Final Push And Overtime

[LaBelle]

Does anyone else feel like these two don't mesh well currently? It seems like attackers on final push can just keep bumrushing the point to keep the game in overtime, while the defenders are slowly whittled away. It's exacerbated when the defenders are breaking or in last stand.

[Redleader]

Does anyone else feel like these two don't mesh well currently? It seems like attackers on final push can just keep bumrushing the point to keep the game in overtime, while the defenders are slowly whittled away. It's exacerbated when the defenders are breaking or in last stand.

I never really embraced 'last stand' & 'final push' cause :


Last stand

you had to many loses or played poorly with the available tickets (morale) -< so reinforcements are out (you die, you're out)
-> MAKE SENSE

Final push
you had to many loses or played poorly with the available tickets (morale) -< Time is limited down, but now you can go all in
-> MAKES LESS SENSE

When a encounter is active (event) people stay in formation, conservate morale or in rare cases use the numerical advantage as an attacker (higher morale) to good use.

When 'final push' is active -> you don't need to worry about formations or even conserve lives -< it's all in !!!

But the defending force still needs to be in formation -> having the disavantage enemies can come from any direction -> so focussing fire & reloading will be an issue.

So yes, what it sometimes comes down to (when the timer is already depleted) for the attacking force is to try and get the enemy into breaking/last stand.
When the final push timer does kick in you can keep flooding the enemy and if that enemy is on last stand (defending the point) they might lose the encounter (match).

The advantage if the whole system is -> it shows you how close you really are on losing -> otherwise 'breaking' doesn't say all that much.

For the 'new mechanics' -< it's more complicated and will need some time to figure out what works (@Trusty -< and what can be exploited :p)

[Oleander]

Quickest fix is to probably allow no more than 2 spawns while on Final Push. At some point there needs to be some more buffs for higher morale, like faster reloads and being less prone to fatigue ( I don't remember if the fatigue model being tied to suppression is in the game or not.) There also needs to be higher costs to attackers that take heavy losses on senseless charges. I don't know that morale being tied to tickets is going to keep working once artillery comes out so there needs to be a new system where morale and the spawn pool are separate.

[LaBelle]

Quickest fix is to probably allow no more than 2 spawns while on Final Push. At some point there need to be some more buffs for higher morale, like faster reloads and being less prone to fatigue ( I don't remember if the fatigue being tied to suppression is in the game or not.) There also need to be higher costs to attackers that take heavy losses on senseless charges. I don't know that morale being tied to tickets is going to keep working once artillery comes out so there needs to be a new system where morale and the spawn pool are separate.

I like your ideas. Another thought I had is Morale should effect respawn time. Higher morale means soldiers are moving to the front faster, lower morale and the men are apprehensive to get to the front, etc. This will punish a team that's already losing though, so it'd need to be tweaked to feel "fair."

[Oleander]

I thought the same, but like you said, you're punishing a team that is already struggling. I don't know what the best way to balance that out would be, but I'm sure there's a way.

The far out, complicated and over the top system I designed in my head was to have a sub-routine that "polls" the ticket pool every 5-15 seconds. If you have a table where 0 losses equals 0 morale loss and 75 means 100, and then have a tiered morale system where each level is 100 points. As an example, the attacker makes a charge starting at "engaged", they loose all 75 men within the polling time of the sub-routine, that side's morale goes down one full level to "Taking Losses." For the defender, you could do the opposite, if they were at "Taking Losses" they would go to "Engaged." You would still have a ticket pool to draw from, so morale becomes separate, but still influences morale. At some point, say once you get below 100 tickets, morale can't be recovered and will deteriorate more quickly.

You could also tie suppression to the morale state, then have modifiers like an officer in line, a flag in line when musicians come out you can use them as well. That would make those classes more important to the game than simply being able to place a line or be a spawn point. I know the officers already cost more tickets, but having them tied to the performance of the men makes them much more valuable. And, as a side effect this could reduce the amount of lone wolves that set off on their own during matches. You'll want to be near a formation and it officers and flags to get the perks of being in the formation.

I'm not saying completely up heave the current system, this is just a suggestion for how I'd tackle the current gameplay to try and stop the needless charges and rambo players and make gameplay a little less punishing. Plus it rewards performance.

The numbers I'm suggesting are also just place holders, not an exact amount I would put in the game.

[Poorlaggedman]

The team morale is a great system which works mostly flawlessly and which also properly incentivizes close teamwork and isn't too confusing that new players have no idea what's going on or why it matters. It also makes sense in the context of final push and last stand when it's totally disregarded. It may seem strange but in the time of the American Civil War when a unit's morale was broken that was when a charge was typically ordered or when a unit was ordered to hold at all costs. No better way to steady the men's spirits than desperate measures when all else is lost.


11479

[Sox]

The team morale is a great system which works mostly flawlessly and which also properly incentivizes close teamwork and isn't too confusing that new players have no idea what's going on or why it matters. It also makes sense in the context of final push and last stand when it's totally disregarded. It may seem strange but in the time of the American Civil War when a unit's morale was broken that was when a charge was typically ordered or when a unit was ordered to hold at all costs. No better way to steady the men's spirits than desperate measures when all else is lost.


11479

Most sensible post he's ever made 10/10

[Lord Drax]

Most sensible post he's ever made 10/10

Totally agree love the system and the post (for once) ^_^

[Mark L. E. E. Smith]

The irony of the mutual agreement society.