The thing is quite simple. Some 'smart' boiz adopted a truly effective strategy- give up one font and let that front's enemy wasting time ghost caping and focus on another front(Then probably can push back later when got enough advantage). Then, the 3rd faction will face a simple problem 'over poped by double team', and those boiz will always seem 'not lost' by over poping (consider similarly experienced players on all sides only). Then what should the focused faction do? While be overpoped all front, the future will always be predictable. Probably the focused faction can also do sth similar(that is the reason why the given up front faction win most; by the way if that faction under double team situation, they disappear lol), but from another aspect of view I think people come here is for play a 'battle game' not 'I guess what you guessed what I had guessed(go RTS my flendo)'. Then think about how most people will make their choice?-' this is only a game-wether lost too frequently or win without passion will cause people bored(maybe firstly angry for lost side)'. And 'bored' means- lel. But probably this is only one aspect on cobalt why the pop drops after specified events. Well, still it is only a game. But probably someone need to rethink 'competitive' and 'toxic'. By the way, I think the dream is something generally attract most people as those simple plot movies, not 'Oh, I am so confident by seeing you are got rket'. Well, whatever, personally think it is a bit late now since I saw someone yelling-'you don't really fight' years before. And I probably do not have the right to adjust the other's thinking. Wanna win? Go ahead, but better to make a show at the same time than play dirty. And for what I hate most is the damn dropping fps.
Let's face it - the current alert system (especially continent alerts) are just not working. People want a fair fight where every faction stands a chance of winning. However this isn't a reality. Any platoon leader worth his salt knows that pushing a strong faction early is foolish (defend the right bases yes - attack no) - invariably this turns into a double-team on the smallest faction for an extended period of time; no fun for that faction. There aren't enough incentives to do the right thing / disincentives to do the wrong thing (in terms of encouraging equality and fair fights).
As many have suggested, bigger XP rewards for the smaller pop or teams getting less and less XP on the side with the lowest (by a decent margin) territory might be the way to go. Some form of incentive. Often times though, it is a lack of strategy and a simple "Dive through the middle" that costs a win for whichever team does it early as it leads to both sides focusing on them.
the current meta is not good. i have also suggestion: make the map like the beggining of new continent before it stabilized but with triangle shape map controll were the 3 edges of the triangle touch in the middle and the wide base of the triangle is in the side of the warp gate of each faction. that way when a faction is winning it has more territory to cover from a losing faction. the less/more XP idea for over/underpop in an area is good too
There are several components of this. 1. The long duration of alerts. 1:30h make it possible to drop out on one faction, make the other faction quit frustrated due to being double teamed for like 30-45 minutes and losing about all chances for victory...and then still having 45-60 minutes to hit on the other faction. Shorten alerts back to not more than 1h would solve that problem and make territory gains before an alert at least matter(1h is by the way enough to lose an alert that you start with 99% territory...but then the other factions need to do at least a great job. In 1:30h nothing you did before the alert really matters at all.). 2. The reward system. 2vs1 as described above or predictable loss(if you are in a 1vs2 situation around the 1h mark you know you gonna lose cause such a situation will typically not change within a couple of minutes and before it changes the damage is already done) usually ends in people quitting or going 4th faction around the 45 minutes mark(critical time mark for getting bonus reward). Can't do much about it tho I would at least not give people that reward if they switch from one faction to an other on the same account. I don't think NS operative will help much there although that was possibly created to help... 3. The "join combat"-button magic. This thing always seems to be searching for the biggest defensive fight where you are slightly outnumbered. If you do not fight one faction at all then every player will automaticly be placed in fight vs. the 3rd faction. This means that not only your faction will fight that sorry victim due to that button...no...the button of the faction you do not fight will force them into fighting the victim too. So by quitting one side you basicly FORCE a full out 2vs1 situation cause a darn lot of people use the easy "join combat"-button. And it will keep the players on that front until the victim is basicly warpgated. This button as well means that if you do not want to get attention when being on the road to victory then you just don't attack. Keep low profile. Defend...and watch the button doing its magic by pitting the other 2 factions against each other. That button is cancer. Could be changed tho by for example not putting people into fights vs. factions that lost more than 4 territories in the last 15 minutes or something like that. There are many numbers that could be tweaked(size of battle, attack/defense, more randomization etc.) to make it having less effect on the outcome of entire alerts...and to make it harder to abuse. 4. The middle. Especially on Esamir and Indar. Take the middle(Eisa, Crown area) before the 45 minutes mark and you will most likely not win. Those that have the middle typically get 2vs1 even if there is no "join combat"-magic involved. In the middle it is easy to switch from one target faction to the other cause you are typically just one or 2 territories away. So there is usually a lot of fighting and switching targets going on with not much land gain but a darn lot of manpower being bound and wasted. If you do not have the middle you have that manpower free to capture territories in the corners. Especially xtreme it is on Esamir. If you got EISA(by the 45-60minutes mark) you usually lose...if you got Ymir, you often win. Ymir is in the lower right corner....the faction with the warpgate in the upper left corner got almost no chance there(they can only hope that BOTH other factions will get seriously involved in that fight for Ymir. That does not happen often tho.). Giving up the middle early on is often a smart move and due to the length of alerts(point 1) you usually have enough time to get it back later on. In smaller alerts where only 1/3 of the map is open the one that got the middle is usually keeping both other faction from even having the chance to fight each other. Which has to end up in a 2vs1 and often ends in the one faction that does best before the alert to end up being trashed during the alert. Again important there is to give up that middle territory asap(unless you got like 45-50% continental pop...in that case you can try to defend long enough) if you lose it in the last 15 minutes of those shortened alerts the other factions won't have enough time to fight each other. 5. Stupid zergs(often "join combat"-magic involved to even create them). If you got a zerg rolling then nothing will get them off that lane for the next 30 minutes at least(or until they get crushed cause they attack a base that is easily defendable with 33% pop). The smartest move for the victim faction is to just quit that lane and hope the players in that zerg will get bored ghostcapping after 2 or 3 hexes. If you try to defend you will only slow them down by a few seconds but lose all manpower involved for nothing and keep that zerg rolling cause they face resistance(and spawn camping for KPD boosts seems to be fun for a number of players). So to sum it up: Doing well before or early during an alert=bad move. Creating big fights during an alert=bad move. Having the middle before or early in an alert=bad move. Starting in the north-western corner of Esamir=bad move(/sarcasm). So a lot of stuff that should reward you/give you an advantage, actually does the opposit when it comes to winning an alert. This could all add a layer of tactics and strategy to the game(during war it's normal to pick the battleground and at times give up territory for that) but since we got no real lead with one goal it just ends up as a frustrating mess. Players that just want to fight and players that want to win the alert just do not fit together under those circumstances. Playing for the objective usually has little to do with just smashing heads against each other and checking who is better(or more commonly: Who got the overpop). For me as a strategical person it is always very frustrating to see that people obviously can't understand even simple strats or read maps. It's like watching 5 year olds playing football...and those 5 year old know-it-alls have HUGE egos on top of that.
