Balance cv strength against ticket wins.

while i think tickets are stupid, its true that rounds end too fast nowerdays. there often barely is a progress in tech level, you maybe get better armor and engines so your apcs get to vulnerable spots easier, but it usually already is over by the time the winning team starts med research.

balancing the cv against the ticket count (or anything else ensuring that enough time passed) sounds like not such bad of an idea. it certainly would shift the goal of the game, as to be able to kill the cv you have to first kill a bunch of enemies.
but i see some issues with players - since you cannot easily win by lame rushing anymore, the tendency to stack might rise and the next problem is people containing the enemy in its last rax and spawncamp till a certain kill-threshold is reached.

but i do think if youd make ml turrets being not just easy points for tanks or something you just ignore while rushing by in your jeep/apc, youd solve a good portion of the issue - except for upgraded mg turrets, defenses are too weak and in case of lvl3mg actually too tough in certain spots (but that could be just map issues aswell). the delay they are supposed to provide often is just neglectable. the only delay with a somewhat reliable timeframe is fully built walls or buildings that block a path of for both sides.
also as soon as you fall behind in funds or research, getting back on your feet is close to impossible unless the enemy makes really bad mistakes - i dont see winning by ninja as getting back on your feet. as only tanks are supposed to counter tanks in 1on1, if you cant at least field a somewhat equal amount of equally good tanks its GG, independend for how long you can outrepair the enemy - that only matters for ninja victories.
thats why radar also is a common target for rushes early to midgame, big hit in both, you cannot start new research and you lost 600res.

so what happens? both teams rush a spot, either one fails, the winning team gains a money advantage giving them tank and research adavantage and on goes the slippery slope - in the majority of cases the team that didnt win first contact loses and for multiple reasons there usually is a clear winner, rather then a frontline establishing.
but its not really just the games issue, but the tactics people employ, which then are the games fault though - IMO. but its a two edge sword, if you value defense too much you end up in stalemate after stalemate and its just ticket wins anymore.

ofc theres a lot of you can do with an immense amount of organisation, but thats usually not the case - at least not for the vast majority of rounds.

 

turrets are the worst balanced element in empires. a cluster of mls at best is a level up or two, a single maintained mg can hold off a complete front for minutes. not suggesting this, but if you would have to research them seperately, you would not research mls at all

i mean whats so bad about turrets that force a vehicle to stop and attack before they can pass? ofc the stopped vehicle should be able to win each and every time. in general you need to stop for mgs aswell and you also win every encounter when you do. im not saying you in no case should be able to drive by a lvl1ml turret in a heavy tank or that if you ignore a lvl1ml in an apc you should die instantly - but you should take enough damage so it makes ignoring it a decision you have to make rather then the default one. i mean cmon i dont really care if im standing in a couple of lvl1s range driving a heavy and as apc driving pass 5-6 turrets isnt that much of an issue if you are fast enough to lose some missiles and distribute the remaining damage.

 

mls are severely underpowered considering the various ways to mitigate their damage done. unless you are forced to drive trough a corridor of them you can just ignore them - protip for free.
if its lvl3mls unless its decided due to their mg counterparts already, they face tanks that remove whole clusters of them faster then you can build one, this also is close enough to ignoring them for me.
as said, you actually research lvl3mgs, the mls are a welcome bonus but not deciding. do you really think you could attack buildings with lvl3mls if there wasnt mgs?

 

then you give up on the map and lose because even if you still have tickets, you have no money for heavies - the main intention of turrets is area denial and there is not much area to deny to start with so the more they get the more of a problem you have
full defense is no option in empires anyway since you cannot outrepair an equal amount of attackers, and you actually dont even need that many attackers to remove a base.