CraterMA isnt perfect but....

[mERv]

It has and will always be one of the more balanced maps in the MA. It is very hard not to find a fight with the GV transfer bases, manageable distance between green and red bases, and accessibility to both strike and resup strats. If a country wants to tackle the map quickly it requires a strong 12 hour run of calculated offensive pushes, strategic defense, and a little luck from both enemy countries.

CraterMA will always be a personal favorites. What are you opinions on the current map?

P.S. GET RID OF EASY MODE STRAT RESUP. It compromises a working strat system that has been in place a long time that works. No strat under any situation below 6 players resupping should ever be able to bring up a strat in less than 15 minutes. CraterMA is a great example of how you dont need easy mode strat resup to make a map work.

[The Fugitive]

I consider it one of the worst maps we have. Due to the numbers we have these days it is too spread out , leaving far to many areas for players to "sneak in". This game....I always thought, was all about combat. There are too many ways to avoid it on this map. Hitting supply depots is right at the top of this list as well. I miss the old version of this map. Most players back then ended up in the crater for some tankin fun. Now its barren, might as well just fill it in.

As for the supplies, I hate that anyone does hit the strats, but Im relieved that the resupply isnt horrible. If I only have an hour or so to play I dont want to waste that time running sups to the strats. You want our bases, come and get them. This hitting the strats to nerf a teams ability to defend isnt "combat", its avoiding combat. And should a team drop dar, NOBODY resups, they just log off, again all the attacking team did was avoid combat.

I thought I heard they were going to revamp crater map to bring it in line with the other maps supply wise      

[JimmyD3]

I consider it one of the worst maps we have. Due to the numbers we have these days it is too spread out , leaving far to many areas for players to "sneak in". This game....I always thought, was all about combat. There are too many ways to avoid it on this map. Hitting supply depots is right at the top of this list as well. I miss the old version of this map. Most players back then ended up in the crater for some tankin fun. Now its barren, might as well just fill it in.

As for the supplies, I hate that anyone does hit the strats, but Im relieved that the resupply isnt horrible. If I only have an hour or so to play I dont want to waste that time running sups to the strats. You want our bases, come and get them. This hitting the strats to nerf a teams ability to defend isnt "combat", its avoiding combat. And should a team drop dar, NOBODY resups, they just log off, again all the attacking team did was avoid combat.

+1
I thought I heard they were going to revamp crater map to bring it in line with the other maps supply wise   

[Devil 505]

I consider it one of the worst maps we have. Due to the numbers we have these days it is too spread out , leaving far to many areas for players to "sneak in". This game....I always thought, was all about combat. There are too many ways to avoid it on this map. Hitting supply depots is right at the top of this list as well. I miss the old version of this map. Most players back then ended up in the crater for some tankin fun. Now its barren, might as well just fill it in.

As for the supplies, I hate that anyone does hit the strats, but Im relieved that the resupply isnt horrible. If I only have an hour or so to play I dont want to waste that time running sups to the strats. You want our bases, come and get them. This hitting the strats to nerf a teams ability to defend isnt "combat", its avoiding combat. And should a team drop dar, NOBODY resups, they just log off, again all the attacking team did was avoid combat.

I thought I heard they were going to revamp crater map to bring it in line with the other maps supply wise      

Exactly. Crater is one of the worst maps we have. Also the super large airfields create huge amounts of lag. Those need to be replaced on any revamp.

[JimmyD3]

For me, I like Craterma. That having been said, I think there could be some changes made to it that would make it better.

1. Add Battle Ships. add a minimum 2 BB's to each country, imo a BB at every port.
2. With the BB's added, increase the Shore Batt. at all shore line bases.
3. Add Flak bases at all strats, enable GV's.
4. Re-do Tank Town. (Replace existing TT tile with new tile, when it becomes available.)
5. Replace All Mega bases, with Large Bases and add an adjacent Flak base.
6. Keep all existing base locations as they are.

I would like to commend Greebo for what I think is one the best Maps that came out early on with AH3. In AH2 this map was one of the best for Great GV Battles in the original TT.

[DmonSlyr]

One of my least favorites. Its too large. Makes small dars where people dont know where the battle is during off hours. No action for fighters in tank town. All tanks in tank town means less battles on the rest of the huge map. All 3 teams cannot interact from a fighter perspective.

Building #s starts in the off hours and that starts with maps where people can easily find larger battles and partake in them rather than looking all over a map and figuring if they want to roll for 2 190Ds at 16k, a B17 at 20k, or a massive hoard on both sides where their team isn't defending at all. Its the larger maps like BowlMA, Oceania, and Crater than IMO, have held the #s back when we get stuck with them all weekend.

[Greebo]

While I was developing CraterMA (on and off for a few years) AH had a much bigger player base than it does now and the design reflected that. At the time it was a medium sized map, some were way bigger. I'd originally intended to have airbases in the crater too but at some point HTC stated they didn't want "fighter town" style layouts in MA maps any more as it meant the rest of the arena became unpopulated, so I deleted them. Once it was released many GVers liked having a tank town largely free of aerial interference anyway.

Nowadays I agree the map is too big for the player numbers we have online but there is nothing I could do about it, even if I was inclined to. This is because when AH III was released HTC made CraterMA the default terrain that comes as part of the base game download and took over development of it themselves. Any changes made to it would have to be done by HT and would also need a new game version and download to be created, so its unlikely to ever happen.

