Dunes is not the most fun map in GOI. Here's a way to fix that.

[Captain Smollett]

Dunes is a sprawling map with little hard cover and a giant dust cloud going through the middle.

The problem with this map design is that the large sand cloud in the middle essentially creates and area in the middle of the map that can't be fought in... that's right, an open map where you can't fight in the middle.  This leads to long range combat becoming the optimal strategy, and not the fun type of long range combat, moving in and out of cover, repositioning and looking for lanes to move closer to your enemy but the type of long range combat where people park ships and lob shots across the map at each other without much strategy or positioning.

While some people may like this style of combat, I find it to be too static and limited. 

Now inevitably the map will need to be changed with more cover terrain and map elements but in the mean time I'd like to propose a very basic solution.



Instead of having a large sand cloud going through the middle of the map pushing people to fight at the edges and fighting on top of a teams spawn, the map should instead have two dust clouds traveling at the northern and southern edges respectively, essentially forcing people off the edge of the map and into the center to engage each other.  The edge of maps can still be used, for stealthy maneuvering however sitting in them will inevitably lead to be hitting by a rolling dust cloud.



Anyways I'm curious to see what you guys think; if you think Dunes needs to be changed at all, whether this will solve anything and any other ideas to improve the map.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Que the "spawns are broken" brigade.

All seriousness though, I don't think it'll do much. People will just hide behind them instead and use flares.

[Captain Smollett]

Well I'm thinking they'd be at the edge of the map so there wouldn't be a "behind them" to hide in.

[Skrimskraw]

its interesting and I would like to test it before I can give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Dunes in competitive play for a longer part have become more agressive now. Teams are taking either the ribs or the leviathan. 2 very good places to brawl in.

splitting up vs sniping teams is very risky but also works if its done properly.
However the cloud in the middle contributes so much to the brawling teams, as they can get closer without the enemy seeing them. (the ducks made something like this vs SAC yesterday).

Clouds is also what I use to get to the ribs fast and unspotted, while my ally can keep the illusion of both ships being at the leviathan.

to say the least in my own experience, dunes have become more tactical in competitive play, I cannot say how public games goes as I tend not to vote for dunes.

[Thomas]

Dunes in pub games tend to be fairly boring, but that's not from the cloud issue. Essentially one team or other tend to push forward, and they'll end up fighting on either side of the cloud line. This line allows teams to approach the other without being decimated by sniping. There's better ways of approaching, but most players tend to want to fly straight at the enemy instead of taking a different route.

If you try to push both teams towards the middle, you could be making it easier for sniping teams, since they would no longer have as many clouds blocking their sight. Right now both brawling ships and sniping ships tend to have a pretty easy time depending on how and where they fly.

Obviously if you get two teams trying to pot shot each other from their own spawns while clouds move down the middle, it's going to be a slow and boring game. But you can't blame the map for that, it's a player made decision to do this. Already more interesting and successful strategies are being used, and with the new rules on the competitive scene, those matches aren't as likely to end up as long drawn out sniping matches because of the time limit.

[Captain Smollett]

In competitive play (and often in pub play), players will tend to use the strategy most likely to lead to success and in many ways the map affects the strategy employed.

I agree that there should still be large rolling clouds through the center (in addition to the edge dust  clouds), but if they were normal clouds players could choose to move with them or move through them with impunity allowing for more dynamic positioning.

[Dementio]

I want clouds to move in a more random pattern.
I kinda dislike Dunes because of the sole fact that I see the same damn cloud, rolling down the middle, from one side of the screen to the other, every single minute. I just can't handle to look at it for too long.

Scrap is ok though, a cloud in the middle of the point is nice to turn the tides, I guess.

[Spud Nick]

I would like to see the dunes more prominent in this map.

[redria]

I would like to see the dunes more prominent in this map.

Now there would be a map idea. Huge rolling dunes with heavy dust storms rolling over top. You can find your way through the maze of dunes or fly over the dunes and risk getting pelted by the storms.
We have maps that offer open space and mazes, but none that offer an incentive to take either path. >:)

[Coldcurse]

I would like to see the dunes more prominent in this map.

Now there would be a map idea. Huge rolling dunes with heavy dust storms rolling over top. You can find your way through the maze of dunes or fly over the dunes and risk getting pelted by the storms.
We have maps that offer open space and mazes, but none that offer an incentive to take either path. >

Minoutar Madness!

[Queso]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCPhaVvGabw This is immediately what I thought.

[Dutch Vanya]

I would like to see the dunes more prominent in this map.

YES, i try so hard to make a bit of use of those tiny dunes, but it would be great if they were bigger. We need more maps in general.

[Captain Smollett]

I feel though that their is a general consensus that Dunes is less fun than other maps.  Could a mod please make a poll on this thread with two options.

1) I think Dunes is less fun than the majority of maps in GOI
2) I think Dunes is just as much (if not more) fun than other maps in GOI

Hopefully with enough responses we can get a general idea for the way at least the forum community feels about this.

[Queso]

The statistician in me didn't go with quite that poll.

[HamsterIV]

I like dunes as it is. There is enough cover if you look hard enough. The game needs a big sky map for the new captains to learn ship control without bouncing off canyons.  There are less opportunities for veteran captains to show off in dunes. The map is more about getting your crew to out perform the other crew.