESOME!

[Sunstruck]

I think Polar Highlands is a great map, definetly one of my favorites. Its plays completely different from any other map in that formation tactics and firing lines are really important. The vast size really makes you feel your weapon range and mech speed limitations.

I don't see how people are complaining about lack of cover, theres plenty of hills with line of sight cover, just get the radar deprivation module and LRMs won't be such a big problem.

The graphics are great too, it feels like there's less pop-in with this map, or its not as noticeable as in the others.

The only thing I've noticed that seems a little strange is that even if you have a titanium white mech camo the mech appears like a dark grey against the snow. Is it just me or does it seem like the camo paint schemes don't render correctly on distant mechs?

[Barantor]

The more I played it, the more I think people complaining about it are the ones that have to have 30 story tall buildings or cliffs to hide behind. I find the tactics refreshing and the need for scouts and LRMs is real. I have only been killed by LRMs when the entire enemy team rushed our position and we were overwhelmed.

I can see mobility being used to drag out the deathball in an organized team. I want more maps like this and then maps with complete cover like urban zones.

Bring a long range weapon and some AMS/ECM if you want, it actually works on other maps too....