Imgagine Vanu Archives. Which TR won't be able to go around in the connectivity layout that's on the test server right now. What are you gonna do there as the attacker? Hint: splitting up won't help.
Love the new Lattice system. I have had some time to play with it on test and I think that its going to be great. Make sure to log on at the designated times that Higby posted for some good fights so we can properly test this bad boy out. All in all I am loving what I have seen so far. This is nothing but a huge step in the direction of a meta game along with continental locking down the road.
Its a Central Hub with three separate rush lanes to split people up. It should not be easy to take - I can't emphasize that enough. From what I have seen so far while testing this out SOE is moving in the right direction by putting extremely defensible bases as central hubs at major intersections. This is going to make for some absolutely great fights/choke points to stop the enemy advance while at the same time giving the newer/less experienced players a direction to move to stay in the fight.
This will effectively prevent any and all continent captures during prime-time. This is not gonna be fun at all.
Until they actually implement the option for us to cap a continent it is pointless even discuss that at the moment. Also to make such a general statement of "This will effectively prevent any and all continent captures during prime-time" is asinine. It happened on a daily occurrence in PS1 with a almost identical system. What this new system is bring is good fights/ actually defensible bases. The end to Ghost capping. A general direction to help newer and less experienced players get into the fight. Also some semblance of a Meta Game. Nothing but a huge step in the right direction IMO. Good riddance to the Hex.
more captures will be made with a lattice system since people's efforts are now going to be focused. no longer are people gonna be scattered to the 4 winds hunting lame ghost cappers or wondering which of the 5 surrounding hexes will need to be defended/attacked. people are going to have a direction to go, that is going to be a huge fix. the field in its current form as a hex is a jumbled up mess with no direction or flow. its like a child with a crayon going apeshiet on the walls. where is the frontline?? nowhere in sight. the lattice system is going to make ps2 into a game of WAR. right now, its not a war. its just skirmishes that happen by chance.people have said it here, "the zerg will go the route of the path of least resistance". no longer with the lattice, you all are gonna have to fight. its why we are here remember? or did many of you forget...?
Here's a slightly clearer version of the same map. The circles are the bases, colour-coded for your convenience: Yellow are those with three connections, orange have four, red have five and white are uninteresting.
"...almost identical..." You can say that with a straight face? Seriously? There were actual stalemate-preventing mechanics, you know. That we don't have here - and won't get for an unknown amount of time, if ever. And once again, there are far easier ways to prevent ghost-capping. Preventing the capture from porgressing if there are 0 people on the point, for example. (And what's even funnier, the latest capture mechanic change that went to the test server this morning actually encourages ghost-capping even more than the current setup does).
If they have one lane so locked down, don't they deserve to keep it? There are at least 2 paths across each side of the map, If they are keeping one so locked down you can not pass it, send part of your force to a 2ed path to get around them.
This can lead to being unable to assault a portion of the map though without risking losing your own side, especially when you're taking on the North, which has just four places they need to defend (1: between Helios Solar and Hvar North Gate; 2: at Dahaka Southern Post; 3: between The Palisade and Briggs Laboratories; 4: between Mao Southeast Gate and Rashnu Watchtower), as opposed to every other corner of the map, which has five of them. (SOE failing to design a balanced map for a strategic game? No, really?!?)
It will be interesting to see what the lattice system looks like on Esamir. The place is just so wide open. Ground vehicles can go pretty much anywhere from anywhere. Flanking opportunities, much?
to be honest, I don't yet know how the map will play out and if it is any good really. I love the idea of the lattice, we will see how the map implamentation works out. It is kinda hard to make a good map without seeing how people play it, Level designers have the problem where they think players will play it one way, and then we say 'screw that' and do our own thing. We will have to do large scale testing on the new map before knowing if it will be any good, and what needs to be changed (since this is a first iteration, there are probably a lot of things that need to be changed with this map to make the flow better, but the idea behind it is sound).
Where are my dice and tokens for this game? Got serious boardgame vibes.. PSA: remember to deduct at least 1 connection from each base to account for friendly territory.
That's why I noted that the white-coloured bases are "useless". From strategic point of view, they might as well not be there. All they do is to just slow down an advance, but simple distance and rough terrain would do the same.
Well that slow down might be enough for a organized platoon to put up more defenses on the big base. The buffer might be strategically uninteresting but it is nice to have
What Zinus said. Buffers aren't useless. I'd much rather have bases to fight over as a mechanic to slow down progression rather than extra distance or terrain features.
The Lattice system is great. But it doesn't play great on the map. Get the map back as it was and add a new layer of Lattice information to the map. As it is now it just isn't that easy to follow...
Buffers aren't useless; I never wrote they were. The bases there are useless, or better said: unimportant. They could be replaced by territory or other mechanics delaying an offensive and it would work - on a strategic level - just as well. That's just the strategic level though. On a tactical level, I obviously prefer a varied and interesting area to fight in to even the loveliest featureless rolling plains stretching out for several kilometres or similar.
But the bases with 2 connections in between are the buffers... Hence the bases in between aren't useless.
