I miss the Jungle...

[Renomaki]

Now, I know what a lot of you are gonna say:

"REEEEEE we played LV-624 thousands of times, we are sick and tired of it and never wanna see it again!"

And to that, I can understand. It is a old ass map, having seen many changes and just as many fights. A lot of those battles were very special to me, from those many last stands at the Nexus, to the epic battles of the barrens, to the intense crawls though the maze of caves... I had many memories. A lot of the details a bit cloudy nowadays, but still, they are quite fond memories of brave actions and glorious victories.

If I can be frank, I don't really like Big Red all that much, because it just doesn't feel the same... I miss walking by slashed floodlights, patrolling along the river's edge, watching Nexus be turned into a fortress that denies the xenos for an hour or more... I miss the thick wall of fog, the tunnels that dotted the jungle, blowing into Secure Storage to recover Lisa the dog (and then have her blown up on a mine)... I could go on and on.

A lot of people probably don't give a crap, but I sure wish we had Jungle again... Maybe one day, I hope... One day.

[Kerek]

God I miss LV. First map I ever played and I have never gotten tired of it. o7

[Enceri]

Never forget Nexus defenses. o7

[TheDonkified]

rip LV for now, but I think it will come back soon. I'd really be interested to see how LV would look like incorporating the bigger LZs with the two dropships. Perhaps nexus won't be the FOB location in most rounds, and we'll see some more variation in terms of FOB locations.

[completelynewguy]

I miss it too. I'll miss fighting near the River as it turned into a no-man's land.
It would be nice if the Devs could set aside some time to create a version of LV-624 after the Sulaco's orbit crashes north of the caves.

[gameoverman]

Like Harambe, LV is gone but forever in our hearts.

[NoahKirchner]

I like big red a fair bit, regardless of the memories I have on LV.

LV is sort of a poorly designed map, with all due respect. It's very much focused to the east side, and a lot of possibilities aren't recognized because of how "on rails" it is. The only real positions to defend are Hydro, Nexus and LZ1 because anything else results in the xenos able to easily take the LZ since it's so out in the open and exposed. Furthermore, the only real conflict area is just north of hydro until one side makes a decisive push.

Big red, on the other hand, is designed with the LZ tucked back, allowing for a number of different defend-able locations as long as a line is held. Conflict happens generally in the middle of the map and is able to slowly move back and forth, as opposed to the mass routes you get on LV, wherein as soon as Hydro or the beachhead is lost, the other team gives up huge swathes of land and falls back to turtle. It's a good map, very well designed with both roleplay (lotta neat stuff to find) and competition in mind, and I really hope it sticks around, as beloved as LV is.

[DukeOz]

I think for me the biggest difference between lv624 and big red is that lv624 feels like a CTF sort of map while big red feels like a TDM map. I'm a bigger fan of the rework ship & map we have now then prior although there are aspects of the previous that I miss. I think the main thing I miss about LV624 is that nexus felt so central but it was separated (even if it was just a small hallway) from Rasp which meant that you had moments where you could've been dragging your injured squad members to the LZ 1 only to discover one had been snatched away or that sudden realization that while you were holding the north hallway the xenos had pushed through the storage buildings and completely cut off your escape to Rasp.

Those two very specific yet common moments from the previous maps are just not really present on Big Red I feel (at least for lz1, I haven't gotten much lz2 action but as is I don't really like the idea of having marines maintaining two separate disconnected FOBs) yet I felt they were some of the most riveting moments in the game. I will say tho even if I believe Nexus FOB's feels better then Hanger FOB's the defending/attacking gameplay feels better on big red due to not being so limited by the narrow spaces.

[TheMaskedMan2]

If i'm going to be completely honest, I'm sick of LV and pretty much agree with Noah. Big Red is just better, and I would go into detail why but i'm too tired right now so I won't.

[Jonesome]

LV-624 was my favorite when LZ2 was located near Tcomms. This gave the marines two advantageous positions to have an FOB. Sometimes there'd be a Nexus one concentrating on the east side of the map, other times there'd be a Tcomms FOB with the main action on the west side. It offered a nice bit of variety. But then LZ2 was moved to a completely useless location and no one made use of it ever again, which made LV-624 a crushing bore. I think if they ever revamped it, now with two dropships for two landing zones, it would be a fantastic playground.

Big Red is quite good, although from the round I've played it still seems to fall into the predictable rut of establishing FOB at LZ1 due to the proximity of Tcomms, pushing southeast through security and medbay, with the main action being between the bar, dorms, and administration (at least from the games I've partaken in so far).

[KeyWii]

I miss Infestation Station.

[Sleepy Retard]

I haven't really seen the " number of different defend-able locations as long as a line is held." Noah claims, it more so follows a pattern of this:

FOB at LZ1, scout and then set up mini fob below Bar, facing the labs. Lose the mini fob, get pushed entirely to north medbay entrance before slowly being pushed back into LZ1 into an evac.

Or, the same up until the losing mini fob part. Push into lambada, start gaining ground, wipe the xenos.

I haven't seen any meaningful change or diversity in the meta game, because it seems like it's exactly the same and it will stay the same. Marines lose the "new hydro" which is below the Bar and the Mess, retreat losing a lot of ground. I have not seen a single non standard round with a non LZ1 base. It's the problem with telecomms being required, you preemptively make a meta FOB at the LZ because it's the best way to defend your comms. As well, every single queen has opted to settle in the exact same place.

The only difference is its a different map, the old meta is still there in a sense. It's not going to go away.

