TOWN TOO BIG FOR AVERAGE SQUAD

[Roadblck]

From my perspective, as someone who played for about six months back in 2002, and has been back about two months:  

Base captures are a LOT less frequent than I remember.  Fewer players seem interested in even trying (other than to maybe set up a vulch fest).  Usually the biggest problem is the time it takes to get EVERY town building down, and then visually verify that they are down.  

I like the bigger town layout, and think it makes it a bit more challenging/fun, but it's just too hard to tell if the buildings are down from the air.   I have a fairly powerful machine, and have the graphic settings cranked up pretty high, yet I see some strange rendering issues when I'm a bit farther away from the town, but zoomed in tight:  sometimes buildings look up (shiny/bright white, lack of debris on the adjacent ground), but as I get closer I start to see the debris pile on the ground.

I heard someone suggest coloring the roofs of the intact town buildings some distinct color (bright red?).  Something like that would help a lot, in my opinion.

Something else that I noticed, is that it seems very rare for any side to "win" a map.  I think I've seen a map change due to one side "winning" only once in the last 8 weeks (congrats bishops!), and even then it was on one of the small maps.   Unless my memory is faulty, this used to happen at least once every week or two, maybe a little more often than that.  I don't know if there are stats posted someplace where we can see things like this (base captures, map resets, etc).

[NCLawman]

Point 1 (prior to the off-topic discussion).... I agree that the new town design is awesome to look at and, in my opinion, immensely more fun to GV battle in.  But, it is also very difficult to distinguish between up and down buildings from the air.  Add to that the number of buildings compared to the old system, makes a monster horde almost necessary to effect a capture.  The alternative to the horde is to bring bombers -  which is cool - but, bombers tend to bang the hangers so no uppers can defend.  So, either the horde makes fights un-winnable (so no uppers), or the bombers make the fight impossible.  An answer might be to remove the out-lying buildings, or maybe make the town capturable based on a percentage of the town destroyed (say 75% or 80% of buildings destroyed).   As a percentage, you would have to make the gamble call if you think the town is down enough, or keep blowing up until you are certain (i.e. all down) it is down enough.  -- That MIGHT add an interesting twist.

Point 2 (off-topic discussion) ... if the numbers are dwindling (and I am NOT saying they are or are not), I am sure it is for a multitude of reasons including those listed above.  I seriously doubt that any one factor is driving everyone away.  The economy, arena caps, work, time-in-game, other MMOs, FPS games, (etc.) all play a factor in peoples decision to leave.  I think it is unreasonable to assume and unfair to say that "caps" or "town" has ruined the game.

IMHO, if you have a part of the game that you think could be tweaked or adjusted, then say so.  Tell skuzzy/HTC what you would like in the game.  If enough people agree or say the same thing, I am sure he/they would consider it.  But if you are going to make a blanket statement that 'everyone is leaving or is going to leave' because of CAPS or towns then I think you are being unfair to HTC.  Furthermore, you have no idea why (OR IF) people are leaving.  The only people with those answers are HTC, and it has been made very clear, in the past, that that topic WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED.  The point is..... make your suggestions known.  You are the customer and HTC will listen but don't expect a drastic re-write of the game just because 10 out of several thousand want something changed.

[Lusche]

.  Usually the biggest problem is the time it takes to get EVERY town building down, and then visually verify that they are down.  

I like the bigger town layout, and think it makes it a bit more challenging/fun, but it's just too hard to tell if the buildings are down from the air.  

I did like the suggestion one player made about having a flag near town HQ. Town fully up = flag up. The more of the town is down, the lower the flag is hanging on the flagpole. All buildings down = no flag

[NCLawman]

I heard someone suggest coloring the roofs of the intact town buildings some distinct color (bright red?).  Something like that would help a lot, in my opinion.

Make it look like Arizona ... all Terracotta Roofs.  Then Ranger can make a paint scheme to look like Border Patrol.  We can have fun doing what really needs to be done -- destroy all the buildings and take back the town!   LOL   

 

[oceans11]

Point 1 (prior to the off-topic discussion).... I agree that the new town design is awesome to look at and, in my opinion, immensely more fun to GV battle in.  But, it is also very difficult to distinguish between up and down buildings from the air.  Add to that the number of buildings compared to the old system, makes a monster horde almost necessary to effect a capture.  The alternative to the horde is to bring bombers -  which is cool - but, bombers tend to bang the hangers so no uppers can defend.  So, either the horde makes fights un-winnable (so no uppers), or the bombers make the fight impossible.  An answer might be to remove the out-lying buildings, or maybe make the town capturable based on a percentage of the town destroyed (say 75% or 80% of buildings destroyed).   As a percentage, you would have to make the gamble call if you think the town is down enough, or keep blowing up until you are certain (i.e. all down) it is down enough.  -- That MIGHT add an interesting twist.

Point 2 (off-topic discussion) ... if the numbers are dwindling (and I am NOT saying they are or are not), I am sure it is for a multitude of reasons including those listed above.  I seriously doubt that any one factor is driving everyone away.  The economy, arena caps, work, time-in-game, other MMOs, FPS games, (etc.) all play a factor in peoples decision to leave.  I think it is unreasonable to assume and unfair to say that "caps" or "town" has ruined the game.




