30 replies to this topic

[Mao of DC]

I think that it is unfair to the Eurasian half of the world the have the planet claim time to be 23:30 pm EST (GMT-5). If there was another Cease fire at 11:30 AM EST that would make it about 18:30 PM in London, about 20:30 in Berlin, and so on and so on.

My unit's Eurasian players often complain that they feel like they don't really affect CW.

Edited by Mao of DC, 29 December 2014 - 10:27 AM.

[EgoSlayer]

They are going to change the time from 24 hours to something shorter, or longer than 24 by an hour or two. This will cause the flip time to change to an earlier/later time each day so that at some point in the month it is "prime time" for everyone's region.

Edited by EgoSlayer, 20 December 2014 - 03:00 AM.

[Armando]

Many ways to crack his nut...

...make it every 36 hours.
...make it every 10 hours.
...make it every 8 hours.
...my persona favorite (but a programming nightmare I'm sure), make it a random + or - x number of hours from the last update so that no one really know WHEN it is going to happen (ensuring that NOW is ALWAYS the 'best' time to effect CW).

All that said, I think that everyone should be able to effect CW regardless of what time zone they live in and how we do it now this is not the case.

Note, I did not vote because making the update random was not listed and is the option I would most like to see.

Edited by Armando, 20 December 2014 - 03:30 AM.

[Chagatay]

I agree 2 updates a game is a good idea. +1 for the random idea (stops any and all sort of gaming of the system)

[Honiara]

Armando, on 20 December 2014 - 03:26 AM, said:

...my persona favorite (but a programming nightmare I'm sure), make it a random + or - x number of hours from the last update so that no one really know WHEN it is going to happen (ensuring that NOW is ALWAYS the 'best' time to effect CW).

Now this is a good idea, but instead of having a cease fire windows for the whole IS map, have each planet have its own attack window. This way it will not matter where in the world you are you can effect something.

This would be better as you may only be able to play on a day that the attack windows closes several hours after you have gone offline. having different times for different planets would make it feel like you are effecting the IS map every time you play.

This could be tied into a 'Day' on the planet concerned (e.g the time a planet takes to rotate on its axis) and the planet would change ownership each time a planet 'Day' passes.

This way some planets would have more attack windows within a 24hour period some would have less.

This would also increase the immersion factor in game

Edited by Honiara, 20 December 2014 - 04:58 AM.

[Crockdaddy]

I'd be happy with 4 times a day.

[Mao of DC]

Armando, on 20 December 2014 - 03:26 AM, said:

Note, I did not vote because making the update random was not listed and is the option I would most like to see.

CrockdaddyAoD, on 20 December 2014 - 04:57 AM, said:

I'd be happy with 4 times a day.

I changes the options look them over, I think you can vote now.

Edited by Mao of DC, 20 December 2014 - 05:02 AM.

[Dracol]

Imho, once a day is often enough. More and the invasion could be over before we know it.

With that said, PGI's idea of changing the time window to be more than 24 to rotate the ceasefire is a good plan. Also, Armondo's idea of random end times would be cool as well.

[squigbeast]

I was thinking about this and came up with it running on an 18 hour cycle. That way it does happen every day and shifts around time zones every 4 days. More than once a day and the map will fluctuate far too much.

[Armando]

I love the new options in the poll.

I voted "Once a day but at random time" because....

...It will give all time zones a chance to affect the map
AND
...It will still allow for the folks who give us our updates not to be overworked.

G - R - E - A - T Great job to the folks working on the "daily time lapse", the "from day 0 to today" .gifs, and the daily news btw!!! Your contributions to the community are truly appreciated!

Edited by Armando, 20 December 2014 - 05:51 AM.

[Myke Pantera]

I'm with Russ on this one: Slightly longer flip-cycles than 24 hours, paired with phase shifts between different planets should be enough to solve the Problem.

[Stormfury]

Personally, I think the map should update as soon as a planet is loss. Then it would be obvious to everyone when you're dropping if it's Attack or Defend instead of this attack, hold, defend mechanic.

