TC Phlegeton

[Ivaan]

Hey!

I made some desert for You, because You need it! 

It’s a hot map with five capture points and many craters on the surface.
Please, drive slowly in the bunkers!

http://mwllmaps.com/?map=tc-phlegeton

Features:
- Aircrafts available
- Constant sandstorm
- Ambient temperature: 110°C

V0.2.:

- Changes in the graphics: toned down colors, darker tones

- Changes in terrain: higher cliffs around the center crater, lower northern hills

- Removed the AAA turres and two Sentinel turrets from the center base

- Added two new bases where players can repair and rearm

- Added rocks and landmarks

- Many other small changes

Probably I won't make any new map for a while (due to the lack of time/but mainly the lack of interesting ideas), but I will update the existing ones.

So, hereby I would like to thank everyone for the help and suggestions! And thx mapper guys, all of you gave me inspiration and ideas!  Thx  server admins, who put my work into rotation, and least but not last thx to the mechwarriors, who play on the maps!
Ok, enough of thx! 

There are so many awesome community maps out there, keep them coming!


See you in combat!

[=KoS= Tripod]

That red dust looks really interesintg

[thEClaw]

Looks like it could hurt my eyes...but also looks extremely cool. Thanks for this map, Ivaan! Hopefully I will have played it before 2013!

[Romeox]

this map is awesome, like all ur maps...thank you : D

[Bobby]

Global warming lol

Thanks for the map Ivaan, you're a good man 

[ELH_KillThemALL]

this map is awesome, like all ur maps...thank you : D

^^This!
I love your maps. U are Great mapper! Thank U!

[Urishima }12thVR{]

Place looks like a hellhole. Love it

[TheSneak]

Played this for about a half hour last night with about 5 other people - overall I like the map. The red dust was pretty cool, and the bases are interesting too. A few of us agreed that it could ue a slight decrease in ambient (maybe 10-20% less hot) but a couple of others disagreed. Terrain was good overall in terms of slopes, variety of flat/hilly etc.

Overall I liked it though and we had a decent little battle!

[=KoS= Eldragon]

I can't remember if the IS or the Clan spawn points. One side spawns NW, the other SE. So this post will just refer to them as NW and SE.

My comments. They are just my opinions. I don't want you to take  them personally, just trying to offer constructive criticism:

1) Center base has a wide gap in  the wall that favors the faction that spawns in the NW corner. Its easier for them to stand on the rim of the crater and fire down on people holding the center base. There is no giant opening for the faction from the SE corner. Thus giving the NW side an advantage.

2) Its a big map. Nothing wrong with that. But the long walks got tedious. Are there mech bays on the side capture points? HUD indicated they did not. Never spawned there to find out for sure.

3) When the center base is un-captured, it appear to have a mechbay. When it fact it does not. Its probably the dropship showing up as a mechbay.

4) IMHO its too red. Its just crazy bright red. Maybe bring the saturation down a bit? More like Mars, less like candyland? 

5) Large rocks or other obstacles would improve the gameplay in the wide open areas between capture points. Rocks offer great landmarks and give us something to hide behind.

6) When flying, Myself and two other people noticed  the red fog/dust flickered a lot. I'm not sure if this is a vsync issue on my end, or if it is something the mapper can handle, but it was annoying enough where I just won't fly on that map.

7) I think the lack of a repair bay in the center point is a good thing. Otherwise it would be too hard to dig someone out of there with the tall walls and base turrets.

[RabbidFerret]

I'll just echo Eldragon's statement about the amount of red in the map. Its almost overpowering.

Avoid heavily saturated colors. You might find that by toning it down to a more mars-like rust color you achieve something that is more believable while also being much easier to play for an hour.

[Ivaan]

Thanks all of you for the comments and the suggestions!   

All feedbacks are useful! I already have a few improvements in mind (thx Zathrus), and I will make some changes according the points above.
Sorry if I hurt your eyes 

Eldragon:
I usually test my maps from low to very high graphic settings, and I have not seen the flickering.
However I don't use the vsync option, so I have to try again later.
I hope this issue isn't related to vsync, because I really like the dust effect...
But if it's caused by something else, then I cannot help you I'm afraid 

Thx for your suggestions again! 

See you all next time!

[=KoS= Eldragon]

Eldragon:
I usually test my maps from low to very high graphic settings, and I have not seen the flickering.
However I don't use the vsync option, so I have to try again later.
I hope this issue isn't related to vsync, because I really like the dust effect...
But if it's caused by something else, then I cannot help you I'm afraid 

Next time I play the map I'll play around with my graphics settings to see if I can narrow it down. I normally play on CCC Lvl4+ with vsync off. VSync ON will probably fix the issue. My own framerate was in the 40+ range, so it's not a framerate issue. I think its something to do with how the dust is drawn when viewed from a distance.

[Waffnuffly]

Suggestion: remove the two (!) Eagle Eye turrets from the center base. They make it nearly impossible for one team to provide air support to their attackers. If you don't hold the center base, you lose, pretty much, as it is now. You can't get planes or VTOLs anywhere near the combat area to provide support, while the defenders (who already enjoy terrain advantages) can field air power to make attackers have an even harder time breaking in. I say this as a VTOL pilot who spent most of his time defending the center base; I met very little resistance doing this because no other air assets could come near me.

In fact, it might be better to take out all the turrets and add an APC to the center base (but NOT a repair pad) and add mechbays with one Eagle Eye each to the side bases. Would encourage more fights for those areas. I played this map twice and all the combat was happening at the center base for the entire game, both times.

Also; I crashed three times in two games. Not sure if it's the map or 0.5.3 being twitchy, but there could probably be a particle reduction for the red sandstorm clouds.

I also agree with the sentiment that the color is way too saturated and would look nice if it was a more Martian rust color.

Other than that, flying VTOLs close to the ground is a blast on this map.

[Spooky]

I feel this map suffers from similar problems like TC_Snowblind. You have vast, open areas were basically nothing happens. The main bases seem pointless, because (for ground assets) you never need to spawn there, which makes the forward bases basically uncapturable for the enemy. Thus it is only a fight for the center, which is, to me, a bit pointless and not very diverse.

[«Çߧ» Trooper_Thorn]

Things I noticed, I really like the map much better than Extremity for visuals, Duststorm in the cockpit ? I thought the mech cockpit is a closed environment like another new map I saw yesterday on the Russian server problems with the mechbay graphics and stars or snow in the mech cockpit snow on a planetoid other than that beautiful. Ivaan the maps you are making are gorgeous visually they just need some tweaks.