Maps are way too tiny

[Humbug]

If you're gonna swamp me with 8+ mechs/vehicles when I am for some arbitrary reason unable to drop more than 1 lance then at the VERY least give me room to manouver. On more than one occasion have I been forced to spawn into a corner with little to no room to do a fighting retreat when faced with greatly superior numbers. And usually there will only be 1 or 2 turns of movement until the enemy is right in your face. I really don't like being killed by an invisible wall.

[Nekonoaijin]

Originally posted by Humbug:

If you're gonna swamp me with 8+ mechs/vehicles when I am for some arbitrary reason unable to drop more than 1 lance then at the VERY least give me room to manouver. On more than one occasion have I been forced to spawn into a corner with little to no room to do a fighting retreat when faced with greatly superior numbers. And usually there will only be 1 or 2 turns of movement until the enemy is right in your face. I really don't like being killed by an invisible wall.

Valid complaint, to be honest. We do need some larger maps, and that spawning is bad luck, for sure (consider just withdrawing) but would be less of an issue on a larger map, I agree.

[CommandDork]

Yah, the more I play the game the smaller the maps become. Tactics get limited because of it and the AI ends up holding the advantage to a large extent.

There are times when I survey the map just after I land and make my plans to gain the high ground or create a possible killzone. Two steps forward and BAM! - the enemy is on radar and the battle begins - no time to enjoy the scenery and no point reconnoitering.

Would be nice to actually use a scout as recon vehicle - but with the smaller maps, it's not really needed.

[Nekonoaijin]

Originally posted by CommandDork:

Yah, the more I play the game the smaller the maps become. Tactics get limited because of it and the AI ends up holding the advantage to a large extent.

There are times when I survey the map just after I land and make my plans to gain the high ground or create a possible killzone. Two steps forward and BAM! - the enemy is on radar and the battle begins - no time to enjoy the scenery and no point reconnoitering.

Would be nice to actually use a scout as recon vehicle - but with the smaller maps, it's not really needed.

It does vary, a few times I have had my entire lance emplaced, waited and had to go find them and draw them in. Other times, I have had to fight a rolling strategic retreat to avoid being destroyed in detail, and make some tactical options for my lance.

In fairness, it should be like that, but the maps are still a bit wee, for my liking.

[Cap'n Darwin]

Takes developer's time and money to make bigger maps and you also cut frame rates as the maps get bigger and more polygons need processed. Devs have to draw a line somewhere.

[C4Warr10r]

Yeah, I have to agree. Just came from a mission on Weldry, one of those "destroy a lance but there are always going to be reinforcements because this lance is 'twitchy' missions." I didn't even have sensor contact with the primary target when the reinforcements showed up.

Right off the bat, we were backed into a corner by two full-stength lances. Thank God for knockdowns, good gunners, the occasional bit of forest, heat and the Highlander or we would have been toast. As it is, one of my Thunderbolts lost an arm while tanking. That tends to happen when you're already in range of every LRM and PPC on the map.

It's part of the game to occassionally have tough missions like that, I know, but it's also really cheesy. At the very least, we all need to fire Darius for not being able to spot reinforcements that are 100 meters away from orbit.

Failing that, just include a conditional in the programming so reinforcements can't show up until X amount of turns have passed or part of the objective has been completed. It's one line of code per mission type, not that hard.

[Mojo Amok]

Another vote for bigger maps. There are some rather unreasonable outlier situations that crop up on the little maps, which can be tiny. The difference between the largest and the smallest maps utilized on similar missions is also really extreme.

Anecdotally and probably not actually true, I feel like I've been on smaller maps more after the recent patches. It's probably either my imagination or a fluke, but there have been some ugly and more or less unavoidable jams spawning really early into the mission of late. I don't really recall those extremes from my first playthrough.

