I hear people want a city map. Cant help, and PGI is all excuses as usual. All I can do is perhaps make you want it even harder.
Also posted here because I might want to link to it later in its own thread:
---
I have created a block-concept of a city map. And paint-over concept art for a part of it.
I used a yellow MAD-3R called banana to indicate the scale. But then I made Steiner and Davion Marauders to take us on a long tour of the block map instead. Using 3DS Max. Rigged using CAT using an automated walk cycle and rendered in "Quick"silver hardware renderer. Its been emotional.
Music borrowed from 'Dark Reign' (It's close to MW2 music but not MW2 again) and 'Emperor Battle For Dune - Harkonnen - Victory is Inevitable' to fill for Steiners half of the tour.
The city and its lore is my own creation, the battle would take place during the Battletech novel 'End Game' after the battle at Salat City (which was a minor flavour story in the novel used to represent many similar battles in other unnamed cities).
6 minute (sorry) animated tour:
Paintover:
Compilation of renders.
Spoiler
Map view with grid, bounds and game mode positions.
Spoiler
Aerial view with landmark labels:
Spoiler
Lore:
Saratov, Tikonov
Capellan March
Federated Suns
30 June 3065
A city situated on the travel corridor between the city of Salat and Arano Bay. Saratov is a commercial and industrial hub connecting a large arid farming and mining region to Tikonov's larger cities via rail, road and sea. Saratov exists due to mining and ore refining, much of its residences are workers apartments and hotels all serviced by low quality restaurants, street vendors, bars, brothels and entertainment arcades. Half the city are long term permanent residents that live in run down grey concrete apartment complexes.
After routing the Federated Suns in Salat Katrina Steiners forces continued on-wards toward their goal of retaking the mech production facilities in Arano Bay. The forces left behind by Prince Victor Steiner-Davion could only delay their advance. One small old and dilapidated coastal city in their path named Saratov provided ideal cover to hide ground forces and delay their advance. The resulting intense city fight lasted for days, every street hard fought by infantry, tanks and battlemechs on both sides but like so many other minor battles in the FedCom Civil War it was soon forgotten and ultimately in vain when Tikonov fell easily to the Capellan Confederation a few years later.
More Lore
Spoiler
Landmarks:
Pioneer Memorial - A large concrete ring raised by large columns. In its center is a iron sculpture representing the regions earliest settlers.
Union Tower - A tall flat topped pyramid shaped building. The buildings top three quarters are purely residential and houses some of the wealthiest residents while the bottom half is commercial and filled with offices and shops.
Ceres Complex - At 310 meters tall (mast not included) the Ceres Complex is Saratov's tallest structure. It is a dark steel and ferro-crete rabbit warren of shops, eateries, hotels, residences offices and even manufacturing. The top section of the complex is almost a separate entity from the lower half and contains the regional offices of various Ceres Metals Divisions and other mining and manufacturing companies.
Saratov Hospital - This large hospital services multiple cities in the region. It provides a level of merely adequate care that citizens on other Federated Commonwealth planets would consider at least a hundred years behind their standards.
Drainage Outflow - When it rains in Saratov, the streets become rivers. The drainage canal system helps funnel the floods out of the inner city and into lakes on either side. The lakes have collected a lot of Saratov's trash over the years.
Shanty Towns - Jobs shortages running for centuries have made living in shanty towns a normality for much of Tikonov's population.
Overpasses - Rail and road traffic, mostly industrial freight passes right through the middle of Saratov's inner city on its way to other centres. The sea-port is serviced by a railway running high above the city floor that connects to inland mines.
Design rationale:
Spoiler
Dense city map with a goal to providing opportunities for all build types.
The map will favour close range brawlers as they can move about using buildings and canals as cover from long range weaponry. There are plenty of positions for snipers and LRMs to provide support where there are large open areas and long sight corridors.
The map is quite small in terms of distance between bases. It could be enlarged if testing deems it too small. But any extra size usually equates to more walking and more map circling potential rather than more places to fight. The claustrophobia of the inner city more than doubles the actual distance to travel on the ground levels.
There is a direct overpass between the bases. It would probably would get removed or modified if it didn't test well. Its only really a concern in the modes with bases.
Conquest nodes. Are there. I'd look at finding better locations in play testing.
