Zerg fights 1-12 all over map (Solution)

So, even with the disputed implementation of lattice we see the same thing again and again. A factions zerg of 24-48 fighting 1-12 enemies all over the map. The lattice hasn't solved this problem. People won't fight each other. This is not any particular faction, everyone's at it. It's making it increasingly difficult to find an even and balanced fight that does not devolve quickly into 'shooting at spawn doors'.

This is hardly engrossing game play, and the effect snowballs, as enemy numbers grow and players find a battle 'hard' they slip away to find somewhere they have more numbers. This leads to enemy forces realising its safe to pull more air and vehicles and hey presto, another battle broken.

Now I will take a squad there and maybe blow up a sundy or take a gen down but mainly get shot in the back egressing the spawn by friendlies hiding at spawn and shooting out of doors.

The solution?

Make all bases on one linear lattice link. This at least would force people to fight each other.

Thoughts?

Players will still try to avoid fights all while complaining that they're being railroaded. That being said, I'm a fan of Draconian game changes to crush player will when they're being dumb.

SHIP IT

That's a stupid idea, but I don't think you're being serious anyway...

Defense has always been viable and possible to plan even with the Hex system. It's just that nobody actually did because unless defending a major facility (biolab, tech plant, or amp station) the territory they were defending wasn't actually worth anything.

The cure to the issue of people avoiding a fight for easier XP and the feeling of winning, is cured by making small bases worth something.

The lattice links provide a method of doing that, but it would require some major changes to the way resources are distibuted and gathered. There is an explanation of this idea and the capture mechanic to go with it, in my sig.

No I wasn't being serious - but something needs to be done to enforce more 'fair' fights - xp balancing perhaps. The Lattice has stopped strategy which could have been used by small numbers to stop the zerg, which is a shame. For example if a zerg pushes a salient into enemy territory - the strategic thing to do would be to lop it off at its base, but lattice forces players to face it head on.

'Want to take our 12 man squad to fight 48+ ? er, nope - so what shall we do? lets go fight that 1-12 over there' .....

It's concerning that many of the changes to the game seem poorly thought through and heavy handed in the never ending quest to 'get/retain customers', this approach actually reduces game longevity....

Stop giving static rewards for capturing bases. Make the reward a dynamic payout based on the size of the battle that took place. Also only award that dymanic XP to people that participated in the base battle, and their share of the reward is based on how much they contributed, ie: repairs, heals, kills, damage inflicted, etc...

I like this idea - more of a meritocracy than an exploitocracy ...

Spawn shields were, and are, a stop-gap solution. Yes - you get to spawn without being instagibbed (good) - but then you get to sit in there plinking away at target outside which stagnates the base cap for however long.

Maybe all towers and bases should get an SCU that when goes down opens the shields as we've seen in the biolabs.

You must play on a lower pop server if 25-48 is a Zerg.......

I do not think the term ZERG means what you think it means....

24-48 players hitting a base that has less population is not a zerg rush, but a platoon looking to start a fight or simply pushing into weakly defended enemy territory, in an attempt to open the map or give access to different avenues of attack.

This is not a matter of players trying to avoid a fight, but sounds more like a group of organized players hitting the enemy where they are weakest. The beauty of the lattice system is this is still available for the attackers. While at the same time it is not impossible for the defenders to quickly and easily respond to that threat. Which in my experience eventually happens with in a base or two, once you really start getting deep in their territory or a valuable outpost or base becomes exposed to attack.

Im 1500 hrs + - I know what zerg means - I know that 'zerg' is sometimes an organised platoon with its attendant pubs hanging on for easy (but slow) points. So lets not argue semantics.

The point is, overpopped fights need to be rewarded as such - like the chap above said. The point is, its boring for all concerned. I'm not really fussed about continent caps anymore so the main thing for me in the game is to find a 'good fight' 48+ vs 1-12 is not a good fight.

If people dont want to avoid hard fights why is 48+ vs 1-12 so prevelant?

ANY base with a static spawn point WILL be camped. It doesn't matter if it's got shields, domes, painfields, whatevah. I almost think ALL spawning should be done by drop pods. At the very least, every base should have at least two spawn points.

I'd wager that most people aren't dodging fights on purpose, they just don't bother/know how to read the map. Lattice just lowers the number of bases they can go to and accidentally dodge the enemy forces.

I know what Ray is talking about because I play on the same server.

Since December it is rare to find people defending major installations such as Bio Labs,Tech Plants, Amp Stations, Towers.

Mostly these facilities lack a defensive buffer zone of a hex, so the enemy can roll in anytime time an outfit decides.

