Lord Rommel's Workshop (Westwall and Rüstungswerke Essen)

Hi.
Today i will present you the reworked versions of Westwall and Rüstungswerke Essen. I have watched a lot of casts, live games and streams to analyse map balancing issues with my maps. Players like GGTheMachine have talked with me about my maps and helped me to enforce the gameplay on my maps.
As result both maps were reworked and adjusted to guarantee pvp quality.

Here is the result:
(2) Westwall (v2)


Westwall changes:
- New sector layout for more cutoff gameplay.
- Map is now ca. 10% smaller (length)
- Building balance (building adjusted and exchanged)
- LoS adjustments (VP buildings cant shoot on the fuel points)
- New cover objects
- Red cover at the dragon teeth line fixed

(2) Rüstungswerke Essen (v2)


Rüstungswerke changes:
- Visual blocking objects reworked and adjusted
- Cover for VPs and fuel reworked
- Factory halls redesigned and tidied up (pathfinding for light vehicles improved)
- LoS adjustments (Central VP is now a wooden fence and medium crush)
- Shootblocking objects adjusted (AT guns should work better inside the factory halls)

I hope Relic will allow us to update our maps for the rotation to make the maps better.

Feedback is welcome (constructive criticism - no one-liners).

Thank you very much and hf with the new versions of my maps!

Greetings Lord Rommel.

Nice seeing you implement all the feedback immediatly! Cool, keep up the good work

I was wondering: The central VP with this rounded thin wall around it, what is this supposed to be and what was your intention gameplay wise?

It is intended. It should isolate the VP at the central open lane.
It is a risk to attack the Vp until u have a vehicle to crush down the walls.

Before the feedback, first a disclaimer: I'm not that good of a player, and also didn't play that many matches on the two maps. I did some compstomps to check out the maps, and then did two ladder matches with USF where I happened to end up on Westwall and Rüstungswerke Essen.

Really nice to see new maps as they do have a different look and feel (visually). Thanks!

I enjoyed playing on Westwall (even though I lost), but Rüstungswerke (even though I easily won with USF) seems to be a bit too CQC for my taste when playing OH. I have no problem with that, that's what vetos are for, but if you want cater to a bigger crowd:

It would be nice if you can lay out what your design ideas behind this were. From what I see it seems to be unique in that the main parts (2VPs and both fuels) are in fairly cluttered buildings where indirect fire isn't effective. I like the idea because it allows to emulate fire-fights in a house which otherwise doesn't happen in Coh2. Unlike other CQC parts, it basically has no strong garrisons. If you have secured your warehouse, you can't easily be cut off because the point for that is right next to the base, away from your opponent.

I did two quick games on v2. The changes I saw that some stuff in the Eastern building was removed and that the concrete wall around the central VP are replaced with wooden fences (so it can be crushed earlier).

While that's better, I would suggest to replace that fence with some cover. Yeah, I know you put those in on purpose, but I still think that that would be better because:

• It's possible to cap the center VP from outside; while that's probably intended, doing so can have some annoying side effects. The problem is, you don't see if anything is happening to the flag. Like, if both players sit on their side of the fence, they could sit there indefinitely without getting feedback that they can't actually cap. And since it's kind of tricky to position the squad just inside the circle, the typical way I found this plays out is:
  Ok, you guys cap! (1 min later) Err, nothing happened, maybe I didn't position them correctly? Try again! (2 minutes later) Uhm, still didn't work. Ok, maybe there is somebody on the other side? Oh crap, there is...
  
• This would give long range units including MGs, and ATGs more room to work. Ok, they still can't take over the interior of the halls, but at least they control the central lane better.
  
• If you are concerned that you can easily see the central VP from the entrances of both halls, I'd rather place some fences right at the doors there.
  
• Visually, it looks weird: Why would a curved fence like this be built?
  

I guess the situation would be more relaxed if the buildings wouldn't contain VP and fuel. Maybe you could consider switching Muni and Fuel Point?

Finally, some remarks on your comments in the other thread (I didn't want to derail that one further):

But that is a gameplay balance issue and not a map issue. And i cant understand why everyone is obsessed by the idea that all maps have to be done around the current balance. With the next balance patch everything could change. So we have to rework all maps for the new balance patch or is it in indicator for a current balance issue.

I think this misses the point. The CQC issue is not about faction balance. It's actually about faction design. True, the faction balance changes with patches and adjusting maps according to that would be silly. However, faction design changes much slower, if at all. If you look at the vanilla factions, the dynamic is still the same as it was at release:

Grens predominantly win at long range and have a long range grenade.
Cons win predominantly at short range and have Oorah to close in.

And with all the other doctrinal and non-doctrinal units, bottom line is and always was that SOV has better tools for CQC.

As for PGrens with Schrecks: Yeah, I can see them working once they camp inside the building and can probably be devastating against light vehicles outside (like, hide behind a wall and the pop out to shoot and pop back in). However, I doubt that they would work as well getting light vehicles out of the buildings.

The "problem" with PGrens with Schrecks (and for that matter any AT infantry) is: They are not really good in CQC. Yes, unlike ATGs they can't really be flanked, but they are far from ideal in CQC situations:

• They have a significant aim time to shoot their AT weapon. So, the light vehicle can push them around preventing them from shooting.
  
• Close up they take a lot of damage. And the damage often is amplified in a CQC situation because often they will end up standing in front of a shotblocker, so they take a lot of the additional splash damage.
  
• In addition, cover produced by small debris will cause them to hug each other which tends to lead to RNG one-shot wipes (I do see chances that this point might be addressed in balance patches, though).
  

That is feedback i can work with.
Thx @Siphon X. for the feedback.

About the design of Essen:
It should be designed around this bombed and attacked factory. The map should be dirty and be littered with rubbish and debris. The factories are close to mid range combat with green cover and LoS objects and all this stuff. But it is easy to wire off the halls or to place mines. So mines and wire should force players to be more careful when they attack the factories.
With the current rework the factories should be better places to fight with at guns and light vehicles. Flamethrowers and bundle grenades should be a good method to keep your enemy on distance. Osttruppen could be a useful tactic too. Same with a Puma.

I can see the problem with the central VP. I will use the weekend to rework and adjust the central lane and the side lanes. I have already an idea for a number of adjustments.
The last rework should have fixed gameplay issues with the factory halls and i hope that it is better suited for combat now.