35 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

Just wanted to say thanks and congratulations to the map designers. It's good to see a new map become an instant favourite. I've been waiting for an MWO map inspired by the old Mechwarrior games since 2013 and it's finally here.

The new map has almost everything I've been asking for:

• No huge terrain features that limit movement or funnel players into set paths.
  
• Vast, open landscape, allowing basically any position to be attacked from any side.
  
• Very natural looking mountains and rock formations.
  
• Lots of visual cues that establish the scale of the map. Primarily buildings and vehicles, with great attention to detail.
  
• Relatively good mobility, few areas to get stuck.
  
• Great visibility, almost no fog.
  
• Conquest bases spread all over the map, really using the size of the map to force both teams to make strategical decisions early, instead of simply grabbing Theta and playing Conquest as team deathmatch.
  
• Very nice backdrop. Unlike the River City mountains, the mountains on Polar Highlands don't look like arbitrary borders around a computer game arena. The cliffs look natural and real.

My only complaints are the relative lack of sound effects (I'd love to hear the wind better, and maybe some sounds from the vehicles and buildings) and the fact that the night cycle is too bright. (I know that snow reflects light, but as a Norwegian who has seen his share of desolate, snowy landscapes at night, I feel it could be a bit darker)

Frankly, I find all complaints about this map rather ridiculous. It's about time we have a public match map where long range builds can excel. This map feels real. Battlefields don't always have huge trees or massive pillars of stone bursting out of the ground to block incoming artillery. This takes me back a decade or so, to the times when I was a gunner on a tank in the Norwegian army. I learned to fight in landscapes such as this. I earned the callsign 'Ghostbuster' on a live firing exercise in a place like this. A slightly amusing story, I think.

Spoiler

As a gunner on a tank, you usually depend on a lot of people to decide when and where to fire. Your tank commander gives you a target, your loader loads the ammo you need and you often rely on spotters to point out targets and report the success of your attacks. So we were doing a live fire drill at night on a snow-covered mountain.

Another tank in the squadron calls out a target. We're standing still and the target is stationary. I find it quickly, my tank commander orders me to fire and I put a 105 mm shell right through it. As I fire the cannon, we're naturally covered by a huge cloud of snow and smoke. But then another tank in my squadron reports "Target hit, but not down. Still in position" So I start the firing drill again, we reload and my tank commander gives the order to fire again. Except I can't see **** through my periscope or through thermal (i.e. heat vision) because of all the snow from the first shot. So in a split second, I decide that since both we and our target are stationary and since I've already locked on his position and distance, I can just fire a second shot without actually getting a visual. So, looking at nothing but a white wall of snow and smoke, I fire the second shot.

Suddenly my company commander is on the radio. "112, what the **** are you doing? There's no target there. You're shooting at ghosts. 112-2, you are hereby known as 'Ghostbuster'."

Not my fault, really. They said the target was still there. I guess I could have waited a few more seconds, but f*** it. If that was a real situation, I would rather fire one time too many than wait for a shell to come back in my direction!

So for a variety of reasons, the new map feels like home. Thanks for making the map, PGI. Good to be home.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Edited by Alistair Winter, 28 January 2016 - 02:04 AM.

[Uncl Munkeh]

LOL. It "could" be bigger.

With Landmines. :-)

[Aethon]

I am far from a white knight when it comes to PGI, but...they really knocked it out of the park with this map. The River City changes were nice as well, but this map really brings me enjoyment like I have not had in this game since the Centurion was introduced.

[Monkey Lover]

Now if only people would vote for it haha

[Malleus011]

More like Polar, please - desert dunes, tidal flats, lush farmland, airless moon, and misty highlands. More big maps that support fire and maneuver and role warfare.

