Lattice has broken this game completely

Eh, well this feature isn't really about getting zerg clumps to fight each other. The main change would be for the perfect amount of flanking to always exist at each population level. As population increases, the need for the lattice to support flanking also increases, but in our current unchanging lattice you're just stuck fighting along the set series of lattice points.

Getting zerg clumps to fight each other is mostly just a separate problem, and in part an impossible-to-solve problem.

Up to a point we can have base benefits which make each base worthwhile. But if these benefits become too strong then it just creates a rich-get-richer situation where a winning empire has very strong bonuses and losing empires have cruddy bonuses (so are likely to continue losing.)

Inevitably when one 48+ zerg clump loses to another 48+ clump, it simply doesn't make much sense to continue losing by trying to batter yourself against a force which, for whatever reason (pop, skill, unit comp), is better. Instead, it makes more sense strategically to outflank and outsmart your opponent (which is why lattice design isn't totally separate form this problem.)

The biggest upside would come from personal XP bonuses for fighting against the winning empire. If I logon and Empire A is winning, and I'm the typical PS2 player, I will (for some reason) often decide to fight Empire B instead because I perceive them as weaker. In reality, that's the stupidest decision I could make and simply contributes to Empire A's continued dominance. But if I'm a player who makes bad decisions and the game is screaming at me "+50% XP for fighting Empire A!" then that might be enough to shake me out of my stupidity.

Because in a 3-faction PVP system theoretically it's a self-balancing system, but only if players play correctly (underdogs control the leader.) So basically you want stacking, dynamically-scaling XP bonuses:

• A bonus of up to +50% XP for fighting against the territory leader on your continent.
• A bonus of up to +50% XP for fighting against the population leader on your continent.
• A bonus of up to +50% XP for fighting against the alert leader on your continent (or on any continent, for multi-continent alert types.)

Good numbers to start with would be a 0% bonus if the target has 33% or less territory/pop, scaling gradually up to +50% XP if the target has 40% or more territory/pop.

you do understand how adjacency (Hex system) works right? It doesnt prevent ghost capping. Ghost capping is when there is no one in a base to defend it. You could NEVER cap a base next to someones WG unless you had a connected region with the hex system, also, there are still plenty of ghost caps with lattice.

lattice was made to control the flow of battle because back at the early days 90% ghost capped and avoid fight to farm cert and loads of people left including me. its not great but ill take it rather then this **** all over again

That happens everyday.

Though I don't like lattice, I do enjoy the new Amerish with it's underground bunkers for infantry "only" combat. For me, I enjoyed the small squad fighting more than the low FPS large fights, but the new bases on Amerish, the ones where the spawn point aren't 200m+ from the objective, are pretty nice because I'm pretty good at infantry and despite how many enemies there are, if I only have to worry about enemy infantry, then I can still do quite well even when playing solo. I can push my low BR TR medic with a Cycler to a 3 K/D EASILY with out any friendlies to help, never mind me playing HA. I guess it's about what you want to do. Like I don't mind losing bases if I can get some kills and have fun. Though I rather win, fun loses aren't that bad.

I think lattice is dull and over all dumbs down the game, but when you still provide an avenue for players like myself, who small squad which are typically infantry players, then it's fine. So, the new Amerish lattice isn't really bad, and I've enjoyed going back and forth between a few bases, but the walls(cages) on Esamir and the super vehicle friendly design of Indar make me sad with lattice.

But...but...the huge fights are not fun.

They are spammy, lag fests full of Tking, non-existant hit detect, libby lock down and dying...lots and lots of dying.

Its not fun to die, spawn, die.......then if you dont die...you cant kill anything cuz hit detect and lag are bad in big battles...so you end up dying.

The few huge fights I was in were pretty much camp the vehicle bay fests till the enemy overwhelemed said vehicle bay with a huge *** zerg, typically led by MAX suits...lots and lots of MAX suits.

This game might be about Massive battles....but they make it so boring.

But you were ghost capping...I don't understand how lattice was needed for your play style. I would have hopped out of that tank after the first base where I didn't encounter resistance, or better yet, went to where there was resistance with my tank or as infantry.

It wasn't lattice that would have helped you guys if you actually wanted to find a fight in that video, it would have been the ability to check populations at bases.

Hex system was infinitely worse. At least now zergs run into each other sometimes now.

