With the new hotfix, alert time is increased to 45 minutes instead of 30. I find it very early to do such a change. The playerbase has not adopted the new system. 30 min was all fair, if the "allied" empires get their **** together and attacked. A lot of players do not get how the new alerts play out. Tell them. I got teamspeak questions like: "We cant win the alert, they (the triggering fraction) have 35% at the end..." "Why does the alert trigger now (again?)" "Lets fight the [allied fraction]! Look on the map, they are busy fighting the [triggering fraction]. We can have easy terretory. "The fight is good, why redeploy" There will allways be a part of the playerbase that is not interested in alerts and it is ok. However it is fatal if the players dont know what is up and how it is meant to be played. The numbers of players figure out themself are increasing with time, as well as players spread the word. Give it more time. It will be next to impossible to capture a continent with that timelimit. Also less continents will be open, stressing out this problem further.
With the mental aptitude of what's left of this population, all the faction swapping to get on the winning side, and the way no one really cares anyway, this game would honestly be better off if a faction was chosen completely randomly at the end of an alert.
I agree it is quite soon to be making changes but I enjoy the alerts because of the large and fierce fights they create on the EU servers. I hope that making them longer will just make those fights last longer, which would be a win for me regardless of outcome (win for my faction slightly preferred ). I see they have also improved the effectiveness (AoE) of flak effect for AA as well................
I liked the 30 minute alerts, it was a short enough time to say "Yeah I'll play through this next alert before I Iogoff" The real issue for the alerts is when they get initiated with a 50% plus lead, at this point they are unstoppable, so victory conditions should probably be changed from the 36% minimum to win, to say not dropping more that 5% from the point the alert started. On a side note: It seems that people jump factions when they see one of these unstoppable alerts coming as I often see population swings even when there is only one continent unlocked. However this could also just be the other factions logging off, but in either case it's not good.
I think ISO-4 should be given to the attackers (faction that didn't trigger the alert) or completing objectives with only 25% received if you lose, and 100% if you win. This means you have to attack to get ISO-4. Fighting the "ally" won't give you any ISO-4 credits, and I personally think there should be a 10% reduction in XP if you do some action within "allied" territory. Specifics: 300 ISO-4 guaranteed for locking + decal Cap of 300 ISO-4 for successful stop of a lock Cap of 200 ISO-4 for failed stop of a lock with 75% penalty
I applaud the quick change from 30 to 45 minutes. Next step is---how we can create an alert trigger that doesn't allow a faction to rig the system? That is a harder design. Because on Connery the VS (who are the main min-maxer faction on the server) just started an alert with 60% territory. The only way to prevent that currently is play their (VS) game of ghost capping and ghost recapping bases. Not fun. Made even harder when your faction has 27% of pop and VS near 40% (and NC are their usual PBR drunk selves mindlessly attacking the 27% TR when TR has almost no territory. Derpa derp. Min-Maxers are the main winners of the new alert system. But I like where the new alert is going--anything that moves PS2 AWAY from MINECRAFT is good. Thoughts? PS: I just logged out of PS2 as the alert/lock/rinse/repeat will just keep going. No sense fighting a losing battle.
So the playerbase isn't allowed to work to create conditions beneficial for their side? If the VS can get 60% of a continent, shouldn't that be good on them?
I understand your point, but...no. Not when it's rigging an alert. Thing is, in this game, majority of players just want a good fight. I addressed your point in my post above--regarding ghost capping. The idea around an alert, at least to me, is to create great fights with something at stake, and the current alert systems does a MUCH better job at that than the old Minecraft 4 Duh Winz alerts. So big kudos DBG and the guy who designed the new alert system. But when alerts generally lock a continent (an event that breaks the flow of battle) they shouldnt be rigged for a no-way-to-win. Now...say the alert timer is extended to even MORE than an hour, then ya...sure...what you are saying FateJH seems fine by me. Key here is...once you trigger an alert, you should have the risk of LOSING it.
To be the amount of cortium refined should lower the hold % for the triggering fraction to win. If you dont have any cortium refined, the alert starts at 41% terretory capped, but you also need to hold that 41% to win and cap the continent. Having 25k cortium will lower the amount to 36% needed. With that mechanic you have multiple benefits: No more terretory hoarding before setting up the hives, since the alert will allways start at 41%. Cortium is counted and removed when an alert starts, setting up the limit. While alert is running, hives should have no effect (they create new cortium for the next alert), if non-triggering fraction are sucessfull.
