Is HTC trying to reduce GV play?

[1ijac]

Back in beta, I felt that there should have been terrain tiles with turf mounds for gvs to hide behind and maybe a tile with fewer trees.  The existing tiles are awesome, but I think that would add to gv experience.  As to the center of the island bases on ndsiles map, I wish they were uncapturable.  When they are captured by another country, it takes some players who want to participate in a gv battle out of the picture in the center of the map tank town.

one-eye

[bustr]

There always were tiles with fewer trees in the AH3 16 tile set for Eu and Pac that were in the alpha\beta terrains. You can open the terrain editor, plop down a 1000ft high few miles of land. Then get up close and do paint samples of all the tiles and look at them. All of the complaints stem from terrain builders not being familiar with a completely new terrain editor set of tiles. When you create ground for GV combat in the terrain editor, it often is not what you thought when you actually drive that same area to test it. It's a lot of thankless work driving every single spawn on a terrain to make sure it's even conducive to GV combat.

It was Greebo's choice and the choice of the players who did the touch up after the AH2 to AH3 conversion, as to what the tree density out comes have been on different terrains at the spawns. When you play on my terrain BowlMA, you see I used the village tiles Waffle created that are optimized for tank combat. And berms, far as I can find, and I looked for lunatic through the objects list and the tiles. Waffle decided not to create berms as terrain objects, or as a 1x1mile tile to be blended into other tiles. It's a PITA just adding single bridges onto a terrain let alone if Waffle had created tiny berm objects to add one or two at a time. Then you are on the hook testing every single berm in person to see if they even matter for game play at each location. Every single bridge I've put into my new terrain I've had to spawn out to it and drive across it and the combat area around it. It's amazing the difference in perspective from what you see in a GV on the ground, versus being a 50k giant finger painting in an editor program.

The biggest difference in terrain from AH2 to AH3 for GV combat, was less density of trees allowing for seeing more of the combat area around you. To scoot and hide or make long shots versus having to get up close to see the enemy. The village tile for the AH3 summer Eu tile set on my terrain BowlMA creates that kind of an environment. For the most part, these new tile sets in the new AH3 terrain editor are being learned now during the first year of AH3. Because no terrain builder had created a fully AH3 terrain when AH3 went live. So no one had feed back on what works and what doesn't. Now the terrain tiles have been played on and feed back for GV combat has been coming in.

[flippz]

so wait, you got rid of an item because it drew to much attention..........  THAT IS WHAT THE PEOLPLE WANT GIVE IT TO THEM.  that makes absolutely since.  lets get rid of a map because everyone enjoys something on it. 
when the ndislands map comes up watch the attention the center island gets. the huge fur balls that brake out.  seems that Is what folks want.  why would you not provide that?   
I know youre gonna say go build my own map, but I don't agree with that. I don't take my steak to longhorn and cook it my self because I want it rare and the chef only cooks them med well.  ask me to rebuild an engine I got you, ask me to do stuff with a computer and I am lost.  just sayin

[Mano]

Please put the gv spawns in the center of crater back like they were in AH2. Respectfully requesting sir.

 

[germ]

Tank battles happen but are rare during prime time.

I dunno man, I GV more now than I ever did since we got AH3. It's way more fun to GV now and I have no problems finding a good fight.

[bustr]

Greebo blew the whole center of that crater out and re-did it the way he really wanted to in AH2. He told me because of the limitations in the AH2 editor he ended up with the crater everyone liked kind of by accident. He was unable to do what he really wanted to do which the AH3 editor allowed. I tried to give that back to everyone with BowlMA but, all the GV guys like following the air combat initiatives around the map now.

Most of what works in AH has been happy accidents that when times change, you just have to move on and work with what you have in the present. It doesn't mean you don't try to bring with you the lessons learned and try to adapt them into future projects like I did with BowlMA. As you can see, the TT crater on Bowl is usually empty now. Times have changed so I've adapted what is working from NDisles center combat area into my new terrain.

AH players are really like trying to make a house full of cats happy every time you bring home new food and toys. My cats seem to like the bags the toys come home in more than the toys for some reason. And they refuse to eat high end cat health food like Blue Buffalo and Wellness. And AH3 was supposed to solve the demands for eye candy and many people keep demanding AH2 based on their fond memory's of it back like it could be exactly duplicated into a new graphics and terrain engine. Maybe that's why I like my squad so much, pigs will eat anything.

