Personally, I couldn't care less about not having XP shacks, or fences so much as not having room to maneuver. One of my favorite maps was a small little village with a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE open space in front of it right across a trench where the enemies spawned... and I mean it was huge. Barely any trees or rocks, perfectly flat, and no exploitable fences or rooftops nearby. Now, as u get into the village, there were a couple of rooftops, a fence, and a shack that you could in theory abuse. The map was honestly quite awesome if you indeed wanted to win. But you rarely got far on that map cuz it is just so fun to charge out onto that open field - heck, even against cav - and slaughter or be slaughtered. Its just ~20 dudes charging ~45 head on... and usually coming out victorious. Then come wave 2 it is much less organized, you have heavy casualties on your side, you are disoriented after running through the thick of it... and then the next wave is upon you before you even remember where the bots spawn from. Rinse and repeat for some of the most epic, fun-inducing, nerdy-movie-esque moments that you can have in this game.
So... with this new DTV, what do you do when you charge the enemy? Yeah... S key and/or die. The only maps where charging is even an option would be that Thermopylae-styled one or that ballista firing squad map. Some maps you literally can't even charge because the enemy spawns just outside your little castle or village, and of course there is a wall in the way, and once inside the castle there is not nearly a large enough courtyard to round up all the stragglers that make it through your shieldwall. If your shieldwall breaks, which it always will, sooner or later, you have no chance at redemption. The 2h / polearm / swashbuckling heroes are just useless nowadays. It's all shield or gtfo. Maps need room for the non-shielders to pull enemies. Otherwise they just sit afk behind a shieldwall until the enemy crushes it and then shortly thereafter crushes the unlucky lads who went from having no enemies to face to having 40 in all of 1 second.
Also,
shieldwalls were a legit tactic used for centuries
while being true does not apply here at all. In reality there are certain things like momentum, and if you had 40 guys charging into a shieldwall of maybe 4 guys, well, those 4 unlucky lads are utterly screwed. It is no different than hiding behind a fence or on a rooftop. In real life someone can hop a fence, yes, we all acknowledge that. In real life someone could climb onto a low rooftop (since after all, you did get on it somehow in the game). But unfortunately bots are not smart enough for either. There is no difference between hiding behind a fence than hiding behind a shieldwall. With 4 - 5 shielders lined up, thats a shitton of shield skill bonus. No ones shield is breaking anytime soon unless you are dumb enough to let a peasant with a practice shield stand amongst you. The only time I have seen shieldwalls fail is because someone gets overly aggressive (cuz, u know, its boring as fuck just sitting there) and gets killed, or there is a gap in the wall large enough for enemies to trickle though.
I would argue that hiding behind a fence or on a rooftop is far less exploitative, and also allows for people to have more fun. When behind a fence, or on a rooftop, you are exposed should you not find yourself holding a shield in front of you. Enemy ranged can actually affect you, unlike when you are behind a wall of shields. As we all know, the AI's pew pew is an aimbot, and a pretty good one. Hence, if you are out in the open on a roof, and don't bring along a trusty shielder, you are screwed.
It's still dumb how they're corralled into one area but at least more people can participate
Lol. No. Just no. Clearly you have no experience with the old DTV and are one of these new DTV heroes who show up just to power level. In the old DTV, even on the most exploitative of maps, where you've got maybe 3 pikers in a shack on Istiniar, EVERYONE was participating, save for any leechers. You had the few guys piking from the shack, all the ranged was in the hay bale / barn thingy, and any other melee would float around... would have many behind the shack (where nowadays you would find a shieldwall) in a line to get any bots that sneak past. There would also be other melee guys hiding in the side alley, waiting for a chance to run out and take down the bots' ranged. Might also have guys at the virgin / viscount as a last resort, in case some bots tried to ninja from the far left. But nowadays bots don't ninja since they all come from one, maybe 2 directions tops. On the old istiniar map, the whole left side was open... both AI and players alike could travel there... it wasn't just an L-shaped funnel like it is now. Why on earth after butchering the shack and barn they had to go an make the entire map a funnel is beyond me. There was nothing wrong with having the left side and the alleyway open up. It even adds for more tactics, as well as more dynamic actions taken by the bots. But no, I am sure that we can somehow exploit open space, so of course it needs to be removed from all maps.
GG easy-grind loving scene editors. Way to kill an entire game mode.