I don't believe that "good" 24v24 infantry-only fights are the reason people play this game. I think you're mistaken that larger outfits have no skill - they're generally better lead and organized than smaller outfits, which is a different kind of skill and a very big part of what this game is actually about. Maybe you should look into playing an arena shooter of some kind. Lately when I find myself wanting an even odds fight where I know I won't lose because I'm simply outnumbered, I play Hawken instead of PS2.

FGS people still havnt learned that ghost capping happens because of SOEs capture mechanic and not hex!!

As long as people cant get this through their head we will never be able to discuss the benefits of hex, not while people poison the discussion creating bias before its even started (nor will we ever get SOE to fix the problem when people falsely believe its dealt with).

Ive got half a mind to film a ghost capping video to point people at going forward- I mean now theres 3 continents of lattice ghost capping is impossible right? Or maybe its just a 'well it cuts it down' yeah sure, a bit, at the expense of cutting down our freedom but weve had all those arguments before.

Meanwhile in sanityside, one of the problems/complaints about hex was that new people had no idea where to go, and I agreed at the time and still do now, a base would cap and if you werent in the initial group push out it was a guessing game to know where to go.

But guess what!!! We now have the Mission System. At the time I criticized SOE for not having a better battle signposting system and forcing this path on us and now we have the mission system theres a good argument to add more lattice links and get a bit of strategy back in the game rather than forcing platoons and outfits alike to follow zombie like up a line.

Obviously doesn't play during off hours.
The lattice system is the only thing that allows fights when it's not primetime. Alerts also get people to fight, and those occur every few hours.
Back during the hex system ghost capping was much worse. There were times when there were less than 100 people on an entire continent, and the biggest fights were when somebody decided to spawn at a base you were at. The only fight you could count on was at The Crown and it's adjacent territories, and even than there was a chance nobody would be there.

The implication here is that there are only two possibilities; Lattice or Hex.

The truth is that there are as many possible capture and map systems as you can dream up.

the middle ground that would most likely turn out far better than either the hex or current lattice system. I've seen the pluses for both, still favor hex but this would add onto and surpass what I actually liked about the hex system while using lattice to restrict capturable territories. if you could still call them territories at that point.

using both would be better than either imo. like wyrdharper mentioned.

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Though I guess it would still just be the lattice system with a changed base design for major facilities but the 'strategic' part of hex would be added into the mix and quite improved at that, instead of the current 'follow the dotted line' which things like cont lock and hossin won't change at all, it'll just make the line longer.

as for the 'ghost capping' excuse, sorry to say but ghost capping was stopped the exact same way it currently is. you go to the base and stop them.

Initially they were fun. Even though I had like 15 FPS, I had fun in those large fights. Occasionally you can still find larger battles that are pretty darn nice, but they are so rare that I mostly avoid the 48+v48+ outside of tech plants or biolabs, which offer variety in the places you can enjoy the fight. Mostly it's just BBD, or bad base design.

I think we have dramatically different definitions of 'smaller battles'. What I remember of launch was 300 people at the crown, and 10 people on all of Amerish. The battle for Sungrey Amp station was usually 1v1, and that's assuming you actually bothered to stick around and secure the cap. More often it was just roll around flipping points while trying to avoid the pair of people who were chasing you over half the continent.

Lattice lines are good for the game. Outfits however...

I vote "I told you so." The problem is the PROPORTIONAL distribution of players at here or there, not the gross number of players. Lattice doesn't do anything about that, other than squeeze whatever problems you had before into larger chunks of problems of the exact same nature.

Have a problem with lopsided battles before the lattice, well now you've got even bigger lopsided battles after the lattice.
Have a problem with 1 player ghost capping before the lattice, well now you've got 3 players ghost capping after the lattice.

See how it works out.

Pretty much this.

It's rather rare I agree with you, Tuco... But I agree with you on this.

Post-lattice 90% of battles are severely lopsided rolls. Same thing as ghost caps, just with more spawn room heroes.

Good, then you can then agree that the only thing that alters the proportional distribution of players is the PS1 AMS, PS1 mines, PS1 spitfires, PS1 motion detectors.

Or a detailed logistics simulation; hundreds of AI controlled path-finding ground vehicles moving here and there that is interdictable, destroyabile, highly visible and drives in large columns; driving supplies here and there with paths controlled by players.

It could be as simple as filling up NTU silos, or as complicated as resupplying and moving attritioned (wwionline) vehicles/infantry/air equipment; but the most important thing is that there are a large amount of easily interdictable weak truck like vehicles that can be destroyed, harassed, delayed, etc. This way you won't need some stupid lattice or hex system that BADLY simulates logistics/front line.

oh no!