Tunnels and alleys are very narrow (for mechs anyway). This makes it hard to camp a brawler army inside one tunnel and ambush with more than one at a time. Positioning to allow multiple mechs to focus fire and moving forces to avoid the enemies shooting galleries will be critical to success.
A Viper can reach the tops most of the buildings either directly or using other structures as a launch pad.
Give assault jump jets a reason to exist. Cutting travel time in half and increasing survival odds by jumping out of canals gives assault jump jets a reason to exist. If only we could select our mech after the map selection!
Taking notes about what doesn't work well in existing MWO maps:
Almost all detail is inconsequential surface clutter (fences, cars, trees, awnings, cables etc )that do not affect a mechs movement. All rocks and objects that stop a mech dead in its tracks will be carefully placed out of the way to allow for light mechs to take advantage of map flow without getting stuck and instantly killed while running and gunning.
Most buildings at ground combat level will have flat walls to remove all unambiguity between collision hulls and display mesh.
No half-mech high structures that specifically disadvantage low mounts.
No sharp gradations that hinder walking and shooting like the floor panelling on HPG, the steps on Viridian Bog and the spiky polygonal terrain on Terra Therma.
Terrain is relatively flat to avoid most LOD problems, any height features should be modelled.
Time of day and weather variations - Night, rain, fog and thunderstorms add variations. Doing proper city lighting will probably trash performance, so I would separate the map into day/night versions in case its not possible. I wouldn't want another River City where you cant see anything without sitting one inch from your screen with night vision switched off.
Art rationale:
Spoiler
Design influence was taken from Tikonov's history described as being descendant from the Asian continent, the soviet influences in its social design from places like its capital Tikograd that is heavily sectioned into sectors by walls, the descriptions of the city of 'Salat' in the FedCom civil war novel 'End Game' that has dark canyon-like streets poor visibility due to a storm, brick and ferro-crete buildings and a street called Kowloon Avenue (Perhaps meant to give the reader an impression of Hong Kong's Kowloon walled city). Overall the city is run down from decades of neglect.
Seconded. I'd love to fight in that terrain. Although I can't help but imagine low end computers having a digital aneurysm trying to render all that city scape.
---
Anyway, I have map ideas, but I'm too lazy to create imagery, so I'll just describe it and hope someone picks it up and runs with it.
BioFuel Farm
The battle area is a flat rolling plain, not unlike Polar Highlands. Unlike Polar Highlands however, the environment is temperate and most of the plain is farmland, interspersed with the occaisional patch of woods and farm buildings, and crisscrossed with roads and irrigation canals. Daylight and weather of course are variable.
But here's the catch: the crops being grown are fodder for biofuel used in internal combustion engines (not used by mechs, but is used by many of the support vehicles in the Inner Sphere armies. As a result, stray weapons fire - especially ENERGY weapons fire - into the crops has a chance to set them on fire (flamers are practically guaranteed to start a fire). And that fire will spread to the rest of the field, limited only from spreading everywhere by the roads and irrigation canals (that's what they're there for). Temperature in burning areas is very high, like being in Terra Therma. But the fires also raise clouds of smoke that are blinding to all vision modes, so a heavily damaged mech might find it useful to duck into one to escape pursuit.
Major Spaceport
Most of the map is a space port where lots of Dropships come and go. The players are fighting over it of course. Nominally, the entire port is completely flat. However, line of sight is broken up by terminal buildings, hangars, launch gantries, and most of all, abandoned Dropships everywhere. Some are Spheroids sitting on their launch gantries. Many are aerodynes, some at the terminal, some stopped in the middle of taxiing across the field, and some sitting on runways ready to launch or just landed.
The map's gimmick: Dropship type and placement is completely random. There are dozens of designated Dropship spawn points of which only about half or so (randomly determined) will actually be used. The Dropship model spawned with also be random, although appropriate to the spawn point (ie, you won't find a spheroid on a runway). What's more, some of the Dropship models will have open doors so that a mech could hide inside one. Or fight inside one. Or just run through it by going in one door and out the other. Every wondered what the inside of an Overlord or Union looked like?
Your see? How many interesting offers. If only the PGIs gave the community the opportunity to make maps. Probably, with proper selection, we would have many new maps.)
