The cap area is approximately five feet wide
. No offense to whoever created the map, but that is downright stupid. And it's a problem with a lot of maps-- having cap areas that are extremely small and not very indicative of the areas that are supposedly being secured and captured (i.e. the factory complex in Jabal).
I suggest that this be taken into account for future maps, and for current maps that will be edited.
Too many cap areas are way, WAY too small and A: prone to spam from frags and other explosives because if you see a flag going down, you know EXACTLY where infantry are, and B: not very realistic that to capture a factory complex you are required to all be in a 3 meter wide radius.
Points A and B work for and against both sides, also. When capturing an area, the attackers are allowed to take up larger perimeters while still capturing the flag to defend against counter-attacks, but larger capture areas also would mean that defenders would be able to hide/defend from a larger area and would make it more difficult for attackers to completely secure an area.
Given a larger area to capture, it should also take more people to cap. No more capturing a whole area and section of the battlefield with two people and changing the whole pace of the game.
Since Jabal Al Burj is a sort of flagship map for PR (not necessarily 'flagship', but definitely a map that I think most PR vets agree promotes teamwork and is a solid all-around map), look at it a little more in depth. Western and Eastern Beach flag cap areas are both extremely small, the capture area for Dam is a small area inside the sandbags around the flag on the lower level, the capture area for the Bridge is a very small area around the flag, Factory is just the small area directly around the flag, City is the small area under the archway.
Still using it as an example, what if the Bridge cap area were extended a little bit into the hills, and a bit further down the road towards Dam? No more sitting on the flag and having a lone grenadier launch a 203 down on you guys from the hills across the bridge and taking out your whole squad. You would be able to simultaneously capture the bridge while also taking up defensive positions in the hill for an impending counter-attack.
Or, using another favorite map of mine, Qwai River, take a look at Government Center. You can't capture/defend the flag from the top of either buildings. You have to be on a tiny radius right by the flag.
It's a very simple suggestion and would be a relatively easy fix for maps, no debating whether it's hardcoded or requiring extensive modeling and animations! Just a few minutes to fix up the cap areas!
So please, for current and future maps (this is more a plea to mappers I suppose), take into account all these things.
