Feedback on the new maps

[[TOC]Floyd]

Overall I had a great time playing on some of the new maps tonight.

Berezne was a lot of fun. Good map layout and not too much armor. That upper radar base is very defendable, or at least we couldn't seem to recap it once the Germans took it halfway through the round.

Red Dawn looked like it would be fun too, except I went to the kitchen and when I came back, it was halfway over. I guess we started with only 100 tickets per side. What I did play, I liked.

Operation Acorn was a mix of everything. The Hill in the woods is rediculous in a firefight. Lots of hiding places in the terrain and trees. The Quarry seemed a little too defendable, and a little easier to get to by the Germans from the spawn. I only played it once though. One thing that did seem a little annoying is the AA gun at the south-eastern flag. On several occasions I was mowed down after I spawned in as infantry by an enemy that had hopped in the AA. Maybe it should be moved to the other side of the buildings, or the barricades around it should be built up higher to keep it from being used as an anti-personell weapon. Just a thought.

Didn't get a chance to play Woodland or Stormfront yet.

Great job guys. It's good to have some fresh maps to run around on.

[Braidedheadman]

I wasn't able to play tonight. For some reason, attempting to load Berezne caused my came to CTD. For now, I chalk it up to a bad download and am downloading the map pack from an alternate source. I'll post my findings when next I have a chance to play.

[Edit] Never mind, I caught my error. I accidentally grabbed the server package rather than the client.

[Gman]

I like Berezne. Lots of cover and most of the kits are useful. It was interesting to see an extended battle between 1 tank and a couple of squads and have it as a stand off.

Red Dawn. The one with the construction yard?? Very urban. I'm not sure I care for the 2 AA vehicles. I didnt see anyone use the chopper to put snipers on the roof tops. Thats about the only use for it.

Operation Acorn. Intense fighting around the hill in the center. I am not sure who has the advantage. I am thinking it is the attackers. Nades can clear the top fairly well. The quarry seemed to be of interest. Again, I dont know how useful the chopper is. You cant bail out of the chopper and survive.

I also have not played Woodland or Stormfront. So not comment.


An Idea.... set the server for POE style BF2 maps one night a week. That might make it easier to work out the What maps to play rotation.

Gman

[ANGELofDEATH]

I can only have bad things to say about Storfront, it turns into a huge snipefest every round I have played.. There isnt enought cover, the trenches are not deep enough. When I try to drive , I rubber band all over the place(not just the TG server).

The other maps.. TWO thumbs up..
Woodlands is awesome, very well made map, each of the flags is very tough to keep without a dedicated squad to defend.
Red Dawn.. WOW.. now there is talent in that boy. If you dont know, he made all the models himself, except for the car models.
Acorn, I really like this map, layout is great.. but I do have issues with the lighting.. :/
Berezne.. again, great map.. alot like Rivne, yet each flag is more infantry friendly.. I was surprised there is not a flag in the town around the churches :/

[Santa]

Ive changed my thoughts on the maps quite a bit now that ive played them all. My ranking:

1) Berezne. This map has it all. Enough armor, great infantry battles, wisely setup CPs, great urban area at the north and great forest area at the south, many tactical choices to make. When dali said we'd like it, he wasnt lying, as its an instant hit here.

2) Woodlands. Its basically fallen with more space, more flags, and more terrain differences. Great map, though my only problem with it is the lack of UCBs. Theres probably going to be a lot of flag capping in this one.

3) Red Dawn. This one has a TON of armor, which worried me at first. But, there seem to be a ton of places for AT infantry and spec ops to hide and then surprise the armor as it rolled in. I certainly didnt die as much as i had expected. Something else that worries me is the addition of a chopper in a relativly small map. When we get a decent pilot in one of those, i will be crying in my corner, pestering Icky to do something. Hopefully this map will grow on me a bit.

4) Stormfront. This map has some potential, but the ridiculous amount of sniping tarnishes it. The map has some fun battles along the south eastern and north western portions of the map. I think if the devs limited the sniper kit much like they did in Spies, itd be a decent map.

5) Acorn. Ugh, this map had a lot of potential. First of all, the decision to make the Quarry the only meaningful flag was not a good move. Apparently if one team has the quarry, it is impossible for them to bleed even if the enemy has all other flags. So all you should do is completely ignore the entire map--which is the best part of the map--and send all of your men to the Quarry. Upon capping, send maybe 12 guys out to cap another flag, and there you have a win. Since the quarry is the most important, its worth talking about. The road into Quarry is a ridiculous chokepoint. The actual quarry itself is entirely too wide open to have a fun fight in as well. What could have helped this map was to center the attention around Forest Hill much like Lumbermill was to Carpathian or Town to Highway To Hell. Also, the Quarry should have been less wide open, more trees around the perimeter that are accessible from all directions, and have that road at least 4 times as wide with a ton of cover all the way up to the flag.

