Originally posted by Boozer2
I've heard complaints by furballers that they can't find their fight on a big map... hmm... is it that folks have to be forced to fly nothing but furballs for their fight to materialize? Is that what the furballers are saying? If you give folks the option, the majority doesn't choose your favorite?
Are you a scientifically inclined person? Are you familiar with the term diffusion? Diffusion is the movement of material from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. In terms of this game when you provide a space overly large for the 'material' (people) they tend to diffuse. Not by any conscious decision or choice per se, but because they seek to fill the areas of low concetration to prevent 'foreign material' (enemies) from infiltrating their space. While this sounds good in theory, what happens is there is a critical point where the space itself becomes so large in relation to the 'material' that not all the space can be occupied by all sides.
So what you have is areas with a few people, areas with just one side or another, and almost never any areas with several to many from both sides. This can be deduced mathematically by the laws of averages, dividing the space into units and dividing those units by players. My contention is that HUGE maps actually, by no conscious player will, PREVENT anything vaguely resembling furballs from forming except in the rarest of circumstances. Worse yet, with large spaces, what tends to happen is specific areas will be overrun by one side or the other, precluding by virtue of numerical disparity the inclusion of the other side, one sided gang-bangs, vulch fests and ultimately milkrunning ensues. At least on small maps you tend to have relatively equal forces meeting each other at strategic focal points due to high overall concentration.
To put this more simply by generalizing:
Small Maps = Furballs
Big Maps = Gang-Bangs, Vulch-Fests and Milkrunning
If I had a choice I know which I'd choose....
Zazen