My Idea (based of a old Work in progress MWO Map-most Buildings Placeholder-no textured and with no Details)
1: Jarlton, Ko Lyons-Thumb, Freedom-Theater, Lyran Alliance 3062
2: Map Concept
Example Map with 9 yellow Targets (here Sabotage generators for Factory Power )
2 Teamspawns Red in the South Backlands /Blue in the Northern Military base
...this map has no "Im Here !-Doors" and the seeting with a little Spaceport ,Factorys and little Urban Seetings (Bars,Hotels,Warehouses,Villages for Personal) and a Little Militarybase in the Northand has many Place for different Objective Seetings and Goals (sabotage, Orbitalgun in Base ) Terrain is Desert with rolling Hills and enough Cover for dynamic Routes and Tactical Movement.
Little Video from the Map
3:(Background from my Friend Friend..very thanks!!! my own Interest to BT ended with the Clans...and English not my mother Language)
While not directly part of the FedCom Civil war, the incident of Ko already showed the unrest in the former Federated Commonwealth.
With operation Guero in 3057 (Marik and Liao attacking the FedCom) the proud worlds of the former Terran Hegemony declared their independence - this territory should later be known as Chaos March.
To prevent such unrest in the Lyons Thumb - Theodore Kurita send “peacekeeping” troops (9 regiments) into that region. While they did not formally annexed the population of this worlds felt like being invaded. And their leaders did nothing, the even welcomed the "help". A obvious mistake, the population of those worlds and the nearby Skye March had a long history of hostility with the Combine. On Lyons DC troops even massacred a complete village.
The complete cluelessness of Steiner Davion became obvious in those months.
In 3058 the Black Dragon society a ultra nationalist group of high level persons made a move and attacked the planet Towne in the March Draconis. While that invasion was a failure and the involved 15th Dieron Regulars were disgraced, the heads behind this operation stayed in the dark.
Until they made their next move in 3062 with the attacks on Alshain, Skye and Robinson.
The 1st Skye Jaeger were a freshly formed unit that recruited from the most loyal sons and daughters of a combat theater - and was part of the Alliance Jaeger brigade. In July 3062 Skye the capital of the Isle was attacked by troops that looked like the 15th Dieron regulars. They made a successful raid on the Cyclops Inc warehouses and escaped.
Eager to prove their worth Colonel Pitcher of the Skye Jaeger only needed the touch of a clue to jump on the 15th Dieron. Their involvement in the Town debacle made them a perfect scapegoat.
So the regiment attacked their headquarters on Ko only 2 weeks later with 2 battalions strength (2 Overlords)
Coming with a full 2g burn from a pirate jump point and looking only like a single dropship the Regulars had not enough time to rally.
In the midst of a sandstorm both units clashed in the desert near Jarlton.
Three times the Skye Jaegers broke the line of the Regulars until the DCMS unit broke and fled.
Pitcher did not pursuit and salvaged what they could and left the planet.
While the Jaegers were distinguished with the Dragonslayer’s Ribbon, the DC used this incident to formally annex the Lyons Thumb. This should have caused reaction by the ruler of the Lyran Alliance, but before this could happen, Victor Steiner Davion started the Civil War.
4:Lore:
a Little Story writed from my Friend
1 August 3062
The sensor blip only appeared for a mere second, for Gunsho Youssef Fahas not enough to recognize. A fraction of a second however, was enough for the Matabushi Sentinel tracking system to mark the position on the map.
Fahas cursed the sandstorm that allowed the invaders to come that far, he cursed the planet even more. The irony wasn’t hidden to him. He was disgraced, his former rank of a Chu-i was taken away and his Daikyu was in poor condition. Only because the did tried to capture a planet that was not part of the Lyons Thumb. The only difference was that they had a formal excuse to hold FedCom territory. Theodore Kurita did sent them as peacekeepers and only a fool could believe this nonsense. The inhabitants of this planet were no fools, the work on the Yamato style building next to the spaceport only had begun when a rural exodus started. And those Lyran citizens that stayed were hostile.
The Daikyu was rounding the Yamato style office building. The triangular shape and the non concealed metal beams, a typical symbol of the Combines administrative might. It was the headquarter of his regiment, erected three years ago by loyal companies from Proserpina and Benjamin.
Four years ago Fahas might have had his own bureau in this complex, maybe overlooking the bay in the east or the dying city in the west. But after Towne this chance was gone, forever.
