Author Topic: Purple Heart Lane  (Read 2710 times)

Offline cannonfodder

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Purple Heart Lane
« on: 11-10-2009, 14:10:42 »
Mapsize: 64...Bots: 49 (25v25)...Max difficulty

Playing on the US side, we marched across the map unopposed. Made first contact approaching the Farm, but took that and the next flag with minimal casualties. Then the slaughter began, the road turned into a shooting gallery. Trying to cross near the river was just as bad, I made it across a few times, only to be picked off by bots hiding in the bushes. Managed to take the Crossroad flag once but didn't hold it for long.

Switching sides, I discovered why it was so quiet...almost 2/3 of the German bots are camped at the fortifications west of the Farm (where the Nebelwerfer is) and the rest, back near the Orchard. Almost all of them standing around doing absolutely nothing (enjoying the sunshine perhaps?). They don't do anything until the US bots approach. Over 10 minutes into the round, 14 of the 25 German bots still hadn't registered a point/kill/death.

It's not until after the US take the Farm that the Germans fully mobilize.


Gonna give the 32 version a go now...

...Hell yeah! That's more like it. Same bots as before (49 bots (25v25) on max difficulty).

US: First contact while capping the Summers flag, slaughter on the road again. Managed to push them back to the uncap just before they ran outta tickets. Final score: 38-0

Germany: Didn't start too well, all bots camping at the uncap. Until the Farm flag fell, which caused a mass migration  (I kinda like this, it's almost as if the Germans don't know the US are there until the flag falls. :)). Slaughter on the road yet again, but we held the US at the river. Unfortunately, they won: 0-3!



This version of the map (32) only needs three things and it'd be perfect, I reckon:
 
1. The German bots need to spawn at the Orchard more often, ideally 50/50 between the uncap and the Orchard. It's a touch too easy to to sneak around the main force and cap the Orchard flag.

2. Arty. I don't care if the bots spot or man the mortars, as long as they do one or the other.

3. I didn't notice any bots manning the stationary MG's. Although, considering how badly the one on PDH screws me, I should keep my mouth shut. ;D
« Last Edit: 11-10-2009, 14:10:15 by cannonfodder »

Offline Natty

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #1 on: 11-10-2009, 18:10:47 »
hehe nice... did you see any stationary MG in the 32 mode? around crossroad.. could be deadly there maybe  :)

Offline cannonfodder

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #2 on: 13-10-2009, 15:10:30 »
The stationary MG (near the Pommenauque flag) is a lost cause for me. As soon as I get on it, I get shot.

And that's no exaggeration, the longest I've spent on it is about 5 seconds...:( It's quite annoying as it's in a great spot overlooking the open area around the river.

I don't know about adding another one near the Crossroad, that road is enough of a bloodbath as it is.

Offline Zoologic

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #3 on: 14-10-2009, 04:10:55 »
The 64 PHL is scenario-like for American players if you don't know what's happening on the German side. It is like we are lead into a trap by the Germans by giving few first flags easily without guards. And the fighting escalates as we approached the city.

But as the Germans... ah now we know how to defend the front lines alone. It is until my 88 ran out of ammo and get overran. One of the bots (J. McGibney) managed to outflank me, which is still desperately reloading the 88 using ammo kit (which is kinda useless, since my friend is still total n00b and didn't know shell types), the bot train few shots, but missed, then frustrated, he switched into bayonet and charged me (i stand still holding ammo box, paying attention to the bayonet fixing animation i saw on that bot). A nearby thrown grenade exploded, killing me and the bot named after McGibs. Kinda make me laugh if i remember that.

32 mode, the stationary MG near the cafe is like a trap. The allies use that route too often to attack the nearby flag. And the bot respond quickly to our action there. The allies' MG overlooking the river (Summers position) is also quite like a death trap. When we open fire, the bots will always return fire dramatically. And eventually pinning us down.

My only suggestion to this map is that the bot should really man the stationary weapons. The Nebelwerfer i play with really pwn the advancing American bots. The German at PDH did quite well actually, massacring advancing US troops from the broken bunker.

Offline cannonfodder

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #4 on: 20-10-2009, 10:10:39 »
*****PHL-16*****

This is great. Tried it with 16 and 32 players. Once the Germans take the Cafe, they virtually all spawn there, making it very hard, but not impossible, to take. The Yanks behave quite well, advancing evenly (not in a big group) towards the Cafe once Crossroads and Pommenauque are taken.

The only thing that bothered me was the Germans obsession with taking the Crossroads. I only saw the odd bot head towards Pomm. from the Cafe. Due to this the US has won every round I've played (I've played 6 rounds, 3 per side).

If the Germans occasionally went around the back (towards bottom of map, behind buildings) rather than heading down the road towards Pomm., they'd stand a better chance (I've seen quite a few US bots go that way towards the Cafe).

*****PHL-32*****

The problem with this size IMO is poor flag placement. It may work in MP, but bots are stoopid.

Once the US has the Farm and Summers, the US bots have to veer off to the right after passing the river to get to the next flag (Pomm.). This exposes their left flank to the Germans and...well, you know.

To sum it up, I reckon a better layout would be:
*Remove Pommenauque
*Add Crossroads
*Move the German uncap to where it is on PHL-16

But it's probably easier to make the bots spawn 50/50 between the uncap and the Cafe. That would thin out the swarm of bots that attacks from the uncap and more US bots would make it to Pomm.

Just one more thing, I found some bots getting stuck at the Farm (see pic).They look like they're trying to go through the door, but missing it. They only get stuck there for 10-15 secs before they figure it out and get unstuck, but at one point I saw 6 bots all stuck there.

Offline Natty

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #5 on: 20-10-2009, 17:10:50 »
thx  :) nice suggestions.. Winterhilf can do what he likes with this mode, Im sure he can optimize it for next patch.  ::) Those suggestions you made are good.. the flags on this version is wrong anyway, they are leftovers from an old MP 32 mode version I believe.  :P

Offline djinn

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #6 on: 24-10-2009, 09:10:29 »
 was wondering, why was the 4th flag moved from the nebelwerfer/ lafette mg42 base in SP/COOP?

Offline Natty

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #7 on: 16-12-2009, 16:12:20 »
was wondering, why was the 4th flag moved from the nebelwerfer/ lafette mg42 base in SP/COOP?

it wasn't removed for the SP/COOP.. it was removed all together, from all gamemodes.. during a short time in testing. then winterhilf joined and started the sp/coop development. and after that I reverted back to having the nebel flag and deleted some other flags in CQ mode.. so sp/coop now is how cq used to be...
Winterhilf can change this back if you want the bots to frag you with nebel  :D

Offline djinn

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Re: Purple Heart Lane
« Reply #8 on: 16-12-2009, 17:12:18 »
yes please! *We are not worthy!*