That's not correct despite the intention being this, at least in case of Keepsake Bay. The bases are so linearly positioned that the only place where multiple choice becomes possible is around Shop Lane & Docks, so most of the time it's single base capture.

Keepsake Bay would need a Dominance specific base layout.

Should be able to set it up so there's more than one capturable base at a time on Keepsake Bay: http://i60.tinypic.com/2qato4n.jpg

West end would be the only detected capturable base from Villa, similarly East Beach would be the only one from Ranch.

One actual way would be by using only 3 or 4 bases from West end, Shop lane, Docks and East town.

Here is how I can see Keepsake Bay working:



The teams start at West End and East Beach respectively - both teams have armories near them at Shop Lane and the church.

The winner is the first team to control six bases. There is never a case where there is only one base capturable.

Yes, it uses all the bases, but we saw yesterday that the majority of the game time (I think) was spent on capturing the single final base.

I don't believe that more bases to capture necessarily equals a longer game. I believe what creates a longer game is the times when there is only one base to capture.

Here are a couple of ways the Black Gold Estuary playing area could be reduced:

The problem is that these base connections don't happen with the closest border base logic. The bases are too linearly positioned. Also Villa and Ranch are such remote bases that either way their presence is an issue.

I'm not understanding this. Have you set up some automatic proximal base detection system?

I'm not a programmer, but I can't see the difficulty in setting it up manually. The logic for the Keepsake Bay map above would be:

Villa is capturable from:
- West End
- Docks

West End is capturable from:
- Villa
- Docks
- Shop Lane

Docks is capturable from:
- Villa
- West End
- Shop Lane
- Eastern District

Shop Lane is capturable from:
- West End
- Docks
- Eastern District
- East Beach

Eastern District is capturable from:
- Docks
- Shop Lane
- East Beach
- Ranch

East Beach is capturable from:
- Shop Lane
- Eastern District
- Ranch

Ranch is capturable from:
- Eastern District
- East Beach


By including the Shop Lane to East Beach connection, the northern part of the map is opened up a lot more, so I'd definitely include it. Makes the map much less linear.

It also makes the base and base connection grid pattern symmetrical, although it's squeezed a bit at Eastern District.

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What do you think of the idea of not having a single final base, and instead having the teams capture the penultimate base?

I'm seeing it, at the current time, as the best solution: completely eliminating the issue of both teams ever fighting across a single base connection, which gameplay has proved is something to be avoided if at all possible. It means there is always a choice of which base for the players to attack, which keeps things fresh and interesting.

It works effortlessly on the Fridge Valley map. There are six bases on that map and the aim would be to capture five. It would mean that the heavily-fortified bases each team have could be used in battle, but there is no necessity for the enemy to ever even set foot in them, as victory could be achieved by capturing all the other bases.

There are a couple of ways of configuring the base capture system for this map. I haven't decided on which I prefer yet.






If the penultimate base system, the "minus one system", is the way forward (which, as I say, I'm at this time in full belief it is) then Villa and Ranch play important roles.

They could potentially be omitted, but it would mean the game would end when one team had control over the trio of bases in the middle - Shop Lane, Docks, Eastern District - so that might be too quick a game.

Using all the bases, as shown in the Keepsake Bay diagram I posted earlier, then Villa and Ranch each have two base-capture connections. They are capturable by a team as soon as they have control over either Docks or Eastern District respectively.

You were viewing this map as being too linear, but using Ranch and Villa opens up a whole lot of space on the sea front. I want to see players using rubber boats on this level for sneaky attacks. A wily player will probably be on his way to these locations with a rubber boat as soon as his team looks like they will be about to capture Docks/Eastern District.

So I think it would make for a much better map finale than a long and drawn out firefight with all players fighting over a single final base. Probably a lot quicker too.

I'm thinking that using all the bases on Keepsake Bay map at once might be a bit ambitious. So I've pretty much come round to your idea of making some bases uncapturable on the map to keep the game duration a bit tighter.

However, my belief is still strong in the penultimate base/"minus one" system!

So I've thought about how to combine the ideas of reduced maps/uncapturable bases with the penultimate base/"minus one" system, as well as trying to incorporate the use of Ranch and Villa.

The result is three map variations, the main one is very close to your words here:


So our viewpoints are getting closer!

Here are the map variations then. In each variation there are a total of five bases and the winner is the team that controls any four bases. There's always more than one base to capture at a time.

Variation 1



The main variation with best balance - the one that is similar to your quote. The winning team would therefore only need to capture the middle base trio (Shop Lane, Docks, Eastern District) or two of those three plus the opposing team's starting base, possibly by sneak attack. Or they could lose their starting base and capture all the other bases - various possibilities!

Variation 2



A little less balanced, but probably still useable. The Villa team would need to get a hold of West End pretty sharpish. Still has opportunities for the rubber boat warfare I crave.

Variation 3



The reflection of Variation 2. Rather lopsided but probably still playable.

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So there's a new plan. It combines the reduced playing area size you were looking for (and I'm now agreeing with) allied with a game mechanic that eliminates the possibility of the unwanted cases of teams fighting over a single base connection.

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Would the "minus one" system also avoid instances of "Can't respawn - last base is under attack"? Players would presumably still be able to respawn at the other base. This would be preferable, avoiding having players sit there waiting while unable to spawn.

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Another thing. There should be a colour differentiation between neutral bases that can be captured and those that can't. For example, playing on Moorland Trenches: at the start, it was all a sea of grey and impossible to see which was the gaming area of capturable bases and what was the outside zone of uncapturable bases.

I also still believe that a visual display on the map showing the base connections is needed. It would also help show more clearly the playing area. This would work alongside the targets/shields used now.

Also, I said in another thread, and Dio agreed, that the team colours on the map showing territorial control in the game generally need to be made more clear, especially the Greycollars. The grey should be deeper, like a thundercloud, so it looks as though the grey means something, as it's too close to a neutral grey at the moment and I'm never quite sure if it represents Greycollar territory or neutral area. Similarly, while less in need of a fix, the Brownpant territory could have the brown a bit more saturated/less opacity.

I suppose you're starting to run out of whitey/grey colours on the map display. You've got:

- Greycollar grey
- neutral area white (and I suppose for bases that are set as uncapturable)
- neutral area within the main playing area of capturable bases

Perhaps for the last one, of bases in the capturable area (that get captured by the teams from the start), they could be a more vanilla-y white colour so they're clear and distinct from the other neutral-y colours.

I think there are probably at least two or three variations, like the examples with Keepsake Bay above, that can be made on each of the maps (discounting the Vigil Island and Power Junction maps). It would be good if these were set on rotation, so all the variations could be played. Especially since the games will be shorter; and it also allows the whole of the maps to be utilised, just not all at once.

Even those map variations that look imbalanced in their base distribution can be made a bit more even by other methods, such as:

- vehicle imbalance: the team with the better base distribution spawns an APC, while the team with the weaker base distribution spawns a tank
- biasing the spawn times for APCs and tanks, so the team with the weaker base distribution has a smaller waiting time for these vehicles to respawn
- rubber boats: I'm thinking of the Keepsake Bay map, for example. The teams that start at Ranch and Villa could have two rubber boats while the other team has one or none. Or the spawning locations: in the 2nd map variation, the Villa team could have their boats spawn at Villa, while the Eastern District team have theirs spawn at Ranch, which is less convenient.

So there would be ways to make the games more evenly balanced.

Yes, it's automatic.