Why do people relocate when it gets tough?

Meh, that's not farming... thats trying to get a pumpkin out of a patch with 1000 other people doing the same and only a handful of pumpkins available. A real farm is a 55%(attack)/45%(defend) back and forth battle... those are the battles you want if you're looking for a farm.

The problem comes from Attackers not wanting to get stuck in a stalemate, as its not perceived as winning... so after awhile they'll move on to a different target. That or a good fight gets swamped by a squad or two coming to join the fun (on either side)

Practice Sustainable Farming...Don't Zerg!

Individuals aren't the problem

A 50/50 fight can easily lose a few individuals who look for an easier farm.

What happens is 1-4 squads, or 12-48 players, all leave the fight at the same time, completely crippling their side in the fight instantaneously.

Likely this. Some groups do it for strategic reasons and others just prefer easier fights. After that it's like dominoes. People keep leaving as the fight slants against them more and more, urging others to leave until the tryhards finally leave....

Well, all leave except the spawn room warriors leave when this happens. Because they realize they can get low risk xp/kills by shooting stupid people from spawn or watching that one spot with a sniper rifle and letting their twitch reflexes take hold. Not exactly my idea of fun gameplay, but I guess some are that motivated by the carrot.

I know, right. Who the hell is this W.C. Fields* guy anyway? Obviously never accomplished much with his life...

(Although it's really only the sense that you immediately quit after the 2nd failure that makes the quote off. To me the quote is more about the idea of avoiding bashing your head against a wall continually if you don't actually have a strategy for improvement.)

(*William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880[1] – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer.[2] Fields’s comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs, children, and women.)

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE ENEMY WAS BEGINNING TO BREACH THE DOORS?


(HAHA GET THE JOKE? BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DOORS THERE IS NO DEFENDING! YOU WERE BEING SPAWN CAMPED ALL ALONG!)

Surprisingly, there are actually a decent number of people out there who understand and play the strategic game too. Just because alerts are the only clear 'end of the round' doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who don't get and play the strategic side of PS2.

TimbukTurnip appears to be abusing third-person corner peek.

Sorry, I should have said many people want either a farm or an overwhelming win. Maybe not always but if they're trying to amass certs/kills or win an alert they redeploy the moment these alternatives open up because they can; redeploy is fast, easy and safe.

They may say they like even fights but it's actually number 3 on their priority list a lot of the time. People who genuinely like them will always stay in close fights because they don't happen often enough. But, as the OP points out, their fun is at the mercy of how everyone else, on both teams, ranks close fights.

Of course, it's really the game design that is at fault. If it's more effective to overwhelm an opponent, people will do it. The point is that farms and overwhelming odds do not make for fun gameplay, so the design should discourage that behavior - by making it hard to hold out in a surrounded base indefinitely and restrictions on mass redeploy, mass vehicle use etc. - rather than make it easier and easier.


That's probably true about the way a stalled attack tends to be viewed. Although I don't think it's hard wired into many people, it's more a view that has grown over time and continues being reinforced as long as we're provided with fast, easy alternatives.

If the options for platoons were 1) Stay in the fight, or 2) Spend time and risk ambush by moving front, then they wouldn't up and leave so often. At that point, it shouldn't take long for people to begin to interpret the situation differently. It's certainly not for lack of positive outlooks:

• If outnumbered, keeping a larger population busy
• Both teams are equally preventing the other from making headway on that lattice no matter who's base you're in
• Focus on practicing tactics
• Enjoy a long, challenging fight and the fact both teams are playing well (unlike the unchallenging, short-lived fights resulting from mass redeploys) etc.

[I also can't wait for the placeholder alerts to be replaced so active battles stop disappearing randomly, and how much certain bases/continents are worth stop arbitrarily changing. Resource Revamp + Player Logistics + Continent Locking (and Alert redesign) = Completely different game]

True. But as long as platoons can be treated as individuals in terms of redeploy / lack of logistics, the essence of that point is the same.

No downtime = no downside, fights constantly disappearing and reappearing, less strategy etc.

Why aren't people playing ps1 right again?

That one picture is making me wish we had more underground fights and objectives.

Lots of reasons a platoon could redeploy, even from a fight they could win. One of the main ones would be to defend a major base or strategic link.

Because the spawn system, particularly reinforcements makes it easy to redeploy from base to base with no logistics involved battles pop up and dissolve quickly inside bases rather than flowing from one to another.

Wow...I've felt nostalgic about a lot of stuff in PS1, but that screen shot is the first time I've ever felt nostalgic for the ******* doors xD

No grief intended to the OP, just saying we see threads that rip players for spawn room camping, now threads that question why players relocate?

I don't play to get facerolled by mindless zergs.
Until pop balance is addressed, I'll move where I need to to keep my gaming fun.

But unless there is a more important base leaving is stupid. I get the most SPH when in an even right with lots of people. So much stuff to do. People to kill, people to revive, ammo needs resupplying and moition detectors have to be employed. I don't see why I would ever leave such a fight if I am playing solo.

It's easy to relocate anywhere so this game won't have the epic battles of the first game. Also the average attention span is about 50% shorter than it was 10 years ago.

Planetside fights are always resolved with overwhelming the enemy somewhere where they are unprepared to fight. When you try to outlast someone it's like fighting with a slow trickle of forces. Completely pointless if you run out of your spawn one by one and get murdered. There is no victory by attrition in a game with unlimited spawning. Now if you all wait and try to rush out at same time, some degree of success is guaranteed. That's what I mean by overwhelming. You fight in waves not in slow steady streams.

Same goes for redeploying. You hit a stalemate, you trickle in little by little. Platoon does surprise redeploy. By the time it takes enemy to realize you left, your entire platoon just reinforced another square and either completely overwhelmed another enemy base or fought off the attackers elsewhere. That's a strategic victory.

Remember... Waves win, steady streams are pointless. If you don't use strategy, you might as well all stand in a field count each other and declare whoever has more the winner.

Now just make it the Tantive IV and it's perfect Thanks for posting this, so good to remember these fights.

I agree with the Op, I hate it when a good fight goes sour because either the attackers pull out after being turned back, or the defenders relocate. But what I find REALLY infuriating is when there are a nearly even number on either side, yet the defenders want to sit in the spawn room.

People have gotten so used to being zerg farmed that they'll make the decision to sit in the spawn room until the enemy takes over. Most of the time I can get people moving again by saying in region chat that the teams are even. If everyone knew that pushing the points and not letting the enemy spawn camp you is the only way to keep a base, then you'd have much better fights every time. Instead people run around getting getting killed, or sitting in the spawn, while maybe 1/3rd of the defenders actually try to fight back.