His wide striding steps came to an abrupt halt. A blue and white shape charged from the midst of the sandstorm. It was a Zeus-6S an old well worn model. Where his Daikyu was a race car the 6S was a 4x4. Where the Daikyu was an elegant fencer, the Zeus was a heavyweight boxer that kept fighting after tremendous damage.
Fahas braced the legs of his Mechs to the ground and raised the arms.
Both his Imperator Ultra ACs spit fire. Several 80mm rounds found their mark on the blue white checkers of the Zeus left shoulder housing.
The massive Mechs shrugged off the damage and kept coming without answering the fire. Fahas cleared the office building, the metal and glass construction disturbed his targeting locks. After two steps he got a much better lock. He triggered an alpha strike, a grave risk.
In the baking oven of Ko’s desert, even the eleven heat-sinks with increased capacity were not enough to keep the temperature on a safe level.
The Zeus stumbled. For an instant it looked like he was losing the fight with gravity, but he kept on both legs. Although the left arm with the AC was missing.
The Daikyu pilot should have known better. It was the third engagement of the 15th Dieron Regulars with the 1st Skye Jaegers in the last couple of hours. Every Time the attackers lured the defenders in to use more weapons than they could manage and to expose themselves. When they could barely move, cooking in the heat of their cockpits, the Jaegers used violence and concentrated fire to dispatch those warriors.
It were only a dozen meters into the cover of the building complex, but it could have been a hundred meters or more.
Two medium Mechs were clearing the huge rocks in the southeast. A Cobra moved through the gaps between the rocks, the Coventry LRMs had an instant lock on the Daikyu. The second, a dangerous Hunchback, used his jump jets to jump right into Fahas left flank.
The blowing wind of the sandstorm made it an almost impossible maneuver, almost.
With blaring overheat warnings and the whining messages of different target locks the poor Daikyu pilot almost missed the Barghest. The Skye Jaeger raised on his four short thick legs from the waters of the sea.
The water was shallow eight meter in depth. No BattleMech should have closed the distance without being spotted.
In the next moment, the sky was falling. 45 Long Range Missiles rocked Fahas’ Mech. Several missed the marked and blew several stories of the building.
Although the sandstorm dispersed some of the killing light, the remaining force of multiple laser weapons were enough to cut deep into the Daikyu’s armor.
The killing blow however came from both Defiance Disintegrator LB 20-X of the Hunchback and Barghest. Both used pellets and the force of multiple hits at the same time smashed the Daikyu to the ground.
It hurt, the belts were cutting deep into his flesh when they kept him bound to the seat.
A quick glance at the diagnostics showed heavy armor damage. The thick transplex armor of his canopy had a crack - but all systems were nominal. Youssef Fahas decided that he would not take the disgrace of losing his Mech. He tried to remember his death haiku. Knowing the odds were stacked against him he would not survive. But that Zeus would die with him. “The sound of drums….”
His own voice lent him strength while he used the full modeled hands of his Daikyu to rise again.
His throat felt bone-dry when he croaked the words in the sauna of his cockpit
“Path to the spaceport is clear!”
Not yet. The DCMS Mech was not out. The idiot on the controls should have better played possum.
It looked like the Daikyu would do pushups when the Zeus take the last steps to the prone Mech. Without haste lieutenant Lendering flipped the switch for the kick controll.
With a heavy thrust on the left pedal the Mechs left foot smashed into the stretched arm of the Daikyu.
The voice of his CO Colonel Pitcher sounded as barren as his own: “Understood, encirclement is finished. Add more pressure but keep a path for the snakes open.”
A simple gamble trick. There was a dropship on the small space port - a civilian Mule. When the captain thought he was safe no longer he would blast his engines and flee. Then the remaining Regulars would have nowhere to go.. When there was death or victory an option they would inflict serious damage on the remnants of the two battalions of the Skye Jaegers. But when there was the option for escape - even the most hardline Samurai might go for that route.
Maybe not all - the Daikyu tried again to come to his feet.
“Dämlicher Hund!”
The mighty Zeus raised his feet and placed it on the rear of the Daikyu and pressed the mech down. A moment the arms of the Daikyu could counter the weight of the 80 ton Mech, then they broke with a sharp bang. The protruding cockpit of the Daikyu rammed into the concrete. But Lendering kept pressing him down. With a screeching sound the structure of the heavy mech bend until the Daikyu lay flat on the ground. There was no other attempt to stood up. The cockpit was only a ruin, squeezed flat between the concrete and the weight of two Mechs.
