Commanders!
Today, we’d like to tell you more about the upcoming overhauled map called Highwall, what it is, why we chose to overhaul it and what changes did we make.
To those of you who’ve been with us since the beginning, the name’s likely familiar. Indeed, a map called Highwall was introduced to Armored Warfare in March 2016 as a part of Update 0.14 and almost immediately became a sore point for the community. The players were rightfully complaining about too much corridor gameplay and, of course, verticality (the difference in elevation between various areas of the map). You can in fact check this old trailer and see for yourselves.
The thing about verticality is that it doesn’t really work with Armored Warfare. For other action shooters where gun elevation and depression is not an issue, it of course does, but it’s not great in a tank game where most MBTs (or other vehicles for that matter) cannot depress their gun properly to aim at the targets below them. Same goes the other way around and, as a result, specific vehicles such as the BMPT would dominate the gameplay.
An overhaul of the map was announced in late 2016 but never really came to pass and the map was removed from rotation permanently in August 2017, a year and a half after its introduction. Numerous attempts were made to overhaul it internally but they never went anywhere – until now.
Why did we decide to return to this project a decade later? All in all, it was a promise. Granted, there have been other such promises over the years that would not be fulfilled (yet) for various reasons, but when we do have an opportunity, we take it – a fresh mind of a new Level Designer with an idea how to revive this old piece of content as a passion project, and some time, that’s what it took to make it happen. We hope that you will like the result.
Naturally, the biggest changes here are addressing the problems that made the map fail the first time. Therefore, we:
- Reduced the verticality of the map by lowering the level of various ledges and other areas
- Opened the center of the map more to make sure players are not pushed into corridors in the areas that are intended for combat
- Given the map a visual upgrade (including textures and objects), most parts of the map were completely overhauled
- Polished the collision models of most areas (especially various rocks) that were previously making players get stuck on them
There were so many changes that it doesn’t really make sense to list them all – please treat it as a brand new map, which it, for most intents and purposes, is. The strategy for this map is quite straightforward:
- For MBTs, the center is the best place to be – there they will find places to break through
- For various long-range damage dealers, there are several spots that allow them to snipe at the enemy, mostly situated around the central area
- For fast AFVs and Light Tanks, the sides of the map offer ample opportunity to flank the enemy and emerge from unsuspected places
The Highwall map is coming to Armored Warfare in the near future and we’ll make sure you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy it and submit your feedback.
Thank you for staying with us, commanders, and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!
