Footage and pictures of the new map version: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/198142-dev-stream-thad-talks-about-map-improvements/
My only bad thought, that SE part of the map is a death trap if you get caught there...no way in, no way out, no way in, no way out! Would've been nice for the southern portion to remain open, but what can ya do? Either way, doubling the size of the map is a good thing. I approve.
My thought was close to that but.... see the lack of cover outside there now the dropship at the base is gone? Not a huge fan aesthetically of the rocks in the water but not sure what else you could put there.
The rocks are nice, in that there needed to be some cover in the water, but they are a bit ugly. Still...any port in the storm, and all that. The "dropship" area definitely seems more open, gonna have to be very careful moving through there to avoid LRMageddon, unless the geometry of the buildings and debris changes a bit. It seems pointless to go down to the actual ship though...I mean, why would you? Kinda sucks when they put in places on the map that seem destined to never be seen again. Still, time will tell there. Having the extra city area in the northern area is nice though, it means there is better cover on both sides of the water as you circle, which means both that you can avoid missiles, and that lights (especially with ECM) can sneak up on a team easier. Good tradeoff there, and it helps avoid the pansy tactic of "camp on either side of the citadel". Extra map size, btw, means turrets should be less of a factor if the fight takes place in the middle of the map, which is nice. Overall, the changes aren't quite what I would've done (I always envisioned widening the water, and putting a peninsula in between the two existing base areas with lots of buildings), but if it works, it works. We'll see how it goes on the 16th of June.
Yeah I don't mean to sound cynical or negative as overall looks like a huge improvement in the map... ... the impactable trees/lamp posts got me smiling.... must avoid showing my position by knocking down trees....
I don't see the point of this portion either. My main concern is it won't be used much, somehow unbalancing the two sides, except for retreat and camping. Not to mention if your assault lance spawn there they might took ages to reach the combat zone. edit: Iirc, such destructible elements are client side animations. Really not sure though, don't quote me on that one.
A lot of it will depend on how the map feels once we can drop there. It's entirely possible that the SE portion may become an amazing camp spot that has a good chokepoint. Or maybe Nascar Left will be the better way to move on the map, offering better cover. Just no way to tell without stepping into a mech...
The south east section needs an additional path way. A bit like this I think. The rocks are stupid but the map is still a WIP. A PGI dude had this to say.
Good to know. As with all map changes, I intend on just treating this as "wait and see", I'm sure the changes will be overall positive though. Just having the wider boundaries really addresses the biggest problem, so I won't have any negativity that I can't dissuade myself away from until we actually get the map (then I'll go in and find bugs )
Um. Would you care to explain what you don't like about the updated map? It would be a total waste of resources and dev time to just dump RC in the trash and start over. The current map isn't great, but it's by no means the worst map we have - that would go to Emerald Taiga in my opinion. EDIT: I guess a better way to put it would be to ask what it is that you think is so fundamentally flawed on RC as to require an entire redesign from scratch?
The point of river city existing in older mechwarriors was to have a very short ranged map. Now they are doubling its size, making it not at all unique. On top of that river city has some of the worst hitboxes and hangups of any in game maps. Also there are enormous sight lines allowing for near spawn sniping and after patching it will only get a little bit better. The map also is one of the least impressive graphically and imo is actually the worst map because the ONLY good tactics on it are NASCAR or counter NASCAR. Even the worst of the other maps allow for other tactics. TL;DR They poorly designed it originally and now are pasting stuff on top, not making it better really, just bigger.
You are right, the acutal river city has many problems, but saying the new one won`t be any better is a little hard. Because: They (try to) remove all the old problems. And in my opinion, river city has one of the best map designs, because it`s the only (city) map, where you really think that this is a battlefield. The new map (size) makes it very interesting, because you have many different terrain types and more than one path to go, so there will be many more tactics available than now.
