Forest Colony and Forest Colony Snow. They're too damned small. Forest Colony was supposed to be a test map that was never intended for release. But here we are 2 years later and not only is it part of the mix but an alternate is in the game as well. PGI: Make the damn thing bigger. I don't care how you do it. You could be lazy and simply copy-paste a mirror image of the map. Hell that might even be good. Link the two copies by where the water-out-of-bounds side is and holy shit... we have ourselves a hallway map with two caves.
Me personally, I think River City needs a larger change. I'm thinking, just expand the map by 1.5 times, and that would make it better to play on due to 12man arrival. In general, any map before 12mans needs more change to make it better.
River City needs a moon so it isn't quite so dark at night. I like the idea... a map so dark you're forced to use night vision. But it could be a little less dark and the effect would be the same.
It depends on the situation, but sometimes I don't use night/thermic vision on this map (especially when sniping). I'm not sure about fixing Forest Colony this way. The main grief I have against this map is that it feels like a corridor, and that won't solve anything. But I'd like another riverbank on the other side.
Yeah, I didn't say it was ideal but it would be an improvement. I'm just trying to point out that they could do anything, no matter how lazy or half-assed, to Forest Colony and I would approve. I'm so tired of dropping on that tiny little map. Delete the thing or make it bigger. It's so small it might as well be considered an arena map for a specific fast-paced game mode.
Too many maps need changing to list. There are so many little invisible walls and things spread around the various maps. If I didn't shave my head I would pull out my hair with the number of times that I've used the right side of my mech to shoot around a little rockface only to have an invisible wall prevent it from hitting an opponent.
The maps pre-12v12 need to be larger, or they have to go back to 8v8 on those maps (more diversity, is nice). Frozen city. TEXTURES!@#!%^$!! Caustic valley is terrible. The most exciting matches you have is poking over the crater wall, running around the crater after eachother like a mad metal carroussel or capping bases. The heat inside the crater is not telling either. Tourmaline has giant missile trajectory / invisible wall problems. Alpine is a bit better now (though conquest points should be further apart) but still hella unbalanced with one team starting on the high ground. Also still way to bloody big. Terra therma is actually not that bad except for it's size which should be more fit for 12v12v12 or 8+8 v 8+8 (I refuse to write 16v16 as that implies giant blobs of 16 mechs which are worse than giant 12 mech blobs). They've gotten better at map making recently as I love the double platform on Crimson Strait and HPG Manifold is really good. tl;dr: yes, too many maps need fixes.
What!?! An MWO map is too big? I couldn't disagree with you more. We need bigger maps. Much bigger. I won't be happy until we have maps as large as the largest maps in Mechwarrior 4: Mercs or larger. Maybe make it a separate game mode so the people who want a more "arcade" game don't have to play it but the hardcore Mech simulator fans want giant maps, random drop locations, and no bases. Give me a map and game mode that gives scouting a purpose! Give me a map and game mode where teamwork is more than focus-firing targets! Give me a map and game mode that feels like a Mechwarrior game should! But alas, I fear that would be far too radical a change for MWO to make. I fear it will always be a mech arcade game.
Fine let me rephrase then: Every battle happens around the cliffs in the middle, and there's almost no 'original' way to approach it except maybe on skirmish where they can't take your base. So, the map itself may be a good size, but it's too big compared to where the battle actually takes place. 90% is wasted space and that should be fixed.
Random drop points would help fix this issue. If we didn't know where the enemy is at the start of every match we wouldn't go to the same spot every time. Also: larger maps.
I'm fine with the maps so I didn't vote. Invisible walls and obstacle boundaries need to be fixed first and foremost. This is a shooting game and its ridiculous that I have to shoot at least a meter clear of any obstacle to hit something. If my weapons have line of sight, I should be able to hit them and not the cliff. I'm not a light pilot so this doesn't affect me often, but those dead spots where lights get caught have to be fixed.
meh, map variety is fine. Small maps, big maps... all fine in the name of diversity. I find Therma the worst as it just take too long or is too hard in pug environments to fight anywhere else but directly outside of the ring of death. Even on Caustic, you can take positions in d2/e2 or d5 if you don't want to play ring around the caldera. Forest Colony is a little linear in game play, I must agree with, as is frozen city really, but I'd rather them add more maps than change current maps. On s7/Mag's point, more varied location drops/base points would help. I don't think they should be completely random as there needs to be some sort of effort on balancing so one position isn't completely dominant vs the other, but I don't see how we couldn't find 3 start locations for each of the games modes on the larger maps. I'm a fan of what they did with Alpine Conquest - took a map and make it play completely differently just from changing up start locations/bases.
Also, I'm pretty sure I recall the hidden wall thing will never be fixed - some statement from PGI saying it's too resource intensive to have a bunch of small squares defining walls vs large rectangles; much like our graphics/haze are getting worse over time in their effort to balance an online multiplayer game running well.
Where's the option for all? Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the maps but they all certainly need adjustments as there is practically no variation in how anyone plays them. Of course, mech selection can change that drastically, as you're unlikely to play Terra Therma with a Stalker the same way you would with a Jenner. The faster you are the more of the map you use, in my experience at least.
I agree, Forest colony is so small that you can shoot from base to base and do Damage, you are in the *%^& before you even power up. no room to maneuver Great starter map to see if the game works but not a map to call Complete, I like the idea of Making a Second map and connecting Maybe with a Mountain pass or 2 or 3
