Breakthrough & Exploitation

[Grognard]

I realize this isnt a real war sim, but there are enough aspects for me to bring this up, that said, here goes.

I am concerned about the timing of hacks, specifically the minimum amount of time it takes to hack any given structure. The reason I say this is because of the limits it puts on the ability to achieve breakthrough and exploitation. I realize, also, that we are not dealing with the russian front, but even on this scale, there will be opportunities for, say, 100 or so soldiers to break the enemies lines.

This, is opportune for exploitation by mechanized elements to push deeper, causing penetration and chaos in the local area, so as to force the opposition to redefine their line. The hack timers will not cause a problem for a breakthrough, but if the "backhack limiter" will not allow for areas surrounded by enemy territory to hack expeditiously, there will be no tactical reward for, as the Germans call it, a "schwerpunct"... punching an actual hole in the enemy line, and exploiting it.

If they have an algorithm in place already that places front line, and the immediately rearward hexes, on the same timers, there may be no problem. I think, however, its probably set for just the front line hexes, since they described it as adjacency.

Therefore this leaves me with the question of how fast does the area (hexcluster) transfer ownership, if all nodes are on hack? If it is very fast, then no problem, just hacknattack ad infinatum... exploitation PS2 style. However, if it is on the order of 15 minutes, then I do not think we can get exploitation, just very local breakthroughs only... I personally think the ensueing chaos of enemies loose in the backfield sounds like a lot of fun...

Maybe this is a little over the top for this game, but we do have the population, hex-based wide frontage, mechanized wherewithall, and depth of territory to support it.

[Captain1nsaneo]

I imagine they have several different capture types based on what's inside the hex. Bases have a number of points that need to be held while hexes with towers just need the tower captured. They've also talked about open area hexes where they intend for there to be tank fights (perhaps enforced by high winds?).

If you're thinking about possibilities for armor pushes deep into enemy lines and exploit lowered hack timers may I suggest the following.

If you will but allow me a Thudercats reference or two. Imagine a tower setup similar to the Tower of Omens in that it guards the way into open field fight hexes that swap faster than normal territories. Whoever holds the tower can make armor pushes into deep enemy territory though clear areas. Holding these hexes would allow you to surround and quickly capture a base if not fought off.

I agree that the raw time it takes to hack a hex is something that is important but I don't think that either the devs or we have enough information to make anything other than guesses at what those times should be until we hit beta and get people in and see how fights flow.

[UKSwiFT]

I think this may be something we'll see get ironed out quite nicely in beta when we can actually field much larger war-fronts. Not saying it's not worth talking about, but with all the factors that come into play, there's no real way to predict how a set amount of time is going to feel in-game. I can imagine when we first get in it's going to feel way too quick. Personally for me, I would prefer a good amount of time to really get my teeth into a fight for a hex, but I couldn't say how long that would be.