Early impressions on the new version
of early beta Wake map.
Still have the trees and the snow inside the dock, but some very
necessary changes were made.
The PAC assets have been moved to the mainland making them vulnerable
to EU attack.
A gap in the building was widened to allow access to the Walker at
DOCKS.
Titan pods now have short range movement allowances that increase the
amount of options they have to podding outward. Some people
still
maintain that easy access to the gunship is not possible.
Titan consoles in EU titan are not normal strength.
Another
change was the addition of some small obstacles to provide limited
coverage on the titan deck. However, such coverage probably
remains insufficient.
Here is a photograph of the new coverage:
Here is another view:
Here I have landed a transport on the titan deck. It appears
I could camp the deck with ease:
I
was not able to play test the new map because owing to its quasi-public
status (you have to install a special map), there were no other players
in the server.
In
this photo, you do not see the exploding barrels, I'm not sure how
often they respawn but they seemed to disappear for ever. In
general, I took damage landing the transport on the deck each time.
However, I think it will still be possible to score tank zoom's into
the map.
I do not think the new coverage offers much protection from tank fire.
There is still snow in the Docks and the trees are still triangular
with AA off. These are minor issues.
This
pedestal at beach seems to have very limited EU access. A PAC
transport can easily land on top of it, but only the EU gunship can
access this area. That means this pedestal leans PAC.
You
could lower the pedestal so that APC's access it.
I was still able to blow the consoles using the RDX console glitch and
gain access to the PAC core.
The
assets have been moved to the mainland. Currently, UAV is at
Village end prong. Sat Track, EMP, and Orbital are all at
Office
end.
Finally,
the gunship remains exposed to AA fire. If PAC takes the
titan,
the gunship is in direct LOS of titan AA which effectively makes it
impossible to use.
I took a look at the gunship spawn from the Dock's AA gun.
Assessment of current changes:
PROBLEM TITAN BAY VULNERABILITIES
I
do not think the coverage that is provided in the titan bay will
provide sufficient to avoid tank camping and other criticism that
currently exists in the map. The coverage of the map is very
small and it is still easy to fire tank shells into the titan bay.
OPTIONS
I have stated time and time again that the
EU DOCK area could be reversed and face the ocean to eliminate this
problem. That is a major change and it would disrupt the
ability
of the EU to effectively use titan AA to protect some of the island
points from troop transports.
Another option is to eliminate the
tanks from the map and replace them with walkers. This would
eliminate the ability to fire tanks into the titan bay.
Walkers
have more flexibility in moving across the open bay which would change
the play style a bit. People would routinely walk across the
map
to capture flag points and the center of the map would be drawn more
into play.
A third option would be to add cargo cannisters to
block the shots. Stacked cargo canisters, full of equipment
to
repair the titan, might effectively reduce the los and block tank or
transport fire into the bay (particularly if placed to provide coverage
to the AA gunners.
It has been suggested that the titan spawn points be more randomized.
Some people advocate shields.
PROBLEM TITAN CORE DESTRUCT EXPLOIT
You can still blow the titan consoles using the RDX kit switching
exploit and gain access to the titan core.
Assuming
you do not want people to destroy the PAC titan, you would need to
physically obstruct access to the titan consoles. I would
suggest
a barrage of crates and barrels in corridors 1, 4 which restricted the
player ability to get at the consoles.
PROBLEM MAP IMBALANCE
Problem #1
The
present map allows PAC to approach in a circular attack route.
EU
is limited to U shaped attack and defense pattern owing to its
inability to easily cross the map in the middle. You can hit
the
tips of the island by using the titan pods. This gives the
PAC a
bridge between the two points and effectively closes the island.
The EU cannot effectively bridge the map at the outer ends of
the
island. At present, only the walker can move from one end of
the
island to the other. A running walker takes about 30 seconds
to
cross the points and in my experience took 60-80 points of damage doing
so. The closest walker spawn is at Checkpoint.
CRUDE Map of PAC OPTIONS (old Wake map used):
CRUDE EU OPTIONS (old wake map used):
Possible Solution #1:
Create
a partial bridge at the end of the island for passage by FAV's.
There are FAV's in the vicinity which could traverse a broken
bridge and thus allow the EU EASIER access to both sides of the map.
This would allow EU to possibly take back the OFFICE and
VILLAGE
CHECKPOINTS with greater ease.
Possible Solution #2:
Add
a transport to the EU's options. A transport would open the
island up to the EU and put the outer points back into play.
Boats and jet skis would also be a welcome addition.
Possible Solution #3:
Move
walker spawns closer to the end of the island or at Office and Village
so that EU has a chance to move across the bay with control of those
areas. You may also want to consider reducing the amount of
damage that the walker takes while crossing the gap.
Problem #2
The
present map allows PAC a Chinese checkers advantage. PAC can
leapfrog control points. Take beach or checkpoint, and then
mount
a two front campaign back towards Office or Village. Thus,
they
can cut-off the outer capture points. Once they cut off the
outer
capture points, it is very hard for EU to regain control of the outer
points.
Possible solution #1:
Partial bridge. Already discussed.
Possible solution #2:
Eu transport. Adding a transport to the EU arsenal would
allow broader map access and level some of the playing field.
Possible solution #3:
Add
eu spawn point at little Island with control of Titan. The
little
island is pretty far out there and the EU would still have to engage in
a lengthy swim. Avoids Chinese checkers problem by making
sure
both sides have dedicated access to the island ends, but seems a bit
contrived.
