GU12 will feature Amerish Lattice, Pop Balance thingys, and more

[Obstruction]

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!

i think it's because it turns the game into a population contest.

you have some types of players who just sink their teeth in and die and die to the bitter end and they love being zerged. but many other players will move elsewhere if they are badly outnumbered, which causes the imbalance to accelerate.

and there is still the problem of base design favoring attack in almost every fight.

[Canaris]

Originally Posted by Obstruction

i don't understand this idea.

this isn't about the poster, but the idea, which i see posted over and over. the idea seems to be that continent locking (making maps unavailable?) will somehow make the remaining maps less clogged with 48+ vs 48+ battles.

it's bad enough that we'll have to go to our choice of 4 zergs per continent as it is, but worse when some number of those continents are locked away.

Lattice breaks up fights, keeps things fresh as you move from cont to cont, gives you dynamic avenues of attack on enemies of choice.
It'll be a long, long time before we see this kind of scale in PS2.

[bpostal]

Originally Posted by Obstruction

i don't understand this idea.

this isn't about the poster, but the idea, which i see posted over and over. the idea seems to be that continent locking (making maps unavailable?) will somehow make the remaining maps less clogged with 48+ vs 48+ battles.

it's bad enough that we'll have to go to our choice of 4 zergs per continent as it is, but worse when some number of those continents are locked away.

Let me take a crack at explaining this: It's maneuver warfare (The best kind of warfare) on an global scale.
Besides, it's cont locking via intercontinental lattice or you're stuck with 10 conts, each without the pop to present an actual fight.

[CrankyTRex]

Originally Posted by Zadexin

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!

Well, it's not so much people don't like big battles as the implementation in PS2 doesn't work very well.

If you don't have awesome hardware, that many people in a confined space makes the game a slideshow. So you're not really playing so much as hoping your character is aiming where you think he's aiming.

It also tends to turn into one big stalemate grind factory. That can be cool to watch, but it gets increasingly boring to play as neither side makes any progress in any direction.

Finally, individuals and small groups don't feel like they can make that much of a difference in that kind of engagement. A small group doing something really smart or playing really well generally is not going to alter the course of that battle. That's been the case in the game at large, but prior to the lattice the smaller groups at least could avoid/split up the Zerg by attacking other territory. Now that is much harder because the lattice denies options for going around.

Personally I think the lattice is a mistake and Amerish's design of using the terrain to drive people was the better idea.

[Larington]

I've noticed the framerates seem to particularly suffer at AMP stations more than any other facility, sometimes find myself wondering if it's curved surfaces like the AMP station pipe/leg things that strain computers in particular, or some hard to pin down issue with some unknown thing in the AMP station, anyway.

[SternLX]

Here's the Amerish Lattice as it currently stands on Public Test Server.
Should give you a rough idea how it will be laid out.

[SadlyJack]

I am excited, I think Amerish is the prettiest continent. The boredom and futility of the hex system was too much for me to bear however and I haven't left Indar since lattice hit. Can't wait for a change of scenery.

[Chowley]

I have to say I dont like the lettuce system as is at the moment. Maybe when the continent locking and islands come into the game it might all come together, but as is its too limiting, linear and zerg oriented.

When I join a squad now i feel totally worthless. If youre in an organised platoon then ya, you may have a chance to be useful. It was always nice to go off and fight in a small scale battle at outposts in the past for a change of pace and a break from the explosion spam and the farming.
I also feel like my areas of play are more limited now, I seem to spend most of my time around half way down the map on Indar, its dull! I wont see the stronghold or Vanu Archives until rotation.

Maybe I just need to put more time into getting used to it/more familiar. I absolutely adore Amerish, its a gorgeous environment, the outpost designs are a hell of a lot better, there is a lot of character to the whole map. I dont want to end up hating it

[basti]

<-- Sad

[typhaon]

Randomly going to throw this in here... I think there are some issues with the Lattice and population imbalances. I've noticed it can really limit your attacking options as you get pressed.

No way to get around or flank a zerg... you just have to slam your head into it.

[Roy Awesome]

Originally Posted by basti

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354674207273136129


<-- Sad

<-- Happy

Amerish lattice was funky. It needed more work to be really good.

Take the time to make it really good rather than slap lattice on and gloss over the issues for 3-4 months while other things get worked on.

[Obstruction]

and no choice but zerg because you end up with 4 places to go.

i barely play Indar anymore but let me take a stab in the dark here.

Regent Rock

Crossroads

Indar Excavation

Crimson Bluff

then Biolabs if you want to count those, but that kinda gets lumped in with alert locations.

from what i've seen either you have enough pop to steamroll or you get them to a tower base and have an infinite standoff. i saw one fight at Regent Rock go 12 hours on Connery.

i know that gives some PS1 people a hard-on but for most of us that gets dull fast.

like typhaon said you basically have to fight zerg to zerg and hope enough of the NC have their mommy pull the plug and send them to bed.

i still don't see how locking continents or having ten of them helps matters. it's still going to be zergs capping empty bases or steamrolling determined "defenders" until they meet a population capable of creating a quagmire.

i know i'm not offering constructive answers either, but i assure you i'd like to get the game moving in a healthy direction for everyone. there are definitely key mechanics at play that i deeply enjoy.

[Crator]

Originally Posted by basti

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354674207273136129


<-- Sad

That is unfortunate however if people are not happy with it then they should refine it before going to live servers.

[Wahooo]

Originally Posted by Crator

That is unfortunate however if people are not happy with it then they should refine it before going to live servers.

Aye, better right than soon.

A bad lattice map will have the opposite result of what we want from it. I want it now, but will happily wait for something they are happy with releasing.

[AThreatToYou]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

Personally I think the lattice is a mistake and Amerish's design of using the terrain to drive people was the better idea.

No, that's the worst idea, because it makes it so much harder to respond to territorial conflicts outside of your operational area due to the terrain blocking. The whole point of lattice is to stop that shit.

If these folks want smaller battles away from the zerg, just go to the opposite link on the same continent or FFS just go to a different continent! There won't be gigantic zergs all the time everywhere.

If these folks want to feel like they influence battles, DO BETTER! If you know what you're doing, a single player can very well make the difference between victory and defeat in those huge zerg battles.