[mERv]

While I was developing CraterMA (on and off for a few years) AH had a much bigger player base than it does now and the design reflected that. At the time it was a medium sized map, some were way bigger. I'd originally intended to have airbases in the crater too but at some point HTC stated they didn't want "fighter town" style layouts in MA maps any more as it meant the rest of the arena became unpopulated, so I deleted them. Once it was released many GVers liked having a tank town largely free of aerial interference anyway.

Nowadays I agree the map is too big for the player numbers we have online but there is nothing I could do about it, even if I was inclined to. This is because when AH III was released HTC made CraterMA the default terrain that comes as part of the base game download and took over development of it themselves. Any changes made to it would have to be done by HT and would also need a new game version and download to be created, so its unlikely to ever happen.

The players who have spoken here are fighter-only players that dont regularly play the war. The original crater and AH3 version are as good as any we have access to. GREEBO your map is one of the all time greats dont let these mediocres convince you orherwise 

[Greebo]

I was also a fighter-only player, so I know where the complainers are coming from. When we had 500 players in the MA we needed maps with several adjacent enemy fields per front or things just got way too crowded. Now we have maybe 120 players the same maps make it hard to find a fight, particularly when some are in GVs, guns or are actively trying to avoid fighting other players.

If I were able to to redesign CraterMA now for current conditions I'd add three airbases on the upper level of the crater to give it a fighter town as I think this is needed with current numbers. Each of these would have a spawn from an uncapturable base outside the crater, so the bases could be easily retaken if captured. Maybe add some low cloud over tank town to make it harder to bomb GVs.

Also I'd delete a bunch of other bases so there was only one GV capture path, one airbase capture path and one CV capture path per front outside of the crater. This would make it harder for timid players to avoid fighting other players. Finally I'd get rid of the excess trees at the spawn points.

[Eagler]

Not sure someone who logs in to fly at 25k for 3 hours to drop bombs on an usually unprotected base should have a say on maps or anything game play for the rest of us...

We need much smaller bases for the numbers we produce nightly..averages around 100 to 110 by 2100 eastern when I am logging off..

Eagler

[mERv]

Not sure someone who logs in to fly at 25k for 3 hours to drop bombs on an usually unprotected base should have a say on maps or anything game play for the rest of us...

We need much smaller bases for the numbers we produce nightly..averages around 100 to 110 by 2100 eastern when I am logging off..

Eagler

Talk about on over exaggeration of over 90% of bomber sorties in the game today. The vast majority of bomber flivhts happen under 15k in this game. Only a rare few waste that kind of time anymore.

What killed this game the most was the putspoken fighter community who pushed for a more combat flight sim enviroment away from the war. These same half-invested players only populate the arena but a few hours a week and a lot of them left anyways.

What makes this game great is the war. This above all else shoild be protected.

[Eagler]

The war is the last thing on my list when I log in for my hour each evening...

Dar bar and the closest decent fight is more the priority...

I usually have no idea who is ahead or what is needed at that time to win the map nor have I ever cared in all my time playing this game.. 

Eagler

[Dadtallica]

The war is the last thing on my list when I log in for my hour each evening...

Dar bar and the closest decent fight is more the priority...

I usually have no idea who is ahead or what is needed at that time to win the map nor have I ever cared in all my time playing this game.. 

Eagler

But for others it’s the the opposite and you’re the outlier.

Everyone gets a seat at the table here.

[The Fugitive]

The war is the last thing on my list when I log in for my hour each evening...

Dar bar and the closest decent fight is more the priority...

I usually have no idea who is ahead or what is needed at that time to win the map nor have I ever cared in all my time playing this game.. 

Eagler

You know what makes that dar bar your looking for when you log on? 

The war. If nobody is trying to take bases you wont find very many fighting.

Talk about on over exaggeration of over 90% of bomber sorties in the game today. The vast majority of bomber flivhts happen under 15k in this game. Only a rare few waste that kind of time anymore.

What killed this game the most was the putspoken fighter community who pushed for a more combat flight sim enviroment away from the war. These same half-invested players only populate the arena but a few hours a week and a lot of them left anyways.

What makes this game great is the war. This above all else shoild be protected.

Very little of the war game has changed over the years. The only thing that has, is the way players play the game. In the old days we had a number of players on all teams that posted missions all the time working to take bases and win the war. I was one of them years ago when I lead the 444th Air Mafia. Many times I would have so many players joining that I would just sit in the tower and co-ordinate 2, 3 sometimes 4 wings hitting multiple base along both fronts. "Mugz", "ET37" and many other would do the same. Today you dont see that as much

Today too many people are afraid to die, or just dont want to work for the base. You are the same. Saturday night youd come in to take a base, white flag it in your 600 bombers you fly and then leave if you survived. If the defense stopped the attack/base grab, you would all disappear and move 200 miles away and try another base on the other front, or try to sneak one on the same front but far away from the last attack.

The battles are what makes the game fun for me. Those battles also give the "fighter guys" something to do. As Greebo said, "Crater Map" is too spread out for a good war with the numbers we have these days, ideal for those hit and run tactics of a "smash and grab" type of thing. Picture "wack a mole".

[LCADolby]

Honest question Fugi, but in these battles you so enjoy, when was that last time you did not out number your opponents?