NoiseCrypt, on 17 March 2016 - 02:33 AM, said:
I like the concept. But couldn't you just speed up the game timer when people are jerking around instead of "skirmishing".
I have no idea what criterias should activate this speedup, but it should probably not be an option until the after the first (non-friendly-fire/bump) damage have been dealt.
No. Adjusting global match timer - is bad idea. The problem is in fact, that walking towards each other at the beginning of match can be treated as avoiding engagement. Adding "First engagement" trigger - is a little bit complicated, as some maps are big and match usually starts from shooting from long distance/Light engagement. So, system shouldn't affect beginning of match, i.e. moment, when both teams are full. That's why timer should depend on number of 'Mechs left. And therefore it should be separate timer, cuz otherwise amount of time, left for engagement, won't be fixed and will depend on how much time was already spent in this match, that is wrong - if both teams legitimately engage at the end of match, they should have their full 15m match duration, no matter, how "slow" beginning of match was.
Also it will be more intuitive, if timer will be separate. But I agree, that may be we don't need 2 timers - one for every team. Cuz taking damage for one team automatically means dealing damage for another and avoiding engagement for one team automatically means no engagement for another. In this case it may be one timer, that is affected by Min(<Team 1 players left>, <Team 2 players left>) amount of players. As it expires - team, that has more 'Mechs, wins. This will be true, if we won't limit "engagement" to dealing damage only (will prevent survival squirrels, who runs away, keeping safe distance, taking damage, but not enough to be killed).
Edited by MrMadguy, 17 March 2016 - 03:38 AM.