Get rid of .dt commands

[lyric1]

 ^^^ this ^^^^

 

[bustr]

The dt command is out of place in an environment that purports some illusion of the fog of war. If we were playing team squad capture the flag in the AvA. Yes, knowing the time of things to the second would be part of the competition environment.

In the MA the dt command is evolving into a greif tool. For those who want to track down time. Give them a dt command instead that tells the real time at the moment for object rebuild based on the strat condition and a stop watch timer in their clip board. Obviously they will have to be the original person to take down an object or, at least for missions, everyone be tasked with voicing target destroyed so the mission leader or designate can keep a timer. As is, the current dt is a little too post WW2 gamey, and post WW2 analog bombing control computerish.

It's wonderful knowing your VH and FH are about to come back so everyone holds on for 60 more seconds. The greifing comes in with them being dropped 10 seconds like clock work after they come back up at the end of every rebuild cycle. Five years ago during our super hoard period, this command would have made the super hoards that much worse. Think of the vTards at their worst with this command.

There was never a real problem that this command solved.

[Chilli]

Bustr,

I agree that this is not a perfect mechanism, however tinkering with it could produce grave results.  Maybe you haven't noticed what it was a fix for, because it rolled out at the same time as other strategic rules changed.

I believe that downtime (dt) commands go hand and hand with the resupply town rules (a whole other thread).  Take it away and base capture effort will be even less than it is now, halting most of the fluid game play that used to be present before the heavy handed hordes became necessary.

As for the hordes, they moved so swiftly, they didn't need hangars down and hardly if ever, needed them down twice.

I do not think it was an oversight, it was a necessity, otherwise most would not bother to invest in strategic system game play at all.  It also, does more to guide the action than dar bar does (for those that use it properly).

Without going into any depth on the matter, it should stay as long as one field supply delivered can foil an organized team effort, instantly.

[FLOOB]

Hordes never "became necessary" and neither did dt commands.

[Chilli]

Hordes never "became necessary" and neither did dt commands.

Then why do they (hordes) work, when most individual attempts fail?  How many maps did Bishops successfully roll in their hay day?

Was I wrong?  Did dt commands evolve at the same time the strat downtime effect was added?   In any case maybe the game developers felt they were necessary. 

It is easy for us to ponder one way or the other, we only stand to lose a favorite pass time.  The game developers stand to lose a livelihood if they stray to far from what their customers feel is entertaining.

[Lusche]

Did dt commands evolve at the same time the strat downtime effect was added? 

Yes.

[Lab Rat 3947]

1) make .dt results available ONLY for friendly fields
2) introduce some randomness into the refresh time for objects that are destroyed. (Say +/- 20%)

That way friendly forces would know exactly when assets were available, but the enemy would have only a rough idea. Seems far more realistic.

+1   


LtngRydr

[EagleDNY]

+1 on .DT for your country only.   There is no justifiable reason to know exactly when the enemy supplies will be delivered or their hangers will pop.

[Zimme83]

+1 Removing the ability to see the status of nmy fields also open up for reccon flights (i asume everyone would love that). The only way to see whats down at an nmy field should be to go over there and look. no .dt  or right clicking on minimap.

[GhostCDB]

No kidding.  This almost seems like bad coding that was never fixed. Frankly I think HTC should have addressed this two ways:

1) make .dt results available ONLY for friendly fields
2) introduce some randomness into the refresh time for objects that are destroyed. (Say +/- 20%)

That way friendly forces would know exactly when assets were available, but the enemy would have only a rough idea. Seems far more realistic.

Math isn't very hard to do so 

I used to just use my phone timer to time buildings and hangers and such. It honestly isn't that hard, taking the DT commands away would just make people go back to timing it by hand. I mean people actually did that and I was surprised when I first heard of it but it happens. I know a few guys on bish who know EXACTLY how many town buildings must go down for WF. 

[Zimme83]

Math isn't very hard to do so 

I used to just use my phone timer to time buildings and hangers and such. It honestly isn't that hard, taking the DT commands away would just make people go back to timing it by hand. I mean people actually did that and I was surprised when I first heard of it but it happens. I know a few guys on bish who know EXACTLY how many town buildings must go down for WF. 

or guys that had the numbers on all acks in order to know the locations of the guns and which one that are up...

[Lusche]

I used to just use my phone timer to time buildings and hangers and such. It honestly isn't that hard, taking the DT commands away would just make people go back to timing it by hand. I mean people actually did that and I was surprised when I first heard of it but it happens. I know a few guys on Bush who know EXACTLY how many town buildings must go down for WF. 

But only you see that timer running. You may relay them to your country, but information tends to dilute quickly. , With .dt only for friendly items, there would indeed be a lot of 'fog of war', a lot of uncertainties for example when attacking a town.

[Chilli]

But only you see that timer running. You may relay them to your country, but information tends to dilute quickly. , With .dt only for friendly items, there would indeed be a lot of 'fog of war', a lot of uncertainties for example when attacking a town.

If things weren't already so skewed towards defending towns (especially with resupply features),  then maybe it would be worth it to bring poorly defended troops to the slaughter. 

Right now, things that foil a base capture:

• shoot one trooper with a plane, vehicle, shore battery
• one town auto ack pops
• pilot bails and hides in map room or vicinity to shoot one trooper
• town building pops and changes the flag
• all of the above hinge on troop carriers being available within range, due to damaged hangars or barracks
• also, the mechanism for capture is predictable, so troop carriers are actively hunted with not much fog of war, from where they will be coming

Is there any wonder why large groups pick targets to capture where there is less resistance?  Let's not forget the NOE surprise grabs.  It is no wonder why this is preferred over actual combat promoting captures.

.dt commands have strengthened the number of folks willing to become troop transports.  Take it away and you might as well decrease the dar bar altitude to zero.

[Lusche]

.dt commands have strengthened the number of folks willing to become troop transports.  Take it away and you might as well decrease the dar bar altitude to zero.

 

Sorry, can't follow that logic at all.

[Chilli]

From the troop carrier's (player that is) point of view, wouldn't you want all of the best intelligence before you put your troops in harms way (in this case it is more like the player that delivers the troopers is at risk)?

I was being dramatic (concerning reducing dar height to zero), but the point was give the dang troop carriers an even shot.  With the .dt commands I have noticed an increase in the number of troop carriers.  I am suggesting, this is because they have some greater expectation of succeeding again.

In other words if dar height was set to zero, there would be no NOE raids and every map would either be overrun by the country with the best hording team, or it would stay up for the entire week like Trinity did.