Supertest: Ruinberg and Empire’s Border reworked

We are bringing one more round of iteration to some of our maps.

Ruinberg

Rework reasons:
A strong, growing imbalance in favor of the lower team is observed on the map.
As a result of the analysis of statistical data gathered, we want to check the following changes that are aimed at balancing the positions for the upper team. However, we want to preserve the usual battle pattern and not make it absolutely symmetrical.
All changes generally affect the city.

Changes scheme:

What was added:
After the previous test, changes 8.1 and 8.2 were removed as they turned out to be ineffective. Other changes stayed. The small town was cleared of visual clutter and small destructible obstacles.
Also, points 9 and 10 were added to the old edits.

Point by point:
1. A residential area was opened to create additional diversity in streets, paths, and positions for SPGs of the upper team. There are similar positions in open residential areas for the lower team. Thanks to that, additional playing space appeared and the outdated dead-end disappeared from the upper left corner of the map.
2. Damaged building with firing points (similar to the one near the lower base).
3. Instead of the central temple building, there is an additional passage with positions for the upper team. It creates new opportunities for the defending team to hold off advancing enemies at the square or fight against more distant positions (the usual bottleneck at the square for the lower team was not removed).
4. Added piles near the building edges in these spots. The first pile at point 4 may be used by players of both the upper and lower teams.
5. The contour of the residential area was corrected to make it more ledged on the side. This allows more positions to be taken up nearby.
6. A position was added to shoot at the passage of the lower team.
7. Minor change. The obstructing burned vehicle hull was removed.
8. Loopholes in the walls were closed. One “balcony” remains.
9. Several buildings were added that allow taking cover from the balcony in point 8 and some other firing lines.
10. A small pile. A dangerous position that allows taking cover from balcony 8, but it’s open to other lines and SPG fire.
+ for the increased size of the map.
10.1 The map increased in size towards the upper spawn point. The main goal of this change is to move the passage further away from the center of the map for the upper team, decrease the importance of spotting in these places, and create positions that have similar opportunities for the lower base. It is now possible to move from the city to the green area and back more comfortably.

After/Before:

Empire’s Border

Rework reasons:
The general corridor-like design of the map, poor connection between lines, lack of opportunity to maneuver on the map, and the advantage in favor of the lower team.
1. The line for medium and light tanks was reworked with more opportunities to maneuver. Also, a connection was created between the gates in the center of the map (Zone #4).
2. The TD position was reworked to provide more control over the passage from the HT zone (#5) and over the new open area (zone #6).
3. A corner was cut to balance the time for heavy tanks driving into zone #5.
4. The gate in the center of the map was expanded. The terrain between zones 4 and 5 (at the gates) was leveled. The outside of the mountain now has lines of fire towards the fighting area for heavy tanks (zone #5). The terrain was changed for more comfortable playing. Cover was added from Zone #1.
5. The fighting area for heavy tanks was reworked completely. The advantage of the lower team was removed. The general terrain was leveled for more comfortable driving.
6. The line in the corner of the map was fully reworked. Now it facilitates flanking attacks at the fighting area for heavy tanks (zone #5) and TD positions (zones #2 and #7).
7. The TD position was reworked to provide more control over the passage from the HT zone (#5) and over the new open area (zone #6).

After/Before:

15 thoughts on “Supertest: Ruinberg and Empire’s Border reworked

    1. That HT lane is why it’s perma blocked for me. Always a 10 vs 10 in that corner the north can’t dominate as well. Opening up more on both sides makes it more of a risk = reward push for both sides vs just one. Then again, most of us called it before it came. As WG had data from the Chinese server and console to know how trash the heat maps were on it.

      1. If people would understand that pushing north actually works there wouldn’t be a 10v10 or a 13v13 cluster fuck on the heavy corner, but everyone doesnt like the idea of going north or even high mid and combined with how trash average player’s map and situational awareness is, the team that pushes north and wins it tends to win the gams as a result

        Emperor’s border is not a bad map at all, especially compared to stuff like fisherman’s bay and mines, just most of the time people dont think more about where and how to push cause “Heavy flank best flank huhuhu” :T

        1. Thats a general issue you can observe on most maps. A big portion of the playerbase is just to stupid to understand how the maps work and thus apply the good old “follow the train” tactic

          1. Yee, so far all this rework seems to do it make it more aids to try and push either side, which will be fun

            At least the ruinburg rework is good and cant possibly be fucked up, that map has been so stupidly unbalanced for no reason in favor of the south side since 1.0 came out and its ridiculous

        2. Actually does not work if the enemy team push south, and then back to defend, north only work if u cap fast enought if they wait in base they win anyways.

          1. Thing is thou 99% of the time south is a stalemate for long enough to delete their tds and arty I’d you win north and push into their base, not to mention it gives you access to that opening in the mid letting you get shots on them, normally if north manages to be won by your team the only way you can lose it is if no one caps and you lose south and they either push into your base or turn around to delete the people capping, this is assuming of course the average player does have the mental capacity to look at their screen and see their being capped

        3. Most maps I hate are not bad maps, they are just played badly. I had the same hate with Hidden village. That HT lane did draw in 10+ guns on both sides every game.

  1. Wait, upper base in Ruinberg is getting buffs? It already can dominate the middle and has shots into the city from the green area, and while in theory it can be countered by taking that small ruin pocket near the main street, that itself is easily countered by rushing to the middle street and cutting enemy off.

    What am I missing here? Did my map insight got so dull over the years to the point of not being able to see something obvious, or is it just another case of vodka overdose on WG part?

  2. How many more changes will they test on Ruinberg before forgetting to implement any of them like they did with Minsk?

  3. I like the changes to Empire Border Map.

    I’m going to warm up my SPG’s 😀

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