White Flags at Vehicle Bases and Ports (as well as fields)

[Kingpin]

I very much like the new flags on the fields.  It is nice to able to look from tower at an airfield and see if it is white-flagged, without having to do a .dt command for the flag or town.  It is also useful for finding the map-room with the more densely-packed and varied new base layouts.

However, I have seen and heard a fair amount of confusion about the new flags at Vehicle-bases and Ports, with people wondering if a Vehicle-base or Port can be captured when the flag wasn't white.  I have even seen enemy and friendly M3s sitting by a flag at V-bases and Ports waiting for it turn white when the base was actually "capturable" (all auto was ack down).

My suggestion is to set the "white flag" condition if the base can be captured at that moment (regardless of type of base).  In other-words, a Vehicle-base or Port flag could turn white if all auto-ack is down (meaning the base is "capturable"). 

I think this is more intuitive (especially for newer folks).  And I think it equally would help both attackers and defenders know if the base can be captured without distracting them from the immersion of the fight by having to do a .dt command to figure it out.

Whaddya think?

[ImADot]

Did perhaps the conditions for VBases and Ports change, and now require something more than just taking down the ack?

[Kingpin]

Did perhaps the conditions for VBases and Ports change, and now require something more than just taking down the ack?

No, I don't think so.  V-bases and Ports didn't have flags before, so there was no "white flag" condition.  Hence the confusion, I believe.

[flatiron1]

the way it is might confuse newbies.

[pembquist]

Yes it should turn white if the base is ready for capture otherwise it is only golf flag for troops.

The fact is the documentation for the game has always been lousy for a new player. I could never decide if this was intentional to give people a sense of discovery and encourage players to communicate or if it was just out of the wheelhouse of the developers so they did a job of organizing information that made sense to them but is a little difficult for a lot of people or if it just seemed like a waste of resources because the assumption is it won't be used.

It might be my weakened brain but I am unable to find where it says the conditions for capturing a base or even that you are supposed to capture bases.

[redcatcherb412]

The white flag at airbases only reflect the status of town buildings total damage to show the required capture damage has been inflicted . Not an indicator of base capture readiness, you can have town auto ack guns up and the flag is white so checking the auto gun count is imperative or the troop attempt will fail. The super bases have more ack guns and some base auto ack inside the town perimeter so taking down all autos is a fairly large task. I haven't seen any data declaring how many auto ack need down on those huge bases, just that its more than 8.  Normal towns is 8 auto ack, ports is 8 auto ack and GV bases are 6 auto ack.  Having the flag only turn white (all bases) at capture readiness would really help, just like the new 'end sortie' color has eliminated the surprise ditch/capture landings.

[Owlblink]

If it is possible to add a condition for V base and port flags to change states without messing up the rest of the flag system I'd be up for that.

[ccvi]

It might be my weakened brain but I am unable to find where it says the conditions for capturing a base or even that you are supposed to capture bases.

"Capturing territory through the use of air, land and sea power is the team objective in Aces High. ... Territory is gained by capturing fields. ... When enough buildings in the town have been destroyed, a white surrender flag will be flown in the town center. While the white flag is flown, 10 troops must be delivered to the command bunker (a.ka. map room) via one of the troop carriers to capture the field. After the tenth troop safely makes it into the bunker, a system message will appear in the message buffer announcing the captured field number and the capturing country." (http://hitechcreations.com/aircraft-preflight/aces-high-objectives)


Tieing the auto-ack to the flag removes the fun of having to check if all ack is down so troops can make it through alive.