[Alistair Winter]

Uncle Monkey, on 27 January 2016 - 10:37 AM, said:

LOL. It "could" be bigger.
With Landmines. :-)

It absolutely could! But then people would complain because they actually have to maneuver and pick their position before the fighting starts. So many MWO players would prefer it if the dropships put them down 500 meters from the enemy with direct LOS, so they could just start shooting as soon as their mech touches the ground

Aethon, on 27 January 2016 - 10:43 AM, said:

I am far from a white knight when it comes to PGI, but...they really knocked it out of the park with this map. The River City changes were nice as well, but this map really brings me enjoyment like I have not had in this game since the Centurion was introduced.

Absolutely. It's the first map since Canyon Network where I was both blown away by the artistry and had no complaints about the map design at all.

Monkey Lover, on 27 January 2016 - 10:47 AM, said:

Now if only people would vote for it haha

Yeah, it's brutal. I actually play Terra Therma twice as much as Polar Highlands now. I need at least a x10 modifier to play the new map. So many brawlers who don't want to deal with LRMs or enemy snipers, because "real men fight at 300 meters, herp derp"

Malleus011, on 27 January 2016 - 11:02 AM, said:

More like Polar, please - desert dunes, tidal flats, lush farmland, airless moon, and misty highlands. More big maps that support fire and maneuver and role warfare.

100%.

They could just make 5 versions of this map, with desert dunes, rolling grassy plains, etc, and then insert varying degrees of terrain (buildings, ruins, trees, boulders, etc) and it would make the MWO experience infinitely more enjoyable for me.

[William Mountbank]

Monkey Lover, on 27 January 2016 - 10:47 AM, said:

Now if only people would vote for it haha

Why vote for hard mode?

On Terra Therma: People know what to do without having to be creative: Run to middle, hesitate at entrance, die, fun times!
On Polar: Limitless possibilities, harsh situational awareness burden, standing still on hills no longer effective.

Simple choices man, simple choices.

[Anunknownlurker]

Just wanted to add another voice to this paean to Polar Highlands. It's not perfect, what is, but it is a great addition to the map cycle offering a new play style. Would I like all maps to be like this? No. Would I like more maps like this? YES.

Variety is one of the greatest things MWO has to offer me as a gamer.

[Karl Streiger]

Love this map either.... i drooped on it and loved in from the very first moment.
You really should run a YLW or a ButcherCrow on this map...its fun and you learn to use the terrain and the minimap

William Mountbank, on 28 January 2016 - 12:29 AM, said:

On Terra Therma: People know what to do without having to be creative: Run to middle, hesitate at entrance, die, fun times!

Terra Therma - always run in conquest:
Or when i learned to love my hatemap (btw. i was running an assault on conquest on terror therma and it was a great game - of course i've never seen theta during the whole match)


But you nailed it. People run lemming because they hope the first guy in the train has a clue.

[adamts01]

Conquest on this map can suck it. I'm in my Locust half the time and I refuse to spend the entire match running from point to point. They need to bring them in a little close. If you're a light on the other team and feel like capping, have fun, I'll be in the fight getting kills till we lose on points. Other than that, best map so far, it has everything.

[kesmai]

Although I really like the map, i have a hard time leveling assaults on it. Atm i just started with playing most is assaults and it's really tough. Mostly because they (kc, atlas stalker& hgn atm) are quite slow and I'm only able to get around 400 dmg and maybe a kill on a half decent match, because I end up alone whent trying to get into brawl range on this map. I guess it's my fault and i have to move better.

[TheArisen]

I love this map as well. You can have very fluid battles, each game has the potential to be different.

Close range mechs just need to understand you can't charge straight at the enemy. I take my Wubshee on this map and I don't have any issues with LRMS.

[KinLuu]

I do not like polar. Because I do not like the gameplay on it, I consider it boring.

A couple of minutes of walking, followed by a couple of minutes of trench warfare style poking, followed by a minute of cleaning up. Feels a lot like Boreal Vault. Just with more walking.

Unless the walking part improves, I will always vote against polar. I will rather play TT then polar.

