Mystic~

Some Nod gun turrets are more useful than others depending on map, if they survive, take Lakeside they make quite a bit of difference, but on Field they don't mean all that much, they hinder sneaking. It's also true that Nod can also outrun the auto turrets only taking a bit of damage if they're moving between different cover. An instant kill-ZAP to an infantry from a modified Obelisk might be too precise or harsh, but something akin to being laser burned like the smaller lasers from Tib-Sun or some sort of sweep effect could be good. Conversation sort of reminds me of this from Mass Effect.

I've been thinking of a way to make the Obelisk fairer compared to the AGT. The AGT has 4 gun turrets that make light work of most infantry and a missile launcher for tanks, so Nod can seldom rush a base unless it's out of the way like the bridge on Gold Rush or map without advanced defences. GDI however will lose 1-2 players at most to ob hits whilst running past a charging obelisk and this sort of rush works 50% of the time on maps like Field/Field X, Daybreak, maybe some other maps with base defences I can't think of right now. Proposal: Long charge for tanks, shorter charge for infantry. I don't know how to code/programme games, but I bet someone knows how to do this if it gets traction.

1. Don't get bogged down It's difficult to plan or come up with a strategy if you're been reduced to all those micro-management tasks like babysitting the harvester, including either being asked to stop it, knowing when to stop it and knowing when to start it again, watching mines, calling out missing mines with a big message, needing to ask people to re-mine, being asked to remove mines from a building. I see all of these things as something that we should be able to delegate, either by setting a Defender role or having something like a sub Captain that can also access parts of the command menu. But to conclude, if you're getting bogged down with these tasks you're not really fulfilling the role of commander and if the opposite team has a capable commander, you'll be on the back foot. 2. Judging when to spend CP Some people throw away CP too easily by calling in cruise missiles, which often miss or get avoided, when instead you should most often be saving it up for a bonus power. The problem at the other end is not spending any CP or not realising that by attempting to save it up you're risking losing a building whilst being pressed or under siege. I actually suggested a while ago that all power abilities should all be time replenished with a cool down period (bit like Mass Effect special abilities) so that you don't get punished for using the odd cruise missile or wanting to try smoke or EMPs without jeopardising a power-rush and you don't need to save CP, each time gets equal access to power abilities. 3. Communication and team responding I still sometimes struggle to get enough participation in forming attack rushes or getting people to respond to specific requests to form a defensive group that can push out. I don't know what the solution is, but I do think partly that the game HUD and the way things are posted and presented on screen is a big part of the problem. I like using the way-point system, but I don't think they're obvious enough - needs to be some sort of hovering icon or a vertical line drawn on the screen indicating the location. It would also be super if the commander could pre-designate a building to attack before the rush that highlights it with some sort of colour or pattern. Using the /c message system semi-frequently lets people know you're 'active' and I think it helps galvanise team morale if you use it for a bit of humour some of the time. 4. Learn the hotkeys / When to apply a bonus power If you know the command menu keys, you know you can confidently apply a bonus power at the right time and you can still write messages without this ability being blocked due to an open menu system. I usually open the menu for this towards the end when infantry rushing a tunnel and try to maximise the amount of time your team will have the bonus in effect during an attack. I often see an attack power applied far too early whilst people are still running or getting in position and that amounts to valuable seconds wasted. In the earlier days, either due to a new keyboard or my miss keying I'd keep calling in an EMP strike instead of an attack power for odd reasons, maybe position slots were changed, but I could never figure this out.

One of the problems which I think is a bit unfair is the ability of invisible SBH to be able to camp tiberium silo's and tech buildings like the communications centre with a rep tool, so I want to suggest that silo's and com centre buildings should cause a disruption effect that interferes with and de-cloak the suits, radar arrays and tiberium radiation disrupts the cloak technology if you like, even adjacent to silo buildings. It makes camping the comm centre and a silo that little bit more difficult as they won't be able to stand near without being seen. This is a problem on a number of maps. Tell me what you think?

