New Europe map is up in the MA

[oboe]

Hi Citabria, and thank you.  JimmyD3 deserves the credit for making this idea come to life.   Here is the design discussion thread you might be interested in seeing:

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,404260.0.html

Just can't wait to see what strategies develop for each country on this map.   

[Vraciu]

Thanks Vraciu.   I can't see shore batteries on the map I have access too, but it does seem like for a breakout to be feasible, the overlooking bases need to be captured or the shore batteries neutralized before attempting to traverse a narrow passage.

Keep the comments and observations coming guys; I think they could help improve the design of subsequent terrains.

Maybe we have to reduce the number of shore batteries at choke points, or maybe this style of map requires greater coordination of effort between players?   I'll be disappointed if breakouts turn out to be truly impossible though.

It's unbalanced.

We took the base--didn't need to kill the shorebatt.   Got both boats out of the channel.  Ran into a CV while I was gone.  Sank their boat but they sank ours.  Then P42 got taken and our regenerated boat was sunk.   BB stashed away to prevent it being sunk.

Pretty useless overall, IMHO.

Those boats are fodder.   They are effectively landlocked.   I don't see any other country with landlocked boats.   This needs to be addressed IMO.

[Citabria]

Fascinating Oboe. I started reading the maps backstory in the thread you linked.

December 3, 2021 it began ten months ago.

Let the timespan of that sink in to anyone curious about how much work this was.

Even more impressive is the fact that the terrain crossed the marathons finish line and is in rotation in the MA. No small feat.

Well Done JimmyD3 and Oboe.

[Shuffler]

I had a blast last night. I never moved from a fight over a gv base. Our base against a CV.. We were shuttling planes in from a neighboring air base.

[Bopgun]

New map is lots of fun, however I'm experiencing some crippling Framerate issues with it. I've experienced similar issues with MAcrater.
My current rig should be more that up to the task, 3060ti 32 gigs of ram i7-11700KF-3.60GHz.

I do play with an Oculus Quest 2, however I'm not convinced the VR would be THAT demanding as to drop my framerate into the 10-20s. Anyone else experiencing these issues? Is the Terrain just in need of optimization?

[Eagler]

I like the short flights to fights

I haven't had an issue finding fights on this map

Great job!

 

Eagler

[oboe]

New map is lots of fun, however I'm experiencing some crippling Framerate issues with it. I've experienced similar issues with MAcrater.
My current rig should be more that up to the task, 3060ti 32 gigs of ram i7-11700KF-3.60GHz.

I do play with an Oculus Quest 2, however I'm not convinced the VR would be THAT demanding as to drop my framerate into the 10-20s. Anyone else experiencing these issues? Is the Terrain just in need of optimization?

Hi Stepsis.   I agree your rig should be plenty powerful to keep the frame rates decently high.

IIRC, the problem with frame rates in the CraterMA terrain is related to the 'huge' field types.  There are several of these and I can verify frame rate drops when around these fields.  We purposely left this field type off the terrain for this reason.   Is it possible the frame rate drop-offs are related to cloud systems?   Or is it crappy across the whole map, no matter where you are?

It might be worth experimenting - when you encounter the frame rate dips, quick change your graphic settings to the absolute minimum and see if that has any effect.   If its related to specific locations, you could load the map in Offline Practice and see if you experience the same drops when playing offline.

Vraciu - I assume your country is the Eastern power?  It sounds like your breakout from the Black Sea into the Ionian Sea generated a lot of fights!   The Southern country really has no choice but to throw everything they can to defend against this breakout, since a CV fleet running unchecked through the Eastern Med would expose the South's strat targets to naval shelling.

There are 3 naval chokepoints on this map - between the Black Sea - Eastern Med, between the Mediterranean Sea and the N. Atlantic, and between the Baltic and North Seas.   While they 'landlock' the Eastern power's fleets, they should also make it difficult for either of the other two powers to project sea power against the East country's rear area.  The Eastern country has the most secure strats I think, being relatively spread out over a large land area, while the NW country's strats are concentrated in England and Ireland.   

