Wednesday 25 March 2015

Malinovka heat map in motion

Ever wondered how the heat map (the map displaying player activity) looks in motion? Here's an analysis for patch 0.9.6, courtesy of "suslik_kun":



Camping behind the bushes on both extremes of the open field is the normal, not a big surprise but it saddens me how little players go to the hill on the blue side when is such a important position to control (I even go to hill with a Tortoise so I'm able to help heavies with my DPM), besides that, is actually nice to see which bushes the Lights are using to passive scout, except for that drunk green one that went into the lake.

36 comments:

  1. The one who went into the lake, thought he was playing WoWs.

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  2. On the 'blue' approach to the hill, I see many heavies and TDs settling down at the edge of the forest, around those newer rocks. The hill approach has become 'scary' to many, opening them to hull-down attacks from the brow of the hill.

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    1. Yeah its important to push as close to the extremes of the map as possible on both hill roads, many push where they can be spotted and flanked, once made over 6k damage with my T28 Prot. just shooting at those poor fools.

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    2. This ^

      The hill is great to have, but if they have a single scout in bushes, you are basically stuck up there spotted for everyone to see. So unless you have a very thick turret and good gun depression, the only way you're punching through is to rush and hope for the best.

      Plus, the average player camps more and more in my experience. SO why move? Let some other asshole (generally me) go forward and play something else than "shoot the pixel large silhouette"

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    3. I don't agree with this "small number of blue tanks going for the hill" thing. I have other problem when I play that side. My whole team goes for the hill, and base is left unguarded. Then enemy comes to K3, and slowly pushes toward cap. After that you have situation where my team lost the hill (12 tanks went there), and we are also losing the other side outnumbered. This scenario is repeating more and more...

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  3. Blue team has their base invaded much much more than green team.

    It's a map bias causing Blue to get screwed over early game much more by an invasion.

    This CAUSES the reluctance of blue tanks to hill as they are distracted by the more frequent and more successful invasions of their base.

    Invading Green base is far less rewarding and more likely suicidal.

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  4. The hill is not what it once was and imho is a yellow and green player trap. Many players simply won't come off the hill on the green side. So after they take the hill if you use the ramp in the pond that leads to the green side you can spot and destroy the td's, mediums all around that area if done correctly. Many of my wins on blue side is after cutting them off trapped on the hill. Extremely important as well is to not let them have the counter ramp if they have the hill.

    Another option while working with a platoon of heavy hitters is still to just rush base on the far edge with a good gun depression tank like stb or a 140. This is a high risk high reward play and it's very dependent on team make up.

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  5. All my greatest scout matches are on malinovka encounter.

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  6. All my greatest scout matches are on malinovka encounter.

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  7. The hill is not nearly as important as it is made out to be. In fact, with multiple arty on a team, it is a definite no go area for slow(er) tanks. You want fast tanks on top of that hill, early, to see what is coming, but that is about it. Even if no arty is present to rape you a new one, a few tank destroyers, on either side, will spoil the party for the conquering heroes trying to come off the hill. This map is all about camping these days. The guys who that best, win. (There are many stupid spots to camp.)

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  8. People camp the forrest behind the hill and when doing that it's a deathtrap trying to get from the hill and into enemy territory...

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  9. Is this the RU heatmap? I think gameplay is different to EU

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    1. http://www.vbaddict.net/heatmaps/malinovka/2
      Much more movement to the hill from the south base

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    2. this is also what I noticed from my experience

      yet that's not always reliable, sometimes all will rush hill, sometimes noone ...

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    3. The software looks great - has it been published?

      I thought the heatmaps at vbaddict were all more than a year old. Have updated heatmaps been published somewhere?

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    4. Is there a general difference in gameplay on RU?

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  10. Maybe if Wargaming experimented with the starting positions a little more then one could have more people heading up the hill... if a few more slow-hill-climbing tanks started a little way further up the hill they might be more inclined to climb the remainder or at the very least remain mid-hill for support of those who do climb it. Another thought and I could be wrong here is to thin out trees/cover in around or behind the bases and maybe add a bit more cover closer to the middle sections of the map... to encourage people to move forward to find cover rather than camp further back...I could be wrong here though....

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    1. Tricky thing to do. Slow vehicles are slow for a reason: they got armour and therefore survivability. Lighter armoured tanks got speed and mobility. Take that away from them by giving heavily armoured tanks advantageous spawns and you will be effectively nerfing the one class and buffing the other. If you take away the cover, you make the hill the principal control point of the map. Anything with view range that gets up there first, can shut down half the map.

