344 replies to this topic

[Nyandere]

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.

Well said. It's a real shame ceres is lit the way it is. It discourages you from being creative with your mechs and makes it that buying any kind of colors/bolt ons or cosmetics other than camo black is paying to lose.

I'm really not sure what they were thinking with the lighting and fog. It makes it so ECM is even more powerful and frustrating to deal with. The vision modes in the game don't support maps like this since night vision is next to useless.

It's a real shame too because the shape/design of the map feels pretty good, it's similar to canyon network which one of the most popular maps in the game. If the map had good visibility it would probably be one of my favourite maps in the game, instead I hate it because of the lighting and fog overshadowing the design. Somehow they took one of the most popular maps and just made it worse (lighting wise, the shape might be better even).

I wish they'd just release a clear day version of the map like in the legend previews, it would be way more popular since it would fix the major issue most people have with the map. It would probably be like frozen city classic vs night where night is easier to see on and is the more popular map because of it despite being otherwise identical.

Edited by Nyandere, 02 August 2023 - 04:56 AM.

[Shedovv]

IMHO This poll should have been - Rate Each of *insert a set of maps or modes here* from X to Y. Instead of Choose Most/Least Favourite out of. That would provide way more nuanced results.

[ENOVA]

Favorite Large Map? Tourmaline Desert (my choice), Grim Plexus
I like Tourmaline for having more than 1 spot to fight at. Different terrain that is close to each other helps with choosing different strats and shooting at different ranges.

Favorite Medium Map? Mining Collective (my choice), Rubellite Oasis
I like Mining for being a complicated map for all ranges. There r place to hide, to flank, to snipe. And it's easy to not be eaten by nascar, because opponents have a hard time to come to our backs.

Favorite Small Map? Vitric Station (my choice), Canyon Network
I felt like MWO needed a map for close ranges. And Vitric is a good mid-close map with an unusual and interesting composition. It gives me unique experience and challenges, much like Thera Therma Crucible.

Least Favorite Large Map? Alpine Peaks, Solaris City
I chose Grim Plexus, but it's not a popular opinion. I chose Grim, cause I a bit tired of this map. Plus I realize I can't find a place for my mech to play comfortably. Enemies can shoot me from anywhere, there is so much open space, so some groups can just stay in 1 spot and snipe the entire battle. I either have to chose long-range build or suffer.
People chose Alpine - I think it's because this map is for pure long range. If u chose anything but long range mech, u gonna be useless. The map is good if I could chose my long range mech after the map is selcted.

Least Favorite Medium Map? Hellebore Springs, Caustic Valley
(btw I think u meant Hellebore Outpost, not Hellebore Springs. Springs is a CW map)
I chose Crimson Strait, but it's not a popular opinion. I found it dark and uncomfortable, with a lot of close range places and long range openings, but not much for med range.
I think people chose Hellebore Outpost and Caustic Valley because people need to know these maps better. I think both maps have a decent mid range potential. In Hellebore people still learning and doing same strat (route), they should try different routes. Caustic - this map is still too long-range, even with a good cover in a middle. I could easily fiind a 1 km distance (basically anywhere around the map) and shoot the middle ground guys, which is no good for map. Maybe I would add even more obstacles to prevent an effective sniping.

Least Favorite Small Map? Forest Colony Classic (my choice), Ceres Metal Scrapyard
I hate Forest Colony Classic. This map seems to force me going the same route, and if I refuse - some enemies comes from the water and kill me. The only choice I have is - to go through the cave or to not to.

[Kynesis]

I'd like to qualify some of my answers.
Map designs generally are bad, with only a few exceptions. Most of what makes them bad is foundationally poor design. Weapon ranges and mech movement rates pretty clearly aren't taken into account. Nobody seems to have done any math. Paths of movement are vague and haphazard. Ramps often need to be added as a band aid to plug up the worst areas, long after those maps are released.
There's no colour to them, they're all stark, some to the point of being monochrome. I've seen other games maps made in CryEngine, I've checked the engine myself, colours are available. I'd dare say that modern graphics cards can handle dozens of colours.
The maps that encourage or require alternate vision modes are insipid, forcing a worse experience for the sake of proving that the devs are aware of features in lore and real world military use, but just have no comprehension of what might make their inclusion interesting or rewarding.

