So I basically never come on the forums but JK and I were discussing tonight in spec and I think we have a cool-ish concept, I would like to hear what you guys think. We were talking about how to prevent vehicle waist. Recently I've seen newer players jump into full blown heavies and loose them seconds later, costing the whole team resources. While the recycle carcass addition does help in a regard, I think we came up with a somewhat decent idea that woudl enfore teamwork, personal responsibility, and will cut down on team resource waste at the same time. What if Medium, Heavy, and Artillery tank chasis were locked for new players, and could only be unlocked to build if they have enough wages to build with? The whole point of wages is to reward merit and to use to build vehicles even if the team's res count doesn't match how much required to build. If new players were restricted to only Jeep, APC, and Light Tank, if they wanted a better tank, they would have to work for it and actually contribute to the team to earn that better tank. If they lose it, it wouldn't cost the team resources because it's built only with their wages. Nice thing about this too is that if they lose it, it would enforce personal responsibility and teach them how careful they have to be with tanks. Also, this could be applied to Jeeps, APCs, and LTs if nessescary, but I was thinking that these are such low res vehicles, so it wouldn't hurt the team too much. Mainly just the more expensive stuff. Of course the lock could be removed after a player has deemed themselves worthy, and it wouldn't apply to current vets. Just a cool alternative that JK and I thought of. What do you guys think?
I agree with the arty part. In fact, I made a similar thread. https://forums.empiresmod.com/index.php?threads/vehicle-restriction-system.20213/ But I disagree with every other chassis. Tell me, what should new players do in late game if they don't get to drive tanks? If new players get heavy tanks, at least they are playing the game. For average players(not even new players), it takes them 40 minutes to get 60 points. That's not even 1200 wages btw, assists only give you 5 wages. So that's what? One heavy every 40+ minutes? How the hell do they enjoy this game? I don't even.
I don't see any way this would work out as intended. The concept in general is flawed because of any of the following reasons: How is a new player "deemed worthy"? If they just check a box in the options menu, it's pointless. If it's by hours played or some stat tracker then it's opaque and frustrating, locking them out of what they likely downloaded the game to see. If it's by another person deeming them worthy then it is just outright hostile to new players. How are new players supposed to get better with these tanks? In my experience most new players do most of their learning in small <10 player games in the quiet hours, and these type of games would suffer the most from this arbitrary lock. Expecting anyone to get 1200 wages in a 5v5 is just sadism since they will likely immediately lose the heavy tank that they have never gotten the chance to use before. New players starting local games or joining empty servers will have tons of res yet can't spend it because they are unilaterally banned from buying tanks. The whole point of wages is that skilled players can gain and manage them while new players will often be totally ignorant of them. Even for vets, accruing significant wages as infantry against mid or late game tanks is a slow grind. There's only so much base bitching to be done and new players aren't very efficient at it anyway. What is a new player then supposed to do for more than half the game instead of use tanks? Beg the commander to customize one for them? Blow through tickets throwing themselves against fully researched tanks that they're told they're not allowed to have? Spam jeeps and LTs to get annihilated constantly, losing all their meager wages and making them quit the game? If a new player can't find any way to use a cool heavy tank except by stealing one, they're gonna steal them every chance they get and probably get banned and uninstall. However, the overarching idea of the commander restricting who can build or what can be built is something everyone wants to see.
I agree with varbles. New players should not have any restrictions put on them. However a team wide chassis limit, may solve your issue. Say the commander can choose how many of each expensive chassis they want on the field. E.g. limit Arty to 2 chassis only. So only 2 tanks can be on the field at any one time Doesn't matter who drives, just how many tanks are currently in use. This will stop resource waste on extra tanks that are not required.
I've been saying this for literally the last 8 years. If the commander could just restrict the number of each chassis he wants, Artillery would be so much more viable. On top of that, it opens up the possibility of making Mediums the main tank and Heavies a lot more powerful, but way more expensive so that you maybe only field 2-3, almost as super tanks. It also allows the commander to set up rushes a lot easier so he can just have 2 APCs with 8 LTs or something, rather than the usual where half the team gets APCs and then your rush does no damage. The possibilities really do go on.
...weren't you lead developer for like 3 of those years? But you're right - that concept is pretty much Idealpires
EDIT: for some reason I accidentally changed the contents of this post rather than posting again so I lost whatever was here before. TL;DR we didn't really have the manpower to work on as many features as we would have liked because the game was riddled with showstopping bugs back then, and they were a higher priority. This was still like #1 on my requested feature list though, but it was a substantial undertaking to implement due to how shitty the vehicle customisation and commander UI are.
You got the position because you got people to work through whining... you would be great middle management.
Absolutely not. Sorry it is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It doesn't take that long to figure it out, if people waste a couple of heavy tanks but have fun its fine. The commander should have some more control, I like tricksters suggestion. I'd prefer a nice slider bar for each type of chassis - but it would have to be applied to the VF menu first - you don't want to go through customising only to be told that you can't build because of limit. Really instead of drop downs (which are cancer) there should be a main page where you Click on the type of chassis you want (with the number fielded & commander limit - even better a nice bar graph). But with what we can reasonably expect after being told forever that the menu system is hard as hell to change/replace, etc. Then I think a simple limit on Artillery would solve immediate issues.
