204 replies to this topic

[DerHuhnTeufel]

Until you guys can stop this from being the third map selected every time, please remove this map from the rotation.

[BTGbullseye]

No. I like this map, even with my brawlers.

[VXJaeger]

Too big and open map. Not because of LRM-spam in every match in there, but because of drawing distance. You can see mech a 1,5km away but game doesn't show obstacles between you and it.

[Spare Parts Bin]

This map is inferior to Alpine Peaks. Alpine Peaks is the map they need to do like 3 more versions of one hot, one wet, one temperate.

[Void Angel]

Or they can trash the map as intended, since it's a mono-themed match that punishes short-ranged builds to an unfair degree - and which no one voted for until PGI announced that it was going away. Then suddenly, it's everyone's favorite map and they love it, and it's super great. Super great. Alpine Peaks, like spicy food, is a grand testament to the bloody-minded, foolish obstinacy of mankind.

Polar Highlands is a far superior offering.

[ForteDS]

Dear Piranha Games Inc.,

I'm here to raise awareness for the greatest blight infecting the game MechWarrior Online. It consumes thousands upon thousands of matches each day with no end to the madness in sight. This blight has but one name, Polar Highlands. Polar Highlands is an empty, desolate, somewhat flat, and highly boring corner of our universe with no resources, no strategic positioning, and no remotely livable space anywhere to be seen, and yet every day billions of C-Bills worth of Mechs find themselves wrecked in this snowy wasteland.

As many as one in four matches find themselves taking place on this frozen world due to it's high draw rate in the voting process, and pilots merely tolerate the hazardous conditions due to it being cool enough to make even their most poorly constructed energy builds somewhat viable. This, unfortunately, causes great maps like Mining Collective to go by the wayside, seldom appearing for warring factions to struggle for control of the highly valuable mines. This, my friends, means that Polar Highlands qualifies to be classified as a cancer. There are no snowstorms on this frozen world. Instead, many pilots bring their own weather in the form of LRM spam. Hundreds of missiles fill the sky, blanketing the surface only momentarily with warm explosions and, on occasion, catastrophic damage. Current projections show that at the rate of these explosions, this mysterious ice world will turn into a tropical hellscape of twisted metal and oil by the year 4826.

This doesn't have to be. With your consideration, we CAN reduce pointless conflicts on this mystical world, and increase glorious wars on other, more valuable worlds. Together, we can protect the native lands of the fakitsceldsmen, so that future generations may admire it's natural beauty for years to come.

With great hope,
ForteDS










tl;dr: Less Polar Highlands please. It's a boring and terrible map.

Edited by ForteDS, 27 March 2018 - 02:28 PM.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

Weisse, on 16 July 2017 - 03:18 AM, said:

Remove this map from the game: it is good only for LRM noobs and boring for all the others

For aimless Brawl Noobs in Max Zoom playstyle coming Solaris soon

Edited by Old MW4 Ranger, 28 March 2018 - 02:06 AM.

[Spare Parts Bin]

Void Angel, on 16 March 2018 - 07:29 PM, said:

Or they can trash the map as intended, since it's a mono-themed match that punishes short-ranged builds to an unfair degree - and which no one voted for until PGI announced that it was going away. Then suddenly, it's everyone's favorite map and they love it, and it's super great. Super great. Alpine Peaks, like spicy food, is a grand testament to the bloody-minded, foolish obstinacy of mankind.

Polar Highlands is a far superior offering.

Old MW4 Ranger, on 28 March 2018 - 02:06 AM, said:

For aimless Brawl Noobs in Max Zoom playstyle coming Solaris soon

I can be obstinant but Alpine Peaks is hardly the mono- dimensional one trick pony that Polar Highlands is. I love the old version, yes but the new version of Alpine is just as worthy. Play Assault and Conquest on this map with people who utilize more than their brain stems and you will see her allure.

Edited by Spare Parts Bin, 05 April 2018 - 07:33 PM.

[Void Angel]

I've played organized competitive matches on Alpine - my criticism stands. The problem with it is that it simply contains too many kill zones comprising too much open space, with too great an advantage to certain terrain features. You have two strategies on Alpine: charge the hill or go around the back. Polar, by contrast is dynamic; you have to pay attention to what the enemy is doing and where he is while keeping on the move yourself - the team that tries to camp the hill wins. Alpine, on the other hand consists entirely of trying to camp the hill! That one terrain feature dominates the map and forces tactical decisions into a small number of pre-ordained molds. That doesn't mean you can't apply tactics to Alpine, but they do mean less.

