Krivvan, on 28 November 2012 - 10:26 PM, said:
Another problem is that too many people don't understand the game type at all.
Let's take a very common scenario:
You're an Atlas and you meet a Jenner in the middle of the map. The Jenner turns tail and runs to cap your base. What is your best option?
Too often I've seen the Atlas go for the enemy base just like the Jenner is doing. They then proceed to blame the gametype that they lost. The thing is, a couple seconds of thinking logically should tell you that the Atlas has zero chance of winning by going for a cap because the Jenner will reach the base first. The correct move is for the Atlas to return to his/her own base since he/she will likely make it before the Jenner finishes capping.
Great! what happens next? Ill tell you. the atlas must sit on the base and wait. Because he cant leave or he gets capped. Jenner is too scared to take on Atlas. No fight occurs, timer runs out.
Another scenario is when an entire team goes for the middle of the map then just stands there defending when 4 enemy mechs go through the tunnel to do a cap rush. Aside from the fact that the scout would've failed if he/she had not seen this coming, the correct move is for your entire team to come back to the base. Too often, however, only 1 or 2 people will go back every minute or so leading to a stream of easy kills for the group of 4.
Exactly why the basecap mechanic is flawed. To easy to do a sneaky rush and get a quick cap, or kill them 1 by one as they come back with focused fire. Hence why I started this topic.
Did I say it was a good idea that people split apart and run off randomly? Of course the team that sticks together will do well, but the fact of the matter is that most PUGs don't want to work as a team whatsoever. Call it "teamwork OP" but it makes for an extremely boring game. And even in game modes in FPSes with only a limited number of lives people still just run off in different directions.You said lonewolfs go off in all directions for the purpose of glory hounding. This implies that doing this works for them, in those "other games" it might.
Lets say you have a perfectly coordinated team of 8 versus a perfectly coordinated team of 8 in a team deathmatch mode without a base. The entire gametype now just boils down to both blobs of 8 engaging each other and fighting until one side dies. How is this not utterly boring? **The addition of a base means that both teams must actually take into account the positioning and layout of the map.**
how is base capping not utterly boring?
**The addition of a base means that both teams must actually take into account the positioning and layout of the map.**
this statement is backwards. Should read -
**The
absence of a base means that both teams must actually take into account the positioning and layout of the map.**
Now... let me walk you through exactly what happens in a fully coordinated 8 vs 8 premade matchup.
1. Both teams send out a scout to find contacts.
2. Team 1 decides that sitting up high on a hill with 4 missle heavy mechs is the way to go and wait for the scout to find them some targets to send LRMs. But they also have 3 infighters equiped with AMS that they have sit nearby in cover for later. That will be team 1's plan.
3. Team 2 decides that take a mix of mechs and weapons, 1 missle boat, 3 long range direct fire snipers and 3 infighters, all equiped with AMS, and they choose to all wait in cover for the scout to find the enemy main force.
How it plays out... Both scouts run around the map looking for contacts, team 2's scout quickly spots Teams 1's main force sitting on a hill. Team 1''s scout spots Team 2's scout and targets him. Team 1 fires missles on T2scout. T2Scout runs away to cover, and is followed by T1scout. The fleeing T2scout takes some damage and makes it in to cover, T1Scout breaks off and returns to main force. At this time T1 has no knowledge of the whereabouts of T2 main force, while T2 knows where T1 is and knows their plan. T2 acts on this information and starts moving in cover to a position that lets them take long range shots on T1 missle mechs. They pop out of cover and fire guass/ppc/largelasers/and UAC5/AC2 at teh stationary missle mech just outside of LOS detection range so the missle boats cant fire back. T1 scout now knows the location of T2 main force and goes toward them to gain locks for missles. T2 ducks back down into cover and pops back up 1 or 2 more times to take shots. Meanwhile T2 scout is watching the fireworks from a distance using zoom, and notices that T1 missle boats have left their postion on top of a hill and are now keeping to lower ground and moving closer to T2 postion followed by their 3 infighters. T2 Scout reports what he sees to T2 leader.
T2scout then proceeds to cap enemy base
I really dont need to tell the rest of the story do I? From this point on anything could happen. The possibilities are endless. It will come down to which team makes the most mistakes in their manuevering from here on out, it could be that T2 make a movement that allows the T1 scout to get locks and then T2 gets bombarded by missles, followed by T1 infighters to finish the job. or T2 scout may sneak around behind and shoot the infighters causing them to split their focus while t2 main force does a charge with long range mechs hanging back supporting. Who knows... But positioning and the layout of the map, and mechs configs/weapons choices suddenly become very important... Whereas with a base cap, the positioning, layout of the map, mechs configs/weapons choices mean very little when the base is taken by a sneaky light mech, or several.