"out of bounds"

[Littleman]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Forced meatgrinding isn't fun. If we're going to have that, then there is zero purpose to large scale. Choke point and tunnel focus wherein you have no choice but to press forward through the enemy could easily make 200 players feel like 2000.

This is actually the point of Planetside. Big battles, illusionary or otherwise. If they didn't funnel troops into other troops, everyone would be scattered all over the place in attempts of rabid land grabbing, just like with PS1 pre-lattice. The lattice was put in place precisely to funnel troops into other lines of troops.

If one wants tactical combat, they should aim to make the tiny victories others won't try for so that the main force can achieve the big victory. This means taking every hex around an enemy base to reduce their teams hack times while increasing their enemies hack times. This means fighting beyond a base and taking territory in preparation for the next major assault. This also means countering opposing tactical teams from doing the same thing. If what one is doing isn't for the direct benefit of the frontline, it's a waste of manpower. Trying to hack a base a good 2-3km from the frontline just to draw troops merely evens the odds again - those people could have been fighting on the frontline too.

Back hacking is greatly discouraged with overly long capture timers. The home team will have ample time to muster a force to counter attack the region, and frankly, this is where I really enjoy the idea of no cloaked mobile respawn points and the possible inability to even use them (plus squad spawning) inside an SOI with too much enemy influence. Hell, said SOI/influence may extend well beyond the bases that deep in enemy territory.

I don't mind SOE extending the out of bounds range over the ocean, but I feel it's going to be fairly pointless to bother fighting any good distance away from the front line.