^THIS This trend is a fault in the design that the new lattice system will rectify, any players who blame the other empire for not defending all their bases are delusional in thinking that is a viable possibility. I would also like to point out how much of a boon this lattice system is for the defenders game. Didn't players want a buff to defense? Well the lattice system provides this without also nerfing the unconquerable camp-fests (crown).
pretty much this. the only real "strategy" or "tactics" in the live hex system is capping undefended bases and bypassing the zerg. Any other tactics means diddly when the front line changes every 10 minutes. Laying siege is counter-productive, because by the time you take the base you have lost all the territory around you. people say "send a squad to re-secure." The only way to hold territory in the live hex system is to have 1-2 platoons standing around doing nothing at bases that might have someone come by and try to flip it. To do this you would need the entire continent to work together. And lets face it, that isn't going to happen. The lattice system gives clear direction to the zerg. They can better understand where to go after taking or losing a base. tactics and strategy will now revolve around the actual battles going on, and not capturing empty territory around it to remove enemy adjacency. single or duo squad outfits still have a place, just not capturing territory. They can flank enemy lines and harass them, allowing their zerg or bigger outfits to push forward to push the enemy to a base or into a base or to allow the start of capturing a base. This change is coming, and its going to be an important step to fixing the game. I've told many of my friends who lost interest in the game about the lattice system, and all of them are excited about it and eager to return once it is introduced. The biggest complaint my friends have was that it took a long time to find a fight and it was hard to tell where they had to go or what to do. The lattice will help with that greatly.
Maybe the zerg will finally learn by failing in this bottlenecks? On live server the zerg lives till it meets an enemy zerg or they come to amp station and get ripped appart by turrets. Basic tactics like driving tanks parallel not in a row may happen. Bring forces in to flank the bottleneck. The small colored areas on the test map dont mean, you are not allowed to drive/fly/walk into neutral zone. Just tested for 2 hours and it was fun. Not sure if its only cuz its new or its a real good thing. Give it a chance please
It is the best tactical desicion because you don't have the numbers to make a difference elsewhere. It's not gonna change with the new base connectivity much, if at all.
Love the map design. Hate the lattice. Personally, I believe the "no large wars happening on multiple fronts" was fixed with the introduction of alerts. Biggest, best, damn amazing battles in history. Occurring in fields, bases, hills, mountains, mountain streams, trees, you name it. Hex is working just fine. Alerts were a fantastic idea. Lattice? Scratch that idea please.
All of that will still be viable with the lattice system. The only thing the lattice system does is reduces the number of your bases that are vulnerable to capture. Reducing the number of vulnerable bases is essential if combat is to eventually span at least 5 different continents. This is a no-brainer.
Then this game is not for them? I for one like to engage in relaxing SKEP fishing at the Crown from time to time.
I'll assume I was very unclear when I quoted TeamGreener's post to indicate what I meant by "Tactics". I trust my meaning is clear this time around?
I think they need to change the connectivity lines cause it seem to confuse a lot of people. Some even think they can no longer travel to the grey zones
You might as well not go there at all. No spawns, no terminals, not turrets, no ammo towers - everything is 'neutral', aka not functioning.
I find that a short-sighted comment. Amerish and Esamir have lower amounts of bases but are just as good to fight at and there is no "useless" area. With lesser bases you have more area to stage a flanking manouver to outsmart your enemy. You can set up flak traps in "neutral" zones to lure in poor unexpected ESF and Libs. Or pull entire tank columns around the base and attack from behind. Least that is what I see is possible now whereas on live you cannot stage anything because either an enemy base is near or your own base.
This sort of out manoeuvring cap gameplay is now more concentrated on the satellite bases around major facilities. Platoons not being able to just avoid all conflict and blaze a trail into empty territory that nobody cares about is not a bad thing. Even after all the xp changes there are still many less experienced players who think that base cap xp is always better than combat gameplay xp and let themselves get bored stiff for no good reason.