Everyone's least favourite large map is no surprise, and neither are the reasons for it. I'm confident that if we could choose more than one, just about every large map would be voted as among the worst in the game.
Medium maps are generally the most balanced and best laid out, usually with viable if not interesting options.
Small maps aren't all that small, they too have a huge amount of wasted space, and frequently the same tiny areas are used the same way all the time.

Some maps stand out, caustic valley and tera therma cruicible primarily for their awkward terrain and blocking terrain that's too small and rarefied to be useful.
Maps like cruicible and hellbore springs for their ridiculous heights and completely unnecessary death traps.
Frozen city for just about everything, and many maps for their absolutely infuriating abundance of crap that catches and snags mechs.

I'd like to like the game modes, but I can't imagine that more than two minutes thought has gone into any of them.
Assault just begs people to either ignore the objectives or rush them & waste everyone's time.
Conquest leads people to scatter all over the map and get picked off. Many of my most frustrating matches have been on conquest, which is all the more frustrating because in principal something like this has the potential to be quite interesting and engaging.
Incursion at least has a theme... but it's just glorified Assault with even more wasted potential.
Skirmish is just no game mode.
Domination is just about impossible to balance, its marker is rarely highly visible and sometimes invisible and it revives the chillingly mindless and fearful/opportunistic rotato-potato.

If the people responsible for maps are interested in a constructive discussion, I'd be happy to help. I'm sure plenty of people would like to offer suggestions and test things before they're set in stone.

Edited by Kynesis, 02 August 2023 - 05:41 AM.

[Phaneron]

The votes really let the nascar mentality shine through. Players just love rotating round and round nowadays and it ruins the game really. Good poll!

[DarkofFox]

I want to see more varied objectives, and reasons for the team to split up. Incursion ends up being a worse assault mode, as it occurs mostly on the largest maps, and I have never seen base damage end the game. Back capping is annoying because the heaviest slowest mechs are the most popular and if its a coordinated team of lights everyone fast enough to go back gets slaughtered.

Conquest suffers from similar problems but you are the most likely to have smaller, and more enjoyable engagements when the teams split up to take points. Free worlds colliseum conquest is probably one of the best maps. Varied terrain that offers cover for people going to the side points. Theta in the center is not the end all be all of take it and you'll hold the points behind you.

Skirmish is just annoying because the last few enemy players will still go hide in a corner and try to run out the timer. Sometimes you have interesting matches in skirmish because parts of the map that wouldn't be used in domination can be used, but its an outlier.

[TercieI]

Shedovv, on 02 August 2023 - 04:56 AM, said:

IMHO This poll should have been - Rate Each of *insert a set of maps or modes here* from X to Y. Instead of Choose Most/Least Favourite out of. That would provide way more nuanced results.

Even top and bottom three would have made me feel like I was giving better information.

Still, I appreciate the effort at engagement and investigation. Kudos, PGI, please do something with it.

[AmbidXtrousGNOME]

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

Ceres Metal Scrapyard will receive an update this month.

I know the update is for the pink mode of the map but could we get a daytime version of the map too?

[denofsteves]

I have 3 general issues I would like to see improved, though the first item is a bit off topic.
1. low visibility - some maps I can't see easily on unless I change my b/c/g or use ReShade. Thermal is somewhat useful on maps with naturally poor visibility, such as new Caustic and old Frozen Snow. Night vision is very situational for seeing through smoke sometimes. Both alternate vision modes have such low contrast / high brightness that they are not helpful for me in most situations.

2. travel time to the fight - some maps take a few minutes to get into the fight, especially annoying with Domination modes as either the timer runs out or the fast movers get wiped before the bulk of the team makes it to the circle.

3. cover from snipers - wide open maps like Grim don't provide enough cover to approach sniper positions. In many cases, slow movers never even make it to the fight at all.

[MechB Kotare]

Favorite Large Map?

- Tourmaline Desert: Definitely not without flaws, but out of all large maps its very well balanced, with flanking option good visibility and with good brawling, medium range and sniping options. Despite all that, i'd like to point, that those spiky parts of terrain suffer from huge geometry/hitbox displacements, and i kindly ask, if something can be done about it? Its beeen like that for years now, and i still can see enemy mechs sooner than i can hit them. Thanks!

Least Favorite Large Map?

