The hills lead up to the upper area to make it accessible from the ground in that area (so you can flank from that area so it isn't as linear and you have to watch your back), I can see it being used set up pincer strikes and whatnot.
Ah, alright. I understand you better now with regards to the hills. I thought you meant more along the lines of those short cliffs that are found in the SE and what not, but you meant hills like the ones in the NE & SW that vehicles can use to get on the cliffs. Gotcha.
You basical want to keep the map as boring and frustraiting as it is... so you have to walk for hours if you are the one that repaired/build the remote revs for the team resulting in no one doing it. EDIT: :/
Did you not read anything? I think it's pointless to have those ladders on the outer areas of only 2 locations, which already have ladders on the inner side, as well as hills. The two most annoying places to jump down are the NW resource node & the W resource node, both of which I'm thinking about putting ladders near (one of which I already have). In the SE, you have two ladders somewhat nearby with which to get onto the cliffs. In the NW, you don't have that option. How am I wanting to keep it frustrating by giving players more ways to get onto the cliffs in the areas that they're needed? Nobody needs a ladder to get from the SW res node to the SW cliff, or the NE res node to the NE cliff. The NW & W are far more of a frustration, and you'd rather I not do that... so, isn't it you who would like to keep the map more frustrating than it needs to be? Adding ladders to the SW & NE won't make it any less frustrating than it is now.
can't we just have both? (ladders in SW+NE and W+NW) on a slightly related note: wouldn't it look more natural if there were vines or a special rock texture that implies rock climbing that act like ladders to climb on instead? who would put the time and effort into erecting ladders in a seemingly deserted island?
Ladders next to every beach refinery would be nice. Also, I like Lithium's changes. Makes infantry more useful via more cover and chokepoints. Isle almost always come done to someone turtling on the hills and the other team running around with lots of vehicles.
I like Lithiums new ladder suggestions, NE and SW. but the new cliffs look, in my opinion, really bad. they really split up any teams into three or four directions. splitting up the players is a really bad thing, because players fighting on different areas of the map have no real benefit to your game experience, but players in the same area do and make the game a lot more epic. the ideal map, really, focuses the players into one or two paths, while at the same time offering ample opportunities to go a longer way around and attack by alternate route to prevent the game becoming a grind. Slaughtered is a great case study: players are focused, and despite the ugly map it's still great to play. it becomes less good when it stagnates, and this is because there are no "alternative" ways to attack. Another great case study: Mvalley. There are obvious and few good areas of Mvalley, which focuses the players, but alternative ways to attack, which means that it never ever "grinds" If anything though, Mvalley is a little bit too open and so the players are never quite focussed enough, which means it's better for large teams. Ditto the current Isle. But the point is, unused, "useless" parts of the map are excellent. by making different parts of the map of different value, you focus the players and ensure that controlling and attacking from different positions ensures the gameplay is varied and enjoyable. e.g, fighting the enemy roughly NW vs SE is very different from NE vs SW. That's good Lithiums map idea would just spread the players out dramatically, and doesn't create any real contrast among the areas. There is no different experience fighting NW vs SE as SW vs NE, and this might lead to matches feeling repetative. Then again, duststorm is fairly similar in all areas except the ruins, and that plays brilliantly.
add a random hatch in the ground and a smoke monster. aswell as 250ft statue of taweret facing the ocean.
you people just dont' understand how hard it is to break displacements to put your little tunnels through, VERY DIFFICULT AND ANNOYING.
If you weren't a noob mapper and was as great as I am at every aspect of life it wouldn't be so difficult
Dude, I think you're missing the point I was trying to make. or I made the point badly, or something. essentially: focus the players to attack one or two locations - good. too much more than that and the map is confusing to play and there are less players per area. BUT: give players several alternate ways to attack each area, some direct, several infantry only, of varying "time to reach good location". See slaughtered as a counterexample of this. So i agree with you, when you're forced to go in one direction and you have no choice it sucks. But I think that a totally "equal quality in all directions" situation like this, or that with beach, would massively lack the focus of the current isle. [an aside- mapping philosophy] on reflection, though duststorm is very open, so you might think it lacks focus, few areas provide a real benefit, namely the four corners and the middle, so players ARE focussed. but then again, that's not many more nodes than the mayamas suggested isle. And actually, duststorm very frequently doesn't have focus, it's much more frequently an individual or a small squad attacking some other small squad as part of a larger war.
2 equal locations with alternatives is pretty much what it is because the alternative paths all lead to the main front of their respected side, there's just more variables to add randomness to the mix. but I'm willing to compromise and leave the the middle untouched from the current isle but keep the other changes to see how that goes if the mapper decides to go forward with it.
