4 replies to this topic

[Jimskiavic]

Base cap is a necessary mechanism in Assault matches to handle people who try to avoid battle. Unfortunately the way it is, it's also a mechanism that helps people avoid battle! (This may not have been their intention initially, but far too often it becomes obvious that 'if you don't cap first, they will', and you are in fact forced into doing so rather than pursuing an engagement with the enemy).

So my suggestion is to make the base cap rate (in Assault matches) proportional to the % of Mechs left in the battle (counting all teams).*

i.e. if most people are still alive, then the cap rate should be pointlessly slow. Once you start getting towards 50% of Mechs destroyed, the cap rate rapidly increases to around what it is now. I'd suggest it then stablises (as it doesn't really need to keep getting faster). In other words, it would be an S-curve. Though the precise formula and relationship would obviously be worked out with testing (the point here is the concept, not the maths).

This will hopefully encourage teams to actually seek combat. If you get to the enemy base without finding any of them, well just keep moving!

Notes:
* Using % works better than a pure number as it automatically adapts to battles with different numbers of players (e.g. 12v12, 8v5, 12v10, or instances where a team is short).
I'd initially considered that it should be based on just the % of enemy Mechs remaining, but figured this unnecessarily disadvantaged a team that's lost more Mechs than their opponents (i.e. since your opponents have more Mechs left, they can already cap at a faster rate than you without your rate being slower too). It also avoids situations where teams have a different cap rate because they started with a different number of Mechs (1/8 != 1/7).

[Deathlike]

The issue I see for the most part will be when there are few left that it would accelerate the cap further and might have an unintended side effect.

For instance, let's both sides are capping the the other (think River City w/o any good scouting), part of the force sent to respond to the base cap dies (either by DC/death/TK).. the larger the force that dies will ultimately accelerate the cap speed. This can be an unintended consequence of such a change.

[Jimskiavic]

Hence why I'd suggest that it's more like an S-curve (or even, if you want and will forgive the contradictory term, a 'Z-curve'). First few kills: still very slow. Next few kills: cap rate starts speeding up (to about what it is now). Remaining kills: no (or minimal) change to the cap rate.

The point being that if you get into a 'both base capping without much combat' scenario like you describe, you wouldn't have to 'send a force to respond'. You'd simply move your whole team to go find the enemy, because there'd be no point for either you or them to try and cap (because the cap rate would be so slow), and plenty of time for you to get to the other base without seeing much/any loss of your cap.

[Karl Streiger]

Had the same idea a while ago... but never posted it... well like the idea because it was mine.....

The cap should be a secondary objective in assault. So cap only when you can't win.

[Elessar]

Yes, it takes care of the idiotic and boring speed cap games, where 1-2 light mechs sneak behind the enemy lines and cap before any combat has taken place.
This definitely makes gameplay more interesting for everyone (maybe aside from the small percentage of light mech players who don´t have any interest in combat (maybe because they think so lowly about their piloting skills, that they are afraid of combat) but prefer speed caps despite the fact that it gives less money/xp (total as well as per minute)).

Aside from this mechanisms like these sound liek a necessity to me on larger maps (like Alpine or the coming Tourmaline desert)