Thoughts on new maps

[R315r4z0r]

Horologe:

Possible THE best RenX map in the mix so far. It's action intensive and battle oriented. It has the perfect balance of infantry and vehicle travel and combat. And the desert look suits it so perfectly, it's not even funny.

The only thing I would suggest adding is maybe a turret/guard tower. (Just one per each team.) Right in the center of the base.

Hourglass:

Beautiful map. Terribly flawed though. It's balance is shifted way to heavily in Nod's favor.

-Nod can attack EVERY single GDI structure from either the left (east) flank or on the hill top. The west side has limited visibility of the barracks, but it is still possible to hit everything else. You can attack everything WITHOUT the AGT seeing you.

-The new large size of the map automatically puts GDI at a disadvantage because it gives Nod artilleries more time to peg targets and causes GDI units to fall victim to their own weapon ranges. Yes, I realize that the speed and range of the shells are the same as in Renegade, but larger battle zones mean advantages/disadvantages are distributed. Think of it this way: In Renegade, a medium tank can drive on the side areas of hourglass, fire from the cliff closest to GDI's base and come close to hitting the opposite cliff wall near Nod's base. In Renegade X, they can't even get close because the length of the sides of the map were increased. This gives artilleries a range advantage if they decide to attack from the sides.

-The Obelisk out ranges tanks that attempt to rush from either side of the map. You need to drive halfway up the distance (while getting picked off by the Ob) before you can get a single shot in on the ob.

-The base areas are more open for attack. In Renegade, the side flanks of the map required you to turn a corner, into the sight of the base defense, in order to get a view of the base entrance. In Renegade X, you can see the entire enemy base from the side areas, allowing you to hit every structure from WAY back in the side areas (making it easier to camp structures and easier to escape if you are countered (As you will be closer to your own base.))

-The Obelisk has the eyes of a hawk. GDI has next to nowhere to hide. Nod, on the other hand, can just stroll an attack over GDI's base any time they wish and the AGT wont care a bit.

-The bases aren't centered. The East side of GDI's base is closer to the side area of the map. Making rushes more effective from that direction. That means, with Nod's fast vehicles, they can reach the AGT much more efficiently than GDI can reach the Obelisk.

Suggestions:

Map suggestions to fix hourglass' imbalances:

-Close of the base entrances some more. Add either some walls or more cliffs. You should not be able to attack the GDI weapon's factory from the east side of the map without the AGT seeing you.

-Pull the AGT back into the GDI base a few meters. It means Nod would have to travel more in order to get to the AGT, but it also means the AGT would have a better sight of the sides of the map and the top of the hill.

-Make Nod's portion of the hill slightly steeper than GDI's portion. That requires them to have to get more into view of the AGT before they are able to get off any effective rounds.

General Suggestions to fix general imbalances:

-Copying statistics from Renegade alone will not result in a copy of Renegade's gameplay. You HAVE to make changes to those statistics in order to match Renegade's gameplay. The reason this is true is because a few reasons:

1. Physics engine changes how vehicles interact with the world.

2. Custom redesigned map remakes are not 100% to scale with the originals. Many, such as Hourglass, are much bigger than the originals. That opens up more channels of war and changes the gameplay dramatically.

Statistics need to be adjusted to compensate for the differences in order to try and match Renegade's gameplay.

Balance of power is one thing (how much damage something does) and should not be altered. But things like vehicle range and projectile speed should be altered in such ways that form the same results of the Renegade feel. It's not enough to copy the statistics of Renegade, you need to balance and check to see if the statistics used mimic how the Renegade played. Because simply copying the statistics has not done Renegade's iconic balance any justice. Guess, check and change. 'Do these settings feel like Renegade's gameplay? No? What about these?'

Try to balance Renegade X as if you've lost the access to the original Renegade.

[FooFighter]

I love the Hourloge due to the infantry wars, like theres advanced gun-tower infantry cant shot their all powers. But with this map you can go all around with infantry even to support vehicles, great design people !

Theres alot possibilities to sneak, run, snipe, attack on this map with infantry, well done !

[SkyHammer]

Agreed, I just killed a mammy defending its base on hourglass with an arty because of the range issue.

[dsi1]

I wish I could actually play these maps ;_;

[Demigan]

Field seems the right scale, but if hourglass is not the same scale, then the developers can do 3 things:

-change the scale. If you scale hourglass back to the renegade size, which might be difficult.

-Change the vehicle and weapons paremeters. If you change it, you could make a compromise so that on either map the renegade feel and balance, as far as we want the original balance, is emulated best in both maps. But this will always be a compromise, changing the paremeters to fit the hourglass map will defenitely change the gameplay in the field map, probably imbalancing it on field as meds would suddenly be able to shoot the Nod entrance from their GDI entrance just as well as artillery's would be able to shoot them. Giving GDI a great advantage because they should use their armor to close that distance.

-Change the map. If it's not an exact remake do the scaling size, you could simply add more so that advantages and disadvantages are diminished. But, people will go and complain that it's not the original. But hell, if you want the original, Renegade is still out there!