[Sawviper]

I think I would have to agree with Santa's comments, although I did not get much gameplay on Red Dawn it seemed like it could have potential. Stormfront is just plain annoying with the snipers fests. Also with the UCB placement people with less restraint feel the need to fire at spawning players.

On Acorn I think a adjustment to the bleed ratio would fix that map.

[Santa]

Acorn would still be a bad map in my opinion, but adjusting it so that each flag effected bleed equally would go a long way to making that map bearable. I guess they were going for an objective based map, but thats just not how BF2 works. The only way that would work for Quarry is if the flag cap radius was humongous.

[thebleakaffinity]

Berezne is really hard on my computer. I had to put my terrain settings on low in order to make it playable. Every other map runs fine, but that one seems to really overwork my hard drive.

[[tR]Greasy_mullet]

hmm, not sure why it would work you extra hard. Do any of the normal PoE maps work you extra hard?

[Wimpinator]

Red Dawn: Love it. This map looks beautiful and plays very well.

Acorn: Hate it. My main gripe is there is a flag VERY close to the Ukraine UCB. This leads to inevitable firefights between the UCB and flag. The bridge leading out of the UCB also seems to invite enemy armor to roll onto the bridge. This map is just not set up for TG.

[thebleakaffinity]

Originally Posted by [tR]Greasy_mullet

hmm, not sure why it would work you extra hard. Do any of the normal PoE maps work you extra hard?

No, every other map runs just fine. Berezne is the only one that's caused problems for me.

[Ashenhart]

I only got to play a couple of rounds last night.. but I am really glad one of them was Red Dawn. Red Dawn was alot of fun for me and even though I ended being the only one in a squad for awhile.. the CO was really good about putting me in positions that worked out very well. I was a menace to a few squads ... thanks to the CO. There were plenty of places for me to hide and ambush squads.. plenty of places to hide when armor came rolling through... man that was a fun map.. I am looking forward to seeing more maps!!

[ThePenguineer]

Originally Posted by Wimpinator

Acorn: Hate it. My main gripe is there is a flag VERY close to the Ukraine UCB. This leads to inevitable firefights between the UCB and flag. The bridge leading out of the UCB also seems to invite enemy armor to roll onto the bridge. This map is just not set up for TG.

Hehe. I was leading with Wimp in my squad when we got pinned in at our UCB. I didn't know what to do, as they kept bringing their armor right up on to the bridge and would wait for us to shoot at them so they could return fire. Kind of annoying when you're standing in your UCB staring at the enemy only 30m away knowing that once you point anything in their direction you're gonna get fired on.

I didn't get to play all of the new maps, but I seem to remember good thoughts about Berezne, although I think I only got to play 16 player. Had a fun time trying to assault the middle flag while trying to keep myself alive as a spawn point. Would have made it too if I had more bullets

Woodlands would be a lot better if they either reduced the number of flags by 2 or gave each side a UCB. As it was, there was way too much flag hoping and each side was spread too thin just trying to hold the flags they had. What I noticed was that flag choice is key in that map in order to control the best vantage points (holding Watchtower, you could see most enemies trying to hide in the grass) and to make the enemy fight uphill. But, with so many flags, it's a pain to try to keep the 2 or 3 critical flags while trying to cap lesser flags to maintain bleed 3 or 4 (I think it has 9 flags, needing 5 for bleed, right?).

[Dali]

Keep up the feedback guys....Good or bad, let me know what you think and report any problems or bugs you may find.

Because of this damn ice storm and my power being out for 3 days, tonight was the first time I've got to play my map on a full server. I was worried that the UKR might have a big advantage, but it actually seemed to be pretty balanced. With the Germans taking an early advantage and the UKR making a late comeback to win by 60 or so tickets. It's always good to see a close game.

Sorry that some of you are having performance issues. If you are having problems please post or PM me your hardware specs and video settings and I'll see if I can narrow down the problem. All of my testers seemed to run it fine. At least comparable to all the other PoE2 maps that is.

There may be an oppurtunuty for me to update Berezne in the future, so any feedback will be useful for me.

[Lucky Shot]

Without knowing how many there are for sure, I would say more ramps up that cliff that runs on the outside near the OOB. Otherwise it's very difficult to take down an SL from up there. Overall, good spacing between the flags, plenty of action between the flags and good mix of things to hide behind and open space. I like the view distance, and the flag placements.

Lucky Shot