381 replies to this topic

[Cali Girl]

Thank you for listening to community instead of a few self serving types.

[GweNTLeR]

Favourite large map - FWC. Quite a unique 3D-gameplay.
Favourite medium map - Rubellite oasis. Balanced, allows for many different tactics (basically anything can be played well on this map), cool enviromental design.
Favourite small map - Vitric Station. Just EVERYTHING about this map is great - 3D gameplay, balanced, lots of cover, slopes, cool enviromental design. Really good redisign of Vitric Forge.

Least favourite large map - Frozen City. Well, it is mostly a static map, with limited cover and positioning. Domination sucks on it - not enough cover to hold the circle. Skirmish sucks on it - too much static long range shooting from different sides of the map. Conquest is somewhat okay, but theta and epsilon are badly positioned IMO. Area in the south and east are basically unused in all the gamemodes, you can just cut I*-line and *9 row without any real consequences to gameplay on it.

Least favourite medium map - Mining collective. Not because it is a *bad* map by itself, but because this map has a) serious lighting issues, and exploits. It really sucked to see some well known player use spider exploit to jump on invisible walls and shoot people from there during previous compQ. I really hope someone from PGI will take their time and fix those issues.

Least favourite small map - Forest colony classic snow. I dont like poor visibility.

Gamemodes are all fine, but I guess Incursion could get some tuning.

[YOHEl]

voted least favorite for ceres because I keep getting the purple thing but I actually like the map

[Th3 Fr35h Pr1nc3 0f 8ay 53v3n]

Bring back the old Highlands snow map. It was fine if you used the low ground to advance and ECM to cover your buddies. Domination on Caustic Valley really needs a different shade of yellow for the objective on the mini-map, it blends in far too easily.

Can capturing objectives get a decent amount of match score in a future update? It's disappointing to win the game by capturing ( it's the entire objective in some modes ) and getting a red arrow for the win.

Bring back Escort! Just with better AI for the VIP, or run it on a set course, or one random lance member is dumped into the Atlas.

[TWLT S]

Sorry I decided not to participate, bc the set up of the questions does not feel right.

- The first thing I would criticize in regards to maps and mods is that certain game mods do not fit to certain maps. - e.g. assault mode on crimson strait. I would really like to know the win/lose stats of this combination. it feels totally one sided

Edited by TWLT S, 02 August 2023 - 01:04 AM.

[Biene Maja]

For what its worth, Free Worlds is a lot better with the iron mushrooms.

Incursion is a pain. Half the players dont even know how to play the mode, so its played like Skirmish with some stuff happening.

Also, some feedback to future maps: Just make the maps, please? No need to dump in fog and night and dynamic fog and lightly see-through fog, as well as trees too tall for most Mechs to see over.

[TWLT S]

Ilostmycactus, on 01 August 2023 - 11:22 PM, said:

My major issue, brought up by Ceres, is the game's contrast lighting. This is also tied to thermal and night vision, and their usefulness. The game heavily rewards playing mechs that are painted as dark as possible. Adding an ecm or stealth is even better. These dark mechs blend into the environment, especially on any dark or middling dark map (Grim Plexus, Hpg, etc). A lot of the time I'm forced to use thermals just because it's the no brainer move in order to see mech shoulders peaking around a corner or above a hill. (Thermals also reduce muzzle/cockpit flash which is honestly an issue in and of itself). The contrast is what's important, along with the brightness. Thermals are so much more useful for seeing contrast. Night vision just adds a microscopic bit of brightness but nothing really for contrast, except on Ceres where Thermals apparently don't work well.

Battletech is about fun and colorful heraldry and unit designs. It's not just a paint it black add a bush simulator like War Thunder. But if I bring my tan and blue on a map like Ceres, where I can already basically not see contrast if the enemy has dark mechs, then I'm at a huge disadvantage because I stick out easily. A lock doesn't help necessarily because it's so general in what it highlights (imo it should outline the mech). Because of the game's heavy saturation, white/earth camo is much less effective too.

the poor visibilty is why I dont like Solaris City. - You should definitely ask why people dont like a map. There are various reasons.

[Curccu]

CujoOfCanada, on 01 August 2023 - 07:05 PM, said:

I really like Tourmaline Desert, but the hit boxes on some of the terrain is pretty laughably bad

Yep with terrain hitbox fix that map probably would be my favourite.

[C337Skymaster]

RoyKilroy, on 01 August 2023 - 04:59 PM, said:

The new map has a lot of potential if we can eliminate the pink screen. Thermal vision helps, but thermal vision needs a little more clarity. I still have not found a use for the night vision.

You'll find a use for night vision once normal vision is mostly black instead of mostly pink.

[C337Skymaster]

So most of Francois' early work needs to be redone by someone more in-tune with the universe and less in-tune with the latest Mario Kart.

As modes: Domination has been ruining people's perception of, and ability to use, large maps. Classic Polar was fine, so long as it wasn't Domination (but all anyone ever wanted to play on that map was Domination). Missiles weren't a huge problem on that map, because a lot of the fights took place well outside missile range, and if you stuck to the edges, there was just enough rough terrain to hide behind if you needed to. Ceres Metal Scrapyards is about as susceptible to Missiles as Classic Polar was around the edges: more than most, but not as much as everyone complained about, because everyone was always stuck in the Domination Circle on the flattest part of the map. You force everyone into close range on the flattest part of the map, and yeah, Missiles will dominate because there's nothing left to hide behind, and you can't sit back and out range them.

