14 replies to this topic

[TLBFestus]

The best modification of an existing map we have EVER seen.

Honestly....look at it.......the big picture....

If you took Mordor and flattened it....crushed the volcano and covered it in snow, the reduced all the other peaks by 50-60 percent....you are done.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing...matter of fact I quite like the map...HUGE IMPROVEMENT.

It's just a huge improvement of an existing map, and I APPLAUD them for it. IMHO opinion it's not truly "new", it's more along the lines of the improvements that they made on the other existing maps..... Forest Colony and River City for example.

They just gave it a whole new name, said it's an "Alpine" improvement and called it a day.

It's a great map....played well, it's the most versatile map in the game..rewarding different play styles depending on how a team decides to use it. Good job!

I still say it's much closer in relation to Terra Therma than it is to Alpine. The layout is essentially a flattened and smoother Terra Therma then Alpine. the exception being it's colder, of course.

Love the map.....it's just not as new as we are being led to believe....it's a better Terra Therma.

[1Grimbane]

good point on the different play styles... i've run lurm boats brawlers assaults and light strikers all with great effect

Edited by 1Grimbane, 21 January 2016 - 09:33 PM.

[Lord Perversor]

TLBFestus, on 21 January 2016 - 09:15 PM, said:

The best modification of an existing map we have EVER seen.

Honestly....look at it.......the big picture....

If you took Mordor and flattened it....crushed the volcano and covered it in snow, the reduced all the other peaks by 50-60 percent....you are done.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing...matter of fact I quite like the map...HUGE IMPROVEMENT.

It's just a huge improvement of an existing map, and I APPLAUD them for it. IMHO opinion it's not truly "new", it's more along the lines of the improvements that they made on the other existing maps..... Forest Colony and River City for example.

They just gave it a whole new name, said it's an "Alpine" improvement and called it a day.

It's a great map....played well, it's the most versatile map in the game..rewarding different play styles depending on how a team decides to use it. Good job!

I still say it's much closer in relation to Terra Therma than it is to Alpine. The layout is essentially a flattened and smoother Terra Therma then Alpine. the exception being it's colder, of course.

Love the map.....it's just not as new as we are being led to believe....it's a better Terra Therma.

It's literally caustic valley on ice.

The volcano is now the hill summit, an open flat area, you can use it as shortcut but it puts you on disadvantage if the enemy caught you there unprepared or uncommited to cross it at top speed.

The awesome part of the map is the surrounding areas from that hill summit, lots of crevices and roads, now if you are get nascaring can choice to dive in some of those and try to delay them long enough until your team becomes aware and can just turn and return fire isntead just trying to keep nascaring faster around the central area.

[Troutmonkey]

I like the part where I can walk anywhere on the map and not get stuck on terrain, funnelled into a chock, or get trapped on the wrong side of an elevation.

The maps scale is good in that it promotes good gameplay by requiring scouts, and the lack of any dominating terrain features stops any spot becoming "the" goto spot. I've only played a couple of times but it also seems to lack the perquisites for Nascar.

Lastly.. damn does it look good or what? Playing this and then playing Alpine shows how dated the textures on older maps are.

[DaZur]

By definition all our maps are a composite of polygons so it's very true they all essentially share the same origin...

Seriously though, not sure what re-creation of the wheel was expected? The simple fact that by it's very design it positions a player to play differently if anything more strategically is enough of a fundamental change for me to accept it being "new / better".

[McMatt]

I love new map. So many new tactics to implement. It forces team to cooperate. Now they can do sand map like this. Like Tatooine. Where heat would be another point to consider.

[PocketYoda]

We need more jungle settings, deep forests, large cities (without stupid rivers) c'mon PGI..

[qS Sachiel]

McMatt, on 21 January 2016 - 10:13 PM, said:

I love new map. So many new tactics to implement. It forces team to cooperate. Now they can do sand map like this. Like Tatooine. Where heat would be another point to consider.

Yeah,

Even though there's not any real standing cover, save for the occasional mole-hill and fuel-dump, there's quite a few playstyles, all requireing good teamwork to win on this map.

[crustydog]

Time is a consideration on this map - move the wrong way at the start and you can blow the match.

This morning we had one match here where the last two enemy mechs simply just ran away. Superior speed and all that. The map is too big to hunt them down. So we ran out of time. Spent the last five minutes just walking along.

[Lord0fHats]

The map avoids the thing that I think plagues most of the games maps; superior fire positions. Because of the terrain and layout of Polar Highlands, there really isn't one spot that dominates the flow of the field. You can always flak using ridges, buildings, and ravines for cover. You can fight ranged or brawl.Both work. It's really all about team support.

My only real issue is there's no point in maps this big in an Arena Shooter. If we had meaningful objective gameplay (no I don't consider Conquest to count), then it be a different story. But the map is just too big for my tastes given that all we really do is blow up stompy robots.

Would like to see more maps like it though. PGI did a great job with the layout of this one.

[1Grimbane]

Samial, on 21 January 2016 - 10:31 PM, said:

We need more jungle settings, deep forests, large cities (without stupid rivers) c'mon PGI..

laaarge grid cities square blocks of hell no dam.n open areas meadows or even parks lol just grinding concrete (ferrocrete sorry)

[Wild Pegasus]

Lord0fHats, on 21 January 2016 - 11:27 PM, said:

My only real issue is there's no point in maps this big in an Arena Shooter. If we had meaningful objective gameplay (no I don't consider Conquest to count), then it be a different story. But the map is just too big for my tastes given that all we really do is blow up stompy robots.

I've said elsewhere that it looks big enough to do a 20v20 match on, and I kinda want to try that to see what happens. A full lance of each weight class and a fifth mixed lance with one of each. It'd probably be a trainwreck in practice, but in theory it seems like it could be fun!

[Blood Skar]

Polar Highlands is really just.....TOO BIG.

[cSand]

They should take Canyon, flip it upside down, fill the ravines with lava, and texture it with Mordor. Add structures/bridges to suit.

Yes, that big mountain in the middle and other deep areas would then become lava pits. And yes you should be able to fall into it and sink, and then die shortly after

Edited by cSand, 22 January 2016 - 01:40 PM.

[cSand]

Blood Skar, on 22 January 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

Polar Highlands is really just.....TOO BIG.

no such thing IMO


I know getting to the action in over 15 seconds is tough break for the average ADD riddled gamer, and unfortunately being used to instant gratification is a western societal issue that is just getting worse every passing second,

but it is nice to see these larger maps with more strategy involved than "gather up and NASCAR" or "gather up and PEEKABOO"

There are plenty of games out there that offer a rapid fire churn of kill-death-kill-death action and thank the good RNGesus MWO is not one of them