Instant action should be overhauled. Here's my thoughts on developing a formula that makes sense: Each sector will be rated in terms of "instant action tastiness". When you Instant Action, you will drop into the sector with the highest tastiness rating. Tastiness is gauged thusly: -5 points for each player in the sector above the count of 50 (e.g., 60 players is -50 points) -20 points for each player in the sector under the count of 15 (e.g., 14 players is -20 points) 60/40 is the "sweet spot" where your team is the 40. For each percentage away from 40% your team is, it's -10 points -500 points if your team has no spawns in the sector So assuming each sector has a base tastiness of 1000, we have the following example: Sector A is 50 NC attacking 30 TR, who own the sector. * TR tastiness = -150 for pop > 50, -20 for imbalance under 40% --> 830. Pretty tasty. * NC tastiness = -150 for pop > 50, -220 for imbalance over 40% --> 630. Not that tasty. (NC tastiness becomes 130 if they don't have a spawn) The goal is to make "medium-small" fights tasty where your side is a little bit outmanned, but not too much. Hugh battles would not be as tasty. Tiny battles would not be as tasty. Battles where your team is greatly overpop or underpop would not be as tasty. Instant Action will also put you into a spawn location in the sector where possible, rather than hot drop you in. You will only hot drop if there's literally no better choice. In the end, we should end up with an Instant Action that people actually like to use instead of the Bloody Stupid feature it is today.
No one uses Instant Action as long as redeploy remains like this: it has no cost no cooldown and it lets you choose the destination. Why should anyone take the risk to be dropped in a random location, maybe in front of a tanks column? !
I agree that current Instant Action is terrible. But I do not agree with what you want to do with it. What Instant Action Has Been ====================== When the game launched, the (old) Instant Action took you to balanced population, massive battles, at potentially any Continent (later theychanged it so that it would drop you in the same Continent you werre on). It didn't tell you where you were going (that was added to the Countdown later), it just dropped you. At one point, I think you could pick from 1 of 3 "hotspots" on the Map to drop into. Also, there was a bug which allowed players to get themselves to have pretty good steering control of their Drop Pod. Some good, some bad, but it was used and it was great for New Players. Experienced players used old Instant Action if they wanted a Random-ish Infantry drop in that area or to get to a good fight fast, otherwise they'd use re-deployside. This old version of Instant Action was removed, because Hardcore Organized Outfits complained it made it too easy for their opponents to deploy to an area and affect the battle there. SOE has a long tradition of progressively changing the game for the Hardcore Organized Outfits/Guilds, progressively making the less playable for everyone else, and usually ending up with most players having left their game. What Instant Action is Now ==================== The current Instant Action drops you in battles that are extreme underpopulated on your Faction's side. It tells you where it's gonna drop you in the Countdown Timer (which you can Cancel out of), will drop you in the Continent you are on, and is not very steerable. It invariably takes you to an enemy Zerg death trap where you are spotted as you drop and killed quickly when you land by the enemy overpop. Experienced players do not use current Instant Action. New Players will often use current Instant Action because the game steers them to use it and they don't know any better. Once a new player dies in that area, they will be steered to respawn at that death trap base where New Players will continue to respawn and die over and over and over. This is one big factor for the New Player terrible experience. What Change I Suggest ================= Either re-Install a version like the old Instant Action or get rid of Instant Action. Otherwise, it's just a negative thing for everyone. If you keep Instant Action, change it to let players select the level of difficulty they want (Easy, Medium, or Hard), and then drop them in a battle that corresponds to this: Easy = 55%+ Ally Faction Overpop, Hard = 45%- Ally Faction Underpop, Medium = 45-55% Ally Population. If a player selects one that isn't currently available, it says "No Medium Battles Currently Available". You should also probably let players select the Battle Size they want: Small, Medium, Large. Don't tell the player what base they are going to during the Countdown. Maybe have it drop players away from the base, and along the side of the adjacent Hex controlled by their side. If a Faction only constrols the base and is otherwise cut off on all sides, have it drop just outside the base. This change makes it fun and used again for most players, and especially good for New Players. New/Newer Players still use Instant Action. I see them from my ESF and they drop in the base being camped and get killed, then re-spawn loop from the Base being camped and get killed.
Well I'm not sure I get your tasty scale thing, but a change to instant action would be well received by me. Right now I just use it when none of my friends are on and I don't feel like using Nanites or redeploying 5 times to a front. I 100% go into expecting complete BS. Usually one of two results. 1. I land next to 15 enemy infantry who instantly gun me down. 2. I land perfectly in position behind an enemy tank and get a free BS luck c4 kill. Not really fun for anyone involved.
I use instant action all the time, I just never "commit" to a drop. if you are still spawned in and on the map screen it tells you were it will drop. dont like it cancel it and find a different way to a fight. its still pretty useful, just dont expect it to be a solve everything button.