[Monoo]

Yeah, Lazarus was the original map and as such the most known, balanced, comforting, etc etc. Solaris is fun but the current meta that Defaultio mentioned gets pretty old pretty fast... the east-west focus is nice as opposed to north-south or... whatever the fuck Shiva's Snowball is, but otherwise it doesn't have too much going for it. I hope they revamp the other two maps for Almayer use pretty soon.

[Swagile]

The whole tcomms meta in of itself gets old as well.

The moment you lose Tcomms, retreat is the only option unless it was just a lucky runner that managed to run past your defences. But if its a full LZ-1 flank with the entire hive in Tcomms, your fucked.

The only ways to counter it is pre-build there at Tcomms / C4 the bottom tcomms to caves and setup a mini-FOB with a turret there to protect it...

Or C4 a quarter of the R-walls to the far right of Tcomms, so that if a flank happens, you don't have to go through the 1x1 hallways that favor Crusher / Ravager charges then boiler bombs and instead will give you a clear firing line to spam bullets into the area.

[SpaceFarer]

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli... me personally, I never cared much for the ice colony map. But hell, whenever that was the map, I just rolled with it, as a space marine hopefully would. They are supposed to be trained and ready to serve in a multitude of climates and environments, so whether its desert, tundra, tropical, or urban, I just consider it a challenge to my adaptability. I agree the jungle had a cool fuckin' vibe to it (never got tired of the howling monkey sound effects), and that LV was probably my favorite (especially as a previous user stated, when pod landed near t-comms), but I welcome the newness of Big Red and I am pleased to see the variety of skirmishes the map can provide. Many battles have taken place in a variety of locations from cargo, to engi, to med, to sec, to lambda, to just pushing back and forth on the dirt roads. I think this is a good map and I will learn to love it as I did LV.

[Renomaki]

The whole tcomms meta in of itself gets old as well.

The moment you lose Tcomms, retreat is the only option unless it was just a lucky runner that managed to run past your defences. But if its a full LZ-1 flank with the entire hive in Tcomms, your fucked.

The only ways to counter it is pre-build there at Tcomms / C4 the bottom tcomms to caves and setup a mini-FOB with a turret there to protect it...

Or C4 a quarter of the R-walls to the far right of Tcomms, so that if a flank happens, you don't have to go through the 1x1 hallways that favor Crusher / Ravager charges then boiler bombs and instead will give you a clear firing line to spam bullets into the area.

This was what I liked about LV-624 as well... Tcomms was active the moment you landed, and stayed with you till the very end. However, on Big Red, if you don't have people quickly set up comms planetside, squads will quickly get disorganized and marines will get lost. And when xenos attack, it might already be too late to recover.

While I do like that they made comms near the LZ instead of making it across the map where it is hard to protect, I do wish we just went with how we did it on the Jungle... Then maybe we'd have a little more freedom in our tactics.

[Butterrobber202]

LV revamp?

[Simo94]

Please bring back the LZ2 at Tcomms LV624 back, not the abomination that we last had, thank you, that is all.

[TheMaskedMan2]

Honestly if Xenos would nest in anywhere but Lambda Big Red would have so much more variation, wish Xenos would nest in research more. It essentially makes the map from a "left to right" tug of war to a "top to bottom" tug of war. Plus research is more interesting.

[Renomaki]

Honestly if Xenos would nest in anywhere but Lambda Big Red would have so much more variation, wish Xenos would nest in research more. It essentially makes the map from a "left to right" tug of war to a "top to bottom" tug of war. Plus research is more interesting.

I honestly wonder why they don't use the vast cave networks all over the map... They are full of tactical chokepoints as well as large rooms that could be used for nesting hosts. You could make a hive spread all over the outer edges of the map, with easy ability to escape as needed.

I think it is just the comfort zones starting to form, really.

[Swagile]

The only way to add variation to the Nests is to make the map like LV in the fact that monkeys spawn in the jungle and caves in every direction.

So put monkeys in every location on the map instead of concentrating most of the monkeys in the map in Viro + Research + Lambda Labs.

That way you don't have to go out of your way to drag all the monkeys around, you just won't have the abundance that Lambda Labs has; but it also won't be attacked near round start due to the marines knowing you will base in Lambda since now you can base anywhere as monkeys are everywhere.

Thats what I loved about the LV setup before fog mechanics; I could make a hive anywhere since monkies were close by to every location on the map.

[TheMaskedMan2]

I honestly wonder why they don't use the vast cave networks all over the map... They are full of tactical chokepoints as well as large rooms that could be used for nesting hosts. You could make a hive spread all over the outer edges of the map, with easy ability to escape as needed.

I think it is just the comfort zones starting to form, really.

I completely agree but the way it is now, Xenos don't enjoy dragging monkeys, so they already narrow themselves down to one of those three spawns. Lambda has the most monkey spawns by far, and is also the farthest from the marine LZ's. Obvious "default" choice. The only way I see fixing this is randomizing monkey spawns or moving them so it is a bit more equal or... something.

[Simo94]

I completely agree but the way it is now, Xenos don't enjoy dragging monkeys, so they already narrow themselves down to one of those three spawns. Lambda has the most monkey spawns by far, and is also the farthest from the marine LZ's. Obvious "default" choice. The only way I see fixing this is randomizing monkey spawns or moving them so it is a bit more equal or... something.

or somehow make dragging monkeys faster or reducing stomach acid damage....etc

[johners12345]

RIP THE NOSTROMO MAP!

[kooarbiter]

I loved the Sully despite it's problems and although I like somethings about the al ( spawn/prep/ req close by each other and squad weapon vendors thank God) it will never replace my love for sully