@Nexus51325 One of the things which so far spoils games on this map I think is the short direct infantry path, even if you spend a lot of time and care to win the field tank battle, you're always vulnerable to an infantry rush and so often punished for choosing to go offensive tanks. What makes it different from something like Islands, is having the 3 separate cave tunnels that open at the end, the main cave itself also provides a lot of cover, so you can't see straight from one end to the other to spot something coming, and secondly you can remain in the cave when shooting the barracks and dozer alt fire has good range and arcs very well for this purpose. These things all make an incoming rush hard to spot so they can creep up on you. Secondly, it's hard to counter an infantry rush unless you have your own already there. Tanks are blocked off from accessing this upper part of the base to provide a defence, only if you're skilled with an MRLS you can curve rockets, but it's a boring job just like Field or Islands, especially once the lone guard tower is down, which isn't so hard to destroy for either side. However GDI quickly either get inundated with SBH nukes all over the place or lose the Barracks to dozers when the GT is gone. The SBH ability makes GDI far more stretched with defending than Nod and the base is much larger than the compact one in Islands. Original Crash Site also had similar problems when it still had the river. If GDI loses the barracks in that very easy spot, they've basically lost the whole game as no more hotwires for field repairs and their tanks have to contend with lots of base defences and all the other usual Nod units. I also want to use Daybreak infantry cave as a comparison, on here, snipers enjoy patrolling and skirmishing one another and can clearly see from one end to the other, so a rush can often be spotted and responded to in time and it's not possible to remain inside the cave whilst they shoot the building. One of the three opening caves into the base need to become either blocked off, or maybe made so that it serves only as a one way access point into the tunnel from the base. One of the internal routes needs to become more of an obstacle course, like maybe the electric wires, balance beams and water become hazards that feature down one of the routes and become something good for sneakers to use and the other one remains open to running but can be more easily defended as it's only a single route. Only a couple of games have been enjoyable for me so far on this map, and I like the map, you can tell how much effort has gone into it, but on the whole it's just too frustrating with the infantry cave path and one side or the other losing their bar/hon very early into the game. It would also be good to hear what others are saying about this map now everybody has had chance to experience several games from either faction. Small final suggestion, would it be possible to make the team silos indestructible like the Snow map so at least both teams still get some credits if refinery is destroyed mid-late game? It's as bad as Walls without any credits when the ref is destroyed. Nod can easily nuke the silo, but GDI can barely get close... I almost feel that GDI needs some sort of sneak-able cat-walk or access tunnel under the Nod base similar to Gold Rush, Eyes or Cliff Side to offset Nod SBH.

Tiberian Sun > Nox > Renegade - I played these games online competitively through WOL, but I quit old Ren after realising I would join maps like Field and Under and simply not enjoy the game, but had nothing better to do with my time. My all time favourite games are in my sig, but Tomb Raider 2 may be it but also Deux Ex original is also very close. Bought old Ren on holiday in Cornwall on an off chance and my PC couldn't even run it at the time, rediscovered Ren-X some time in 2012/2013 maybe.

Possibly the same reason I didn't add Gobi to the list, I'm considering the later maps a successor or more developed version of earlier ones, but there's only space for one more option and that should probably go to Hourglass.

Hourglass should probably be on there as its a relatively recent remake, I think White Out is the same camp as Lakeside, I just didn't remember these or think of these as custom maps any longer. The voting isn't really very scientific either, but we get to see peoples general top map picks. If all maps were on there the public users would find this poll and we'd be seeing Field, Under, Walls and Where's City Flying?

So Ren-x is presently the only social thing I do now given that everywhere else is either closed, disallowed or cancelled, I can't even get a haircut. We can chat to any random stranger 2 metres away but we can't visit a friend, family member or form any sort of group or gathering. Daft country.

I never played Lakeside on 2002 Renegade, so I should probably have added it to this list, but didn't realise I'd missed if off. I'd personally still class it as a custom map someone made in addition to the original recreated stock maps like Field and Under.

Could you not sell it on to a restoration or antiques expert? Or if it's sentimental, restore it and keep it.

Eyes, Tomb and Reservoir in the lead presently... Dakuja made Eyes, but I can't remember who built Tomb (maybe a custom map from original Renegade) nor Reservoir, but this is definitely a new map.

It's also getting really tedious knowing that SBH can just base camp the enemy base on maps without auto defences and just report back all rush preparations, troop movements and vulnerabilities without necessarily being spotted.

People do clay pigeon shooting here in the UK, so it's definitely legal to own a shot gun with a licence. I also used to enjoy watching this Russian guy do weapon demo's on his youtube channel.

I'll add that I think I picked Reservoir, Tomb and Crash Site. Storm is worthy of some sort of mention, doesn't get played nearly enough, there are quite a few maps that just don't get voted or picked on public servers so can't be given a proper appraisal. paradise is also worth picking out but hasn't made it into full rotation for some reason, maybe optimisation, but this would surely be similar to Tyt's views of Daybreak as its large.

