Himiko Kuronaga
SyNergy Gaming
EoN.
442
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Posted - 2013.05.17 17:57:00 -
[1] - Quote
For starters, I like the way War Barge precision strikes work in instant match games. I don't honestly believe that these should be touched. But that being said, there are some issues with in PC and FW.
DUST SIDE
The first issue is that the Eve-side orbitals take too long to drop, due to the data being transfered between both games it usually takes around 10 full seconds between a request and an actual strike. If you're trying to kill a tank with this, it will have undoubtedly moved before the strike lands. This results in a wasted strike that you went through a lot of effort to set up. While I have no doubt that this can be optimized to an extent, it will always be a drawback that forces the squad leaders to consider if its even worth the trouble in the first place.
The second issue is that usually these are used to clear a camped enemy off of a point so your team can rush in and cap it, hopefully before they all respawn. The eve-side orbital strike is bigger than normal, which means that in PC games when FF is enabled you have to pull your forces further back before sending them in. Of course, being farther back means spending more time running to the point to capture it... and during that time, the enemy has undoubtedly respawned, rendering the tactic less effective than a War Barge precision strike.
Two solutions I can think of (besides further optimization of the dust+eve link) is that
1. Regular War Barge precision strikes should be completely removed from PC and possibly even FW. This will encourage alliances to go through the trouble of claiming space supremacy for a very real advantage on the battlefield, as opposed to a "meh, well thats cool" effect.
2. If you get hit by an eve-side precision strike, there could be an increased respawn timer. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 seconds. This makes getting hit by them a very "bad thing", and allows you to use them properly to push objectives, even with a wider blast radius forcing you to stay back.
EVE SIDE
In Eve, the general setup is to have one destroyer camped on the beacon with an escort to keep him safe. The problem is that destroyers are flimsy and can be alpha'd by enemies for very little effort. Thats just their basic design. You COULD put small guns on a bigger ship of course, but then you are risking a bigger ship which can't fight back.
Ideally, you want to strike the enemy when they land on grid and keep them off of your bombardment guy. But you can't do that, because this is lowsec. You will take a million sec hits and basically make your life a living hell if this is your continued strategy. People can and will bring in tons of neutral parties, pirates, and people who don't generally care about highsec to come and ruin your day. And you will have to strike them before they strike you if you want to win. You simply cannot legally declare war on every possible interloper.
I believe this is something of an oversight, and would recommend changing the eve-side mechanics so that crimewatch (or whatever it is currently called) is somewhat nullified when on grid with a district beacon. People should not be taking sec hits for protecting their allies by doing the only sensible thing and striking first. After all, they wouldn't be on grid if they weren't there to start trouble. |