As explained last week, we are presently finalizing the new version of Three Miles Island. You had an insight then into what the map will look like, now let’s give level designer Félix ‘FLX’ Habert and level builder Thibaut ‘Valence’ Robin the opportunity to further detail the map …
Take cover
Special attention was paid to the amount of cover spread over the map, placing more tree lines … than on both European Escalation & AirLand Battle‘s versions together.
If Highway has more cover density than the new TMI, thanks to its large forests, the latter’s “cover is much more organized with long tree lines that give the feeling to fight in a big plain, according to FLX. This type of cover will remind you of the most epic battles fought on European Escalation‘s Dual Field, where you had to prepare an assault to conquer the next tree line, infiltrate recon infantry by using the perpendicular lines, etc.“
And such cover will be dearly needed, for battles will be reaching gigantic proportions. As detailed by Valence: “the map’s total area has almost doubled (16 “tiles” instead of 9 in ALB if I remember correctly). It’s the same size as Floods, with spawns located even more on the sides than the latter to give an idea. It’s our biggest size available, used to its maximum“.
To each his own
As will be the case for Highway, TMI will come both in Conquest & Destruction mode, and both in two flavors. Yet where Highway’s flavors will be designed for 2v2 and 4v4 players in the same orientation, both TMI variants will be for 4v4 but with the gameplay orientation turned 90° between them. Which means one variant will be set like the classic EE/ALB maps, with one foot on each bank of the river, and the other will have the river separating the two sides.
As FLX puts it: “The classical axis should be improved by the higher number of tree lines and the addition of a third plateau on each side which will help maneuvers. The power plant’s buildings have been placed at the exact center of the map to give both teams equal chance and the area is large enough to prevent the ‘coin flip effect’, that is when the city is won/lost after 10 seconds … then can never be taken again. There is space between districts now so you can bring some support vehicles. We should avoid the infantry-only battles we have on Wonsan Harbor”.
Now, let’s talk about the new variant with the “rotated” axis. Simply put, you’ll get one team on each side of the river, which should prove equally interesting if not more.
In a flight of naturalist lyricism, FLX details the way the map should play: “All the riverbanks can be used by vehicles, no cliff there to force your units to move through a chokepoint like fishes in a hoop net.
But the river is wide, we’ve all tried an amphibious assault on maps like Floods or 38th Parallel and we all know how bad it ends up. To avoid that on TMI and make amphibious assaults more feasible, the number of islands in the middle of the river has been increased and all of them are filled with forest. Which allows you to approach discreetly and always have some guns in range of the next bank to jump from one island to the other, then to the enemy bank“. No less than general MacArthur’s “island hopping” strategy brought to Red Dragon! 🙂
With its present configuration, TMI‘s rotated variant should allow each team to “rapidly have access to the other bank and be able to take defensive positions in the cities placed next to the side islands. The frontline should be more like a line that crosses through those cities“.
jc1606
October 3, 2015 at 6:44 amwhy no navy spawn in three mile island or large river maps like it? would certainly give landing craft and support boats more purpose.
The Grape Jelly Man
October 3, 2015 at 3:05 pmi completely agree make it so you cant spawn big ships only little one for rivers it would definetly increase ship use
Exo_Jacket
October 23, 2015 at 2:43 amAny news as to when this map is coming out?
roman9441
November 19, 2015 at 2:32 amDamn it look too desert i love how it look green in ALB and EE