I didn't say the game wasn't going down hill. I said the 30 second rule is rediculous and that I am against any rules that try to force a person who is not exploiting to change their game play.
This will be my last comment in this thread.
Do you remember back when spawnpoints were all single fixed points? True to HTC's design model to discourage methods employed to avoid fighting, this was considered a detriment to gameplay as it rewarded an activity other than actual fighting, the risk vs reward ratio was skewed. It failed to give a reasonable chance for the spawner to defend himself adequately against the spawncamper. It depends on your definition of exploitation, but it definitely was according to mine.
Exploitation is intentionally taking unfair advantage of a game design flaw for maximum personal or collective benefit at the detriment of gameplay. So, HTC changed it so vehicles spawned at "random" locations to give the spawner at least a minimal chance to defend himself against the spawncamper. The spawner will probably still be spawncamped, but at least he has a small chance to defend himself. Even this small chance is a country mile psychologically for players. So, there has already been a precedent set by HTC in general for this type of action.
Vulching is no different from the vehicle spawn issue except planes are far more flexible in attack and slower to get battle ready than a tank. Planes spawn at a few predictable points that can be "dry passed" in pendulum fashion. In this way defenders are denied a reasonable chance to defend themselves individually or their fields generally against roving, massive, vulching, milk-hordes that cherrypick vacant bases and make it a point to try to affect capture before defense can arrive from adjacent fields wherever possible.
Re-Read the definition of exploitation then that last sentence please...Affording reactionary defenders 30 secs before they are "score fodder" to get their wheels up is not any different than a tank getting the time to rotate his turret toward a spawncamper to give him a chance to return fire or to move to take cover. The defending aircraft may still get vulched just as the tank may still get spawncamped, but psychologically, having at least a small chance to actually fight is incentive enough to do so and a potential boon to gameplay.
In my personal opinion, a change like this is a win/win for our players and HTC. It's very easy to implement as the code is already in place that prevents a bomber from using its defensive guns prior to liftoff. Unlike the ENY limiter for example, this change would not potentially disenfranchise entire swaths of players by blatantly restricting absolutely fundamental player choices. You will still be able to do everything you can do now all the time if you choose. The only difference is if you purely vulch you will not get score/rank "yum yums" or "text buffer candy puff pieces". So, much like the random vehicle spawns, it's not preventing anything it's just adjusting the currently broken risk vs reward ratio in favor of encouraging actual fighting for those who decide they want the direct reward.