Brawling builds, for example, are extremely constrained. Unless I somehow manage to climb up the hill mostly intact, I'm going to get shot into fancy cheese before I can bring your weapons to bear. Polar requires brawlers to maneuver, but since I -can- maneuver, it's much more likely that I'll be able to get close enough to be effective without taking significant damage - provided I and my team properly utilize the terrain on the map.

[Spare Parts Bin]

Void Angel, on 05 April 2018 - 06:52 PM, said:

I've played organized competitive matches on Alpine - my criticism stands. The problem with it is that it simply contains too many kill zones comprising too much open space, with too great an advantage to certain terrain features. You have two strategies on Alpine: charge the hill or go around the back. Polar, by contrast is dynamic; you have to pay attention to what the enemy is doing and where he is while keeping on the move yourself - the team that tries to camp the hill wins. Alpine, on the other hand consists entirely of trying to camp the hill! That one terrain feature dominates the map and forces tactical decisions into a small number of pre-ordained molds. That doesn't mean you can't apply tactics to Alpine, but they do mean less.

Brawling builds, for example, are extremely constrained. Unless I somehow manage to climb up the hill mostly intact, I'm going to get shot into fancy cheese before I can bring your weapons to bear. Polar requires brawlers to maneuver, but since I -can- maneuver, it's much more likely that I'll be able to get close enough to be effective without taking significant damage - provided I and my team properly utilize the terrain on the map.

Play Conquest or Domination on that map or even Assault and the complexity of this map increases.

[Void Angel]

I've played them. They add nothing to the complexity of the map itself, and the game modes still suffer the same problem of excessive fields of fire with too little cover.

[Spare Parts Bin]

Void Angel, on 06 April 2018 - 04:42 PM, said:

I've played them. They add nothing to the complexity of the map itself, and the game modes still suffer the same problem of excessive fields of fire with too little cover.

Do not what to tell ya bro. I usually feel like I can win Conquest,Domination,and Assault with relatively simple strategies.

[ForteDS]

The sad thing is that if the same map was recolored with desert sand and had an ambient temperature of 85C, it would be the least played map in the game behind even Terra Therma and Caustic Valley. This map and it's popularity is a testament to just how low the bar can be set with a map just so some pilots can actually run their poorly heat managed mechs that overheat badly even on mild maps.

[Black Ivan]

Yeah, with the map PGI made a new redord in bad map design. I like maps like Crimson, but the redesigns are quite bad as well

[Spare Parts Bin]

Polar Highlands is not the worst map that would probably be the remake of Terra Therma.

[Requiemking]

Polar is hardly the worst map, but that doesn't mean it is immune from flaws. I personally think that two things need to happen to make the map more fun:

1) Add a crashed ship to the center. Right now the center is just a huge, flat plain with no cover or concealment. Placing a downed starship there would liven it up in my opinion(preferably a Pinto-class warship, because memes),

2) Make a network of tunnels under the snows. Just spiderweb the entire map. Big undersnow highways for Assaults to stomp along, small passages for Lights to dash in and out of. Make them twist and turn, so as to make Brawlers more desirable.

[Void Angel]

Honeycombing the map with tunnels might be fun, but it would also drastically change the tactical character of the map - I like the idea, but since it amounts to a total rework of the map's design, it'd probably be better seen in a new map (nudge, nudge.) The same thing goes with a large central obstacle - we have one, actually, in Domination, and it doesn't work so well in my opinion.

The only serious flaw I see in the map is the near-total lack of LRM cover, which might be solved putting in overhead cover that doesn't impede direct fire - like roofed parking areas with tiny buildings and vehicles, or antenna dishes atop thin towers - or perhaps by deepening the trenches in small areas (on the interior sides.) That would still keep the innovative tactical environment while possibly fixing the issues with LRM counterplay.

[Thrudvangar]

Someone has to hack pgi's server and delete this piece of s.hit.

[Kaschkin]

This map is by far the worst of the entire game. Why would anyone enjoy this? It's flat as a board with not enough cover and it's monochrome white... Boring to play on and to look at... This map was always atrocious but lately, with everybody bringing lrms, it's even worse! as if that was even possible!

Sorry for the rant but I'm quite bitter about this map shaped thing.

[Void Angel]

Several of us have spent a bit of time on this very thread telling you the answer to what you mistakenly believe is a rhetorical question.