OK, clearly there's not gonna be a TDM element to this. So, game objectives?
Someone mentioned a supply-lines type thing. That could work well - and has been done similarly in UT (2k4 at least - I haven't played much ut3) in the form of the "onslaught" gametype. Here though, they protected the rear spawn points (you simply couldn't capture them) - so there were clearly defined front lines. But I was thinking that people might not all want this... So, I'd say that the rear spawn points should be protected - but certain classes would be able to capture them. This way, a commander could send a squad off to break a supply chain (or stop a spawn point from working, or whatever) while the rest of the players still had to fight on the front line.
What effect would breaking the supply chain have on gameplay? Perhaps players would be unable to spawn at objectives which weren't linked back to base - but I feel this is a little harsh. Maybe spawn time would be longer at these spawn points?
Or, you could have a game system working as follows:
Each side has a certain number of tickets (a l? battlefield)
[/*:m:1f3glgxv]
They decrease at a given (constant) rate, no matter who's winning or losing
[/*:m:1f3glgxv]
They are regenerated by the spawn points you control (so that controlling, say, more than half the spawn points would actually reverse the decay)
[/*:m:1f3glgxv]
They would NOT be affected by deaths (balance)
[/*:m:1f3glgxv]
Spawn points which were cut off from the supply chain would be useless for regeneration, but continue to function as normal otherwise
[/*:m:1f3glgxv]
I think that the tickets should be effected by deaths - as sometimes you end up with a stalemate which is costing loads of deaths, but neither team can make much of an advance. How does this unbalance it? Not sure about the permanent bleed and regeneration part.
The perma-bleed limits game time (it would of course be linked to the "gametime" in the server menu).
The lack of a reward for killing the most means that people have to find something to do other than just entering the meatgrinder. Commanders have to find a way to break the stalemate. Of course, that also means that your map makers have to leave a way of doing so.
Although another thought occurs: The side with most spawn points could have a delay on spawning proportional to their advantage (or indeed, if you wanted to reward winning, rather than focussing entirely on balance, you could have the losing team suffer a spawn delay).
I would still make it so killing is rewarded - but there should be more efficient ways of getting points (- what is there to make people want to get more points?) such as being a medic on the frontline.
Keep in mind the the supporting roles rely on some people acting as assault troops, fighting intense battles with high casualties, if there aren't casualties then medics have nothing to do.
I wouldn't mess with spawn times personally, unless the player had team killed recently or had committed suicide. Fast re-spawns are an easy way to make the games faster and feel like there are more enemies.
What are your thoughts on the winning vs. balancing?
EDIT:
Had another idea, the commander could suffer a high penalty for getting killed (90% of points lost for example) - but he would have the option to "surrender". If a team captures the enemy commander and manages to get the commander to their base they would get a substantial reward.
The system could work something like this:
When an enemy unit comes in "range" of the team commander (who would have a different uniform) they get the option to request the commander's surrender. At this point the commander has a choice - get captured or go down fighting, in which case they would loose loads of points. So they could surrender and hope that their team manages to intercept his capturers and release him. On surrendering the commander would loose all weapons apart from melee fists (so potentially if you had a really stupid guard you could kill him and escape) the commander would automatically regain his weapons if there isnt a enemy unit within x meters.
Kind of complicated to explain but would be good fun to have to try and escort your "captive" via a quiet route back to base, the only problem I can see is it could be quite boring for the captured commander - perhaps a time limit within which you have to get your captive back to base?
Since there is some discussion of spawning in here, I felt the creation of a new thread was somewhat dubious, as it may have relevance.
Anyway, there was a game (demo, actually), I played quite some time ago, called Earth 2150.* It was an RTS, but there was a feature which was really rather cool.* Namely, when you purchased anything, from new vehicles to new building, there would be a waiting period, then a plane would spawn in at your designated supply route, and follow a line to the place where it landed and delivered the thing you ordered.* The nice thing was that the planes were fully killable, and if you killed them, the resources were lost.* As a result, you could interdict their supply routes and prevent them getting any new stuff.* Of course, you could set up a waypoint system for your supplies, so they would dodge the line of AA your opponent had moved in, but I liked it because it was realistic and allowed strategy.*
Basically, what I'm thinking is that the respawns should happen at a fixed time, like once ever 30 seconds, where upon you are put in a glider type thing with an LMG on each side, and then the AI guides everyone trying to spawn at that point down, whereupon everyone can bundle out or use the flier as a fixed (but very, very flimsy; it's made of wood) pillbox.* Either that, or paradrops, but their canonicity is dubious.
An interesting idea and a good one from the point of view of realism. The problem is that people would have to spend say 30 seconds ever time they spawn in a plane, instead of fighting with their mates. Making the gameplay a LOT slower.
Its an interesting point, fixed makes things more predictable, so we can control gameplay and concentrate players. Buildable makes things more flexible and varied each round.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