- Solaris City: Absolutely terrible map design, both gameplaywise and aesthetically. First of all, it's one of the worst graphically optimised maps in the game. Getting huge framedrops on it even with RTX 3070 ti 12gb. Its unnecessarily big, just like Polar and Alpine, it features choke points incoherent to cluster f.... Not enough space to maneuver most of the time, unpassable choke points for more than one mech at the same time, bunch of unnecessary objects you can easily get stuck on. Its too dark, players playing at high brightness/gamma get huge advantage. Just like how Alpine favours sniping builds, Solaris greatly favours brawlers, with very limited options for snipers. If not full redesign of the map, pls at least remove those skyscrappers in the middle, and add some nice wide park instead... Those railoards are terrible. If they are to be kept i'd lower their top level much lower.


--------------

- Alpine Peaks: This gamemap has always been safe haven for long range and fast movers. You control one of the 4 mountains, you control the game. As someone who prefers long range builds and engagements, i presonally dont care, but i'd definitely ''flatten'' the lowest levels with highest levels of the map, as i would add more snow dunes (hills or w/e) on the flat locations, so brawlers dont have to get closer to snipers through wide open areas most of the time.

- Frozen City: Needs at least some gigantic object added to the valley in the center. It is sniper heavy map. Also, playing domination on it kinda sucks hard, mainly because of how much advantage higher position gives you on that map.

- Grim Plexus: It's a good map, but it has plenty of abusable locations like G10/F10 hill. Its a sniper/JJ heavy location, and you can't contest it without JJs and moving around it.

- Polar Highlands: This map is unnecessarily big. Larger portion of it's size was used, before it got 'reborn', and even then it was way too big. I'm personally fan of the old one, and percieve the 'new' version as totally different map, but it should be at least resized. 95% of encounters happen in, and around urban area in the middle anyway.

- Terra Therma: Is very good imho. I do like it much more compared to the original back in the days. It's pickrate is low, mainly because people don't like hot maps in general.

- Terra Therma Crucible: Haven't played much of it, but from what i've experienced, its pretty ok too. I have a request. Can you please stop naming these maps the same, and give them their own individual name? Many times i'd waste my map vote multipliers on regular Terra Therma, when i really wanted to play Crucible. These maps have nothing common, aside of the fact that they were made from one old map. Please give crucible its own unique name.

Favorite Medium Map?

- Rubellite Oasis: Nothing much to say. This is a very good map, both gameplay wise, performance, but also aesthetically. It's also very diverse.

Least Favorite Medium Map?

- Emerald Vale: I'm happy to see assets used in this map, but i really dislike those sniper heavy ''hills'' at each side. They are predictable, and it gives very limited, yet very strong position to sniping assaults. It also feels too artificial, not to mention the missing textures. Dunno if that was fixed already or not.

--------------

- Caustic Valley: Nothing much to say about it. I never liked those remakes in the first place, i prefer the old one, or ''classic'' if you want, but i understand why it was redesigned.

- Crimson Strait: This map is good, i just wish the lighting scene was switched back to what it was before the release (from dusk to afternoon). I wish the E6/D6 hill was reworked. I'd flatten it, and add some urban area on top of it, while making it accesible from all sides, so island snipers can be contested better, while also removing chokepoint heavy nature of pass. At this moment ever since it's release, players are still most of the time forced into either e6/f6 pass, tunel or shoreline which is vulnerable from the island. I think the fewer chokepoints in 12v12 enviroment, the better.

- HPG Manifold: As a long term critic of original HPG, its rework has easily made it into one of my most favourite maps. Very good remake overall, although i still sometimes experience occasional terrain geometry/hitbox displacement (invisible walls), which was always the case with assets used in this particular map. But aside, its a very good remake. Well done!

- Hellebore Springs: I like the map, but its very JJ favourable. I really don't like, how long it takes, to move high ground from certain angles. Aesthetics of the map are great.

- Mining Collective: I still don't understand why this map is so popular. I mean its not a bad map, but its definitely not epitome of mechwarrior map designs either. Map is very JJ favourable, and it is very king of the hill. There needs to be more platforms for non jj builds to access, especially at northern and southern rims of d4/d5 and e4/e5. Also those E2 and E7 positions are broken as f... for those who dont increase their base gamme/brightness. Those locations should be either naturally lightened, or map hidden behind map bounds for no one to abuse.

