To many numbers to few bases

[Manedew]

this game is becoming something I enjoy very little during primetime US hours ....

Why because there are too many people with too few base options.....

Nothing but hordes moveing across Mindano tonight

Few maps address this problem, yet ALL remain in the lineup ....

Pizza, Big Is. , & FesterMA seem to deal with these large numbers well.

Pizza, with it's other problems aside, allows people to choose a field  to fight from...  But pizza fails from too little 'structure'

What I mean by 'structure' is the way a map like Trinity is laid out....  it forces gameplay into certain areas.... But i think Trinity was over done...

Big Is.  would be perfect, but I feel it needs more airfields...  The answer to large numbers is not to start makeing fields 1.5 sectors away ....  but there are enough options to allow a player choices...

But these maps fail during low number hours .... why .. because of long distances, and the many options for the players.... the only map that has addressed this from both sides is festerMA

Fester MA is the only map I find playable at both US primetime and 'off' hours

But it's been a working progress ... people saw the need for a bigger map, so we got Pizza... ok .. but it had problems .. too open .. it needed 'structure' for that size.... so we got Trinity ...  Which shows you what too much 'structure' can do ... Big Is. finds the middle ground to a point, but it still relies far flung fields in it's 'structure'.  FesterMA seems to have learned from Trinity & Big Is. and uses limited 'structure' to obtain it's goal.  

But the main issue is it playable at a time when there are 100-200 people on (aus/jap time 1:00-7:00 am EST)  and also playable at US primetimes when 500-600 may be on (6:00- 12:00 est )

FesterMA is the best i've seen at doing both.....

 ....With low numbers and many options,  your chances of finding a fight decrease-this is the main problem with pizza during late hours.  The lack of any structure causes this... Fester MA has structure, but this alone cannot fix both as we see with Trinity.  What fixes it is base proximity and structure .... flying a sector and a half to find that the fight you up'd for is gone has caused me to log off many times at 'late' hours.  This effect is felt greatly on maps like Big Is.

I don't have the will or want to keep trying to find fights on maps which provide players with too many field options while requireing the player to fly 1.5 sectors (37.5 miles).....  

A good map must consider both the low and high points of MA attendance.  Most maps now cater to one or the other ... not to both...   Fester's is the best at doing both and i think HTC should learn from this and DECREASE thier map use....

We have more maps now than ever .. is more better?  Not in this case ... maps that were made for an AH population of 200-300 max don't work anymore  during US Primetime and maps like Pizza don't work during Aus/Jap primetime......

I think this means HTC should scale back the use of all maps, and limit it to what works in ALL timezones...

Only maps that come to mind that are close or have it down are

Big Is., FesterMA & Trinity.....

I remeber when AH cost 30$ and had one map sfma up for about six months..... if a map works .. the same map doesn't hurt the game ... many maps , bad and good, hurt the game more than just haveing a single good map.....

So in that light I think if not with old AH ... AH2 should not have these map issues ... we've learned as a group how big maps function...Pizza was a frist attempt ...(so why do we hang onto it as is) Trinity showed us what could be done with a little control .... etc etc .. i went throuh this before .. but the point is,  don't just stagnate on your old maps .... these new big maps can work for multiple population sizes if planed correctly as Trinity, & FesterMA show us....

This is the way i see things with maps... most are good with one population size or another .. start focusing on the maps that allow both .... AH population size chages much faster than maps...

We don't need every last map in rotation that HTC has ever approved...  our population doesn't allows for some of the older stuff anymore...

so you folks agree....?

[Shane]

do wish there was a way to script map changes without having it be a player or manual reset...

that way in off peak times, some smaller maps could be up for a few hrs and at a certain time limit the map chnages and whoever has most bases, "wins."

in those off peak times the smaller maps could be put into play, in prime time, the bigger maps come in.

don't see it happening tho'.

some of the smaller maps are enjoyable in their own way, as long as not toooooo crowded.

[Virage]

Lets retire some maps.

[Soda]

The problem with the small maps was lack of breathing room but the solution was to create them so large that it's like playing in a vacuum.  You could place fields on these huge maps 2 miles apart and while that would improve transit times it wouldn't improve your chances of finding an enemy.  Too many guys are busy avoiding contact, they milk-run all over and never stay in an area that is defended in any sense.  The huge maps also have no feel to them, you have no idea what is happening on a front that is 50+ fields wide.  

Take an high amount of 200 players/side, remove the 50 guys who are in GV's/fleet guns/ack, and then apply the normal concentration where 100 guys are fighing in 1-2 furballs (half fighting and half in transit back)... that leaves only 50 guys to spread out amongst the other 45 or so fields... no wonder you can't find a fight anywhere else.

Just my thoughts, I suck at map creation, but why not tighten some of these things up a bit more again... no more 9 sector flights to strat and fewer places for people to "hide".

-Soda

[qts]

I dislike BigIsles.