all of the maps besides death valley are far to linear and small. marshes is the only other open one, but the map itself is so small the bases turrets can nearly snipe eachother. doesnt help that all those large lasers have such a wide viewpoint when imo, they should only be able to fire inside the base in a map light marshes
I tend to agree. Most of the maps box you in and funnel you through a few fairly predictable paths, which largely determines where and how you end up engaging. I think this really hurts a lot of variants that need to pick their fights carefully or engage from a longer range. Not everything can fight well from the <350 range bracket, but it feels like in a lot of maps this is where the majority of combat takes place. Plenty of stuff also relies on keeping a high speed to avoid taking damage, which can be really hard on a map like thunderrift where there's a million things to crash into and get you killed. That map in particular feels like it's really best suited to demolishers and brawling heavies and assaults that can dish out damage as they soak it up, but of course the majority of players can't afford those things for most of the game, so they end up being fodder for the guys that can.
I dunno. It's hard to explain, but I think that most of the maps dictate the terms of the engagement way too much, when it should really be up to the players to decide where and how firefights take place. If you want to get up close and brawl you should have to be prepared to sneak up on your enemies and use the map to shield yourself from them until you're close. If you want to snipe you should have to find a good position yourself and be mindful of getting flanked or overrun. Maps should allow enough freedom of movement to engage in the way that you want to, while at the same time giving your opponent the opportunity to outthink and outmanoeuvre you.
I think the poll bears this out somewhat. Right now DV (the largest most open map with the most freedom of movement) is 5 times more popular than every other map except thunderrift. Thunderrift (the map with the least freedom of movement) is only a third as popular as every other map except deathvalley. That's a pretty huge difference, and I think it's important to ask why DV is so popular, or why the other maps are so unpopular.
But perhaps it's just that people
really like grey wastelands and meteoroids
