New Gameplay Idea

[grizz441]

An idea I've been kicking around...

Basically what I propose is a capturable "Supply Yard" which is zone linked to a certain number of bases, depending on the size of the map.  On this small map and for the illustration of this example, I have linked it to 4 bases as shown below.  The Supply Yard is denoted as S1 and the 4 Blue Arrows show the corresponding bases that it is linked to.



The Supply Yard will control the rate at which all base related operations are supplied.  If you control the supply yard, all your bases run at normal operation, i.g., town buildings down 45 minutes, hangars down 15 minutes, ord down xx minutes, etc.  Whatever the current settings are.  If you don't control the supply yard however, all linked bases suffer a severe resupply penalty, and I would propose it be as much as two times as long, i.g., town buildings down 90 minutes, hangars down 30 minutes, etc.  

The Supply Yard itself would not have spawns into it and would likely be mostly an aerial fight to secure this piece of territory.  The Supply Yard would not be heavily fortified and would only have 4-6 auto acks and 2 player controlled acks.  It would only require 10 troops to capture, with the maproom located in the center.  As soon as it is captured, all acks are replenished for the new side and resupply penalties are set immediately to all enemy zone bases linked to it.  The resupply penalties take effect to objects destroyed after it is captured, not before.  

Benefits of this Idea

-Increased strategy and game play immersion. As soon as the supply yard is captured, it will be important for the other side to begin plotting recapture attempts, while the side that just captured it will attempt to defend it while also exploiting the advantages of having secured this territory by bombing hangars taking down towns and capturing bases at an accelerated pace.
-Consistent flow of COMBAT.  A furballers wet dream.  There will always be heavy combat at and around these supply yards.  Fights will not simply "dry up" in a volatile manner at which they currently often do.
-More dynamic mission planning.  High number missions can now split their forces in a more reasonable manner in a multiple target offensive mission and also defensive missions.
-A consistent "ebb and flow" style of game play.

Disadvantages of this Idea
-Possible unforeseen unbalances based on certain map configurations and base layouts.  Kind of hard to predict until you see how it plays out.
-You tell me

More combat, Check.  More targets, Check.  More Strategy, Check.  More ways to use teamwork and be rewarded for the effort, Check.
My belief is that this would be dually fun for strategy guys as well as furball guys.  

Ready for a Big Minus 1 from Corky and WrongWay.

Discuss.

[100Coogn]

Town buildings being down for over 2 hours?   
That seems like a pretty long time.

Coogan

[Ack-Ack]

Hmmm...capturable strats, just like we had in Air Warrior 3. 

ack-ack

[grizz441]

Town buildings being down for over 2 hours?   
That seems like a pretty long time.

Coogan

That's because I can't add 45 +45.  It should have been 90 minutes.

[HawkerMKII]

-1

[Krupinski]

I like, but why no GVs? You could easily throw some anti-tank guns around it and GVs would add that much more to the immersion of the fight and would possibly bring IL2s.

People complaining about bomb tards, go take out ords.

[grizz441]

I like, but why no GVs? You could easily throw some anti-tank guns around it and GVs would add that much more to the immersion of the fight and would possibly bring IL2s.

People complaining about bomb tards, go take out ords.

Because its focus is on aerial combat and strategy.  The no GV's thing is in my opinion a better game play choice for this but obviously that's just my opinion.  The GVs could still attack bases or drive there from far away spawns if they want, but I wouldn't want GVs dominating over the aerial intent of the idea.

[Easyscor]

You're describing the old Depots from AH1, 2002-03. I miss them.

[Guppy35]

LOL when did I become the evil Satan of Grizz ideas?

Anything that focuses combat is good by me.  Seems to me it's too easy to reward avoiding a fight right now.

[ink]

LOL when did I become the evil Satan of Grizz ideas?
....  Seems to me it's too easy to reward avoiding a fight right now.

QFT

[100Coogn]

That's because I can't add 45 +45.  It should have been 90 minutes.

  Then I like this idea.

Coogan

[Tank-Ace]

Because its focus is on aerial combat and strategy.  The no GV's thing is in my opinion a better game play choice for this but obviously that's just my opinion.  The GVs could still attack bases or drive there from far away spawns if they want, but I wouldn't want GVs dominating over the aerial intent of the idea.

Terrible idea. No matter how much in control of the skys you are, you only hold the ground your soldiers stand on. Also, supply depots were usually guarded by soldiers, not pilots. If you want to have pilots guarding the base, ok. But since they're not trained to operate anti-aircraft guns, the ack should have a slower rate of fire, and be much less accuate.


On a less sarcastic note, since this would be a large instilation, supplying the area covered by a Corps or an Army, perhaps up the number of troops needed to capture it? Say 20-30 instead of the usual 10.

[Pigslilspaz]

I like the idea of needing more troops to cap, would say more like 15-20 rather than 30.

[Bruv119]

I like the rough idea,   but the beauty is always in the detail.   Rather than go back to something that AH had previously I would;

Make it a railyard / storage facility.
The size of ndisles  TT object but run railroads around the terrain to each nearby field.
Trains that spawn every 15 minutes like CV's do, destroying them prevents normal resupply but they have a mannable ack wagon.  These can be captured quicker if destroyed if not however long it takes the train to complete it's journey back to the railyard.
GV's would be able to spawn in.
Link the capture to the amount of object buildings destroyed like a town.  Make it 90%
I would have a combination, of puffy, autos, soft guns and anti - tank guns.   

Hopefully this would resemble a kind of small FPS map, where a large number of ground and air forces would be required to capture it.   

the air battle overhead would get a little heated too.

I think a small issue as it stands now with the lack of any strats to fight over is the fight is always attacking/defending an airfield.   If one side loses the fight it ends up over the airfield and people like juggler get really pissy when they end up getting vulched/picked over and over again.

[iron650]

+1

Also adding on to Bruv's idea have a rail yard that can launch trains. If one train is strafed out then it won't appear for another 15 minutes to resupply. Like what happens if you bomb a cruiser or CV in port. (CV just spawns on fire)