Firstly, I'd like to comment on how many areas of the map were improved. The old hesco taliban main was removed for a small village, the caches just right out in the open were reinforced a little, and generally more stuff was added to the map. I like that I really do.
However, some design choices you've made I simply dont agree with. Basically all of that falls under the main bases, and the fob itself. Firstly the taliban's main is a little awkwardly placed, as another poster pointed out. It falls right next to a cache and cuts it off a little bit too much for the americans. Two solutions. Make the current talib main a cache, and make a new one stuffed all the way in the northwest corner. That way it wont be suspect to BLUFOR fire from the fob, or too near any caches. Second choice is making the current talib main a cache, leaving the repair net there, BUT going korengal style, and make the default spawn a point that randomly dumps you around the map at various compounds and such, meaning there is no effective taliban main, both should work.
SEcondly, the US main and the FOB. I simply cant agree with repair net, command vehicle and kiowa pad in the fob. I am no military expert, though I have watched some documentaries, and done some reading on present wars, and to my knowledge under no circumstances would a helicopter be deployed right on the front lines like that. It's a little silly. Not only will this cause issues of killing the chopper on take off, mortaring it, or whatever, but it's unrealistic. The mainbases in PR unfortunately cant be far enough to simulate the real distance a chopper would have to fly, but putting it back in that field in the southwest was probably the best option, simply because it simulates having the chopper removed from the battle until it wants to be, like it ought to be. Next, the repair net inside the fob is also questionable to me. The reason for this to me is that, it again isnt consistent with the idea of the fob. The FOB on bagdhis, is nothing more than a hole in the ground to dig in against the enemy. It's not a barracks and vehicle depot. The vehicle depot promotes bradley kind of camping it up there, and provides unlimited ammo to the troops there. This is the type of FOB that gets helicopter drops, has mortar pits, machine gun emplacements and TOW missile emplacements used regularly as defensive assets. The kind of base that needs those supply drops constantly. Now it's more like a main base, with no room to build mortars, and such. To me, this map is going to be really challenging for the Norwegians, with deep in the map cave caches, and fire support limited to one armour piece, this fob was going to be the main
asset in assisting the attack it becomes an attackable main that's hard to defend. That's a
liability, which makes the map especially hard, perhaps too hard like korengal. I strongly believe that the command vehicle, helipad, and repair net should be pulled back to the far southwest of the map again, as they are nice and removed from the frontlines, simulating the fact that to resupply a truck, repair a vehicle or rearm a helicopter, you would need to go back to a large base, not some hole in the ground on the frontlines.
We want the fob to be a defense-able asset for the blufor that is a good firing platform for mortars, vehicles, and requires constant resupplying, this being a good means of keeping the team in check. That is to say, it forces players to work together, which is the goal of PR as far as I know. So, to transform from a liability to an asset, we of course remove the ability to have what is essentially a mainbase, completely lost, so that means relocating all of the assets that come with main to the fields in the southwest. Next, the FOB itself should be revamped so that you can actually shoot out of the FOB. Ill illustrate this with some images, but basically Im going to compare the BAgdhis FOB, to the VCP in Al Basrah. The problems with the fob itself are that, there is no place to build assets that can shoot out of the fob, you can see over the hescos, there is no overhead cover for incoming enemy mortars, and in the final design there should be enough room for a fob, and mortar pits to be dug.
In Al basrah we see all of these things, but not in Bagdhis. It's really awkward to operate in the fob at bagdhis when you cant properly return fire. Here are some steps to fix this.
Follow the link:
Photo Album - Imgur. These images demonstrate things in basrah's VCP that need to be copied. These are things that need to happen.
1)being able to first over the hescos. You simply cant do this in Bagdhis, it's stupid, sink the hescos lower so we can shoot over them, note the basrah and bagdhis images.
2)some solid overhead cover for mortars. Mortars are a huge hardcounter to the fob, a place to hide like in the pic would be nice. The exact same static isnt necessary, but an underground, or something like the village in the south on burning sands?
3) Places to put TOWs and HMGs. If that means just having a stack of sand next to the hecos where you can build things, fine, but not being to use assets hurts
4) room for mortars and a fob. Unless you build on the heli there just isnt enough room.
Finally, the map needs a trans helo to resupply the fob, a single truck just doesnt cut it.
In conclusion the changes I suggest are: Remove the main on the highway, pull it back to the original spot, change the taliban main to the northwest, fix the fob, give BLUFOR a trans helo.
Also, since we're losing the kiowa on the final setup, a little more firepower for the norwegians would be nice. Are any of the light vehicles going to have CROWS like weapons, or mark19s? Some of those to suppplement the CV9030 would be good.