It would also give you a sense of actually contributing. Right now it just feels like once a day you get to drop on some planet. Tomorrow it might be a new one, or it might be trying to take back the one we just lost. It just feels slow paced and like you don't really contribute much atm.

[Mao of DC]

Stormfury, on 20 December 2014 - 06:15 AM, said:

Personally, I think the map should update as soon as a planet is loss. Then it would be obvious to everyone when you're dropping if it's Attack or Defend instead of this attack, hold, defend mechanic.

It would also give you a sense of actually contributing. Right now it just feels like once a day you get to drop on some planet. Tomorrow it might be a new one, or it might be trying to take back the one we just lost. It just feels slow paced and like you don't really contribute much atm.

I can see that, but there is a bit of a uptake of the action about 2 hrs before cease fire.

[Iron]

The mechanic for turning planets that we have now will never give every pilot a since that they contributed to the fight. I don’t care what time we start a cease fire the last three to two hours will be the only time pilots fill they did something. A few ways to fix this
1. Go to a 100 percent capture model but we would need to change the percentage that we get now down to a 2 or 3 percent per win so planets don’t flip every hour
2. Dump the percent per win and just count the wins that each faction has in a 24 hour time frame and the faction with the most wins gets the planet. Win or lose every ones drops counted

Edited by Iron, 20 December 2014 - 09:19 AM.

[Ozric]

A single daily update works much more cleanly than several, but a 25 hour timer would be best.

[Roadbeer]

Multiple times a day, random times.
Hinders the timer metagame.

Log in for 2 hours
Flood planet with attackers
???
Profit

Really annoying when that planet has been fought over all day, but only the last hour matters.

[Tristan Winter]

Roadbeer, on 20 December 2014 - 10:38 AM, said:

Multiple times a day, random times.
Hinders the timer metagame.

Log in for 2 hours
Flood planet with attackers
???
Profit
Really annoying when that planet has been fought over all day, but only the last hour matters.

So much this.

It's not about whether or not America or Europe has the advantage. It's about the fact that only a tiny portion of the community actually influence the results of community warfare, because the first 22 hours of a 24 hour period basically have zero impact on the outcome. Makes zero sense.

[Mao of DC]

Nicolai Kabrinsky, on 20 December 2014 - 10:44 AM, said:

So much this.

It's not about whether or not America or Europe has the advantage. It's about the fact that only a tiny portion of the community actually influence the results of community warfare, because the first 22 hours of a 24 hour period basically have zero impact on the outcome. Makes zero sense.

This is why I started the poll.

squigbeast, on 20 December 2014 - 05:31 AM, said:

I was thinking about this and came up with it running on an 18 hour cycle. That way it does happen every day and shifts around time zones every 4 days. More than once a day and the map will fluctuate far too much.

A valid point.

[Master Pain]

I would like to see it on a 23 hour rotation. It would allow everyone a chance to fight at the end of an attack window, and it would allow for slightly more attack periods per month.

[Tristan Winter]

squigbeast, on 20 December 2014 - 05:31 AM, said:

I was thinking about this and came up with it running on an 18 hour cycle. That way it does happen every day and shifts around time zones every 4 days. More than once a day and the map will fluctuate far too much.

The map would fluctuate far less if you needed a greater number of victories to take control of the planet. Right now you need a majority of 11, which means 6. If the number was increased from 11 to, say, 101, control of each planet would be far less likely to fluctuate.

On the other hand, some of the least popular factions may not have enough people to get 51 victories every 4 hours. It would suck if House Liao won every battle they played, but still couldn't get enough victories to take control of any planets, regardless of how many strike teams they were facing.

Maybe the number can be increased from 11 to 15 or 21, just to make CW more about the big numbers and less about strategical timing. An arbitrary system like this is a bad way to ensure that weak Factions stay alive. They should be using Mercenaries and increased rewards for that.