The old saying, "it aint what it used to be" applies to karkand.
At the start, people who played karkand regularly recognised what it offered.. a TACTICAL map, with many facets, many routes to caps, many places to ambush, bottlenecks... u name it. At the time of typing this, i have 166 hours on Kark. i NEVER played it to get points, i played it to get the most out of BF2.
[the following has slight bias re USA, as MEC tend to have no choice initially other than to defend]
How familiar does this sound to u.....
Map Starts.
There is a rush to hotel on both teams, whether in vehicles or on foot.
In the USA main base, 10 people try to get into a 2man tank, TKs abound as dumndicks get caught under tank treads.. For the next 5-10 minutes the following takes place. Tanks and APCs set up on both sides of the hotel flag, all arount the fences off area south of Hotel. A tank heads to the East road to camp Spawning MEC, and APC heads left road. Ratatatatatatatatatat... Spawn kills. This is accompanied by 'nade raining in the fenced off area from both sides, players running blindly to their deaths in the Corral of Doom. No progress made. Just deaths. No one caps, no one attempts to go anywhere except the Hotel.
Very occasionally, a brave/stupid squad [but usually lonewolf] attempts to head for the Suburb via the misty mountain route, in a vain attempt to open the map up..
"Ill be the hero! They will thank and love me for providing my fellow combatants with a tactically posititioned spawn point, from which we can mount a more fruitful assault over our middle eastern foes..!"
But as the Suburb roof is usually the sunbathing spot for the MEC commander, the poor cretin is watched the whoooooooole way up to the flag, whereby the commander has his iron sights waiting for him as he pokes his head around the wall at suburb. His cards have been marked from the first time the MEC commander hit the 'scan' button. His 2 or 3 minute walk, alone, is like a plod to the electric chair. Inevitably, the aforementioned brave/stupid lonewolf [who is also invariably a sniper] decides that his one and only venture into the brave world of 'capping' ends, and he opts for an assault kit on his next spawn and goes grenade launching along with all the other useless gimps. Maybe if he had been squad leader, he might have had folk spawn beside him to aide his assault? Nope... sniper = lonewolf and cant POSSIBLY consider assistance.
Back to Hotel.. the slaughter continues. Spawn / Spawnkilled / NoobTubed / Tanked / APC'd / Naded, but NO CAPPING. Players are in it for the killing, not the capping. Ive played whole rounds where NO ONE hass capped ANYTHING.
My point is... Karkand has turned into the worst type of map. Now, its a place where people go to attempt to meet BADGE/MEDAL criteria, NOT to PLAY a game. Need 40 kills as a medic to get your expert badge? Go to Kark and tank whore and spawn kill. Its ruthless... there is NO other map in the game that feels more like a Deathmatch than Kark. There is no map where u are as unsafe to stand in your own Main base to wait for a respawning armour or vehicle... "Will i be TKd by a wanker, just cuz im standing near APC spot?"... Hell, Ive been TKed for a feckin HUMMER! Medics will revive u EVEN if they KNOW will get shot down again by the same enemy, just so they get their team points.. Again, ive been revived by a medic 5 or 6 times sequentially, each time, the same tank has mowed me down as i revived. [miraculous things, those shock pads]
I play commander a LOT.
My first command when i take USA commander spot is usually Ctrl-A [select all squads], "Attack this position", and click Square, or Train wreck.. i feel square is best. This gets most squads replying "yessir", and what happens.... they sally up and assume camping positions around hotel.
Im sick of it.
At the start, people who played karkand regularly recognised what it offered.. a TACTICAL map, with many facets, many routes to caps, many places to ambush, bottlenecks... u name it. At the time of typing this, i have 166 hours on Kark. i NEVER played it to get points, i played it to get the most out of BF2.
[the following has slight bias re USA, as MEC tend to have no choice initially other than to defend]
How familiar does this sound to u.....
Map Starts.
There is a rush to hotel on both teams, whether in vehicles or on foot.
In the USA main base, 10 people try to get into a 2man tank, TKs abound as dumndicks get caught under tank treads.. For the next 5-10 minutes the following takes place. Tanks and APCs set up on both sides of the hotel flag, all arount the fences off area south of Hotel. A tank heads to the East road to camp Spawning MEC, and APC heads left road. Ratatatatatatatatatat... Spawn kills. This is accompanied by 'nade raining in the fenced off area from both sides, players running blindly to their deaths in the Corral of Doom. No progress made. Just deaths. No one caps, no one attempts to go anywhere except the Hotel.
Very occasionally, a brave/stupid squad [but usually lonewolf] attempts to head for the Suburb via the misty mountain route, in a vain attempt to open the map up..
"Ill be the hero! They will thank and love me for providing my fellow combatants with a tactically posititioned spawn point, from which we can mount a more fruitful assault over our middle eastern foes..!"
But as the Suburb roof is usually the sunbathing spot for the MEC commander, the poor cretin is watched the whoooooooole way up to the flag, whereby the commander has his iron sights waiting for him as he pokes his head around the wall at suburb. His cards have been marked from the first time the MEC commander hit the 'scan' button. His 2 or 3 minute walk, alone, is like a plod to the electric chair. Inevitably, the aforementioned brave/stupid lonewolf [who is also invariably a sniper] decides that his one and only venture into the brave world of 'capping' ends, and he opts for an assault kit on his next spawn and goes grenade launching along with all the other useless gimps. Maybe if he had been squad leader, he might have had folk spawn beside him to aide his assault? Nope... sniper = lonewolf and cant POSSIBLY consider assistance.
Back to Hotel.. the slaughter continues. Spawn / Spawnkilled / NoobTubed / Tanked / APC'd / Naded, but NO CAPPING. Players are in it for the killing, not the capping. Ive played whole rounds where NO ONE hass capped ANYTHING.
My point is... Karkand has turned into the worst type of map. Now, its a place where people go to attempt to meet BADGE/MEDAL criteria, NOT to PLAY a game. Need 40 kills as a medic to get your expert badge? Go to Kark and tank whore and spawn kill. Its ruthless... there is NO other map in the game that feels more like a Deathmatch than Kark. There is no map where u are as unsafe to stand in your own Main base to wait for a respawning armour or vehicle... "Will i be TKd by a wanker, just cuz im standing near APC spot?"... Hell, Ive been TKed for a feckin HUMMER! Medics will revive u EVEN if they KNOW will get shot down again by the same enemy, just so they get their team points.. Again, ive been revived by a medic 5 or 6 times sequentially, each time, the same tank has mowed me down as i revived. [miraculous things, those shock pads]
I play commander a LOT.
My first command when i take USA commander spot is usually Ctrl-A [select all squads], "Attack this position", and click Square, or Train wreck.. i feel square is best. This gets most squads replying "yessir", and what happens.... they sally up and assume camping positions around hotel.
Im sick of it.
Last edited by uber73 (2006-02-18 01:48:43)