I don't really like this idea, it's just dumbing the game down where it doesn't require thinking of where to go. Most players complain about single player games being too linear where the player is forced to go from objective A to objective B or keep to one road where a open world game allows you to choose many different objectives or roads to go down. The current hex system allow players to strike anywhere along the front lines or even deep in enemy held territory if they already hold a hex there or in the process of taking one. It allows you to flank enemy territory, cut them off and surround them. All true aspects of warfare. On top of removing strategy from the game it's going to harm players performance since it will make every player, random, squad, platoon and zerg down one path into a other random, squad, platoon and zerg into each other. You like big battles? Okay, have fun in that battle where you FPS drops to unplayable and skippable levels and the render distance is reduced by so much that players, be it friendly, enemy and their vehicles pop in and out of existence at 50m or even 100m. Speaking of recent experience of this "fun" where I and the rest of my TR zerg was holding Jeagers Crossing against the NC attack where enemy vehicles from their tanks to their aircraft would disappear from the distance of the landing pads to the edge of our side of the bridge, which is roughly 100m or so, maybe less. Strikers and other lock on weapons became useless, let alone the 100's of times I was shooting someone only to see them to disappear, must had been quiet bad for a sniper during that time.
Insane how far along this has gotten IMO. Linear, predictable = bleh. The use of "ghost capping" has fallen apart. A group of players attacking a enemy base that isn't occupied is not ghost capping, your pissed because you're unable to defend against that? If you are unable to defend in this situation it is NOT because the games hex system is at fault, it is because your faction does not have the capability to field sufficient numbers to hold onto its territories. You are loosing the battle. Real ghost capping is when a player goes out and flips points and rides off to the next base to flip more points. This is a valid tactic in the fluid nature of our battle field. I'm not totally against the new system, I will try it out on the live servers and I'm sure I'll still have good fights but dealing with less options IMO is not a step in the right direction.
Is the current system working just fine though? The Alert has resulted in Esamir and Amerish filling up which is awesome, but the gameplay remains the same. 40% of the time is standing on points capturing bases or traveling in between bases where there is little to no resistance. When a large fight finally does break out between two factions you can be 100% guaranteed that the other faction or a select few will simply use this opportunity to ghost cap all the territory you just spent the last half an hour capping. So while large fights are happening now the hex system is actually penalizing you for them. The fact that what occurs in the first 1hr30mins of these alerts is completely irrelevant to who ultimately wins the event should be a red flag that something is amiss. It always comes down to the last 30mins where a bunch of little forces split up and start capping empty territories while the enemy attempts to do the same. Dare to engage in a large fight during this time? Congrats you lost event. Trying to defend 10-17 hexes at any given time just doesn't seem feasible. At least the lattice will reward you for winning large fights as opposed to penalizing you for them. And if anything large relevant battles will now be occurring for the entire 2hr span as it will be impossible to simply go around them or quickly regain tons of ground in the last 30 mins. The only thing to really worry about is will people grow tired of non-stop large battles and long for the days of being able to seek out some squad sized engagements once in a while. I imagine those will be rare in the lattice system.
Not sure what server you are on, but Helios has battles on every single front. You literally cannot travel anywhere without fighting someone. Capturing a point is only standing around if the enemy parks their only sunderer next to your spawn room. Perosnally I hate the idea of the game revolving around zergs. I classify that as spamming tanks, aircraft, infantry more than is necessary at any given point. The lattice system, I fill, will endorse that type of behavior. That is why I currently oppose it. How a battle plays out really depends on how intelligent your outfit/platoons are. If they huddle at one base, the enemies cap around you. Does not have to be ghost caping. They simple expand their attack front to encircle you as compared to rushing in your front gate. If the lattice works well and has large attack fronts compared to large zergs, I'll accept it. Till then, I am opposed simply because of its format. You are all more than welcome to prove me wrong, though I will still say that the metagmae is entirely dependent on how the players choose to play the game.
