I agree with 200ft and what it would do for NOE and activity generation by groups. And the downsides are real and we know what they are or can be from experience. Might even be entertaining if the MA daily randomized the minimum between 65ft or 200ft so no one would know what to expect each day. The current radar where being in proximity to an enemy plane shows enemy dots would be a strong modifier to some of the old time game play issues from 200ft minimum NOE.
I'm not sure if you have seen recently, several times I've posited from observing my three terrain building experiments. That with our current numbers, 5x5 terrains would work in the MA on a limited basis. Say a Titanic Tuesday event format. I don't think as the next stage in our lower numbers, resorting full time to 5x5 should be considered. But, as a once a week throw 170 players into the equivalent of a 10x10 with 270-300 players for 24hours. NOE at 200ft would spice up activity on a 5x5. Maybe even turn off GVDAR for that 24 hours and let the shadow war play out that GVers love so much. As much as players argue for consistency in their rabid attacks on change in the MA. When Hitech suddenly throws in an all free perk rides day or, Claw day, for that 24hours people have fun becasue of the change and it being something different. A 5x5, 200ft NOE and no GVDAR once a week would not have enough time to allow familiarity to generate the old social problems. One day would be just long enough for players to get in each others faces all day due to the close proximity while never reaching social problem critical mass 5x5 would turn into as the standard terrain size.
When I gradually condensed field distances down so 85% of feilds were 19 miles apart, condensing produced activity by removing 6 additional miles\time between combat locations. A 5x5 would be the closest to turning the MA into an instant action venue without resorting to air spawns or queued up matches while maintaining capture the flag. I'm not trying to get Hitech to create a whole new MA game. Back in the bad old days I remember a few times the CT\AvA on small terrains hosted large numbers from the MA for a few hours and those tiny venues with numbers rocked. It helped that everyone was playing by that arena's rules so the crowds were a blast. A one day occurrence of a 5x5 would replace everyone being on their best behavior like the AvA demands.
