"Improvements" to the Fire Map destroy it, make it like all other maps

[Taichunger]

 

The Fire map is now pretty much on the same theme as all the other 3 cap domination maps. In other words, its idiosyncrasies are gone, and the map is now generic. What a shame the devs "fixed" a map that wasn't a problem. The generic map is:

 

One space crowded with islands.

The central space hemmed in by islands on both sides so that ships are canalized and can't escape. I've marked those huge changes on this map in red boxes. 

One somewhat more open cap.

 

This is a completely different map now -- it shares the name and look, but that's all. It is now totally generic. B especially has been savagely wrecked. In the original Fire map B was marked by expanses of open water ideal for long range shooting, torpedo attacks, and swift and decisive movement across the map. Now it is constricted and dull. I always looked forward to Fire and had many excellent games on it. Now it's not garbage, but worse: generic.

 

Note also the purple boxes. The islands that masked ship movement and permitted cap grabs are gone. Fire is now merely Shatter in skeletal form  -- the constricted center and the open sides, and one side crowded and unplayable. We already have Shatter, that philosophy in its ultimate form, and it was widely hated as unplayable. Did WG learn nothing?

 

All the new maps are like this. Did WG think we wouldn't notice that all the maps are either crap like Strait and Shatter, or generic like... well, almost every map? 

[MrDeaf]

I thought it was an improvement when I first saw it, but I think it's been degraded.

You get 4 lines of ships that start off and it's basically nearly impossible to link up with another line, unless your ship is stealthy.

 

The constant barrage of invisifire, because the islands are tall enough to block LoS, but low enough to allow the shells to be lobbed over, is really annoying as ship with huge detection range and pretty much forces those ships to camp in the back, unable to contribute much to the caps.

 

Oh, the changes to this map also makes it so that fast ships have next to no advantage over slow ones.

You are better off using something that is ultra tanky, preferably with good concealment, over a fast and squishy ship. There is no room to maneuver around to a flank or anything like that, because all the cross channels are in the middle.