Empires has a problem with stalemates, everyone dead lock over small patches of land. The usual way of breaking through is usually a distraction, someone sneaking past and causing havoc behind enemy lines. What if we stream line that? What if we gave some direct access and did away with all the sneaking? What if we had a way to launch infantry directly into the enemy's base? I propose either a new cannon for arty tanks or a some sort of vehicle, that will just launch people straight into the sky so they can land right wherever they need to. Have you seen nf arty cannon? It certainly looks like it can fit a person, a human cannonball. For a vehicle a good old catapult would do, though slingshot technology holds some promises. So what do you think?
What, like commander selects a squad or a group or even just a guy(depending on how strong you want this) then clicks a spot on the map and they all kinda teleport and parachute down, complete with aircraft flyby? Sounds cool, I like it.
so you are serious about this?! then have a serious reply. whatabout fixing the cause of stalemates instead? i know sounds totally unreasonable, lets better tuck some mechanic ontop that creates its very own problems like for example launching players to areas where you cannot go, into the middle of the enemies main or next to their cv.
I'm totally serious about my joke suggestions that would be fun to have. Unbalanced and messing things up? Of course it will, but it would certainly be fun. The parachute thing paradox mentioned sounded like it could actually be balanced though, like it could be restricted so you couldn't just warp onto unreachable places.
Also I like how I can make nearly any post and it seems serious. I didn't know I was such a serious guy. I wonder if tunneling would be the actual reasonable answer. It's something that could be seen and intercepted but also it's not instant, so it carries that risk of efforts being in vain. Of course source doesn't really support that, the only thing I could think of is something akin to portals where you make a hole and teleport to an underground portion of the map where you can dig where, popping another portal hole when you want to go above ground again. Who knew portals can solve everything?
its poes law lazy. but thats why i asked wheter youd be serious about it or not. as you didnt reply and started to throw ideas around like it would be meant fully serious i had no choice other than to assume its meant like that.
I don't know how it looks mapside, but most maps have player and vehicle clips right? I would imagine you could make a 2d top down view of it and that would basically do most of it for you. For dropping right into a base or next to cv, it can just the same restrictions as the building code so you could only drop outside of the enemy range. Another idea is to simply restrict it to refineries, as in you can only drop around refs, with the one restriction being you couldn't do it if the enemy cv was next to it. The commander is most likely next to his main base after all, or at least one of them, so this prevents instant ninja action but still gives opportunities for a team get out of lockdown. To head off a point I know is coming, yes this seems like it makes it hard to actually win if the losing team can just pop another base somewhere, but as always the cv can't teleport ever, so the winning team will actually have to win at that point. It's not hard to lock down the cv, or at least destroy it if it's making a run. I would have to say, because of the potential to steer the parachute into places the commander couldn't actually pick, it might have to be a predetermined path. Like you couldn't steer the chute and would land exactly where the commander picked.
Tunneling is impossible in Source. And you'd be surprised by how differently maps are set up. Many official ones would need extra clipping, and I don't even want to think of customs. However, I still believe that stalemates are not due to game mechanics but due to player (in)ability. We already have siegebreaker tools available in the game, but they're often misused.
Outside of arty I'm not sure what else we have for dead locks. Sure there's clever use of squad powers, but technical stuff like that is hard to call an actual tool to use. Yes I know squad shenanigans aren't difficult at all but I don't even see vets use them for all they are worth most of the time. I will have to make an amendment to my starting post, I did say stalemate but the more I think about it I think it's more for making the battlefield dynamic, with more random patches of fighting and bases changing positions more frequently. A least that's what I like about empires and when I think it's the best, when bases aren't permanent fixtures and there's never that feeling of safety. Is tunneling really impossible? I know from what you expect it is, but you can still cheat it like I said with portals.
There's a few things that come to mind (good infantry support, smart tank targeting), but artillery is the simplest thing to use indeed. Force the enemy away from the strategic chokepoint or knock out their infrastructure, even in medium pop games sparing one man to do that yields a big frontline advantage.
I wouldn't call those stalemate breaking tools, I would call that things you should be doing anyway if you were trying to win. It works not only in stalemates, but even in open field fights.
Yes you should be, just like you should be playing with smart artillery tanks shelling key locations. And yet here we are - those little things break stalemates.