And now you've written yourself why I'll personally pretty certainly will continue to prefer Territory over Countdown. In countdown you need an increased focus due to limited active soldiers which limits paths and choices in how to attack especially with the time limit that forces people to attack nearly head on.
For instance in countdown you will only have 1 cap zone open at the same time and limited time, meaning that enemy movement will be highly predictable.
Focus is important, to keep the game action packed but for me I prefer a game where there is slightly less focus and more freedom to move around and surprise the enemy. Which is why I hope that different maps truly offer game play for different focus types. For instance with fallen heroes it was loads more fun in my opinion when all 3 center capzones were open at all time.
Its one of the reasons why in all fps games clan matches are generally run with lower player amounts than with public matches. As otherwise it gets too crowded, with for instance every entrance covered by multiple people. Which is why I expect that with ROHOS the 16 player map scale will be used competitive for 4v4, and the 32 map scale will be used competitive for 8v8.
I kinda agree with countdown there, but lets see how they make it in the end, it will have its advantages and disadvantages I suppose.
About the map scales: due to the layout of most maps in RO:CA, it had that "clanny" feel even in public servers:
More objectives, and less exposure to the "open" battlefield. For example, lets compare old Koitos with new Konigsplatz.
In Konigsplatz with 50 players, you are pretty much exposed to 25 enemies camping across the field all the time (with a tank or 2). There is not much you can do here, surviving is more luck than skill, just pray that your team is better and manages to advance.
In Koitos with 32 players, you chose your route, you have your personal little fights, and concentrate in them, if you are fighting for the radio house, you don't have to worry about the snipers in the apartment, they have their own fights.
You also know that due to the lower player count, whatever objective you are attacking, the bulk of enemy players in one area wont be an impossible obstacle that will completely lock your movements. And if there are too many, you know that other objectives will be less defended.
What I'm hoping for this game, is that whatever the player count is in the server, maps escalates well and keep a decent number of objectives active at a time to avoid linearity. 3 objectives for 30 players is reasonable IMO (10 players per objective).
Also, those objectives should be more independent from each other, like in RO:CA, when you felt that fighting for one objective or the other could make you feel like fighting in a completely different map. It just feels good to be able to choose the objective you like the most, instead of just slamming the same brick wall with your head over and over again.
Edit: I'm not really against bigger maps, what I'm against is what people mean with bigger maps:
If there was a Koitos with 2 more objectives and 3 more streets for an increased player count, that could be an interesting bigger map. But with bigger maps, people mean Berezina, with 2 more Kilometers long, and that's exactly what I don't want.
Edit 2: I really look forward to the grain elevator map, even if its lineal, that close indoors combat looks like is gonna bring back some of the old RO feel