The pilot of the Zeus wondered if those were the same cunning soldiers they had faced two weeks earlier. Not that it mattered much, they were the enemy, and it was his duty and pleasure to kill them. Nothing felt better than to kill them on Lyran ground.
Edited by Old MW4 Ranger, 27 June 2017 - 07:54 PM.
frankly if PGi is worried about a map and whether it works.
Make the map without textures. put it in the game in rotation for quick play.
Do an event. Call it map test, can be cbills boost or something on the unfinished map and ask for feed back.
Deal with feedback and then apply textures boom new map. If people hate it then it can be dropped and they can legitimately say well we asked your opinion and you didn't like it.
frankly if PGi is worried about a map and whether it works.
Make the map without textures. put it in the game in rotation for quick play.
Do an event. Call it map test, can be cbills boost or something on the unfinished map and ask for feed back.
Deal with feedback and then apply textures boom new map. If people hate it then it can be dropped and they can legitimately say well we asked your opinion and you didn't like it.
PGI tested the untextured 1vs1 Maps to 4 vs 4 since march 2016!!!!! last Townhall , Large City maps to complex and Difficult ...this Company will build a MW5 ?ok ...no News to MW5 of the Facebook and Twitter HP from PGI since 4 December 2016 !Future of MWO ...buy buy buy a new Mechpack
Edited by Old MW4 Ranger, 28 June 2017 - 07:35 AM.
This is one of the default map sheets that comes with the basic Battletech game:
It's a bit small for MWO, what with being designed for at most 2 vs 2 combat. But Battletech has published alot of maps over the years and I can't help but wonder what they would look like if translated into an MWO style 3D environment.
Admittedly, an MWO map based on TT maps would need ALOT of varied TT Maps. A map 3 km across would need around 30 plus different TT maps to create a varied environment unless someone likes copy paste environments.
Although it amuses me to imagine a map called "Postage Stamp" that's so small, all the mechs start a match inside weapons range of each other!
Edit: That TT map? It's 450 meters x 510 meters. Alot of MWO fighting takes place over that range.
When I heard about this contest, only one location came to mind. What better setting for a Civil War era map, but the home world of the defeated clan? The Civil war was ramping up just as the combined efforts of the Inner Sphere had it's greatest triumph, the complete annihilation of a clan, Clan Smoke Jaguar. They demonstrated the brutal reality of warfare in the Inner Sphere, one with out batchalls or honor rituals, only death and scorched earth.
By the description and single piece of art from the BattleTech Card game, I envisioned a sprawling urban capital, framed by natural barriers, mountainous arid terrain on three sides, and water on the fourth (possibly more cliffs for performance reasons). Central to the top of the map is the Gene Center pyramid with it's eternal laser beacon. The 2-3 stepped design of the pyramid allows intrepid 'Mechs to get a higher vantage point on the battlefield. The Field of Heros stretches out from it, creating a corridor with long sight lines North - south for long range engagements. The path is framed by statues, and to save resources I imagine these as obelisks or monoliths, in keeping with the pyramid theme. Sprawled across the center is the smoking wreck of a dropship, which collided with the elevated transport roadway, taking buildings and statues with it. The statues and dropship wreck will provide cover for 'Mechs crossing the Field of Heros, giving short ranged 'Mechs opportunity to close the gap. Dense urban areas frame the Field of Heros with mid range corridors interrupted by larger buildings to prevent endless sniping avenues and provide plenty of close quarters combat. Super tall sky scrapers, giant halls, impressive libraries populate this sprawl. Ever dedicated to martial practice, the Field of Heros terminates in four landing pads for drop ships, where Warriors once embarked on or returned from great quests for honor. Equipment for loading and unloading BattleMechs and other military equipment from both the roadways and docked ships is located near by, and a dropship rests on the pad, abandoned during their last ditch efforts. The docking area, and roadways provide long range visibility for East-West trading. Along the northern cliff, a giant Clan Smoke Jaguar Totem is carved directly into the rock, looming over the capital of this once powerful clan like a specter. This totem marks the entrance an underground military complex. This area could connect both sides of the top of the map creating an area like HPG's basement or the short tunnel section of River City.
Assault mode bases would be located at the park (green square) and the Library fountain (blue circle), there are no direct sight lines from base to base. Something that results in endless long range trading on maps like Frozen City.