Vote for your favourite custom maps, it's multiple choice, so please pick at least 3, but don't vote for everything and hopefully there's a clear winner or pattern that emerges, show your appreciation for the map creators. I've listed everything I can think of, but I've not listed maps that have been pulled from the game or none standard maps like modified black hand or survivor modes.

This is the most people I've seen online at one time in a long, long time, "social-distancing" at work. A full public game of 64 and a PUG of almost 40. We'd get two public games running from the number of people online.

Well firstly, Nod has to be unfortunate enough or unlucky enough to get scanned from the air by the commander, and there's a delay from the time the flare goes down to the plane flying over head, but anyone camping or waiting around is surely going to give away their general position if they're unwilling to or can't move, but a spy plane might flush someone out or force them to make a mistake, especially on a map like Eyes. Unlike the EMP de-cloaking steatlh entirely, we're only talking about a marginal 1-2% reveal for a short period of time, it's rather like spy lpaes hunting for submarines from the air, but whatever looks best. Stealth tanks were so powerful in the strategy games there were mobile sensors to scan for them. Some people are still so blind that you can drive or run past them anyway. Using this periodically makes more sense than telling everyone to constantly force fire and scan the base.

I think I still like the spy plane idea more, but if a character was to be given a kind of infra-red or night vision view like the Predator that could detect stealth, it probably ought to be Patch, he already has googles, lacks a useful function compared to other characters and he's probably the only one fast enough to catch an sbh, but I wonder if this would be too powerful? He also needs to be able to spot s-tanks, but with the range of his gun revealing s-tanks could become too easy, if he shoots to mark them, but then again maybe it could be done just right. Nod snipers would need to kill him on maps like Daybreak and Outposts for their s-tank rushes to work. It might need some sort of cool down period or only come at higher veterancy or something, imagine just 1-2 on Islands hunting sbh.

So now that this maps been in play for a few weeks, I wanted to share a few things. I feel the map could benefit from the proper Oberlisk and AGT base defences in a central position capable of covering all sides - Nod can really struggle to stop heavy armour mid-late game and GDI really struggle with losing their GT near the infantry tunnels - it can be shot from 3 different tunnel angles into the GDI base and it doesn't usually survive for long. After its gone Nod has near total freedom to move in with sbh/beacons and both sides struggle to offer any protection to this really vulnerable side using vehicles. If you weren't prepared to use the full defences, I'd say both sides need an additional GT to cover the tunnels or could you insert one of the respawning defences like the cannon used on Whiteout. Nod can also lose the Hon really easily due to Gunners or Mobius rushing once theirs is also gone. The tiberium field tank route is really boring, I think it needs to be a bit more creative and have more rocks and boulders to hide behind and I would cite the Crash Site map for an example of an interesting tib field. The green veins texture also looks very repetitive and I wonder if it's worth allowing infantry some sort of path through it on the border edge, or even if it means hopping over rocks and boulders to do this. Overall, I really enjoy the map and I think rather like Reservoir it's going to stand the test of time, still feel it needs the Tiberian Sun era tanks though.

That's exactly how I also see it working, no need for tanks to be spraying the battle field and randomly shooting either. Need a developer to see this post though, I don't know how to tag Havoc so I'll tag @Fffreak9999 instead.

A Team. Couldn't resist.

This sounds good, I also agree that its an advanced feature and only likely to be used by serious players, coloured text is fine, voice would be a bonus but only if squads are small. Would be useful if there were squad-leaders and they could call in things like smoke airstrikes at least. I think this would enhance team play and make expectations clearer, but normally, certain players have good intuition for their role and how they can be most useful, but as someone else said, this normally only happens when you find yourself with another at the right time or an opportune moment. It's very useful mainly for organisation, but it doesn't need to become so complex or complicated that it's too much work to produce or implement.

For aesthetic I like the look of the M8 from Mass Effect games. For traditional guns, I like the British top loading machine guns like the Bren that you see in some of the older WW2 movies. 18j1anneqjawxjpg.webp

Proposed idea: allow the spy plane to reveal stealth camouflage by dropping it by 1% on stealth units like stealth tanks and stealth black hand so it's still 99% invisible but still provides a noticeable shimmer effect one can see, but maybe it doesn't show up on radar unless fully revealed by a manual Q spot etc. Ideal for maps like Outposts and Daybreak which we just played as GDI. The reveal effect needs to stay in place for several seconds at least to be useful. @Havoc89