For the last two terrains I've created, the goal has been to understand how the "current player" community utilizes the terrain. I've also attempted to shrink the spacing of feilds to facilitate faster turnaround and integrate GVs more closely into the action front determined by air combat capture initiatives. I went so far as to not have some airfields accessible by GVs to promote air combat only initiatives. So far I've accomplished this for the small numbers we have compared to years ago and refining it in a third terrain at this time.
We are not who we once were when 400 players were the norm at prime time. We no longer play this game as a strategic land grab game dominated by squads leading those initiatives competing against each other. That mechanism is still in place and we still capture feilds but, we do it as an arena full of lone players who just happen to be attacking the same location. Especially if we see our friends heading that way or that is where the largest number of our countrymen are located. For the most part our game is played like a first person shooter where killing the other guy by any means possible and getting away with it rules the arena.
On Oceania the center furball island was a test for me to observe how air combat players really want to interact with each other. Pretty much hoard for safety and shoot each other in the back and face any way they can. Just like in the WW1 arena, 8 vs 1 doesn't appear wrong to the 8 in that tiny island arena. Then last night I watched on my first terrain BowlMA the capture over 3 hours of the the three airfields on the tip of one island that have no GV spawns and are 19 miles apart from each other. There was no organized initiatives, everyone was going to the same location. Some remembered to bring bombs, the rest only wanted to vulch(shoot people in the back). The combat to take each of these feilds with no interference from GVs took forever and at times was fierce. The shortened distances kept players engaged due to the shortened transit times.
Because of our small numbers I chose on both terrains to run GV spawns to follow obvious air combat initiatives to keep the largest number of players for each country working together. I limited the numbers of vBases to facilitate this. Hitech does like having a number of airfields with no GV access to them, I've tested this on both terrains and it works for air combat initiatives. It also leaves the Gvers to attack undefended feilds...
Observing the base captures and air combat last night of the three airfields with no GV access helped me realize Melee arena terrains can be built 5sector x5sector while having almost the same number of feilds as a 10x10 by using 19miles as the maximum distance between airfields. With our current prime time numbers, 150 players proportionally will fill and create activity like 400 players on a 20x20 or 10x10. The action will resemble the WW1 arena a bit more and strats will be an interesting conundrum. Something would have to be done about the fact most strat bomber initiatives would fly off the map to avoid fighting and to run away in the same direction to get home safely. And the uncapturable feilds, one maybe two with the 262 enabled at one or two rear area feilds to not destabilize the smaller arena area. A smaller arena area would bring out the greifer in many but, is really how the "current player" community is playing in the Melee arena. Any organized initiatives would be icing on the war win cake.
Below the screen shots show the new 10x10 terrain I'm building with all of the locations for feilds mapped on it and a 5sectorx5sector box in red on it. The second is a 5x5 arena with the feilds from the red box outlined on my new 10x10 terrain. That 5x5 area has about the same number of feilds as on NDisles condensed to 19miles separation. My last two terrains have been experiments with 19miles separation and it helps generate activity with our current lower numbers than the AH2 days. Frankly Artik's geomap terrain generating program would be ideal to rapidly generate new 5x5 terrains, right now I can only see the next mountain range I have to sculpt on "riftval". I would hope whoever runs that thing will spend the time painting them better than most of the Melee arena terrains since the AH3 terrain editor gives us that ability now. Our competitors go to that trouble and why I do.
As you can see I still have a ways to go sculpting my new terrain before I can submit it for rotation.
Yes at the left end of that valley is a 4,000ft deep crack which is the prototype for a massive crack system in the 5,000ft high green area at the back end of each country. I tested how narrow I can make the crack's floor to keep it flat to allow GV's to drive the length of it. About 1\4mile or slightly smaller......
