I have read this thread, as I would like to put my 1st impressions somewhere and the title matches what I was going to name my post... and found it both amusing and enlightening. Personally, I agree with the concept of battle flow but have extreme dislike to the current implementation as demonstrated on Test server. To clarify: I agree with the concept that battles should have a natural flow and forces should be funneled into them there should be a flow from location to location. It should be easy for someone with a reasonable level of intelligence to look at the map and within seconds say: "There are major battles are X, Y, Z. I have these forces with me so I should avoid those battles. I can either avoid the fight by going to A which will help secure B, or charge head long into the fight at location D. Hmmm... Ok gang, we're off to: (location)" The map as it stands on Live doesn't provide that information readily, you have to learn how to read the map, and even then its part guess-work. I've been playing since before Launch (part of beta), and only just the other day found out that "Platoons Detected" meant more then 96 players in a hex. The sort of data and information that players need to make informed decision is not readily available. There are days when I want to charge into big battles and let loose with both barrels, but there are other days when I want to skirt around the edges and only engage in small conflicts. So I agree that there needs to be some changes made so that it is easier for players to get to the action faster and know where the action will be next. This will allow them to tailor their levels of engagement to suit themselves, rather then making everyone fight each other in one big fight. However, as Battle Flow is currently implemented on Test Server... I can not agree to. The layout is too simplified, and the funnels are too severe, they don't allow for the free flowing nature that attracted me Planetside 2 in the first place. Some background: I know full well what Ghost-capping is: Flipping a cap point and walking away. As an Australian playing on Waterson, I play at all funny hours, so that is sometimes the only way for my empire of choice to make any rapid progress. When I play with my outfit, I'm part of a squad that works behind enemy lines and paves the way for main platoons. We flip terminals, drop generators, and when they are at Large Facilities we grab all the surrounding areas as fast as possible. When hostile forces roll in, we swarm in and take out the sunderers and MBTs anyway we can. We have fun. I'm not an 'expert' player, I don't have a score anywhere near supposedly good players. I don't have the twitch reflexes, the hordes following me, nor the continual backup that some have. I'm one of the countless middle class players, but most importantly, I have fun doing what I do within the game. Now I have played on the Test Server when it was effectively deserted, and when it was "Full" (ha!) during the Focus testing. Each of the times I was unimpressed by the forced capture timing. If anything it promoted ghost capping, particularly when combined with the removal of the speed bonus for having people on the capture point. I was able to do this on several occasions on both Indar and Esamir and Esamir was during an Alert for Esamir. For example at Mani Biolab... the recipe was Drop the SCU, flip the Substations, flip the points, drive away and allow to cook for 30+ minutes, come back at with 1 minute left on the clock, reap capture points. Meanwhile, flip other bases and harvest their bonuses. On Indar, starting at Alkali Shipping I pushed down into Dahaka Uplink Hub and up into Saurva South Fortress and and then across into Helios Solar Inc. All with the use of a Flash. One time, before the speed bonus was removed, I then grabbed all the bases around Saurva Bio Lab and tested to see how long it would take between no one standing on points, and one person standing on the points. Needless to say, it took 20 minutes for the base to go neutral at which point I stood on a point, and then it only took 15 minutes to cap. The next day at the same time, the map was such that I could push up to Saurva Bio Lab and time the flip it again. This time the speed bonus had been removed, and the countdown timer had been added. Everything was proceeding smoothly, some additional members of the empire I was on at the time showed up, to watch the lab cook... and then one member of the owning faction showed up. The cap was proceeding much faster until that time. That ONE opposing person running arround flipping cap points, got the scu back and delayed the cap from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. Hats off to them... but it was frustrating. And today, when I wasn't crashing during the Focus Testing, as un-organised squads smashing into each other, I was better off running solo. And then it was frustrating. For example: I was at Indar Comm. Array and saw that Quartz Ridge was being taken. Normally what I would do is run over to Indar Excavation site and start a cap there to take the pressure off. As I watched, Quartz flipped, so even if I wanted to distract the forces at Quartz Ridge from Hvar, I couldn't. I'd have to go down to Dahaka, through CoraMed, and then to the Excavation Site. It was annoying being treated like a lemming and not having the freedom to go any which way after a cap. How would I fix it from where we are now? My personal suggestion would be to have strong and weak links between bases. The strong links is the lattice as is at the moment. It is given a value of say 1. Then put weak links in, given a value of 0.25 in between bases that are adjacent but not currently connected, such as Indar Excavation Site and Indar Comm Array, The Crown and Crossroads Watchtower, Valley Storage Yard and Feldspar Canyon Base. I would put this information in a separate Map overlay, showing where the links are. That way, by taking Indar Comm Array, I know I'm helping my comrades who are fighting at Indar Excavation Site, and if there is a squad that is being particularly annoying they can go take Indar Excavation Site by themselves.
The lattice is fine. It doesn't make the game completely linear, there's still plenty of places to attack. It's not like you can only attack one point at a time. It's necessary for battle flow, something desperately needed in this game.
