Things that aren't fun in Empires.

That already happens when the projectile's speed is greater that railgun projectile's speed, such as 4000 for example. Then it flies where-ever it wants and it isn't controllable in any way.

In my opinion the spot should be actually model farther away. :D

 

The hmg is way to accurate if you use it prone

 

Actually I think people use it with accuracy upgrade in prone. That makes it very sharp. This could be fixed by dynamic accuracy bonuses for different weapons. That way when people are in prone with HMG and without accuracy upgrade won't get too much spread but when neither would get too much accuracy when they use accuracy upgrade.

 

Turret missiles having infinate amounts of fuel. It's so cool in a 3phase jeep to outrun a turret missile, but they just track you forever so eventually if you have to turn or slow down, you get hit.

 

Actually. I think the missiles blow up after some time. They have the time limit. At least I remember it to happen like that.

 

There are many little quirks and bugs in Empires that I feel need addressed. But those pale in comparison in the way of fun to the fact that it seems like people have to draw the short straw to be a commander sometimes, and more so, no matter how good your team is, if a bad/new comm gets in there. Game over.

Except of course if the enemy comm is even worse or you have some ninjas on your team.

 

Vehicle-launched homing missiles blow up fairly quickly. Generally I see turret missiles smack into nearby objects, rather than explode in midair.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the HMG.
The other rifles are just so much more dastardly, I'm actually starting to use the HMG just so I don't feel imbalanced. While still being effective, that is. Unlike the AR, which I am for some reason either useless with, or I am the reigning god of death, depending on my having the accuracy upgrade.


A new (or old, but recently matured) annoyance:
Engineers do everything in the game, and so they're the worst at killing things.
Riflemen can't do everything, but they're absolutely godly when it comes to killing everything to make up for it.
Grenadiers are for when you need a tank to kill that armorless apc that just rushed into your base, but you can't afford one.
Scouts... They do jack all but snipe and sabotage, and to an extent they aren't even the best at THAT.

So, either you want to kill stuff (Rifleman) or you don't (Engineer) or maybe you're having a crisis of purpose (Grenadier/Scout). That is the fantastic class balance of Empires that encourages everyone to be something different.

 

That's something inherent with having the game dependant on commanders.

The two solutions are to either ensure that all commanders are good, or to reduce the dependence on them.

 

And DizzyOne can't abide by the latter, so that issue is pretty clear.

 

Empires is all about Commanders/-Mode, and the system is good as it is.
Any change to the that is basically to put an end to Empires.

If an Commander fails it probably better to help him instead of flaming him.
Being a good Comm is a learning process. One that can be long and painful.
It's said, you learn more from your failures than from your victories.
If you make a demand to the Comm, think first if he is actually capable to do.
I see sometimes people asking the Comm to build/ do things while he don't have actually have the resources to do so and then get pissed about him.
So help your Comm.
You don't have to win every game. If you have only fun when you are winning, than maybe you have an issue somewhere else in you life.

 

Dragoon is right, Empires is all about commanding and changing that by just a tiny bit would kill everything Empires stands for.

But then again, Empires also needs maps where there just isnt a comm, more maps like Escort only then the flag capping would be 2-way so both BE and NF could cap multiple flags. We only got 3 or something around that, and thats alil to few imo.

 

In my opinion it isn't fun to sit in the command vehicle at all and mostly I end up saying that I came here to play and not to command.

It is so bloody boring to just sit in the command vehicle and give attack orders, order your troops, place some buildings and do research.

In my opinion the command vehicle could use some weapons, reseachable or already mounted so it could actually attack too or at least do something more fun than just hovering above the game level and missing all the action and just concentrating on giving orders and good plans with good research.

 

While I disagree commanding could be boring, I understand why people think commanding is boring.
Maybe something should be added, but weapons and such are a no good.
The point of a commander is too, "just concentrating on giving orders and good plans with good research."

 

Give the commander a new tab in the HUD that opens up Tetris :D

 

I dont want to command because theres always a majority of players that
dont follow your orders and blame you because they fail...

 

If empires was all about commanding, the other thirty players on the server would be doing it too.

Empires is 'all about' shooting things and driving tanks, because that's what the majoirty of the players do. The commander is simply there to facilitate the construction of bases, and to govern research. It adds a nice amount of variety to the game because bases are different each time and so, hopefully, is research, but the fact that it's a human being doing the placement of structures is only relevant to one player, and that's the person doing it.

You could replace the commander with a sufficiently intelligent robot and only one person would notice, and that would be the person who is no longer commanding. If you replaced all the FPS players with bots then everyone but the commander would notice, although the comm might wonder why his players suddenly became much more cooperative.

However, as we do not have an AI capable of passing a turing exam to command the team, a human player is the only other option. You could remove some of the elements from the commander, the research could be done on a simple timer for example, or be greatly simplified to unlock large chunks of technology, which would keep variety in weapons while making it easier for new comms. You could also rework the base building if you wanted, to make it more static, but that would require a major map redesign and would trade off the existing 'build anywhere' idea for a more in-depth base mechanic, you could put the tunnels in for one thing, by placing 'slots' on the map for buildings to be constructed in.

Both of those would keep the game more or less empires, as the current flag + vehicle no-comm maps demonstrate, while making the commander less important, although I don't think the bad comm problem occurs often enough to require that, if it starts to become an issue, however, I would consider making changes to avoid it.

 

took me a little while---but they do blow up after a specific period of time (i THINK its probably around 10 seconds but i could be wrong (never counted it))

 

The commander, a good one, can not be replaced by a sufficiently intelligent robot. The commander job isn't that simple. Nor with the players. (I'm not talking about the limits of AI, I mean that a human is needed for this job)
The players are supposed to follow the commanders orders and do what is needed as the commander can't supervise all the players. Having bots who follow my orders exactly would not be helpful to me.

One of the focal points of Empires is in fact the commander with RTS elements. Say what you wish, but Empires is about commanding. Tanks are a bigger point than commanding overall, but the commander comes second.

About the issue of making base building more strategic, how could you make it more strategic? Adding pre-set buildable tunnels could be added if the mapper wanted, but that would not be wise. Removing the place any mechanic would remove some of the strategy also.

 

Reasons not to command:

1a. The commander gets all the credit for victory.
1b. The commander gets all the credit for defeat.
1c. Victory ain't that hot.
2. Without voicechat, getting players to pay attention (or act on it) is nigh-impossible.
3. Waiting for them to build buildings is irritating.
4. It takes me 30 seconds to wriggle a building into tight spaces.
5. My invulnerability complex does not fit well with the piloting of slow, defenseless, mission-critical equipment.
6. Smarter people go into a game with a set strategy. I calculate it on the fly. Id hurds muh brayn.
7. By the time I feel safe enough to get the fun research, it's already over.

 

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