IMHO, if you have a part of the game that you think could be tweaked or adjusted, then say so.  Tell skuzzy/HTC what you would like in the game.  If enough people agree or say the same thing, I am sure he/they would consider it.  But if you are going to make a blanket statement that 'everyone is leaving or is going to leave' because of CAPS or towns then I think you are being unfair to HTC.  Furthermore, you have no idea why (OR IF) people are leaving.  The only people with those answers are HTC, and it has been made very clear, in the past, that that topic WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED.  The point is..... make your suggestions known.  You are the customer and HTC will listen but don't expect a drastic re-write of the game just because 10 out of several thousand want something changed.

So When did you decide to sell windows ?

[NCLawman]

I did like the suggestion one player made about having a flag near town HQ. Town fully up = flag up. The more of the town is down, the lower the flag is hanging on the flagpole. All buildings down = no flag

+1.  Like that idea.

[dirtdart]

I thought the best was the first days when the towns had no ack.  The town should depend on the airfield for it's defense.  If the airfield chooses not to defend then, easy sneak.  GV fighting in the towns is fantastic as long as there is no ack. 

I also have noticed the numbers lowering.  Frankly if the arena I want to fly in is capped I will go make beer instead.  No reason to fly if you can't get into the arena your squaddies are in and the other has a perk bonus of .5. Yes I fly for the money, just so I can up a 262 and collide with some lancs  .

[CAP1]

I thought the best was the first days when the towns had no ack.  The town should depend on the airfield for it's defense.  If the airfield chooses not to defend then, easy sneak.  GV fighting in the towns is fantastic as long as there is no ack. 

I also have noticed the numbers lowering.  Frankly if the arena I want to fly in is capped I will go make beer instead.  No reason to fly if you can't get into the arena your squaddies are in and the other has a perk bonus of .5. Yes I fly for the money, just so I can up a 262 and collide with some lancs  .

while i love flying with squaddies....i don't often get the chance to do so......i don't let it stop my fun though.....

[hitech]

I have been considering raising down times for city's and factories.

HiTech

[oceans11]

I have been considering raising down times for city's and factories.

HiTech

That would be Great

[Yeager]

That would be Great

If you are attacking, yes.  Defending....not so much. 

[LLogann]

4 pages in and nobody has said "Why not make it so only 90% of town needs to be down for the capture?"

Now that lone building still standing doesn't get in the way, if the town starts popping, the troops still have a few seconds to run in, attackers have a better ease of splitting the town knocking/fighter cap duties.......

[ImADot]

4 pages in and nobody has said "Why not make it so only 90% of town needs to be down for the capture?"

Apparently it was lost in the wall of text here...

Point 1 (prior to the off-topic discussion).... I agree that the new town design is awesome to look at and, in my opinion, immensely more fun to GV battle in.  But, it is also very difficult to distinguish between up and down buildings from the air.  Add to that the number of buildings compared to the old system, makes a monster horde almost necessary to effect a capture.  The alternative to the horde is to bring bombers -  which is cool - but, bombers tend to bang the hangers so no uppers can defend.  So, either the horde makes fights un-winnable (so no uppers), or the bombers make the fight impossible.  An answer might be to remove the out-lying buildings, or maybe make the town capturable based on a percentage of the town destroyed (say 75% or 80% of buildings destroyed).   As a percentage, you would have to make the gamble call if you think the town is down enough, or keep blowing up until you are certain (i.e. all down) it is down enough.  -- That MIGHT add an interesting twist.

Point 2 (off-topic discussion) ... if the numbers are dwindling (and I am NOT saying they are or are not), I am sure it is for a multitude of reasons including those listed above.  I seriously doubt that any one factor is driving everyone away.  The economy, arena caps, work, time-in-game, other MMOs, FPS games, (etc.) all play a factor in peoples decision to leave.  I think it is unreasonable to assume and unfair to say that "caps" or "town" has ruined the game.

IMHO, if you have a part of the game that you think could be tweaked or adjusted, then say so.  Tell skuzzy/HTC what you would like in the game.  If enough people agree or say the same thing, I am sure he/they would consider it.  But if you are going to make a blanket statement that 'everyone is leaving or is going to leave' because of CAPS or towns then I think you are being unfair to HTC.  Furthermore, you have no idea why (OR IF) people are leaving.  The only people with those answers are HTC, and it has been made very clear, in the past, that that topic WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED.  The point is..... make your suggestions known.  You are the customer and HTC will listen but don't expect a drastic re-write of the game just because 10 out of several thousand want something changed.

[greens]

i vote for old towns n strats back 

[Spikes]

I think the intent of making the towns bigger was to coordinate tactics to take bases...and coordinate to defend...now while the towns are fun as hell to drive around with...the two above things don't happen.

Not only is there still a horde that takes the base...but it's a horde x3 most of the time. Even with a well coordinated group of 8-10 guys it's extremely hard to take a base now.