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  11. Maybe if Wargaming experimented with the starting positions a little more then one could have more people heading up the hill... if a few more slow-hill-climbing tanks started a little way further up the hill they might be more inclined to climb the remainder or at the very least remain mid-hill for support of those who do climb it. Another thought and I could be wrong here is to thin out trees/cover in around or behind the bases and maybe add a bit more cover closer to the middle sections of the map... to encourage people to move forward to find cover rather than camp further back...I could be wrong here though....

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  12. one of the most retared maps in the game, yet they are removing northwest.

    malinovka stronk, either camp on the spawn, go hill and hope your depression is good enough or die on the filed. I personally do ALT+F4 every time I see loading screen of this map.

    This map is not hard to play, its just extremely fucking boring. I dont play video games to be bored....

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    1. Retarded map? You are retard...its one of few open field maps for tanks! Tank battles were on open field not in mountains! fcking idiots....

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    2. So you leave a team a man short because you don't like a map? That is some major scumbaggery right there.

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    3. ".its one of few open field maps for tanks! "

      Yes probably thats why everybody camps in forest or on hill and the first tank to cross field goes to garage.
      Open fields are "FUN" ina game with 800x800 meter maps and the current spotting system :D

      "So you leave a team a man short because you don't like a map?"

      Yes exactly. I'm not gonna suffer and be 15 minutes bored to death just because of 14 strangers I dont care about. Give us the option to select/prohibit some maps in matchmaking and everybody will be happy.

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    4. You're going to have a very difficult time of it in real life if you can't tough it out for occasional 15-minute periods of boredom.

      And: You know how pissed you get when a fail team half-asses it on a map you enjoy? When one or more say "screw it" and not try to reset the cap / help you / etc? Karma.

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    5. Exactly correct, Alexander. If Bugii's bailing out of battles on Malinovka before they even start, what makes him think that other people won't be doing the same thing on maps that those other people don't like?

      Bugii needs to man up, grow a pair, and go out there and try to help his team win, no matter what map it is.

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  13. Like Quickybaby once said "Herpectus McDerpingtons"
    Doesnt surprise me so few went hill

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. as long im heavy i go hill since... hack
    staying base is boring

    for most other tanks i try to rush the flank D:

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    1. btw PROKOROVKA heat map. thats sure boring to watch

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    2. Malinovka is still one of the good maps, comparing to the "channel" maps we are getting these days. Hill is a bit of a mess still imho and they could still widen it a bit, for the account of the lower part beneath (between hill and river) which is rarely used for any major tactical acitvities, except the bushes near the river.
      Also I disagree that hill is trap - simply not used properly. On such open maps one direction assult often may not be productive - true. So rushing down from hill against few well cammoed TD might not end well - sure. However taking hill, combined with some good scouting near the water could lead to domination on the entire right side squeezing the enemy around its flat starting area, near capzone.

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    3. Malinovka is still one of the good maps, comparing to the "channel" maps we are getting these days. Hill is a bit of a mess still imho and they could still widen it a bit, for the account of the lower part beneath (between hill and river) which is rarely used for any major tactical acitvities, except the bushes near the river.
      Also I disagree that hill is trap - simply not used properly. On such open maps one direction assult often may not be productive - true. So rushing down from hill against few well cammoed TD might not end well - sure. However taking hill, combined with some good scouting near the water could lead to domination on the entire right side squeezing the enemy around its flat starting area, near capzone.

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    4. See whyme you named your problem. You need good scouting at the water for the hill after you win. So what if you don't have it? What if you have a team of reds who won't move from there camping spots and want you to come down to light targets instead. What if a platoon of blue or purples waits for you to all get on the hill before they strike a more direct path to base?

      So IMHO let the pubbies AKA green and below go hill while the better players try to provide the lighting at the water as you say or break down the defenses else where gaining map control.

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  16. Malinovka hill is not a key point of the map. It can actually happen to be a trap (like the hill in Mines). The team cant ignore it but the map is easily playable without occupying the hill, taken into account that other key positions are occupied (depends on the team, but church, the big rock on the other side and those two wooded 'bumps' (one on each side). It is very easy to keep the enemy forces trapped on the hill with just few good DPM vehicles and the rest can charge the field. Given that one team has a spotter just under the hill, the hill itself can be left open.

    Going headlessly to the hill is quite a common cause the team gets crushed while its top dogs attempt half-a-mile hatch shots only to get rolled over from both sides of the hill later in the game.

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