I play HA or reaver, and I do agree with some of the complaints when the vehicle-centric nature of gameplay on the present continents. I enjoy fighting tanks as HA, but many parts of the continents, or Esamir overall, have such large open spaces playing infantry can be quite frustrating both in terms of getting to places and have no cover. When there are large zerg on zerg battles (as in when the game is being played the way it's supposed to be), this is less of an issue as the vehicles tend to focus on each other and infantry gets a chance to move in. However a game with the scale of PS2 make it very difficult to "funnel" a particular player experience as so much of said experience it outside of the developer control, that's the cost of having an open environment, people are not going at the right places at the right times to make it consistently fun and balanced. But I do applaud SOE on the ambition of this game. Also, large open spaces are SUPPOSED to be vehicle centric, just look at actual real life conflicts. Unless it's urban or door to door fighting, soldiers are in vehicles for speed and protection. Sooo...I really want to see a continent where the geography really requires infantry to take large portions of territory, parts with dense jungles or city environments that make it very difficult for large vehicles to move through and avoid hitting obstacles and enemy fire easily: check this list: JUNGLE - Giant trees (think Endor or Yavin from Star Wars) that are more like features of the landscape than just trees, could make for really interesting infantry fights, ballsy ESF fighters can test their handling skills where being in position to fire carries risks in terms of obstacles and concentrated small arms fire. Tanks might able to move through, but need to be careful to maintain a line with friendly infantry out front to avoid getting flanked... - Such environment make it possible for smaller forces to put up a meaningful fight against a zerg instead of being outright steamrolled. Libs and Galaxies will have to provide more support roles and be extremely careful about flying. - Smaller trees but dense forests where planes can fly over (Amazon) but not through and therefor cannot necessarily see targets, libs and esfs would need friendlies to mark targets in order to fire and not wast ammo, would need some sort of interface to streamline this process and give every infantry targeting laser... - A few Exposed ledges or clearings for drops and pickups, perhaps standard tower and vehicle outposts). URBAN - Giant megacity environment (could even be right out of the jungle) with streets of various lanes and sizes, lots of objectives in large multistory environments that need to be cleared on foot. Have parks and squares of exposed areas. Make some huge buildings large enough to allow vehicles through to throw some variety in it. Go crazy, look at all the various cities we have today for inspiration.
absolutely... i forget the map names, but BF2142 had a number of large urban metropolis maps. in general armor tended to be limited to the main thoroughfares, while there were many alleyways for intense infantry battles and flanking opportunities. having ESF and libs in the air fighting through artificial canyons of glass and steel would only add to the setting. and of course, spawn beacons could be used to access otherwise inaccessible tower roofs...at the cost of being totaly exposed to enemy air. sounds great... and assaulting a continent with a thick canopy providing visual cover from air sounds equally intense