[Nekonoaijin]

Originally posted by C4Warr10r:

Yeah, I have to agree. Just came from a mission on Weldry, one of those "destroy a lance but there are always going to be reinforcements because this lance is 'twitchy' missions." I didn't even have sensor contact with the primary target when the reinforcements showed up.

Right off the bat, we were backed into a corner by two full-stength lances. Thank God for knockdowns, good gunners, the occasional bit of forest, heat and the Highlander or we would have been toast. As it is, one of my Thunderbolts lost an arm while tanking. That tends to happen when you're already in range of every LRM and PPC on the map.

It's part of the game to occassionally have tough missions like that, I know, but it's also really cheesy. At the very least, we all need to fire Darius for not being able to spot reinforcements that are 100 meters away from orbit.

Failing that, just include a conditional in the programming so reinforcements can't show up until X amount of turns have passed or part of the objective has been completed. It's one line of code per mission type, not that hard.

In my head-canon, Darius is on thin ice for blunders like this. One more ♥♥♥♥ up and he's being dropped off at an abandoned world, while I promote Sumire.

[Mojo Amok]

Originally posted by Cap'n Darwin:

Takes developer's time and money to make bigger maps and you also cut frame rates as the maps get bigger and more polygons need processed. Devs have to draw a line somewhere.

They already have big maps, though - the devs are on record that the maps used in the proc-gen missions are actually just sections of large maps.

You can see this clearly with certain landmarks, like that large industrial mine with a cylindrical shape being off in the distance beyond the map border.

[C4Warr10r]

Originally posted by Nekonoaijin:

In my head-canon, Darius is on thin ice for blunders like this. One more ♥♥♥♥ up and he's being dropped off at an abandoned world, while I promote Sumire.

I'd promote him to the rank of "customer" in the regular army. He's certainly got a knack for military intelligence.

[Nekonoaijin]

Originally posted by Mojo Amok:

Originally posted by Cap'n Darwin:

Takes developer's time and money to make bigger maps and you also cut frame rates as the maps get bigger and more polygons need processed. Devs have to draw a line somewhere.

They already have big maps, though - the devs are on record that the maps used in the proc-gen missions are actually just sections of large maps.

You can see this clearly with certain landmarks, like that large industrial mine with a cylindrical shape being off in the distance beyond the map border.

Yes, and that's not actually how it works, either. Only what is visible is processed, the rest is just stored data, to be rendered when visible.

[Mojo Amok]

My headcanon for the map edges is that beyond the yellow line is.....A HUGE MINE FIELD!!!!

Admittedly, it's not overly convincing.

[Nekonoaijin]

Originally posted by Mojo Amok:

My headcanon for the map edges is that beyond the yellow line is.....A HUGE MINE FIELD!!!!

Admittedly, it's not overly convincing.

Especially when you sometimes walk over it, and then come back onto the map.

[Mojo Amok]

Originally posted by Nekonoaijin:

Originally posted by Mojo Amok:

They already have big maps, though - the devs are on record that the maps used in the proc-gen missions are actually just sections of large maps.

You can see this clearly with certain landmarks, like that large industrial mine with a cylindrical shape being off in the distance beyond the map border.

Yes, and that's not actually how it works, either. Only what is visible is processed, the rest is just stored data, to be rendered when visible.

The point is they have developed large maps - the processing issue is valid, but it's not like they didn't make big maps. Many of the maps are actually enormous.

[I am noob]

Originally posted by Cap'n Darwin:

Takes developer's time and money to make bigger maps and you also cut frame rates as the maps get bigger and more polygons need processed. Devs have to draw a line somewhere.

Maps already are quite large - each 'parent' map contains several sectors for different missions to play on. The problem is that devs have decided to limit area of engagement to the small parts we are seeing ingame.

[Mojo Amok]

Kiva used to have a picture of one the 'parent' maps on her twitter, but she switched up her account and I don't see it right now. But suffice to say they're really big and more or less modular, so it's not like they'd have to redo all the maps to make them bigger.

I'll see if I can find the picture.