Domination mode transmitter could be located anywhere along the field of heros, at the water, the wreck or near the pyramid.
Incursion bases would be pushed to the east-west edges, just south of the mid point of the map. Batteries could be placed one at the waters edged, one among the wreckage of the drop ship, and one at the base of the pyramid. Or, since the spawns will be moved into the bases which are pushed into the southern corners, one battery near the wreck, and the other two placed on either side of the pyramid, near the Charlie spawn points.
Skirmish mode spawn points are labeled here.
Escort mode would find the VIP leaving from the roadway tunnel or hanger carved into mountain near the Totem or overpass, and working their way to one of the four dropship landing pads. Choosing to cross North or South of the Dropship wreck, or taking a meandering path through the city.
I'd have much preferred to provide a more detailed layout of the map, but I am against time constraints for many projects and had to steal time for even this; but if there is interest in this concept, I'd be more than happy to create a more detailed map including possible underground section, etc...
I would really love to see evolving maps in MWO, and if the dropship crash could be an "event" that would cause damage and destruction to those in its path, that'd be amazing.
"Smoke Jaguar Insignia" by Viereth, found on Google Image.
From Sarna on Lootera:
Image from BattleTech TCG found on Google Image:
Lootera is Huntress's capital and largest city. The city, like Jaguar Prime, is a series of contrasts with drab, featureless buildings standing in proximity to monolithic memorials to Smoke Jaguar heroes and the clan's proud, warrior tradition. Lootera is home to the Smoke Jaguar military command on planet, including a garrison of solahma warriors and a few training fields. It is also the site of the Smoke Jaguar Gene Center which houses the genetic legacies of the legendary Howell and Osis bloodlines (though it was also revealed that Smoke Jaguar scientists had secretly acquired copies of the giftakes of heroes from other Clans, like Aidan Pryde). This pyramidal structure also houses an eternal laser which constantly burns upwards in honor of Jaguar warriors who perished serving their clan. The Field of Heroes, a pavilion of stone-sculpted BattleMechs, stretches before the genetic repository as well. Mt. Szabo looms in the distance where a leaping Smoke Jaguar has been carved in its side in a monumental display of hubris. The mountain is also home to a sub-terranian military complex, complete with a rare and deadly Reagan anti-ship battery.
Sarna on Huntress:
Image "Critical Hit" by "spooky777" Found on Google Image (via Deviant Art):
Image "Ghosts of Huntress" by "punakettu" found on Google Image (via Deviant Art):
Huntress was the homeworld to Clan Smoke Jaguar and is located within the Kerensky Cluster. The planet boasts two continents, Jaguar Prime and Abysmal as well as two polar ice caps. Jaguar Prime is the larger and more hospitable of the two land masses and is the primary center of the planet's population. Abysmal is a smaller landmass with a harsh, desert climate. Abysmal is only periodically utilized for training purposes by the Smoke Jaguars. Prime's geography on the other hand is not uniform and varies from plains, patches of desert, and rainforests which often pose as harsh contrasts to each other. A host of mountains break up the continent, most notably the Jaguar's Fangs range (which includes Mt. Szabo) and the aptly-named Eastern Mountains. Bodies of water like the Black Shikari River, named after its uncharacteristically dark waters, Liberation Sea, and the expansive fens of the Dhuan Swamp also stretch across the landscape. Prime's climate ranges from temperate to tropical and is characterized by ubiquitous, grey clouds and occasional, fierce storms. Huntress also has a single moon, named 'Sentry'. The distance from the system's star to Huntress is roughly seven days at a standard 1G burn.
Sarna on Operation Bulldog on Huntress:
The Inner Sphere with a combination of Operations Bulldog and Serpent annihilated the Smoke Jaguar Clan and seized their Homeworld. This included the systematic destruction of every war-making industry, military base, and any monuments to the achievements of the Smoke Jaguar Clan. After the Great Refusal was won, the Inner Sphere held the Homeworld at least in part as a permanent outpost in Clan Space, where a Star League ambassador was stationed.
I'm not sure how workable a Civil War specific map really is. All the existing maps tend to be kinda generic such that they get reused for multiple worlds in Faction Warfare. Why wouldn't new "Civil War era" maps be the same?
