Damage Points

[dirtdart]

What do you guys mean by dropping the city?  The two HQ buildings inside of center? 

[Lusche]

What do you guys mean by dropping the city?  The two HQ buildings inside of center? 

No, the huge City target (~ 50 blocks) on the island in the center of the strats cluster.

[grumpy37]

If things were that clear & simple, you would see much more attacks on the strat targets.

However, it's is only this way in theory. Practically, it's not worth the effort. If you thinking in strategic "war" terms, attacking the strats is, for all means and purposes, "wasting resources". It needs a huge effort to reduce the strats to a level so low that there is any potentially notable effect on the enemy. You have to kill the city (huge target!) before taking down the factories, or they will be popping up again before you even get home.
So you have to kill the city, then the factory, then pork the enemy bases at the frontline. Now take into consideration how far the strats are usually away, the puffy ack and defenders who don't have to guess where you are going to. Now if you add up everything, you will end with a considerable number of manhours having to be invested. The same effort invested into tactical attacks has a much bigger impact, it's simply far more efficient.
In most cases two to four guys would have to work for hours to impact the strats enough to make a difference (and even then enemy fields still need to be porked to take advantage of it) - but the same number of players could easily keep a whole front (or two even) completely porked all the time without doing all that long range bombing stuff.

It's a lack of balance. I could try to fight my way to the strats in heavy for almost nil effect, or I could very effectively pork half a dozen fields in the same time in heavy fighters. I have tested both options. The result is clear.

So in the end, if you are playing for score points, you will drop random town centers. If your focus is to help your team, you will bomb towns & hangars to make them ready for capture or you will pork fields. Yes, you could always bomb strats for fun only, but most players try to combine fun with a "purpose".

well said.  i feel HTC has taken the overall reward for taking out the strats away.  I liked going to HQ and taking out dar just to see how many guys complained about it  LOL  But I could also care less about score and almost always play MW which has a totally different dynamic anyway.

[dirtdart]

well said.  i feel HTC has taken the overall reward for taking out the strats away.  I liked going to HQ and taking out dar just to see how many guys complained about it  LOL  But I could also care less about score and almost always play MW which has a totally different dynamic anyway.

Which is why there is such broad motivations at work, for anything on the wishlist tab.  

Presently the game dynamic gets me to fly bombers away from 163 bases and pork the center of towns to satisfy my inner score potato.  This is directly a result of there being zero incentive to "with intrepid spirit, brave the enemy defenses, and take away their ability to produce" <--- think James Earl Jones voice.  

I do not think the player base would support working strats, that is a basic assumption, I have come to realize.  I reckon if most guys got on found out they could only take 50% fuel in their LA and no drop tanks, they would log.  So, the strats are what they are.  

Now as far as my inner score potato, well at least provide me an incentive to bomb industry instead of all of the mom and pops in the down town areas.  Only folks losing out as the system stands right now are the small business owners. Bistros, tailors, bread and breakfasts, schools, daycare centers.... Meanwhile the fatcats and their big corporations get richer and richer.  I would say the current system rewards targeting a small firm, near dallas, and flattening the block around it, rather than flying deeper into dreaded Texas and blowing up some refineries.

HTC, change the paradigm, REWARD KILLING CORPORATIONS NOT SMALL BUSINESS.  

[grumpy37]

They need to change it back to the strats being placed all over the map like before.  The bases with GV spawns into the strat were always defended the hardest.

[AWwrgwy]

The complaint seems to be you cannot effect strats by yourself.

As I stated previously, the "reward" for attacking strats, which if done correctly, is actually hurting the other country.

And, as Lushe pointed out, the effort is better used to just keep porking bases. Almost the same results with less effort.

The "reward" for hitting town center is points. Nothing but points. It does nothing to help your country and may actually hinder a base take if not bombed in coordination with said take as the town may start popping in the middle of the take if it was bombed before the attack on the base began.

So there is no more reason to bomb strats by yourself than there is to bomb towns by yourself.


Ia the city really the whole 50 block area now or is it just the "old" city tucked amongst the new parts? The strats are still the same as they used to be. They're just surrounded by "new" city now.



wrongway

[Lusche]

Ia the city really the whole 50 block area now

Yes, and that's one major factor that makes it more difficult to make an impact by bombing the strats. It takes far more bombs to kill the city now. Not any longer just a big bomb into a few clusters each and it's done. Which does make sense as there is only one single city for the whole country now, but...

The complaint seems to be you cannot effect strats by yourself.

I think it's very reasonable that one single player shouldn't make a huge difference on the war by bombing the strats all by himself alone. It should take a huge combined effort, either by a big raid or by a lot of separate, single sorties to crush the key strategic target. (But also keep in mind that if the strats had a more critical influence, they would be much more defended by players too)

But as explained earlier, the overall balance is broken. It's far more economical for a big mission to crush & grab enemy bases than to spend 1-2 hours attacking the city & factories. Tactical missions are always that much more efficient, no matter how many players are taking part, that attacking the strats is almost no option.

I think the main reason for wishing that bombing factories at least gives better score is to increase gameplay diversity beyond the tactical basegrabs or the very hard to intercept milkrunning town center sorties. Changing the role & importance of the strategic targets would be the better way, of course. There had been many good proposals for this in the past, ranging from quick fixes to fundamental gameplay changes.

And at last let's not forget that making the strats a high-value target would finally give the B-29 a purpose in the game, as this would be a mission profile where the 29 would finally be a significantly better choice for than the standard heavy bombers.