- River City: Another example of unoptimised map. I have no objections about its design, but i'd love for a original River city to come back in some form. Or at least for 8v8 events.

- Viridian Bog: Another badly optimised map, i do favour the changes done to this map though. Used to hate it, now im ukay with it.

Favorite Small Map?

- Canyon Network: This map was my top map ever since a first star was born. And it got improved by tons ever since. From removal of the nascar hill at the middle, to adding more platforms for nonjj builds, this map is to this day, my most favourite map ever. Thank you for what you've done to it. I also love the day light (sun) relocation. Its funny, how such a single detail, can change perception of entire map so much. I would love to see this happen to more maps, although i do understand that it was probably because sun was blinding people from certain angles...

Least Favorite Small Map?

- Vitric Station: I need to point out, that i dont necessarily have problems with any small maps. I chose Vitric, because its crafted out of the same assets HPG is, and it suffers from the same geometry/hitbox displacements HPG has. Other than that, im very neutral about it, its king of the hill heavy, but you can play around it too, so yeah. It's ok.

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- Ceres Metal Scrapyard: I understand this map is new. There is bunch of transparent objects (wrecks) that i cant fire through, while i should definitely be able to. Also, one of conquest campure points, is annoying inaccessible from 'river', and a non JJ mech is forced to go around a long way to access it. Its also a very dark map again, good for gamma increase, i'd presonally lighten global light in the map. Aside of all that though, maps looks decent. So very good job.

- Forest Colony Classic/Snow: Nothing much to say, this map is very niche, and imo unsuitable for 12v12 enviroment. Its either sniper fest from drop, shoreline and antena, or tunel rush. I'd remove it from circulation, and make 8v8 even exclusive map only, just like old river city maybe? *blink* *blink*

- Frozen City Classic: Same thing as Forest Colony. Definitely one of best original maps, but i'd make it 8v8 exclusive.

- Hibernal Rift: Basically old canyon. I'd keep the middle mountain, but i'd definitely add more platform at approximately the same locations as canyon. Its a too JJ heavy map as it is right now.

Favorite Gamemode?

- Conquest: I love playing objectives, and conquest is imo the most dynamic game mode of all. It's also a game mode, where being a first team to kill the other isnt necessarily a winning factor.

Least Favorite Gamemode?


- Skirmish: I don't necessarily hate it, but it gives long range kiters, and small fast lights huge advantage over the course of battle.

--------------

- Assault: Same as conquest, but much less dynamic. Most of these are played like Skirmish, but at least, you can ignore the kiters and go for base cap.

- Incursion: Is imposible with mwo playerbase mentality. Most of the players are not capable of slower tactical advancement, protecting the base, or attacking it. People just want to find enemy asap a pew pew. Thats why imo incursion is unpopular. Also not really fan o high walls, and **** turrets. Base should be divided into 3 smaller bases imo, without any walls, and guarded by at least calliope turrets

- Domination: Is easily my least favourite objective time game. Many times i feel it forced close range giga brawling nascaring encounters. Also im not fan of king of the hill stil gameplay. Never was. Also, most of the damnation points locations are just very badly positioned. Crimson strait, or Alpine, or Solaris for example.

Edited by MechB Kotare, 02 August 2023 - 07:01 AM.

[KaziaBazia]

the trees in the Emerald Vale block the view, it's a terrible hindrance.I would like them to be deleted, I have to go back and forth every time and break them.The map of the Frozen City is also annoying, very often I feel like a target for snipers on it and I'm afraid to come out of hiding, because it's impossible to get to the enemies, unless I want to die just by approaching them. I would like to lighten or change the color of the Ceres Metal Scrapyard. The only way to see the Mechs on this map is in thermal mode.I don't like playing in black and white all the time.

[Alphaeus]

cougurt, on 01 August 2023 - 07:07 PM, said:

solaris city is the map i'd most like to see a redesign of. i'm not necessarily opposed to more brawl-friendly maps, but it feels way too claustrophobic, and all the junk on the ground is extremely annoying. it's also terrible in terms of performance and is rather ugly to boot.

x1000

YES

I call it "Solaris S----y" because there's so much s--t lying around everywhere.

Edited by Alphaeus, 02 August 2023 - 07:21 AM.

