AEgg, on 07 June 2018 - 07:25 PM, said:
I'll second this. Part of it is better weapons now, true, but in the days of 8v8 flanking (and movement in general) happened way more than it does now. There's a critical mass of maybe 2-4 mechs where if that many see you, you're going to die. With teams of eight instead of 12, it's far less likely.
Back then, that happens a lot. The reason why? The maps funnels groups of people into tight corridors. Then all you do is block that corridor turning it into a death gauntlet. The old Terra Therma was the worst of this, but its also evident in the River Valley map and in some sections of the Frost City map. I played a lot during that era, and stomps happen generally, not as an exception, but as the rule. There are always someone who is going to charge through the gauntlet, get himself killed, and when that happens team cascade failure happens to the rest like dominoes.
Flanks are also easier to happen because the maps are also smaller, much easier to navigate, and there were also alternative routes, like the tunnels in the Frost City and the River Valley. People have a much better idea where they are, and the map is small enough to traverse. Flanks don't try to happen as much these days is because the maps are too big, and flanking threatens to stretch your line too thin which is not favorable on a game that favors mob tactics and focus fire. Mechs are trying to reach Point A to B in the shortest time and that means a straight line. Maps today are too big; they are truly meant for 12 v 12 fighting as opposed to the old maps (which I miss). Growth of the map size stems wanting the game to have a more search and destroy as opposed to trench warfare. If you don't fix map size and spawn distance for 8 vs. 8, people are going to be doing more wandering than actually engaging in the game.
As for weapons being better now, not exactly true in two cases. We didn't have ghost heat then, and its easy to alpha Gauss with PPCs since we don't have the wind up charge mechanic. There is no jump jet shake either, so its easy to pop tart. Night vision lets you see much more ahead of you, and it wasn't the monochromatic grey those days, but rainbow colors. An Atlas DDC can put a squad under protective ECM bubble, with the group advancing under cover. People railed on ECM on the forums for months, and it was among the first things that broke the game.
What was fun about everything is that because it was a young game. People are willing to overlook all the deficiencies and flaws for the promise that one day, these will be corrected and the game will live up to its full potential and become a big hit. This happens with all the young games I've been. Its fun when you are playing with rosy eyes. Years later, things didn't turn out to be that way, and people become bitter vets, and you see and play things with the eyes of one.
Edited by Anjian, 08 June 2018 - 02:27 AM.
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