Is Walls the new meta pick?

[A-Rodge]

Seems to me Walls is now more popular than islands and field... and maybe City if we retro-compare. People love them walls. From the exciting infantry engagements to the tug-of-war sieges that often ensue, Walls_Flying is dominating the meta (at least on the servers I play).

What do you guys think? Is Walls the new hot item for the beta, or do you feel another one is getting more attention? Why?

[Valor]

I always though Walls was the most popular map in the original too.

Field sucks now since GDI always controls field thanks to arty nerf. Not sure why people don't like Islands, too bright maybe?

[Ramon]

i think it's more due to the fact that it's one of the first options on the votelist, never been a fan of walls.

lakeside and mesa almost never get played, and they're at the bottom of it too sooooo, yeah.

could be wrong and it's just the nooblets at pubs just wanting to have the same map 24/7 to chinook engineers all day every day.

[SOVEREIGN_]

most people and especially noobs (sry) just love to SBH nuke, so all the maps without towers get voted constantly. thats the main reason (and walls because of the bugs is was hell to easy to infiltrate the base). as they are harder to see as in original renegades its nearly undefendable, especially with the 30 mines standart setting. thing is, one guy does some solo action, half of the other team has to contribute to defending or he will sooner or later succeed and your ref/pp/wf is gone...

and then you have most games gdi camping in base with most people because if too many leave the base you are screwed in most cases. pretty boring, personally i find that wall nuking more boring than field sieging....

[SFJake]

Stealth could use a nerf, its definitely too hard to see and they just slip by so much more easily, it seems.

But when you get a higher average of skill level (what Jelly tends to have), then the games don't end so stupidly, most of the time.

Its not that I don't like base defenses by the way, but I tend to dislike the maps that have them, since they are just not dynamic enough.

[Xhap]

I've always thought it's the most popular because of the _flying tag. May be some players think that's the only flying map.

[Letty]

High up on the list + symmetry. Newbs love simple, symmetric maps.

[Pyder02]

Walls has alwys been the favorite map since the start of the beta. I like it too, because it is well balanced and flying helicopters is fun.

Imho that's why we don't really need another desert map with no towers (complex). I would love to have under, city or volcano for some variation.

@Ramon: I ofte play lakeside and mesa, I thinky they are #2 and #3 of my most played maps.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Guest

[Soldieroffate]

Walls has always been a favorite even during the days of old Ren. Nod always has a field day on it mainly because of the SBH nukefests.

[iran]

I'm still waiting for a remake of the non-flying version of City, it's by far the most popular Renegade map. In the general opinion it also has the most exciting gameplay. Balance wise it's pretty good albeit a tad GDI favored at larger player counts (the two field entrances to a base are easy to guard while the bridge is long and slim and disadvantages Nod tanks, favouring the brute GDI arsenal in opposite to Nod's sneaky and mobile arsenal).

[DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

Yah City would be sick. Imagine building interiors? So you can actually go inside the big ass fucking city buildings, instead of walking through those dumb tunnels. What the hell, these tunnels must have been drilled into, they must have been bored into the city buildings. Then they got reinforced with concrete, making gray, absolutely desolate concrete square tunnels? Dafuq? I want some Urban firefights, people hiding under desks, taking a piss in the bathrooms, shooting out lights, choking people out in the conference rooms, (Note to devs: ADD BOWIE KNIVES TO THIS GAME) crawling through vents BOO-YAH

Original renegade city was a let down in that respect - the civilian city structures were so lame. What the FUCK!? Tunnels? Wheres all the... what? FUCK. That aint a proper interior building layout.

[A-Rodge]

Interesting... some might argue that walls is really a NOD oriented map , given the prevalence of nuking. But I think if the GDI do a solid rush in with their vehicles early on, they can crush NOD defenses given the fact that the sbhs will be trying to skulk into the base.

[Valor]

In Ren X Nod still wins most of the time, however this was not the case in the original.

Walls Flying - Small: GDI: 63 Nod: 54 - Big: GDI: 974 Nod: 831 - Combined: GDI: 1037 Nod: 885 = 1037 to 885

This was because the original Orca was so much better thus it ensured GDI would always control the map. Piloting isn't very polished in Ren X so that may contribute to people not buying Orcas.

Also because in Ren X sbh can hide easier as the base is actually larger, plus the better graphics make sbh harder to see.

[iovandrake]

People don't use orcas like in the orignal because the rockets fire slow due to reload and the machine gun has the retarded limit of 30 bullets. You really have to be able to smash infantry with RenX's orca because that gun sucks. The orca nerfs were too severe.

[sarabi]

It's no doubt because in pub games defense towers simply aren't any fun to go against since coordinated pushes are exceedingly rare. Therefore maps without defensive towers will be voted in with the most frequency

[A-Rodge]

@sarabi: this explanation is prett6 legit. I might open a discussion based solely on the fact that many people want to solo kill buildings instead of working together and what we can do to remedy that.

[Tactix]

Lakeside and Goldrush have a deep learning curve to them.

They are pretty, big and realistic maps, but newbs easily get lost and find themselves disoriented.

And once you get killed, you have to travel a long way again.

Symmetric small maps, although awful in design, are simple and you get thrown into the action right away.

Also for some reason desert maps are popular in most FPS games.

[Terekhov]

People don't use orcas like in the orignal because the rockets fire slow due to reload and the machine gun has the retarded limit of 30 bullets. You really have to be able to smash infantry with RenX's orca because that gun sucks. The orca nerfs were too severe.

Absolutely. I've said it before and will again, the two missile limit on orcas is absurd. Nerf the missiles and increase their number a little bit.

Would be nice to go back to unlimited ammo for choppers - perhaps a heat-meter where you have to let the gun cooldown would be more appropriate.

As to the topic at hand: I'm guessing it's a combination of reasons:

1) It has the _Flying tag

2) It's on the top of the map list

3) No base defenses

4) It's easy to learn

4) SBHs get to have their fun

Personally, I'd like to see how the relative popularities would change if the maps were listed alphabetically.

[Drury]

No defense turrets+flying+reasonable size+intuitive design.

That means the map isn't as prone to stalemates, is more accessible to infantry and is less difficult to learn. I'm not saying that means it's the ultimate map and that it couldn't be done better, but for a fact it has the best design of all maps overall.