97 replies to this topic

[Deathwarrior]

Everyone prefers a different flavor, depending on the background they were brought up. The question is, is there a specific option that best fits the initial design goals of this new Mechwarrior incarnation? I grew up playing the MPBT franchise of Battletech gaming. Where maps are randomly generated, and no drop had the same landscape from the last. Obviously the later versions of Mechwarrior focused on a series of set maps where the players chose the landscapes they fought on. Judging from the insistance that the "player role" be a major aspect of this current incarnation (specifily light mech scouting), I don't see where set maps will help with their goal of achieving their intention of information warfare, without unkown terrain being a constant factor. However, with a heavy focus and intent on having heavy urban combat, will randomly generated terrain provide an acceptable city landscape to duke it out in?

[Wahlnutz]

Personally I think it would be nice if the maps were randomized in some form. That way you can't just "know" all the best places on the map to go. Also, it would make it not so cheesy to fight in the SAME city on the same planet 500 times... think of a different drop zone people!

[SquareSphere]

Personally i like random as long as it doesn't obviously favor one side over another. That being said to be "fair" in a competitive environment they would need to be static maps.

[man o war]

Voted for randomly generated and i agree with Walnutz's comment

[TheRulesLawyer]

You'll never have as nice looking terrain on random generators and you will constantly end up with one sided battles. Premades are the only realistic way to go on a multiplayer game.

[CoffiNail]

My hopes is it is KM across, HUGE freaking maps that you CAN learn. If you are defending a city and have been stationed there for a month defending it, do you not think you would know that terrain around the cities on that planet, probably training around in various theaters in your planet Maybe open terrain could be randomized, but I would like honestly if you want to set a ambush at said canyon, you could set it at said canyon. Be too cool but I do not think that will happen lol.

[Ilfi]

I'm not against an algorithm that randomly generates or pieces together maps, but pre-made maps should still be the focus, especially for urban combat. It's one thing to generate deserts with rolling hills, but I just can't see cities being built well by an average string.

[steelwraith]

Depends on how many premade maps they'll make. If we could have several maps per planet, I'd be fine with that... but that would be a lot of maps. The problem with random maps however, is they're hard to make in an urban setting, and hard to balance.

[UncleKulikov]

Random should be deployed for casual matches for fun.

Ranked and tournament matches should be on premade, equivalent maps.

[Argatson Krieghammer]

Randomized, if the Developer's meta-game idea involves nearly as many planets as I hope/think it does

[The Tortoise]

Has anyone ever played World of Tanks?
I'm hoping the maps will be similar but bigger.

[Erhardt]

I voted pre-made maps. The idea of randomly generated maps is a good one, but the execution, to my knowledge, has never paid out like it needs to.

The point of learning pre-made maps to an extent that they're no longer challenging is a good one though. I suppose our only solution is a regular influx of new maps. Darn it.

In all seriousness though. Map making is no joke. There's a reason why it takes such a big chunk of development time to get a good set of maps done for a game's release. Random generation just isn't there yet to be able to pull it off.

[TheForce]

I voted random, but I think what I would prefer is random drop zones, or multiple drop zones.

In conquest battles, I hope that the maps are big enough so that the attacker and defenders could choose where they want to place their mechs.

[TheForce]

If a map isn't randomly generated, or there aren't multiple/random starting points, it will probably come down to one or two "choke points" on each map which gets boring after a while...

[Stormwolf]

Can't we have both?

[gregsolidus]

Random maps will never have the same spark as a well made,hand crafted one.

[CoffiNail]

stormwolf, on 01 November 2011 - 02:51 PM, said:

Can't we have both?

depending on t he situation yeah i think having both is the best. Set places could be the same map, attack the starport of said city on said planet... why would it be changing every few days.

[Testien Surepath]

both

[Red Dox]

I would say both. If we fight for a planets control, there should be some predetermined maps for special areas, like citys, factorys, space ports, or Hyperpulse generators. Most battles can take place on randomized surface area maps,but some battle should take place on the "important" predetermined maps. These battles could influence the overall control over the planet more.

-----Red Dox

[Aidan]

I highly doubt PGI will be creating random map generation algorithms.

They are already on record for not supporting a mod community. Community created maps are out for the foreseeable future. Besides map packs in the form of DLC could be a revenue generator for the Dev team.

IMHO, MWO should have maps ranging in size from 2048x2048 meters to 8192x8192 meters. The smaller maps could be for arena style matches while the large maps could be for competitive league play allowing tactical manuevers.

We will see ... stay tuned.