[Vinkman]

I've read through the patch release notes and do not see a mention of troops being removed fro mth eM3.

When did this happen?

[Lusche]

When did this happen?

About two weeks ago, it's an arena setting and wasn't part of that patch.

[Greebo]

On the original version of CraterMA I created the clear areas in TT by exploiting a limitation of the AH2 terrain system. I found that if I placed even the tiniest dot of water on any quarter mile square of terrain then all the clutter on that square would vanish. So by placing tiny dots of water on the tops of mountains I was able to clear large areas of terrain of trees and bushes etc. Now when the time came to rebuild the terrain for AH3 I found that this limitation of AH2 had not been carried over, the presence of water no longer affects nearby land clutter. Also unlike AH2 water has to be at 0 feet in AH3 so I couldn't place water on mountain tops. The different vertex spacing AH3 uses also screwed up my carefully designed TT cliffs.

So for all these reasons TT had to be redesigned for AH3 anyway. In early beta the only really clutter-free tiles were the snow and sand textures, so I wasn't able to create those clutter-free areas with green terrain. Later in the AH3 beta HTC made one of the grass textures clutter-free, but I wasn't about to redo all that work at that point. Besides I didn't much like AH2 CraterMA being a TT-only map so I wasn't too bothered about leaving it cluttered.

[Lusche]

AH2 CraterMa was never a TT only map. It only appeared as such, due to the concentration of activity here. When the overall numbers dropped below a point (off-hours), there was about nobody there at all. Only later during the day the activity there picked up, but never more than 1/3rd to half of all people. I did a few recon fast flights lower in the crater with film viewer running to count the players, because I was curious about exactly that. 

But no doubt, it was very popular. Because people had fun. Not just in GV, tanks were bombed, bomb****s were hunted by fighters, others tried to protect them, players were coming back for revenge, Snailman tried to bomb GV from 25k (not very effective, that thing worked so much better in the old 'original' small tank town of Ndisles 

Now TT on crater is totally empty. Nobody is there anymore at all, just occasionally the Vehicle bases, being out of focus, are target of a quick sneak.
To me, personally, CraterMa went from being a map I was waiting for to come up again to just another map.

[Vinkman]

About two weeks ago, it's an arena setting and wasn't part of that patch.

thanks Lusche 

[lunatic1]

Don't blame HTC for the changes to CraterMA in AH3, they were entirely my own idea. I hated the way TT turned the rest of the map into a gameplay desert. I also slightly reduced all the GV spawn point distances to towns and fields so your last point does not hold up for that map at least.

Considering the work involved in moving a large number of spawns one at a time I'd be very surprised if HTC had moved more than a handful of spawns in or out on other MA maps. I suspect if travel times have increased it is more likely to be down to the more detailed and cluttered AH3 terrain.

with no disrespect to you greebo and HTC but don't you think that we as the players of this great game play it the way we want to play it the way we want AH2 CraterMA was the greatest GV fights since Trinity and Compello. and I think having the original tank town back on CraterMA would be great.
but then the horde would start crying that gv fighting would take away from the fighter game, as they do now-just my thought

[lunatic1]

like flippz said give the people what they want-and we want a big honkin tank town like we had in AH2 craterMA Please. remember there are players on all sides who don't want to fly. they want to gv, tanks are fun, but mostly now only gv fights we have now is at a spawn wich is either camped or bomb traded, I am a big bomb****, but I also live gv fighting.

[hitech]

like flippz said give ME what I want-and I want a big honkin tank town like I had in AH2 craterMA Please. remember I want to fly. they want to gv, tanks are fun, but mostly now only gv fights I have now is at a spawn wich is either camped or bomb traded, I am a big bomb****, but I also live gv fighting.

Strange how you know what all players want.


HiTech

[Lazerr]

with no disrespect to you greebo and HTC but don't you think that we as the players of this great game play it the way we want to play it the way we want AH2 CraterMA was the greatest GV fights since Trinity and Compello. and I think having the original tank town back on CraterMA would be great.
but then the horde would start crying that gv fighting would take away from the fighter game, as they do now-just my thought

All of the whining about gvs you mention ia purely how supplies hinder gameplay... not gv's.  You are the 15th person trying to twist the words of others for whatever reason.  Gv supps effect your tank battles too.. the guys that might be defending their town in a tank are just scampering around dropping cartoon supply boxes.

Dont make this something it isnt.