A Change of Scenery?

[scarecrw]

Hello,

I know there are some major complications in trying to have maps in the MA with custom built buildings, trees, ect. and the Axis v. Allies arena has some really cool maps that are snow and desert (as do the SEA on some days) but is it possible to have an area that uses some of the more complex maps with a MA style of gameplay so that way we can use some of the great skins that we have for the desert and the winter. Flying a white 109 on an island just doesn't feel right and I hate having to wait for the right scenario. This way, instead of forcing people to have to wait for long downloads in order to play, it is totally optional. I don't even know if this is possible but it's just a thought.

Some of the greatest experiences in this game have been with full immersion in things like This Day in WWII or the Scenarios and it's because of the scenery. I think having something more like that would be worth while so that way we aren't seeing the same maps over and over and if we do see the same maps over and over there are different terrains.

what do you guys think?

[FLS]

I think you'd have a bunch of skins not matching the terrain instead of a few.

MA gameplay tries to start with evenly matched countries. The other maps aren't set up for that.

[shoresroad]

Hello,

I know there are some major complications in trying to have maps in the MA with custom built buildings, trees, ect. and the Axis v. Allies arena has some really cool maps that are snow and desert (as do the SEA on some days) but is it possible to have an area that uses some of the more complex maps with a MA style of gameplay so that way we can use some of the great skins that we have for the desert and the winter. Flying a white 109 on an island just doesn't feel right and I hate having to wait for the right scenario. This way, instead of forcing people to have to wait for long downloads in order to play, it is totally optional. I don't even know if this is possible but it's just a thought.

Some of the greatest experiences in this game have been with full immersion in things like This Day in WWII or the Scenarios and it's because of the scenery. I think having something more like that would be worth while so that way we aren't seeing the same maps over and over and if we do see the same maps over and over there are different terrains.

what do you guys think?

+1

The side balancing argument has never made sense to me in regards to not using historic maps.  The Knights don't care about taking the map, so what is there to balance?  Give the Knights one uncapturable base somewhere and they'll be happy   Then we can begin using real maps in the MA 

[Greebo]

MA maps have to built as such for various reasons. There need to be three sides and a working strat system, plus there are rules about field placement that don't apply to other maps.

It is technically possible to design a desert or winter MA map with the current map editor. However it would not look very convincing as all the European or Pacific style summer vegetation and buildings would look out of place (no snow on the hangar roofs etc.) While a map designer is allowed to alter ground textures on an MA map it is forbidden to alter the textures on objects like buildings or trees. This is probably because it would make the terrain file size too large and also because it might introduce game crashing bugs.

I did consider having a couple of spawn areas up above the snow line on my MA map, so that winter skins could be used to effect on GVs. However when I thought about it I realised that all your typical GVer would do is turn off other player's skins. Then the game would default to the standard skins which would stand out against the snow. Including default winter or desert skins in an MA map would again make the terrain file size huge so its never going to happen.

What we don't know is if the new terrain will add more options for map design. One difference that has been mentioned is the ability to apply an underlying tint to the ground textures. Personally I'd like a few different types of bases and bridges added.

[nrshida]

The Winter terrain in AvA was fantastic. Would be cool if we had a big map ever which the climate changed from Winter to tropical to desert.