[Alphaeus]

Glaive-, on 01 August 2023 - 05:11 PM, said:

While I'm not surprised Alpine Peaks is the least favorite large map (so far), it bums me out that it is. Despite it's many issues, to me it's one of the few maps that feels like a "mechwarrior" map. Hoping that, if PGI updates it, they don't kill the charm that it has.

Also, with such massive mountains, couldn't we move the Domination point to a **mountaintop** instead of a valley?

[Sniper Behind Ya]

Game modes that could be fun:
1. A king of the hill, or capture and hold the bunker or flag style of mode, where the team who controls the area of interest for 7.51 minutes or the longest duration wins or most capture points wins. Totally random different spots or areas of interest for each map so it changes things up a little. Sure, some spots may suck, but that's where teamwork and strategy make the difference beyond raw damage on target.
2. Tag, You're it! First mech that takes damage becomes It with special free wifi (narc) for a minimum of a cool-down duration and afterwards until that mech damages (tags) another mech. The newly tagged mech receives the special free wifi (narc). If a tagged It mech dies, opposing team scores an It kill point. The Tag, You're It narc beacon resets. Team with the most It kills wins. Or the team with the longest total duration of being It wins?
3. Collect & shuttle resources or intel. Teams must gather resource or intel from 2-5 spots and shuttle those back to their collection point. Maybe extra points for earlier collection? Team with most collection points wins.

Edited by Sniper Behind Ya, 02 August 2023 - 08:08 AM.

[tunapocalypse]

It would be nice to use the other 80% of forest colony. It's a nice map but it may as well be a small map. Opening it up in some way would be wonderful.

[John Otis]

Most players do not use the «Night Vision» mode because it gives very poor image quality and players prefer to use «Thermal Vision». It seems that the developers specifically created the «Ceres Metal Scrapyard» map to force players to use «Night Vision», since the thermal imager on this map gives a very dark image. In order for the «Ceres Metal Scrapyard» map to be comfortable to play, it is necessary to improve the image quality in the «Night Vision» mode and make it the same as in the game «Mechwarrior 5».

[Regina Moon]

The biggest issue with most of the maps is that most of the game modes don't service them. They're impressive maps to look at and have a lot of space to move around in and make strategic plans and such, but it doesn't really mean much when most people pick Domination/Skirmish/Assault, meet in the middle and have a slug fest. I feel like the maps need to be smaller overall or have a bigger variety in game modes that make people go somewhere else in the map

[Zephonarch II]

Changes to Gamemodes I'd like to see:
Assault - make a cap victory rewarding AND make cap zones easier to snipe at/ less concealed. Compensate the Rate of Capture nodes/ Light cappers.
Incursion - Remove it or make "pick-up" items on maps as defensible zones for entire teams so map passive buffs can be used as objectives (Like domination circle or Conquest cmd posts)
Domination - Expand circle radius on some maps (Crimson Strait)


Large Map changes:
Alpine Peaks: Complete overhaul, Make the giant mountain the Domination circle/ Center of the map, spawns equally distanced from it, climb time equal so no "no man's land MG42 scene" plays out unless if teams are lazy to take it, Surrounding area as flanking zones/ lesser sniping hills? Change it plz. it feels abandoned.
Terra Therma: [Remove it or overhaul it] cause most of the map is unused and people get lost/ separated from teams due to "flanking" around the ENORMOUS mountains. Add lanes up the Volcanos. Idk. Be creative with it. Go nuts. Have a pizza party and redesign it.

Solaris City: Area around exterior could be better for snipers. The whole center zone is huge and beneficial to brawlers so why not make open roadways on the outskirts of the city??? A few buildings outside for meds/ lights to scout around, utilize the 2 rivers like it were Mechassault 1-2's river city maps, make bridges on those as cover.
Frozen City: The valley is a killzone for teams that dont commit to left or right lanes. Center could be friendlier for brawlers from sniping sidelanes.

