Long_Range_Sniper, on 19 July 2018 - 06:58 PM, said:
If we perceive a similar meta then causality is the next discussion point.
You're mentioning anecdotes from maps and they can be relevant, just as I used the anecdote of players on Tundra not realising that their team in the hill but they still camp.
Being reluctant to go to a location on a particular map might be appropriate and understandable.
What I'm observing is a phenomena across all maps, in all tanks and that's got to be something above individual map design for a particular map.
IMHO it's the style of play that is now attractive and all it does is create a downward spiral in terms of the meta that will be boosted by WG the next time they release their idiot proof tank.
WG need to pull back from throwing bushes onto maps like confetti, and develop more tanks that require less tunnel vision and some actual skill. Arty covers the noobtube base very well, we don't need TD's to push it off its pedestal.
Are you giving individual idiot proof tanks this much "credit" for changing the style of play? I'm not entirely sure that what I (imagine) happening on some maps do in fact happen on all maps, I can't trust my own perception to that level, and some of the odd plays that teams do seem to stem from things like a certain number of players just having decided in advance where to go, irrespective of how the rest of the team actually deploy. Tundra is one map where I can't really identify a narrow trend, but more a cycle of trends that can include, but are not limited to;
- HTs going in a cluster to the western flank where they can shoot nowhere but north/south, unable to in any way impact what happens on the hill
- No tank going to the western flank, where a majority of tanks lemming to the hill and get flanked so they get enemies up the rear from behind while trying to fight the enemy on the opposite approach to the hill, especially on south spawn
- LT rusing to mid-map to spot over valley and thus the team halts and tries to snipe
- 2 tanks rushing the hill and get obliterated by an enemy that outnumber them, and then, as you mention, the rest of the team seems oblivious to the issue and get sniped from the hill by the enemy
But personally I do not perceive the styles as very campy on that map, it's more like if teams deploy "insensibly" compared to eachother then the better team gets the upper hand rather quickly. Similar things can happen on maps like Salient, where you get the cluster hanging back on 1-2 line, which is indeed campy, where the battles seem to be dictated by the ability to cooperate between the mid ridge tanks and the ones on the hill, for south spawn, and mid ridge and railroad crossing/north hill for north spawn. That's one of the maps where I feel there is definitely less aggressive play in general.
I see HTs going to non-obvious map postitions irrespective of tanks like a Defender being present or not, but things like this is hard to assess since I have no idea if the player in a certain battle tends to go to the same position on that map almost no matter what tank he plays, I bet there are some players that have a tendency to do that, where others try to go to the position that is most sensible for the tank they are currently in. I'm also inclined to believe that our respective anecdotes can differ substantially due to the number of possible combinations of the things mentioned above, where you can get a larger portion of teams that do X on the same map where I get a larger portion of teams that do Y.
Other maps, like Lakeville, seem to me to get less lemmingtrains that halt mid-valley, where it seems there is a temporary camp situation south of the lake for the south spawning team if someone spots well from the mid road, and that the team gets later into the city. Fisherman's Bay is definitely a bit more campy on my end, but Himmelsdorf is not, Live Oaks is usually not very campy at all, more often than not there is active play in the southern part from both sides, and Westfield is pretty active in the north. Take into account the inaccuracies of human memory here please, but that is at least how I perceive it.
So, maybe some maps are a bit more slow, some the same and some a little more active, but overall I do not get a feeling the entire game is/has gotten more campy in general.