Am I understanding correctly now when this map is reset, it comes right back up in the rotation?   I hope the Knights, Rooks, and Bishops are getting assigned to different country locations when a reset happens.   

Thanks Citabria, Shuff, Eagler - glad it made it in and anxious to see how it plays out in the MA over several cycles.  Hopefully the strengths/weaknesses of the different country locations cancel each other out and one country won't emerge as a weak sister to the other two locations.

[JimmyD3]

Fascinating Oboe. I started reading the maps backstory in the thread you linked.

December 3, 2021 it began ten months ago.

Let the timespan of that sink in to anyone curious about how much work this was.

Even more impressive is the fact that the terrain crossed the marathons finish line and is in rotation in the MA. No small feat.

Well Done JimmyD3 and Oboe.

Thank you for the kind words Citabria. Had a blast working with Oboe on this one, we also had some input from Hitech early on. For me, the map setup has unique strengths and weaknesses for each country. The terrain layout was done using Artiks Make A Map program, an awesome map generating tool.

[Vraciu]

I like the short flights to fights

I haven't had an issue finding fights on this map

Great job!

 

Eagler

After Rooks lost P42 the Nits and Bish had a giant fight out West.   We in Rookland flew around with nobody to fight.   Everyone logged.

There has to be a way to keep that from happening.   The problem with every map is that each country is contiguous.   A map divided by six would possibly help--each country with two sections. 

Also,  I've toyed with the idea of starting a new map with every country holding only three bases forcing a race to capture the rest...


In any case,  in all current maps one side is often ignored and left out of the action.   This is not a good dynamic.

[Arlo]

After Rooks lost P42 the Nits and Bish had a giant fight out West.   We in Rookland flew around with nobody to fight.   Everyone logged.

There has to be a way to keep that from happening. 

Maybe ... I dunno ... HT could code in a way for players to switch to another country that's part of a giant fight?

[Eagler]

I think a map where the majority of bases were empty for the taking would be boring as they all ran to "capture" these empty bases and wouldn't be fun until recapturing of occupied bases then started

Eagler

[oboe]

Also,  I've toyed with the idea of starting a new map with every country holding only three bases forcing a race to capture the rest...

I think this is a great idea.   I don't know if a base can be 'neutral' or 'non-owned', but I think it would be an interesting mode of play.   

Another thought is a random start, with base ownership scattered throughout the map.  So the initial phase of the game would be a scramble to consolidate bases into a contiguous, defensible area...

[Shuffler]

I think this is a great idea.   I don't know if a base can be 'neutral' or 'non-owned', but I think it would be an interesting mode of play.   

Another thought is a random start, with base ownership scattered throughout the map.  So the initial phase of the game would be a scramble to consolidate bases into a contiguous, defensible area...

FFA start.... a Free For All. Interesting. Wound be great to see how that test out.

A possible method to test would be to have two teams and make the third side NEUTRAL. This is for a test in say the AVA. The battle at first would be to get basses to build a defensible area, then to expand. All the while you must attempt to destabilize/counter your enemy from doing the same.
This may turn out to be a tic-tac-toe type of war.

[GasTeddy]

After Rooks lost P42 the Nits and Bish had a giant fight out West.   We in Rookland flew around with nobody to fight.   Everyone logged.

There has to be a way to keep that from happening.   The problem with every map is that each country is contiguous.   A map divided by six would possibly help--each country with two sections. 

Also,  I've toyed with the idea of starting a new map with every country holding only three bases forcing a race to capture the rest...


In any case,  in all current maps one side is often ignored and left out of the action.   This is not a good dynamic.

Only two countries and smaller area/map perhaps?

[oboe]

Just a quick aside - I had done this political map overlay back when the terrain was being developed, thought it was kind of cool to see the real place names on the MA terrain: