Originally posted by Mister Fork
How does this tie into downtimes?
- all map objects on a map are set so that once they're down, their down.
- airfield AAA take 12-24 hours to repair and rearm
- airfield hangars take a week to replace (as would be in real life)
- airfield objects like fuel, barracks, and ammo dumps are the same
- turn back on map strategy (it has always been turned off)
- CV's that are destroyed are gone for a very very wong time.
For example, if you attack two airfields that housed P-51's for the map, and by destroying those fighter hangars, no more P-51's for several days. Same for bombers and alike. But each side would be given that kind of 'covert' information.
How could this impact gameplay?
All that I've not included in the quote above I agree with (except setup life, but I'll get to that).
I have trouble with what's quoted though. It seems to me that there's too much emphasis on the terrain objects and penalizing players. You want to encourage game play, not restrict it.
Were it me doing this I'd:
-set downtimes to a short period - 30-45 minutes would work well enough, and I'd make that value universal so that town and strat group objects have the same down-time.
-Increase object hardness by 3 (9k worth of bombs to kill a hangar - hardness for everything else times-3 also).
-Increase troop requirements for capture to 1.5 C-47's worth to make taking territory praciticable by organized missions but only if they've can bring enough power to the fight to get the job done.
-Set the AAA to about 2/3's MA strength.
Setup Times of 2 weeks: A month is at best a minimum for an experiment - but even a month will show you precious little but it'll at least be a bit of a hint. 2 weeks will show you nothing you don't already see on a regular basis. 2 week setups have been tried and to be honest aren't long enough to bring in squadrons or keep them interested. Were it me I'd run the first setup for 3 months, see how that plays out and adjust if necessary. Just pick a good, historically based setup that will appeal to more than just those interested in a single battle or small side-show to the main event.
The death periods are kind of interesting and will add a distinct flavour to the AvA as long as they are kept short - a couple of minutes at most. I definitely think they're worth a try.
I understand you want to change the overall nature of the arena population to one that includes those who like the strategic and tactical side of the game that goes beyond individual performance in a fight. One thing you should want to avoid in achieving that is to build an arena that excludes individual game play. The players interested in that (for the most part the current population) should be able to get their thrills in the AvA also.
Personally I like the long-term aspects of game-play that the AvA has the potential to offer, but I also like the furballs and 1v1 fights. I'd like to have both in the AvA.
my 0.02
Cheers,
asw