[Eboli]

I love the map and agree with the positive comments above.

[Alistair Winter]

adamts01, on 28 January 2016 - 01:19 AM, said:

Conquest on this map can suck it. I'm in my Locust half the time and I refuse to spend the entire match running from point to point. They need to bring them in a little close. If you're a light on the other team and feel like capping, have fun, I'll be in the fight getting kills till we lose on points. Other than that, best map so far, it has everything.

I never let people convince me that I should do that anyway. The bases are so far apart, it's not like conquest on most maps, where the fighting takes place at Theta and the light circle the periphery to capture bases. On Polar Highlands, the fighting almost has to happen in several areas, so light mechs should participate in the fighting. They should be supporting their teammates, not running off to cap alone.

kesmai, on 28 January 2016 - 01:35 AM, said:

Although I really like the map, i have a hard time leveling assaults on it. Atm i just started with playing most is assaults and it's really tough. Mostly because they (kc, atlas stalker& hgn atm) are quite slow and I'm only able to get around 400 dmg and maybe a kill on a half decent match, because I end up alone whent trying to get into brawl range on this map. I guess it's my fault and i have to move better.

Slow Assault mechs are particularly vulnerable to poor teamwork, so it's mostly about being proactive and trying to get your team to work together, I think. Fast assault mechs, heavy mechs and medium mechs are able to adjust more easily when the team makes bad decisions, and they're also able to put themselves on the front line faster.

As a slow assault mech with low hardpoints and low range, I think you have to find a way to get your team to play your game, otherwise you're going to have a bad time. Easier said than done, of course. Especially on the European server, where there is minimal teamwork.

[patataman]

I love this map, the terrain is realistic, allows brawling, sniping, lrming, scouting, and it's big enough to do any kind of maneuver without reaching the "wall".

So far i had no problems when playing brawlers, i had great matches in my wubmaster or my mg/lbx arrow. The only thing i don't like is when both teams go to the center and start rotating around a small hill. But that is not the map's fault.

[Steinar Bergstol]

Absolutely love Polar. Like Alistair says, to a Norwegian it feels like home (although I didn't spend my military service freezing my arse off in a tank up north in the arse end of the country. I served in the airforce rather than the army and managed to get myself posted at the HQ at Rygge Airbase down south where the temperatures are a bit more tolerable during the winter).

So far I've only run Marauders and Warhammers on it because that's what I'm grinding up these days, but I'm not having any of those troubles some People seem to have with staying out of sight and avoiding LRM storms. Stick to the trenches until you get to a good range and Things will (generally) work out in a not-horrible manner.

[Anunknownlurker]

@KinLuu - There are so many "instant gratification" multiplayer games available that for MWO to thrive it has to offer something else. Maps that offer the game play of Polar Highlands could form part of that offer:

So, it takes five minutes to find the enemy: Great, it allows fast movers to scout, spot the enemy location, report back to the heavy hitters. Skirmishing pilots can flank and harass the enemy. The main group has time to form up - no more slow reacting King Crab getting ganked on spawn (Crimson Strait B2 spawn anyone?). If I want spawn camping headshots I am pretty sure I can find a game out there somewhere.

As I said in my earlier post....VARIETY.

[Kjudoon]

Here is what I find hilarious.

The biggest complainers are high tier players. On sure the underhive has some but nowhere near the quantity or quality... Or lack therof in the complaints.

And all "solutions" are to essentially turn it into frozen city.

[Vervuel]

Couldn't agree more. Love the new map, love it with lrms (feels soooo dirty lol), love it in my lg pulse banshee. Bout the only thing that blows is a brawler Atlas on Polar, mainly cuz of the speed thing. But I can see why people detest it: farming. Its fun to play, but takes a long time to finish. Other maps like Frozen City can be stomped in 2 minutes or so. So for the space-poor, Polar feels like a total drag, and is uneconomical for earning the cash for those double heat sinks.

P.S.Love the tanker story!