Medium Map changes:
Crimson Strait: Make Tunnel wider. Make it a brawling zone that can be exploited by the side tunnel entrance and more platform openings. Shift Domination circle over that mainly and expand it for outside area. 50% brawl tunnel/ lower platform--50% flank/poke upper platform around mountain.
Hellebore Springs: Accessibility overhaul. Once you fall off the mountains, you feel lost so more long rampways back up can alleviate pressure and keep the Springs as a vertical battlefield rather than just an elevated battlefield.
River City: Expand Upper City (Epsilon to Gamma) so more traffic can go there. Reduce traffic to Citadel. Citadel was always a popular area to fight on for brawling, but Sigma-Eps make the map predictable cause no one fights there unless if its a flank or the endgame sweep. River City should have 2 potential zones to fight over imho. I mean... why have nuclear power plants near Sigma if you dont fight over it? Gamma is the Spaceport, so that's valuable. but other than that the "City" is just a spaceport hub.
Rubellite Oasis: Change the theme. We already have crystalline themed maps (Tourmaline, Grim, FWC, Rube, Vitric, Hellebore I think has some purple crystal structures)... Make this a desert map. Tourmaline is the only desert map with sand, easy to spot mechs on. Rube (and imo Grim too) have problems with being too dark grey/brown. Sand could make the map pop imo and be a big Tourmaline Ship graveyard cause that's what I think when I see Rube show up.


Emerald Vale: Remove SOME of the rocks on the sniping cliffs. Make it scarce and open like HPG Manifold's sniping walls.


Small Map changes:
Ceres Metal Scrapyard: Make it brighter AND make some of the valleys in between hills wide enough for 2 assault mechs. Its narrow bruh. Map is nearly perfect for all roles otherwise and all areas can be used to shift the fight in (EQ helped expose its potential for whole region tbh. Make Ceres the new template for maps/ map changes imo.)

Forest Colony Classic (Both versions): Make tunnel bigger. lol But I'm serious. Make it bigger. It is made for BING BACK BAWL if it were redesigned for 12v12 instead of Classic's 8v8. 12v12 rn on it is a chokepoint nightmare. More tunnel/cave entrances maybe? for the larger zone?
Frozen City Classic (Both versions): If the tunnel is used to flank a team before the enemy has even gotten to their positions... then simple: Make the tunnel LONGER. No exits other than near Sigma and Gamma, AND overlooking Dropship as if its a "reward" for lights and mediums(or Atlases) who win the tunnel duel. Dropship crow's nest should be inaccessible via most JJ lights unless if its like a ~100m JJ enabled Cheetah or Spider.

-Really loving Ceres, Crucible, sometimes FWC, New Polar, Vitric, and Hibernal (compared to Canyon Network) btw PGI. Latest changes on maps and mech/weapon balancing is amazing rn. Very balanced. Teamplay is a must every game now. Specializing to roles is great but roleplay with Snipers/Brawlers/Light-supporting/Med-supporting is very "balanced" overall rn. Improving undervoted maps should be priority rn. Very proud of MWO and its development as a F2P. Grind isn't terrible rn imo.
-Zephonarch_ii

[KursedVixen]

I see no point to incursion other than a faster way to experience Faction play.... If i wanted to play faction play i'd play faction play....


On another note can we put the turrets back in assault to deter lights from just capping the base? we have the INcubus-3 i think and the spider 5v which can cap a base in a few minutes if left alone i think it should have to deal with turrets.. which are not that hard to deal with.

[Alphaeus]

For a long time I've thought that we don't need a ton of new maps, we need multiple ways to use the current map set. Maybe it helps to think in examples by map and game mode:

Forest Colony Domination - I've seen some complaints that we don't see enough of the fringes of some maps, including Forest Colony. Personally, *I* do; but "we" don't. One solution would be to create multiple spawn point sets for the same Domination point, so that people are coming from the water at both ends of the map. (It's water on three sides but the current spawn points put one team in the water and one team on land. Create a second set of spawns at 90 deg. from the current set and put *both* teams in the water.) Another solution would be to randomize the Domination point a bit. Not a ton, though. What if there were three Domination points for two to three sets of spawn points? We'd have approximately 6 different ways to play Forest Colony Domination, so voting FC-Dom would still maintain an element of surprise. And you wouldn't have to design a whole new map.

Alpine Peaks Domination - FWIW, I think Alpine's a great map. It turned sour when the Domination point landed in a valley because now, even on Skirmish, teams trudge into that same stupid valley. Reorient the spawn points and randomize the Domination point and you change the psychology of the way that map is played. Sometimes the Domination point could be in that valley; but other times it could move a few hundred meters to the top of the peak at I9 and we'd have a much different match. It's also worth pointing out that in Skirmish, I used to convince my team to take H12 or L3 and hold it. When they followed one of those plans, we usually won. But these marginal locations are often overlooked because teams play for the middle with the assumption that controlling the middle makes victory likelier. On some maps that's true; on others, it's a surefire strategy for a team's mass death (think Mining Collective's central platform or the valley on Frozen City). Players have to learn to pick terrain features, not map positions. And Alpine forces that issue. The Alpine hate is a symptom of players' uncreative thinking about strategic positioning, and of their hurry to engage without thinking about where or how to do it.

