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First thing that was very obvious from my first game, was that this map is going to absolutely screw with current player mentalities and play styles, and will wreck havoc in the single queue for some time. Too many players seem used to maps which hold your hand and guide you to certain areas, or have very specific paths and points teams are supposed to reach. This map, is the very first true open map in MWO and there's really no restrictions or hand holding at all. That said, there are obviously strategic points on the map, players just haven't found them yet.
And of course the first game I played simply saw both teams head dead forwards into the middle of the map and proceed to snipe at each other. Players just aren't used to having to be creative strategically. Hopefully this map will bring about a change in that.
The second rather noticeable trait of this map is the lack of 'wall style' cover. This is the very epitome of an open, flat map. And yes, LRMs are now an actual threat. Playing as a Wolfhound, I was playing around on the enemy's left flank, until I came face to face with an Awesome 8R... at around 800m. While on regular maps these fellows make... reasonable, but less than frightening adversaries, on Highlands these are bad news. And, being caught in the open, I proceeded to be chewed up and spat out.
It was frustrating. It's always been obvious why players, especially newbies, find LRMs frustrating. Getting shot up by something that can track you even seconds into loosing your opponent feels like you're beating cheated. But this is the first time in a long time that LRMs have killed me, let alone been a threat. And I did get myself stuck out in the open, so I kind of deserved it. Why shouldn't that heavily armoured Awesome be an actual threat that can kill me? If I had of charged the guy instead, he would have been at a huge disadvantage, so it seems balanced to me.
At first glance the map offers no cover either, but I don't think that's true. Despite the uniform appearance, each area on the map is quite different. The flat, open areas, they're killing fields. Snipers and LRMs reign here. But the trench areas, of which are spread across the entire map, are quite deep and do provide quite a lot of cover both to LRMs and LoS. Finally, the small bases dotted around the map are fairly decent and, if you keep those around you, are a good fall back point if the enemy is LRM heavy. Most of all though, if players go with the traditional mentality of trying to hold a point and poke the enemy, then yes, LRMs become significantly more dangerous.
But ultimately, this map feels... more right than anything else. For one, it does bring a nostalgic feel to it, although it's more of a trench map and hardly the rolling hills style I've been yearning for. That openness though... it feels so good! I don't feel like it's an artificial world designed to give esports style gameplay, it feels like an actual battlefield. One that you can invent strategy on. Scouting actually feels useful now, because the map is quite large, but unlike Alpine doesn't give you points that give you a view over the entire battlefield. There's no centre point, and thus there's no real need to rotate. And it's very, very different to other maps and thus shakes things up a lot. I think a lot of players are frustrated at the map because their traditional meta builds suddenly aren't necessarily the most effective on the map.
So yeah. I think I'm really liking the map, and I really hope we see more maps with this more open, battlefield style (not necessarily flat) going forwards in the future. Good job PGI!
Edited by Dingo Red, 19 January 2016 - 04:11 PM.
