204 replies to this topic

[Nothar]

I believe the maps fine. Having these long range maps really diversifies combat. If they would place destructible and indestructible cover much like "Forest Colony & emerald T" but more snow sci-fi like. It would increase heat/night vision usage. Its a win/win for everyone. More cover for close range mech's to mount strategy. Its the same rangy map just with more visual cover not hard cover. Thus sniping mech's become even more visually stimulated and in turn are required to perform.

[Nothar]

Desperately need increases to destructible environmental assets. IMO.

Edited by Nothar, 06 September 2017 - 03:43 PM.

[General Solo]

People need to use terrain masking moar.
When you start a game on Polar you see that map to your bottom right.
Looks like a face wid wrinkles.

Those wrinkles are your cover so terrian mask already.

Edited by OZHomerOZ, 06 September 2017 - 10:54 PM.

[Void Angel]

Covered and concealed routes are available to all common conflict points at all ranges. People just don't want to re-evaluate their impressions and seriously entertain the idea that inappropriate responses to the map are causing a lot of their problems. To reiterate, it doesneed better LRM cover - but it's really not a critical, map-breaking flaw.

[AJBennett]

...the map needs more LRM cover; not much just more, it gives unmotivated LRM spam jockeys way too much reward, advantage and reason to never move...just spam spam spam, but thats just me.

Edited by AJBennett, 15 September 2017 - 05:19 AM.

[Zarock]

Worst map in the game from my point of view. Its the only map I really dislike. Maybe because I like Brawlers, and a Brawler on Polar Lurmlands is in 7 out of 8 matches useless.

But here why I dislike it so much in some points:
- it looks the same. everywhere.
-no lrm cover whatsoever, enemy got a narcer and you can basically press override and start killing yourself to help them.
- the only tactic that works for me is to wait, play other games for 5 minnutes, come back and see if the snipers killed the other snipers, if not go back to play something else and when the long range mechs are dead, go kill whats left. exciting.
-walking times. Its like driving in countries with speed limits and long straight roads, boring as hell.
since usually the lrm boats vote for this, neither team pushes and the few that do go alone and die.
-maybe 1 in 10 games is quite good, 4 in 10 acceptable, the rest is terrible.
-the size of the map is acceptable for Faction Play, but way too big for a QP map

Since I dont just want to brad about it, here some suggestions to improve it:

-cut the map in half, it will still be big enough and walking times will be way better
-to the first point: you can still use the full map for FP
-more cover! some higher mountains, not as high as on alpine, but like on canyon or something like that (and no, not one mountain in the middle, please)
-speaking of canyon, how about one or two crevasses (? not sure if thats written right, not a native speaker), big enough to fit two or three mechs next to each other?
-there are some buildings, but in rather small areas, enlarge those!

changes like these wont completely take the lrm-spammers their advantages on this map, but will give other loadouts the chance to do something on the map than just sitting around and waiting for a fight.

[iNfUsi0N]

Zarock, on 15 September 2017 - 05:40 AM, said:

Worst map in the game from my point of view. Its the only map I really dislike. Maybe because I like Brawlers, and a Brawler on Polar Lurmlands is in 7 out of 8 matches useless.

and other guys like snipers or lurms.

[Void Angel]

I prefer brawling, but the main problem for brawlers on this map is the same problem for brawlers on every map - too many people don't understand when and how to just... follow the fracking Atlas.

[PFC Carsten]

Initially, I did not like Polar Highlands. But then I learned how to adapt.

[Zarock]

iNfUsi0N, on 15 September 2017 - 11:56 AM, said:

and other guys like snipers or lurms.

I get that. I specifically stated that this is my point of view. And I play snipers, too (sometimes). I dont want anyone to quit their playstyle. My intention was to show what could be improved about the map, since on most maps, you can play snipers, brawlers or lrm boats or whatever and everything can work. But on this specific map, one playstyle is nerfed while others are buffed and I think thats not fair. Additionally, the map we had which was perfect for brawling, Frozen city, got changed so its now mid and long range in big parts. Which is okay in my opinion, but if we have maps that benefit long range mechs and snipers, we also need maps that benefit Brawl-mechs.
Also I dont want the map to be taken out of the game, but re-worked, with a list of changes.

[Damnedtroll]

I would like a flatter map, like huge agricultural field 1000m long between two city, with more or less no cover, maybe a bunch of tree on the side of a river passing between the two city.

