Team Deathmatch needs to be in this game because for one, why not? For two, is the only thing keeping this game from being an arms race is the fact that light mechs can steal the capture point? That isn't strategic depth, that's bad game design. There needs to be a reason in 8v8 TDM to bring something other than an atlas or else this game is in fact an arms race and it's just an arms race with window dressing.
Let's examine what capture squares provide currently. For one they allow a team to finish the game when the score is 7-0 and a commando is shutdown or running away faster than anyone can chase and you can just end it and win, that's a fair usage. For two it allows a pair of lights or something to do a diversion tactic while the main group advances, if you they don't pull some back they lose so it makes them split their force. A smart commander sends the right mech back, a dumb commander panics and his team crumbles beneath an assault, also fair enough. Third, it allows a team of 8 ECM ravens/cicadas to come up jenner alley and cap the base in under 15 seconds and farm cheesy c-bills, NOT OKAY.
The third example is why captures have GOT to go. The legitimate uses are faaaaar outweighed by the cheese uses. No one wins a game with a capture unless they've already won the game through combat or they are cheesing rushes with lights. Capture points are why the OPTIMAL strategy on many maps is 8xDDC configured to brawl and just literally not leaving the square. I think that strategy might be unbeatable, but I haven't ever encountered it because of how lame it is. Unfortunately that is the metagame we live in and it's a damn shame that the metagame is so bad that optimal play is so unfun that literally no one will actually play optimally.
A quick fix would be to put a hard limit on capture speed so that one mech of eight mechs capture at the exact same speed; this diminishes but still allows for all the strategic depth that option 1 and option 2 of captures provide, but it eliminates the cheese of option 3 entirely.
Edited by Captain Midnight, 15 December 2012 - 02:44 AM.