Notepading idle thoughts

[jergul]

Instead of creating a new thread whenever I feel the urge to comment on something, I thought I would gather it here. Feel free to chime in if anything seems wise or silly - or just ignore if the whole "listen to me" seems very 1984.

The fact that I have put something here does not mean I expect TWI use it.

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Achievements seem linked to be equipped with item, not actually using it. So you get a binoc melee kill if you melee with anything while equipped with binocs.

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Spartanovka

A realism ping perspective.

Here is what I would do assuming my understanding of what contributes to lethargy is correct (and its not).

Envision the battle to be between rifle (well with re-enforcements we are speaking of rifle battalions - though only 1 platoon at a time).

1. Remove smoke from commander
2. Remove all radios save one on each side
3 Remove all ammo depots save one on each side
4. Separate commander spawn - Always in proximity to radio
5. Limit artillery to mortar only.
6. Increase cool down time by 20%

7. Russian 1xCommander, 1xSniper, 2xSL, 2xAssault (call class ASL), 2xMG, 2x7 riflemen (squad 1&2), 10 riflemen (squad 3 - Militia)

8. German 1xCommander, 1xSniper, 3xSL, 3xAssault (call class ASL), 3xMG, 3x7 riflemen

9. Standard weapons only. Commanders, snipers, mg gunners have pistols, no one else. Commanders have binocs. No one else.

10. Give German ASLs 1 smoke.

11. Reduce hand grenade loadout to 1 per rifleman, SL, ASL. No one else has nades (the map is actually a spam nade map. Players have not caught on yet).

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The general idea then is to give realism mode a realistic load out, while reducing the number of calculations needed to be done at any given time.

Generic squad name could be replaced with actual historic unit names to aid immersion I suppose

(lets not sweat small stuff like environment resembling early september, while in fact battle took place in october).

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I really miss a DH style 50/51 mm mortar to supplement and replace part of the off board arty. I think on board assets of that type would help server loads somewhat, while adding immerse qualities of persistant low level shelling so typical of much of the Stalingrad battle (think of it. The code for unreal 2.5 actually exists - though you would need a lower muzzle velocity. It may be less work than one might imagine - in a DLC kind of way

 

[Rrralphster]

This is called sacrificing historical accuracy for gameplay.

 

[jergul]

The intent was to increase historical realism. So don't really see your point. But thank you for the response.

CandP:

Soviet Arty
3 Modes - Interdiction, harassment and counter-battery.

Interdiction hits troop assemblies before they deploy to battle. As was Soviet doctrine in both defence and offense. Abstracted by decreasing re-enforcements when this mode is chosen.

Harassment is similar in terms of actually being interdiction too. Commander requests harassment fire in a certain grid. Single or 3 gun salvoes fall into that general area at a slow pace over an extended time frame.

Counter-battery means exactly that. Friendly artillery fires on hostile batteries. Degrading the effects of future enemy fire missions.

Germans have the interdiction and counter battery + point fire. Point fire being similar to what is in game now (or fixed according to suggestion - or parts of suggestion). Though heavily weighted towards 80mm mortars.

Two of the mission types take place off-board, so have little impact on the game itself. The third variant is in the Russian case meant to avoid peak use. Tweaking Germans towards lighter arty should have some positive load effect.

The use of heavy arty and national variations by simply assuming heavy stuff hits troop assembly (re-enforcement count), or acts as counter battery. While the Soviet ability to direct fire is in practice removed by giving them an area fire mode.

Mappers (levelers) wanting on board soviet assets would do well by giving soviets 2:1 amour superiority or better.

I would like to see the click to place arty marker reduced to a crutch giving players the coordinates of the arty they want to place. But that actual call is done with grid coordinates.

The suggestion is actually mildly elegant.

Mortars (company) hit on board with national specific characteristics
Batalion arty hits off board and targets enemy batteries
Regimental hits off board and targets troop assembly points (re-enforcement pool)

The two off board modes could have sound effects and perhaps a light screen shake to indicate fire is taking place.

Additionally - 50/51 mm mortars would be great to have ingame as future DLC. Replacing or supplementing fire missions currently used. I can see how that could be done in a manner decreasing peaks in load.

 

[jergul]

Edit
Depleting and replenishing re-enforcement pool may be worthwhile looking at in additional ways besides arty.

Imagine a medical kit with following fuctionality:

1. Blackout time for incapacitating wounds increases sufficient to give players time to call for medical aid and a window to get there and do their thing (say 20 seconds in total).

2. Medical attention has a small chance of restoring functionality (say 20%), but its main function is in the abstract. A treated soldier that does not recover has a significant chance of adding 1 to re-enforcements. Say 60%. This an abstract of lives saved in one battle help units retain their core strength by returning soldiers after medical leave. So IF a medic does something, then there is a 80% chance of good happening for non instant kill wounds. This functionality with appropriate flashover + 5 team points wounded solider recovers. + 3 team points 1 added to re-enforcement pool. With red cross symbol.

3. Give riflemen option to load out with medical kit instead of nades.

1-3 all should reduce server load by increasing window of black out, taking time to do medical things instead of graphically challenging things, reducing use of nades to something less demanding.

The argument is not realism based, but more that abstractions of a medical aid can be justified as realistic, but implemented mainly to reduce strain on server-clients.

 

[jergul]

Role selection needs interface correction.

It should support squad awareness. Perhaps by forcing an active choice of squad so players get an overview of squad members. So remove auto placement. Auto pop-up squad overview when dead to remind players of squad and allow to chose a new squad before respawn?

Also, spawn with player name instead of spawn with mg gunner or SL. For similar reasons.

 

[jergul]

I find it entirely realistic that tank crews do not dismount and fight as infantry.

In my ideal world however, the scruttle command would spawn bots equal to number of surviving crew members with move order to closest friendly spawn point. Bots remain until next respawn point at which point they vanish in confusion of players magically appearing from thin air. The number of bots that vanish are added to re-enforcement pool.

Same principle on pure tank maps too, though abuse possibility must be considered (blowing up a tank in spawn gives more than 1 new tank).

Its important to remember that tanks are not really about tankers on combined maps. They are about how the rest of the players percieve tanks.

The chance to cut down a bailing tank crew - or for tanks destroyed watching burning crews well burn while rolling in the snow.

For reference Brits normandy. Per tank loss 50% wounded (about half return to duty wounded), 25% dead, 25% unharmed physically. In game terms 50% dead, 50% ok. But that assumes bail out is used in time.

More could be done to encourage bail out. Filling tanks with smoke is perhaps the best variant.

 

[jergul]

Russian perk

Allow infantry to mount tanks.

1. 5 second pause on tank spawn "waiting for infantry to mount"
2. No dedicated slots, allow mantle to work by some mechanism
3. Success.

Clans and what not might pile 32 guys on for kicks, but in practice number of players would be limited to a realistic number. Can alleviate overstacking by slide off function on sloped armour bits.

The DH variant with dedicated infantry slots was not only unnessesary, it also curtailed realism by locking players in a position instead of allowing them movement on top of tank.