We don't have open map when in most of the time, everywhere in the world, the terrain doesn't have 20m ditch all over the place or 300m vertical hill......

We don't have true open space map beside maybe a part of the center of Polar highland but we have huge 30m trench all around it...

[amenophis]

I do not have a problem with this map at all. It's fun o sneak around in the trenches. My problem with it is it is played to often and this makes it get boring after about 4 to 5 time in a row. This happens to often.

[Void Angel]

Damnedtroll, on 23 September 2017 - 03:51 PM, said:

I would like a flatter map, like huge agricultural field 1000m long between two city, with more or less no cover, maybe a bunch of tree on the side of a river passing between the two city.

We don't have open map when in most of the time, everywhere in the world, the terrain doesn't have 20m ditch all over the place or 300m vertical hill......

We don't have true open space map beside maybe a part of the center of Polar highland but we have huge 30m trench all around it...

Well, that's because an open map would suck. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you make a huge kill zone with no way through, you've invalidated more than half of the weapon systems in the game - and the map availability is semi-random. This would be a huge frustration, and very bad for the game.

Of course, this is a serious response to someone named "Damnedtroll," so rest assured that I have pondered the source. =)

[Mkv122]

WORST MAP
Map for LRM cowards only
[Redacted]

Edited by draiocht, 03 February 2018 - 05:32 PM.
unconstructive

[dpf1110]

First off, dont get this as hate torwards the map. It is true that I dont particularly like this map, since I mostly play mid to short range builds, but thats about it. However, there is one big problem I have had with this map since it was introduced: it is literally unplayable on low spec systems, such as my laptop. My laptop might be a little bit old, but it is still good enough to play this game. If I put the game on low graphics, it runs quite well and everything is alright. On most maps. Since I had to increase my brightness by a little (due to some stupid bug that made everything darker on my pc) the map has become next to unplayable. A lot of times, the sky and the ground take on the same colour, so that you cannot see anything but you teammates and the GUI. Since this was probably not the intention of the dev team, I sincerely hope that they will fix this, since playing on this map with my laptop has become quite hard, since I now need to increase the texture settings by quite a bit, for it to show any positive results.

[BTGbullseye]

That's actually a screen calibration issue... Your contrast is set way too low.

Use this site to help calibrate your screen. http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

[Void Angel]

Yeah, you should be able to see everything clearly; the map is clear as day on my machine.

The reason people hate Polar is generally failure to adapt, with a large side of LRM imbalance. The one valid critique of the map is that it doesn't have enough cover to avoid LRMs against a determined spotter, which leads to matches where the outcome is almost entirely determined by team composition - if you don't have anyone fast enough to stop their scout/spotters or spot for your own team, it's going to be a long day.

Most of the whining, however, comes from the fact that you cannot simply find your favorite camping spot and peek the enemy to death - unless they're trying the same thing, of course. The map is deceptively flat-looking, consisting of long, low hills broken up by low-lying cuts and valleys. This means that cover is uniquely defeatable by maneuvering, since a long, low ridgeline becomes a long, shallow valley when you've gotten around the flank and positioned yourself for enfilading fire.

This is not the way most players have learned to play the game; most people will begin a match by running toward their favorite hiding rock and then trying to trade with the enemy. They may maneuver a bit; the teams might circle a central landmark trying to catch each other's rear elements, but just as often they will sit at a strong point and try to kill the enemy from there. You can't do that on Polar Highlands if the enemy is maneuvering, so a lot of players get crushed, analyze the map, and learn from their mistakes! Haha, just kidding - they complain about it endlessly, for pages and pages, blaming everything from LRM superiority to 'crap' design for their failure to live up to their species name.

But I digress. Check out your contrast settings, and you should find whole new vistas (eh? eh?) of gameplay opening up to you.

[DerHuhnTeufel]

Map is just way too big. Cover would be less of an issue if the map was compressed a little more.

[Damnedtroll]

Void Angel, on 23 October 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:

Well, that's because an open map would suck. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you make a huge kill zone with no way through, you've invalidated more than half of the weapon systems in the game - and the map availability is semi-random. This would be a huge frustration, and very bad for the game.

Of course, this is a serious response to someone named "Damnedtroll," so rest assured that I have pondered the source. =)

If you cannot choose your loadout ( like now...), yep, an open map could suck if you have unbalanced meta short range weapons only loadout... but with someway to change your payload for the drop or at least with build with a backup lr weaponry for closing range, an open map with some rare spot of cover would be different and fun.

[Void Angel]