Terra Therma and Terra Therma Crucible Conquest - First there was Terra Therma. Then there was (New) Terra Therma. Then, based on (Old) Terra Therma, came Terra Therma Crucible. (Old) Terra Therma's central volcano is still somewhere on the margin of (New) Terra Therma; but we never fight there. Ever. And Terra Therma Crucible's central volcano is much more interesting than the central lava floe trench on (New) Terra Therma. I don't see why we can't just cut (New) Terra Therma and forget it ever happened. Terra Therma Crucible is a much better map. But this raises one problem: Conquest. The cap points on TTC (and this applies also to Polar Highlands and several other large maps) are so far apart that the team with the fastest light 'mechs usually wins. This is a Matchmaker problem: my Urbie gets matched against an Arctic Cheetah and I can't keep up, even though both are technically Light 'Mechs. Assuming it doesn't already, the Matchmaker needs to offer Conquest only when it's matched teams by fastest 'mech's top speed and number of 'mechs above a particular speed. (It's not enough for my team to have 2 ACHs if the other team has a group running 4 VPRs or 4 BKLs).

Canyon Network v. Hibernal Rift (All Game Modes) - The chief difference between Canyon and Hibernal is temperature. We all see that. Net effect: Am I sniping with lasers, or am I sniping with ER PPCs? And that's an important difference. What's annoying, since the terrain is so similar, is how different the grid coordinates are. We all know they're the same map, so just make the grid coordinates the same too, can't you?

Forest Colony Classic and Crimson Strait (All Modes) - I don't think FCC is a bad map; but it's only a half-map. What could you add to the far side of the cave so that we have a fourth line of attack? As it stands, the options represent various amounts of exposure: water (very exposed), land (somewhat exposed), cave (not all that exposed but beware a KGC!). FCC suffers from the same problem that Crimson Strait has: there aren't enough lines of attack. In (Newer) Forest Colony, the semi-recent updates solved this problem by breaking down the mountains at G10/H10, and that's been a huge improvement. For a long time I've thought we need an opening along the G or H line on Crimson Strait. As it stands, it's a half-map like FCC.

Litter Problems - I wonder if other players would agree: we have too many maps with crap lying around. Not building-height crap, just low-level stuff that, IRL, a Battlemech would trample. This stuff could slow us down; I get that. But hanging up a Dire Wolf on some pumping station in Solaris city that only comes up to the 'mech's knee? Bogus. Same with rocks on some maps and a million little things on River City, Crimson Strait, Frozen City, and the central City in Polar Highlands. I realize this would require a lot more graphics work (now you have to make *crushed* versions of every small outbuilding), but I've stopped voting for Solaris, River, and Crimson over this issue. Some players hate the Polar pre-mission trudge. In the same way, I shouldn't have to focus more on driving than shooting when I'm in a fire-fight--especially when the obstacles aren't realistically enough to stop my 'mech.

Free Worlds Coliseum (All Modes) - I've seen some Free Worlds hate today and although I don't agree, I understand it. What players seem to miss is that above the toadstools the map is a different game, regardless of the mode. I wonder whether it'd be possible to make it slightly easier for larger 'mechs to jump jet onto the toadstools, especially from the edges, or whether we could decrease gravity there by just a bit so that jump jets would help more 'mechs reach the toadstools. (Might need a higher wall, then.) I've been running the ACH a lot lately, and it's made FWC a really fun time.

I think the last few maps you all have produced are amazing! People clearly love Vitric and Emerald, and although I've seen some Hellebore hate today I actually think combat there's been evolving, which shows people are thinking about it in new, interesting ways. (Maps shouldn't pander to habitual play and I think that's the heart of all the NASCAR complaints a few years ago.) Ceres will be good when the pink patch comes through (but is it really a "small" map??). Thanks for all your work to keep MWO engaging. The development pace is good and the quality makes me willing to spend dollars on the game monthlyish. Keep it up!

Edited by Alphaeus, 02 August 2023 - 08:59 AM.