Here's a few more generic ideas:
Atomic Crater
More a Jihad era map rather than Civil War era map, the center of this map is dominated in the center by a gigantic kilometers wide crater, the rim and beyond of which is fringed with the ruins of a once thriving city. The crater was obviously the result of a nuclear detonation, although whether it was a recent one or something dating from the First Succession War is left up to the player's imagination. The crater itself is littered with all kinds of debris, shattered ruins, erosion valleys, and even new construction that provide oodles of cover with the very center/bottom having a small lake that's practically a shooting gallery (and of course the place being fought over in Domination).
There's no special gimmick to this map except perhaps to make players feel like they're fighting in a post-apocalyptic wasteland... because they are.
Amusement Park
Wars and battles are chaotic things. One never knows where they might end up fighting and fighting can come into the oddest places. In this case, the tides of war have come into an amusement park of all things. Players will find themselves fighting in and around roller coasters and Ferris wheels, find themselves diving for cover in a water park, or jumping onto a tram line to cross otherwise impassible terrain. And someone is bound to knock over that humanoid mouse statue at the park's entrance.
And they'll do all that to sound of happy playful music being broadcast on all channels instead of the normal combat rock that the other maps get.
Munitions Factory
Like Mining Collective, this map is an industrial park with all the clutter and cover that Mining Collective has. Unlike Mining Collective, this industrial park is devoted to manufacturing munitions to be used in the wars of the Inner Sphere. Which means that it's full of things that go BOOM if you shoot them. And when the workers evacuated the place, they didn't bother to police everything up and left everything lying around. Luckily, everything explosive is clearly labeled with bright orange logos... if you were on foot; they might be a bit hard to see from a mech's cockpit though.
Be careful of what you hide behind. It might be more hazardous to you than the mechs shooting at you.
We dont have the player base to have a galactic map. Something more focused would work better. Campaign maps that change once completed and then move onto the next. When that cycle is completed. Start again. Back at 3025. through clan wars. Start again. Rewards along the way etc.
Something lore based. On single planets, or perhaps a solar system that is in the midst of civil war.
The way CW "works" needs to be trashed. It was too big a dream with no follow through.
It needed to be something large and impressive to keep people engaged. Supplies. Units on planets. Jump ships. Destroying factories effecting industrial output and resources. Player rank actually doing something. Letting players drop special missions on planets for certain gains.
They wanted everyone to have access to all their toys all the time and this is what we have. A watered down, unused, not very impressive game feature.
I remember in worldwar2 online, people would drive tanks from adjacent cities, depsawning them in the new city to build up resources for an attack.
If there was an ACTUAL fluid, resource mechanic controlled by us there would be a healthy population playing it.
This will never happen. I honestly feel they should shelve it on that scale, reduce CW to pirate worlds and maybe the Clan Homeworlds as an operation bulldog thing.
Focus on Solaris.
People creating leagues.
PGI sponsored leagues.
Quick matches.
Grand brawl FFAs.
Hardcore Solaris modes with perma destroyed components.
Put a bullet in CW already.
Edited by Mechwarrior1441491, 01 July 2017 - 03:36 PM.
thats the FW in my first dreams as Founder for MWO ...more FW like Battlestar Galactica Online (sadly corrupted with Payto Play) or a Stategical Map with Features like Empire at War and the old Leagues Days of MW4 mektek
no all Chassies for all...hold Factories give extra Chassies ,Units in Clan and Unitcamos ,not all in individual (some clownesce) Colors...ideas liek -lost a LRM Ammuniton Factory =1 week all Troops only have 3 t LRM Ammunition for a mech...Jumpproutes and Travelltimes ...buyable garnision of Combined AI Troops...jump 1 week to a Target Planet and hold only 12 Light Mechs, 13 Heavys, 15 Medium and 4 Assault Mechs of the Startplanet stockable with buyable AI troops as Defense against raid Missions
Edited by Old MW4 Ranger, 01 July 2017 - 08:36 PM.
They wouldn`t be able to do it anyway. I don`t know where the disconnect is. Tech/talent/ideas.
They went for the most watered down way to play battletech and it whiffed. People wanted more and were most certainly promised more. Now they need to consolidate and focus on what they can salvage. Grand strategic isn't going to fly now.
Shifting to Solaris is a great idea, if ACTUALLY done right and not half assed like CW was pushed out.
WINNERS ARE POSTED! CONGRATS! And thank you all for your entries,very pleased to see all the ideas out there PGI please take a look here for some ideas!
6
