I'm sure most of you have experienced that moment, when there is a 98+ vs 98+ fight going on, it's super nice, just the farm machine we all wanted, and then continent gets locked. You switch out to Esamir for example, and it's DEAD SILENT. No big fights, not even some place getting captured. You wonder where all of that people went, you switch back to Indar and see that they're still in the continent. You wait up to 10 minutes for a fight to start but its all for nothing. Just because of this reason alone I hate the continent locking system. Can't there be an implement where it forces people to redeploy after a continent is locked? Or a way to fix that sudden change in the game pace where it goes from super fun to dead silent?
Maybe there are 400 people staring at the map screen thinking "Why won't somebody start a fight so I can join in??"
To elaborate the answer Haquim gave When you're in the middle of the game it's easy to focus on the places you think are important, as you know the overall picture and the positions of enemies. When everyone just get deployed to an empty continent, you have many more options, and people have to estimate the situation : - What do we own ? - What do the other factions own ? Who's the biggest opposition on this continent ? - Are there any fights already going on ? - Should we defend a key position/facility ? - Would it be better to attack an uncontested area ? Which one ? - Will we be numerous enough to achieve this goal ? Will the enemies be able to send reinforcements easily ? Are they already engaged elsewhere ? - And so on. It's much easier to pick a destination after 5-10 minutes as things are already mostly decided by outfits and zerglings masses. Also, there is often players that wish to continue their fights on the locked continent, mostly because they're engaged and don't like to redeploy to another area suddenly. I personally do this when it's a funny skirmish fight (often 12-24). The inability to respawn there after a death is a good reason to stay and fight harder until death comes. More adrenaline. Of course it's not interesting at all when a whole base just get locked and change its colors in the middle of a fight, it just destroys all the interest of the scene.
whole heartedly agree, continent locking sucks. it really obliterates your gameplay. i'm not sure how to fix the situation though, the best solution could perhaps be to get rid of continent locking and just let the playerbase decide where to play (probably indarside primarily, with the overpop on esamir) ofcourse that leaves the construction and hives without a purpose, but as their purpose is to crush the good battles you're enjoying by locking the continent i might prefer them to be useless XD also i'd be curious to know if anyone has taken note of the time a continent lock occures and then checked it against a population stat tracker to see if there is a notable drop in players? it feels like every time a continent locks the amount of people online plummets.
Maybe if warpgates can be captured and Victory Points add up to get some Uber unit. Dunno but that awkward moment when you can't find a good fight after lock is relate-able
That "awkward moment" is called people not having initiative. It wouldn't be surprising. I do it if an Alert is going on and I really can push the time of an appointment to keep (even if it is sleep), and I've done something akin to this long before continent locking came into affect. I've also spoken to various people and heard from various people who do this. If there's an Alert going on but people need to log-off, they'll hang around until the end of it and then leave, if they can afford it. The said person would have probably just logged off at any given time had there been no Alert, perhaps waiting until the base they are at was capped if that was the direction in which the fight was going. That is also common behavior.
You mean that awkward moment when INDAR is locked... I think it is quite normal that there is a gap between the lock and the next bigger fights because some people still stay on the locked continent farming the remaining stuff, hacking terminals etc. As TrolKabu already said, people have to analyze the remaining continents for already existing or potential fights, bases they love to fight in and where their squad/platoon will go before they spawn somewhere. Unfortunately, (at least on Miller) many people log off as soon as indar is locked. If esamir is locked as well it feels like you are alone on Amerish and Hossin as people don't seem to like these continents what is really a shame because i love fighting on Hossin.
I think it's a good reset, people take breaks get up for a few min or go do something else. But, here's a pro tip if you want to start a fight, start the timer on the closest enemy three point base to your frontline. Indar : Crown, Howling Pass, and Indar Ex. Three point bases are the guards to your infrastructure and will always grab attention during prime time. As a combat medic we were always told, if you don't take control of the situation no one will and someone will die because of it. Take control...
See, that makes sense but I dont wait on the map screen myself. I deploy in an area closest to the enemy lines and see if anything interesting happens. Though what you are saying could completely be true. And as I said I often find them still fighting in the locked continent which bugs me a little.
