Map design in BF2

[DrMcleod]

I dont know if the BF2 devs read these forums, but if they do I hope they are paying attention to the 'fave maps' polls. Strike On Karkand always comes out on top, there is a good reason for this and it is due to the poor design of many of the other maps.

Now, I see this game as essentially a FPS with vehicles, it isn't a tank sim, or a flight sim, it is a nice squad based shooter. Yet many of the maps are completely devoid of any infantry focus.
Good maps in this game are essentially LINEAR with only a few flanking routes, this ensures decent focused firefights, with some tactical options.
Those maps with bases all over the place (the Dam one, most of the Chinese ones) play pretty much like deathmatch, with players running hither and yon, randomly capping bases, sometimes spotting the enemy and popping off a few shots, there is no sense of a FRONTLINE, no real sense of progress.

Contrast with Strike On Karkand, where the defenders can form a line that the attackers must breach, you get some awesome firefights and some great action. Squad level tactics can make a huge difference and you can immediately see your teams progress, this map feels much more about TERRITORY and not just ticket count. It sort of loses things a bit on the 64 player version with the dog-leg across the river, but it is still the best map by a mile.

So, in summary. Make the maps more linear and more focused, play to the games strengths - infantry combat.

[glaeken]

While I agree to an extent vehicles are actually a big part of the BF series so the maps have to cater for them. The game is not mainly about infantry combat it is meant to be balanced between each of the types of combat the game offers which is a fairly tricky thing to do.

The map style you seem to be asking for is the push model where flags can only be captured in a particular order which would give you your linearity and more focused battles.

Another way to achieve this focus is less flags. I think a lot of the maps in 32 player or 64 player sizes just have way to many flags. I used to play a lot of the BF:V mod POE and often their maps would only have maybe 2 or 3 flags that could be captured plus the uncappable main bases and this really focussed the combat.

[Kongstad]

Another thing that makes this strike at karkand map the best imo, is the fact that Infantry is superior. If you spot a tank just sprint behind a house, climb the roof and pop somehting at it from an angle the cannon cannot fire at.

All around I agree, i miss maps like this and funny enough I never get to play it, always cycling some crappy maps, I actually get to play the map i hate the most ( Dragon Valley ).

The map vote always goes short by like 5 :/

[Yonni]

I guess you didn't play BF1942. Gazala and El Alamein were among the most popular maps, and these maps are huge and not lineair at all. But they didn't have the enormous amount of controlpoints that BF2 maps have.

I was afraid this would happen. Too many controlpoints and people are just hopping from flag to flag, no real battle.

[FortyDogg]

strike at karkand my favorite map because there isnt planes flying over bases every 2 seconds dropping bombs, and tanks also dont have a great advantage due to small allay ways and roof tops. were c4 can be planted

[imported_fvbyfv]

All the maps would be great if they lowered the damn control points, there are to many points and by doing that you get flag hopping and 3 on 3 fights or 6 on 1 etc.

[DrMcleod]

Good points about the abundance of control points.

I suppose there are so many in order to make it is easy to spawn close to a fight and so that most of the area of the map is used, perhaps to ensure that the action is not too concentrated and thus laggy.