You'll drive yourself nuts fussing about what others do. Leave those poorly led platoons. Drive one of your own, or stick to a small more cohesive single squad. Dealing with a significantly larger pop than you is quite doable simply because they are slow and stupid. (if you find a rare full platoon of like 00, KN1, BWAE or some crap then you're toast). Read your Art of War, Learn your defeat in detail and concentration of forces from Napoleon (I just gave you enough keywords to search) and use your tighter cohesion and agility to chew the larger force up. The game is inherently asymmetrical and dealing with it is part of playing. One cookie cutter plan (only the outline...adapt to situation): Retreat down the lattice, setup a strong point hold. When the previous cap finishes a few of their top players will arrive at the point first but everyone else will be slow. (See SunTzu Ch VII, vs 5-8). Maintain the point hold to allow the slow enemy to build up at the new base. Once enough have left the previous base, back cap it! You should be able to accumulate 1-2 minutes of clock on the back cap before the zerg returns to crush you. When they do, don't stick around and be crushed. Let the clock hold the point and leave. Return to the original base, ignoring the point (they can't cap it yet) and attack their spawns. Above all stay tight with each other at all times to maintain *local* superiority even though they have the overall superiority (which means nothing) Zergs do not deal with this crap well. They'll now be partially spread on two bases, and on the main one they'll have attention split to their spawns. Yes, they may still ultimately push you down the lattice but they'll be slowed to a crawl and ripe for further splitting at forks in the lattice behind them get threatened during the delays you cause. If you find yourself banging your head on a zerg, just stop. You're doing it wrong.
That works, but that expects a lot of coordination from players. And it as well means that the other side should not have the same amount of smart players...and you can't always expect your opponent to be more stupid than you. ;-) You see stuff like that happening once in a while but if it becomes a common thing that strat won't work anymore either. It's like the generator game where you can keep people busy with a much smaller number if you as underpopped defender just concentrate on one generator while the opponent has to destroy both. At some point they will actually spread out(or just camp your spawn)and then your strat is not working any longer. Or as it lately becomes more common: They just use a gate shield diffusor and overpop A while the vehicle tunnels player after player past the shield(and in no time you have the whole building full of sundies thanks to swapped vehicle terminals).
It does expect a lot of coordination from players. If a smaller force is also an uncoordinated force, then I'm not sure what to tell people. Try Minecraft?
Haven't expected these replies. I posted this 'talk' just after had observed an organized defense during the alert but end up lost, then people started talking(complaint probably) about this. I agree that we are all quite reasonable.. And it is true that sometimes fair fights also are boring fights, some times one side simply more organized and crash the another. And the game itself is also partly not that 'fun'. but maybe we have too many things to talk about then this discussion probably is going to be some strategic & psychology papers lol. Wait, I got one or probably some ideas. How about set back the vehicle explosion range but add a new mechanism that prevents vehicle attacks the base's ground after half of the capture time(and double the undeployable zone for the last 1/4 period but also remove this preventing or something lol)? And at the same time separate the infantry2infantry K/D from vehicle2infan K/D and boost up respawn after killed by vehicle (to make less frustration by camped by HESH). And another idea is, add a new tactic artillery type vehicle can only be spawn from warp gate with significant slow moving speed(and low ammo capability only supplied from warp gate) to make some advantage to those side with less territory(currently the orbital strike is just too troublesome to create by most players I guess). The game might be too stable now for most players(and quite fair I think, which is the reason why I am not blaming the game somehow- but I also do remember clearly 'I miss the old time' said someone, maybe just last year). Add1: And of course, the zergs, detailed strategies about win alert... etc. Well, I prefer not to talk about that part in that those won't ever change I guess... whatever. I quite like this game in that it is somehow unique, and I guess most of my ideas already talked by some else. Whatever... Add2: exactly I was also one of those complaining lol.
Add4: the idea against explosive farming-- I think we had a try before, but, how about adding a new ability/grenade to medic/engineer to create a field to add, for example, 90% explosive resistance to the players inside, and most important, for only a short period of time. Also maybe add a new heavy shield type with such resistance to add the anti-vehicle ability to them. (If we don't have any now- I don't play heavy much) Then explosive will work as what we have had before, but limited as the thinks from those who thought about.
Well as the experience from play bu..Overwatch, explosive does add some fun part to the game whether for those not that good at aiming or tired.