Once established then effectively the defenders have to break out of their spawn.

Quite often I check up on Platoons and squads and find they are launching risky offensives at highly defensible bases such as Vanu Archives, they seem to be making an offensive even if the base would be a nightmare to defend so far away from the warp gate.

During their offensive key bases such as Amp Stations and Bio Labs are being taken back into the rightful owners hands the enemy.

Even with the map looking dreadful and Vanu having lost the East & West sides of the map, these guys still continue to circle jerk at the Crown etc.

20 minutes later after the failed risky offensive then the zerg fit descends on the nearest base next to the Warp Gate, with the enemy yells mocking the zerg fit arrival.

I feel that Platoons at 48 members strong really do have a faction responsibility.

I once heard "I am bored with Indar now, I am going to move the Platoon to Amerish."

Enough of the essay.

Manpower should be used appropriately.

I partly blame the lattice spawning rules. They don't allow people to easily redeploy out of overpoped lanes to even up fights in neighboring lanes. It's not unusual for me to see friendlies steamrolling one lane while the one right next to it is being steamrolled by the enemy. Either way, it's no fun for me.

The other thing I've come to dislike are the Base Alerts. I think Continent Alerts encouraged better gameplay. Base alerts you just get zergs making a beeline for the base objective. Everything else is unimportant. Continent alerts made every scrap of land taken and held important so therefore defending everything was just as important as attacking everything. I understand they did it to encourage fighting on all the continents, but a hotly contested 33, 33, 33 fight on one continent was a lot more satisfying than 3 unevenly contested continents fighting over a few bases.

Here,

Make base cap XP shared, so the more people sit at a base the less they get.

Or reduce it altogether, and boost kill and vehicle kill XP. Force fights through XP.

Back when the lattice was announced, but before it was implemented... when people were declaring the death of ghost capping and cheering a bright future of zerg-on-zerg fights, I kept imagining that the image below was what these people were seeing in their own minds, or, at least, was the ultimate manifestation of their desires.



(No, it's not a flux capacitor.)

We used the lattice to crush a 2-3 platoon zerg with a single platoon for 3 straight days. 3 weeks later, they lost and left the game. The lattice did its job and forced the zerg to stand and fight while defending their rear. Something that was lacking with the hex system.

I will agree that a single squad may have problems with being forced to fight a larger force, it is the way of the game. The slogan is Size Always Matters, so I have no qualms about a single squad getting smashed. The single squads should be focusing on a single aspect of the large fight, not trying to win the game by themselves.

A zerg NEVER means an organized platoon. A zerg is a mass of 48++ players often comprised of multiple loosely organized platoons or squads that are not lead by a single leader, and generally are not lead by instruction, but simply follow the masses from target to target. Sorry, but I feel differently about semantics and definitions, but to move on...

I agree 24- 48 fights vs 1-12 aren't fun, but you can't force the enemy to get into a fight it doesn't want to enter. The odds are in the situation you described, either the other faction has the majority of its forces tied up in another fight elsewhere or it is under populated against you and the other faction on that continent and you are not going to find that good fight until you push them to the point where they decide you are a threat and send more troops your way. Or you can grab a few territories see what happens and if you can't build the fight then you should move to a fight that is appropriate to the size of your group. and let the smaller single squad groups go after those lightly defended facilities.

When I lead platoons, I come across this from time to time, the best thing you can do is see if you can stir up the hornets nest, but if the hornets do not want to fight, then you should move on. Try playing with the map settings, it will show you where enemy concentrations are on the map and just move into those areas. If you have 2-4 squads and you are organized it should be an easy task to stay together and inject yourselves into a larger or equal sized fight.

Hell sometimes we see the other two factions locked in a battle, that we do not have adjacency too. So, we drop on a tower a link or two away, drop our beacons, set up AMS, hack all the turrets and we interject ourselves into that fight just for fun. We will grab air and try and sucker the other two factions to hit our AA nest, or we will roll tanks in behind them where they don't expect it.

If territory isn't your concern, then move to the fight or create your own.

A lot of people don't have a clue how to play, end of story.

I really know the Problem, maybe you read my rants in the Leader Chat about this...

Just make it XP based... give out cap XP bases on how hard the figthing was.
Its like that for Def XP atm, as you only get a Bonus % on XP instead of a flat out reward after the def is completed.

So why not make it the same for attack?
Just make it so that capping empty or near ampty bases is worth nothing in XP and ppl will stop doing it.
At least they would stop doing it when they COULD find a good figth if they just wanted to.