Possible solution #4:
Let the teams figure out
how to use BEACONS to try to retain some presence in the backfield.
I don't know, it might just be TOO CRAZY to assume that
players
might work together to overcome this obvious problem.
Possible solution #5:
Move
the titan even further back from its new map location or shorten pod
range on PAC titan. If the PAC titan cannot reach the tips of
the
island easier, you at least force them to rely on transports and
eliminate the "titan bridge". Such a step seems somewhat
modest
as it hinders PAC slightly but does not assist EU. This would
be
the absolute least that could be done.
PROBLEM EU GUNSHIP IN TITAN AA LOS/LOF
If
the PAC takes control of the EU titan, the gunship is easily in LOS/LOF
and can simply be camped. This effectively takes out the only
air
vehicle that EU has and can create an enormous disadvantage for EU.
Option #1
Move
the gunship pad to a location where it is not in direct LOF of titan AA
gun. It's a simple solution, but then no one will probably
access
Dock roof anymore.
Option #2
Provide cover. Stacked
cargo cannisters might provide coverage next to gunship might provide
coverage. Why would such cannisters be there?
Because it
was a hastily constructed defense to an imminent PAC attack.
(They made do in light of the threat knocking on their door).
Or perhaps the cannisters are full of rockets which resupply
the
gunship. Or go with a billboard next to the gunship..
A
small billboard might block fire and we all know, DICE loves
billboards. Look at the placement of the billboard near the
AA
gun at silo 2 on Hwy Tampa. Talk about reducing LOF.
Still
the goal is to allow the titan aa gun to function so we want to place
the billboard next to the gunship.
MISC. ISSUES
PAC ASSETS
Currently
the PAC assets are divided with 3 on one side of the island and 1 on
the other. Because PAC can pod out, it should be relatively
easy
to fix the assets if they are blown. EU will have to travel a
short distance, but might be able to reach it.
The strategic value of assets is as follows: 1. UAV 2. SAT
TRACK 3. ORBITAL 4. EMP STRIKE.
If
you want to make life as miserable as possible for the PAC, place 1.
UAV 2. SAT TRACK 3. ORBITAL at one prong (OFFICE SIDE). The
village side offers a relatively close FAV and a shorter transport time
for anyone going from the tip of the island to the next stop (village).
The FAV is placed further down on the office side, meaning a
longer walk.
Less cruel, but equally problematic is to couple
the 1. UAV and 2. Sat track points together on Office Side.
Although it might arguably take an engineer less time to
repair
the crucial assets if they were both on one side of the island prong
(one pod).
A finally, and humorous option is to place the EMP strike asset on the
little island.
BEACH
Currently
BEACH provides most of its cover in the water rather than at the flag
spawn. The only anomaly is the super tall pedestal which
seems to
have access to PAC more readily than EU. I've landed a PAC
transport on top of it and you are safe from the defenders below.
AA might be a different issue.
Beach also seems to have
very little in the way of transportation. Might be nice to
have a
simple FAV or even a walker spawn there.
As EU moves
towards Office it is hindered by the fact that it must move out of
DOCKS to gain access to any kind of vehicles. At checkpoint
and
at village both EU and PAC have available options. Most of
the
time, if PAC controls OFFICE they can control the area between OFFICE
AND BEACH. The good news is that BEACH, while accessible to
vehicle capture, at least puts vehicles in a bad spot while they do it.
But likewise, vehicles trying to RECAP BEACH from Docks are
also
limited. So again, at present, there is no quick way to get
between BEACH and OFFICE (FAV) or counterpoint to Office Tank.
TITAN SPAWN POINT ISSUE
In
the early map, the titan spawn point allowed for Docks access as well
as titan access. This helped EU defend if Docks was taken,
but
hurt EU if Titan was taken.
Suggested options:
Some people suggested making this spawn point limited to EU only.
Another option:
Give DOCKS the two control points.
Third option:
Flip Titan location facing titan to make it more adjacent to docks and
leave spawn points as they were.
There are also different game play elements which could be tested.
* * *
Alright, since I'm totally insane, I started dreaming up new ways to
play this map.
For off the wall game play variations suggestions, click
this link. Warning: these ideas might be
crude and impractical and would require some significant play testing.
ANOTHER UPDATE!
The Beta testing continues:
I explored the parameters and rules of 5.15 map a little bit more.
The rules are as follows: PAC bleeds until first cp.
EU bleeds if it loses the titan.
It takes about 40 seconds for a single person to turn a normal flag.
It takes about 50 seconds for a single person to turn the titan core flag.
Tip of the
Assets:
UAV, AA gun
FAV
Village
Tank
FAV
Checkpoint
Assets:
AA gun by bridge to village
AA gun
Rorsch gun
Vehicles:
FAV
Assets
AA gun
Rorsch gun
APC
FAV
Tank
Gunship
Beach
Assets
Rorsch gun
Assets
AA gun
Rorsch gun
Vehicles
FAV
Tank
Tip of the island (office side)
Assets
Orbital Strike
Sat Track
Emp Strike
Rorsch gun
Vehicles
Must cross bridge to access FAV
Titan
Assets
Extra spawn point on Dock
2 AA guns
Titan Guns (poorly located due to height)
Central Dock
Assets
AA gun
Rorsch gun
Vehicles:
APC
FAV
Tank
Gunship
