Random positions in TGs

[Meister]

Dear fellow addicts,
its probably too late for a28, but i just wanted to have some short discussion about bringing back the random teamgame player positions, especially on mainland maps.
i remember it was really cool, players would spot early to see who was their border. now we have in almost all teamgames the same setup: strongest players pocket (with 220 pop civ), weaker players border. i understand that many not-so-pro players dont want to be pocket in fear of getting rushed badly. i remember during a27 there were maps with "fixed positions" suffix, so you had a choice for that too.
Now you dont have a choice anymore.

What do you think about bringing back random positions, in all maps or in mainland?

Maybe its also possible to just make a map with non-fixed-positions, so like in a27 but other way round, with fixed being standard...
HF,
Meister

[guerringuerrin]

I miss random positions too (and I also miss allied view disabled btw...)
I think lot of players would thanks this to come back. it would be great to add this and then the host could choose between Random or Fixed in Circle but also in Stronghold, River and Grouped Lines.

[Atrik]

@leopard reintroduced random positions in his mod https://mod.io/g/0ad/m/mainland-twilight . It's basically feldmap scripts but with random position as variant, and other cool variants as well. The only reason we don't use this over feldmap in the online community is pure habits and because we are sheeps.

[Meister]

1 hour ago, Atrik said:

@leopard reintroduced random positions in his mod

so since probably feldmap has to be ported anyway, it would be possible to have a "mainland random-positions" in it?
@Feldfeld

[AlexHerbert]

I’ve been bringing this up lately as well. Mainland is a good map, but it’s definitely overplayed.

What I don’t like about circle placement is that borders consistently get the hardest role, and in practice it almost always ends up the same way: strongest players pocket, weaker players border. That makes teamgames very predictable.

Border is more demanding, you’re often exposed to early pressure or even 2v1 situations, which is exactly why most players want the pocket position. But that raises an interesting question: if border is the most challenging role, shouldn’t the strongest players be the ones taking it?

This feels similar to formations in football, changing positions changes the entire dynamic of the game.

That’s why lately I’ve stopped playing circle placement altogether and switched to RANDOM GROUP placement (for science). It forces adaptation and makes matches feel less scripted.

Edited 59 minutes ago by AlexHerbert