If possible, I would prefer the new Polar matched up with all Domination matches, and Classic Polar matched up with all other modes.

Alpine Peaks, again, is fine for all other game modes except Domination, because you have the option of using the whole map, and staying away from the giant mountain in the middle, if you want to. The map is big enough that an organized team can actually stay outside the maximum buffed range of anything in the game, standing on that mountain top. From there, you can climb to high ground and attack from above. Domination forces everyone into the same open area with limited cover and no room to maneuver: a classic death trap for battlemech combat.

[C337Skymaster]

Lastly, I will second any comments pointing out that some modes work on some maps, and some don't. I just mentioned the issues with Domination on giant maps, and even some medium maps: they completely defeat the point of the map being huge, and often eliminate any and all use of terrain on those maps.

Assault/Incursion are good on most maps, but they're terrible on Crimson Strait, because the folks starting water-side can just cross the saddle and they're right there. On Incursion, in particular, you can even shoot some base items from the saddle, sniping right over the top of the wall. This isn't a failing with the map, or a failing with the mode. It's just a failing with the COMBINATION of that map with those modes.

Same with Domination/Classic Polar, as stated above.

Assault on Canyon Network tends to work against the preference for rotation on that map (amplified by the design of the map). Most games include about 120 degrees of rotation before any shooting even starts.

[Gagis]

I'm a bit surprised by how popular Skirmish is compared to other game modes. It is the one mode that provides no incentive to fight and potentially lets stalemates happen.

[MechsForTheMechGods]

Honestly, most of the maps are fine.
It's Solaris City that needs the most attention. Comparatively, the hit on performance is vastly greater than other maps.
Forest Colony (new) and Viridian Bog would be the next two contenders in regards to bad performance, but even those maps are not as bad as Solaris City.

It surprises me still that Solaris City has not been improved much (if at all) since it's release.

[Mark Yore]

Daeron Katz, on 01 August 2023 - 05:11 PM, said:

Ceres Metal Scrapyard will receive an update this month.

It needs more light because it's difficult to navigate around without hitting walls you can't see. Perhaps adding light sources on the ground so there isn't just black on black.

If you're a stealth Light it's amazing - it's the ultimate backstabber map.

[akrju]

The biggest problem with MWO maps is not the maps.

It is the scale. The scale is completely messed up. The mech scale is wrong (mechs are generally way too big, especially the heavier part of the spectrum), and the maps cope badly with it. Half of the maps are made to accommodate in more or less sensible terms (the more "realistic/detailed" part of the lineup, like the River City), but it is still lacking. However, the other half of the map selection are virtually made like regular FPS maps seen from a single human perspective, not a pilot of a big stompy robot. The only thing that is supposed to translate the scale are lazily added props, which only exacerbate the problem, not solve it. Hell, you have "bushes," "rocks," and other props that show how bad the scale is. Next time you are playing these maps, think about how dumb it would look from a view of a regular person.

This is also why Alpine Peaks, as hated as the map is, are often dubbed to be one of the few (if not the only one) maps to feel "truly Mechwarrior." The map simply lacks any of these scale issues due to its scarcity/vastness.

MW5 had the same problem, but there were mods to fix the scale, at least. PGI should look into proper mech scaling since that is the root of most issues with maps (and also many more problems).

Edited by akrju, 02 August 2023 - 02:51 AM.

[Mark Yore]

Nelos Kniven, on 01 August 2023 - 06:26 PM, said:

Incursion is a problem because it tends to turn into Skirmish with extra steps, even more so than Assault. If at all possible, a return to the original vision of an asymmetric quick play gamemode could be very interesting.

Incursion would be much better as an attacker/defender mode. One side protects the base and the other attacks it.

[Mark Yore]

Just a thought regarding Domination.

Is the inner circle completely locked? I'd like to see it start where it is now on each of the maps and then randomly shift up to half a circle in any direction every minute. So the centre point of the circle would become the edge located on a random degree every minute.

This creeping capture point would make the mode a bit more interesting as you couldn't just rely on hiding in the same spot every game.

[Pizzle Whip]

All the maps I like avoid the circular design like Canyon and Hibernal. All they do is encourage nascar in QP. Yes I know in comp teams use their brain and play the maps properly, but that's less than a percentage of the games you play in a year. Would be nice to have more maps that naturally encourage players to not rotate and offer some new ideas.

Also perhaps changing QP to have drop decks rather than a single mech as a playlist? If players can drop with multiple mechs like in FP or Events then a lot of the issues with QP will be resolved. Not only would it add a lot of tactics to the match and make objectives more important (which they aren't atm) but also make matches more engaging as you will spend more time piloting and less time spectating. Obvious some thought would need to go into implementing it properly, but the game is in need of some new spice to shake it up.

[Acid Phase]

Drop decks for longer battles in quick play on any current game mode makes it a completely different game. Please consider this as I've been waiting since it was a topic on Sean Lang's podcast.

[LavaDa1shi]

the only feedback I can think of is Solaris city is too congested and should not be that enclosed it is annoying and also limiting to snipers and medium range builds.

try to make maps more decentralized allowing for more diverse gameplay options and routes to take during the match instead of just fighting over the middle of the map, this would also help prevent nascar.

also I would love some maps that are more earth like, the exotic alien maps are getting boring.

Edited by LavaDa1shi, 02 August 2023 - 04:22 AM.