Emp_Manticore Beta 1

I thought this was emp_grimspan.

 

looks very nice

looking foward to play it on a populated server.

 

are there any flying birds or animals in this mod?

 

we have a flying seagull on one map

 

I commanded a game on this map and it was lots of fun. There were many ninja raxes, big infantry fights in middle and bases built and lost in east and west.

 

What happened to the South East and North West areas from Butchersrift? I want them back

It also looks too dark now for the skybox.

 

It condenses better with those corners also closed off. And I havnt changed the lighting in the map at all, I'm way to lazy for that .

 

Heres some updated pics for b2. Trying some new lighting, pretty up in the air about it though. Broke up all the asphalt to add some detail, all aesthetic really. Added some height variation the the west side buildings.

 

and Im going to kick this on in here for nostalgia's sake.

 

did you fix the res node with that huge iron smelter thingy so it disappears when you drop refineries on it? it looks weird with it sticking out.

 

I'll agree that cutting out the South West and North East was a good move, but I really liked the idea of separate, out of city areas in the North West and South East.

Also, whilst I haven't played the latest version of Manticore, the gameplay seems a bit...well, a lot of people just seem to sit either side of the canal shooting eachother, and then one person manages to get behind and turns the entire game around. It's interesting to some extent, but It's kind of annoying to get cut down by carbines/heavy rifles every time you go into the middle, yet go a bit further up/down the canal, and you can just walk across and sneak all the way to the enemy main without much difficulty.

It'd be interesting to have some bits of broken rock or something as cover in the canal, and maybe have the walkways over the main bridge be a bit less important, as that's one of the less fun areas to fight at. Having said that, once a team breaks across the bridge, the defence is really really fun. I'd love to see some more areas inside buildings, a bit like emp_homeland. Fighting building to building could be awesome, and it's already pretty fun there as it is. I think one of the main reasons the canal fighting sometimes isn't that fun, is that with commander targets, even if you go prone under the water, you just get cut up instantly. But yeah, overall, it's a lot of fun.

 

That looks a little boring. I liked the extra stuff that was cut out. BTW did they get rid of sludge? I don't see it in those pics.

And yes need cover in canal it tends to be a no mans land.

 

those pics trickster posted are an old old version, the sludge is still there. And the canals are suppose to be a no mans land, I leave you the OPTION of going through certain places but make an EMPHASIS to concentrate fighting in certain areas. This allows you to have good thick fighting without getting stuck defending one chokepoint(like slaughtered). Your not FORCED to get stuck going one way every time, if the shit gets too bad and bunkered in you go elsewhere rather than storming the beaches of Normandy all day. The idea is to keep the map open enough for dynamic gameplay but condensed enough for fun combat. With the way the layout is set also with no pure chokepoints you defend a dynamic location rather than cover a single pass, so your fighting is again concentrated without being linearly repetitive.

Though I must say im not really opposed to the idea of some vertical cover in the canal, im not sure exactly what i would stick down there however, even with cover it would be a no mans land well enough to serve its purpose.

I plan to stick crates or some such along the upper walkways of the bridge to give some cover, the whole distance is just way too strait too long for my taste with no real moving cover. I simply didnt know what else to do with it. The upper walkways were made to give the center more emphasis than the sides of the map, while I liked the sides for their ying yang gameplay element the center was mostly ignored in previous versions. The upper walkways have had a dramatic change on that I agree, most combat is concentrated there. But thats not necessarily a bad thing, there are still good pushes on the sides of the map once in a while. The more concentrated the fighting the better, as long as it doesnt become stagnant.

dealing with the north-west and south-east now being closed off, well in testing it became more hassle than fun to maintain it, they were simply so far out of the way no one ever wanted to check them, not like they were on the way to anything. So it caused more headache than fun, i mean after having to go around all the shit just to check it out you've gone a fair distance, specially since your on foot the majority of the game since the res is so low. I dono it was just too much pain in the ass running to constantly check something that could easily fuck your over into loosing the game, so you had to check constantly but it required good cooperation by vets that understood the importance of the position themselves to go waste time having a look. The map shouldnt be that annoying to play, current way is a bit condensed agreed, maybe I could open up the area's next to ramps but the corners themselves are undoubtedly going to stay closed off.

 

This map is really fun to play but it just doesn't fit with RTS and stuff. Maybe if it was commanderless and the infantry would have to go and capture flags around the map to gain control over it, the win condition being having to cap the flag at the other end of the map (the opposing force's starting base) much like tropicvendetta.

 

Whilst that may be true, people still seem to get around the edges without much hassle. But you're right, it's still difficult to work around. Just think we should find a way to prevent it, or give people a reason to go there more often, so that it exists for reasons other than "hey this is where I go to ninja". The rest of the ideas sound awesome though.

 

Was anything changed at the CV starting area?
At the version I have played it was very open and therefore it was easy to ninja the enemy CV.
Maybe add some hills and many trees there, so that there is no space for a ninja barracks next to the CV starting position.

 

I've actually been trying to figure out what to do with all that open area at CV starts. It's far too open for infantry to run around easily in but I dont want to limit building area in any great degree. And I dont want to just make a maze a rockcliff models.

any ideas? trees dont provide much cover either(not against turrets and targets anyway). basically I just want to make the running across the grass to the city not into a no mans land, cause this turns kinda gay if you get stuck with just your main start for a spawn point. I dont think it should be game over for them instantly upon that.(instantly might be a bit dramatic but overall still fairly true)

 

Some ideas:

- Move the starting areas to east and west. Because you can't build a complete base there commander has to drive to a new base. This will it make more difficult to ninja, because you first have to search the enemy CV.

- Place a fortress like in crossroads in the north and south

- Remove the wooden stairs where you can out of the water next to the enemy CV.

 

Actually, that's not a half bad idea. Move it to near(ish) the corner of the canal, and it would be pretty interesting to see. The canal would cause teams to sort of "rotate" around it, so to speak. Like I said, interesting to try at the least.

 

Here's an idea:

make the bridge a blown bridge. Leave the infantry crossing on the top, and possibly a passable section on the bottom for infantry. Use the ramps near the bridge for the vehicle crossing. Also, add in ramps to the side of either spawn leading out of the canal for vehicles. Leave the canal fairly clear.

What does this do? Leave infantry combat nearly completely open (possibly more access to the canal and rooftop space to fight tanks with) but makes them not the focus of the direct routes to enemy territory. Turns the areas next to spawn very important because it's one of the 2 places tanks can get up on your side of the canal. This also achieves the act of funneling all combat to a central location, forces tanks to take the long way rather than infantry, and allows infantry faster access to the action, rather than being stuck pinned down at APC's for an hour.

This also eliminates the issue of having cover in the canal. Don't need it because it'll block tanks.

In Essence, I think you should make the fastest and most direct routs the infantry routes rather than having the tanks fighting it up in the center while the infantry are forced to walk for hours around.