It's demoralizing and makes me shake my head every time. In PS1 it was as a natural part of the game. You could see it coming a mile away. In this overly complicated underdeveloped version I feel like a developer has spawned randomly, kicked me in the stomach, slapped a sticker on my forehead and walked away laughing.
I suppose only having one continent open at a time would concentrate players in one place and make for faster eruption of decent sized battles after a continent lock (not that I'm necessarily keen about that tbh). Even then, where would the overpop faction players go other than VR training? Maybe some smaller continents as back up redeployment zones? Not sure where I'm going with this but it sucks hard when you are continent locked during a really good fight and are 13 seconds away from taking a base (like last night)
I think they should implement a system that allows players to fight on any locked Continent... to unlock it. Basically players can go fight where they want to, keep fighting where they want to, and their efforts can lock and unlock Continents. The winning faction controls ALL the bases, and the losing factions are insurgent forces that have to "Insurgent Forces" goals that if achieved will unlock the continent (maybe PMB, maybe knock out and keep out x generators at key bases, etc.) On the flip side, a Continent Lock victory could tally into a best-of-3 race, where first faction to lock 3 Continents gets a super bonus. This motivates winning Factions to immediately jump on a different Continent to try to lock it.
Remember remember... In the early days: All continents were open all the time... You had to capture all / 90% to get the bonus... If you went under ~25% you lost the bonus (neutral continent)... Crown/settlements at warpgate 24/7... There were hard, long fights, but they were meaningfull. If you took the crown after days you are a hero, if you denied that lock it was glorious. Doubleteam was done right, on good old woodman VS and NC and TR Zergfits destroyed the owner of a continent. Still we had dyinmic fights with small squads (today called ghostcaps) to establish/reload recources...(ohh, and no lattice..the freedom...) Yes, indar was played most, yes off peak rush was true, still I miss those days...
After party!!! I love when the continent locks and every single player becomes an extreme menace kill bonus. Fly around in my PPA Scythe and mop up the After Party.
I hate this downtime too! I suggest an option to drop pod people in a new continent after a continent gets locked: Big drop pod apocalypse in the middle base at each continent lock.
lol the same f***in bases that you own everytime a cont gets unlocked lol again the fkin same ofc not, everyone was on indar. its not like we have pop enough to fill more than a continent now. yeah, sure, camp like fkin noobs so now you want to ghost cap. great. 1.if youre tr absolutely. impossible if u're vs. 2. lol there is free spawn. the question would be if they will bother onto. 3. yeah, they're actually playing the game while you and your faction are sitting in the warpgate for 30 min squeezing ur neurons. or you can be the first one arriving and being able to decide where it will be more fun to battle. everyone stays at the warpgate because no one is fighting. what makes everyone go to the first battles available.
- Indar unlock : - Esamir unlock : - Amerish unlock : - Hossin unlock : ... Add the people who go for a cigarette, for irl stuff. And the ones who wait for teammates' sundies, Gals, beacons. Don' forget the "I don't want to be the 1rst and lonely one there" guys...And here are your "Wtf, game is dead" moments.
Let me rephrase it : Which corner of the map every faction own ? Also I don't think everyone knows exactly which bases are owned when a continent is unlocked. Hence the majority of the players takes time to assess this situation. On a second note, if you join a continent that was already unlocked, there is a high chance the situation has changed. Don't know which server you're playing on, but on peak hours, Miller fills a continent entirely and is quite populous on a second one. The third is rarely crowded, and the fourth is locked. I mean, if your TechPlant on Esamir is attacked, you can bet many players will go there to defend it. The same applies for every major facility, but this one is critical on this continent. Fights have to start a day or a another. Attacking on an empty front is part of the game too. 1- Same as the second quote. On Miller at peak hours, the filled continent holds a very even population (read 33-33-33 most of the time). 2- It's a way of saying it, yes. 3- I thought your server was empty. You could. But if you can't spawn where you want, you just pull a vehicle to get there, having to do the whole trip. Outfits/platoons often have to regroup, pull Gals or anything else. And whatever people are doing irl thanks to this break. Overall it's really not a fast process. It's smoother if the continent was already unlocked, but still. Anyway it's not a big deal, 5-10 minutes later, things are going as usual.[/quote]
