The poll in this thread is not to figure out the specifics, just to get some simple idea of what people think.
Okay, before people come yelling “panzernoob”, let’s talk about this.
I’m creating this thread because I don’t know if these things are planned by SD and to get some ideas from people about this subject, so my blatherings might be dumb but I would like to hear the ideas of you people.
Ahem, I think explosions bring invaluable levels of strategy in the game. Currently the game requires very little map awareness. The best strategy for everything is to just bunch together, and then the people with the best aim win. Now it’s good, that good aimers are rewarded but currently there is NOTHING else but aiming in the gameplay. Only way you can make a considerable difference is if you have awesome aim.
If explosions had more prominence it would make the game more strategic, people would be more aware of the map because of the fear of getting hit by explosions, the best strategy would not be to just bunch up in one route because you get taken out instantly like that.
The medic could be a powerful healer because killing and gibbing could potentially happen very very fast. As currently almost everything is based on bullets it’s really hard to have medic that isn’t too powerful but is still very viable. People are talking about getting revive shields in the game, which I agree with, but if explosives aren’t used more, people get gibbed very rarely instantly and the revive shield mechanic might become too powerful.
Engineers could actually create better turrets and defensive things (of course they would require relatively long arming) if there were explosives to clear them with.
People who are against explosives say something like “it’s not good because you can’t do anything about it, if he knows where I am and I don’t know about him, he has a very high chance of killing me”. I do not see the problem in this, this is map awareness and strategy. Maybe you should actually try and figure out where the enemy is before he finds you. This would also give the heart beat censor more of a purpose, as now it’s just sort of useful. Recon class would actually be about reconning.
And let me say, I’ve been using words like “explosions having more prominence”, this doesn’t mean huge explosions with enormous blast radiuses, just more diversity in explosions (compare the differences of usage between nade and for example panzer), and having slightly more of them as a whole in the game. The splash could be as small as it is in the current nades for all I care.
Explosives being more prominent brings a whole new level of strategy, and I could perhaps live without them if we were given some new level of strategy in return. I think SD tried to fix the strategic gap which was left from taking out explosives with the special nades of the assault, but as many have said, mechanics that impair the player feel much more cheap than good and honest damage. The assault special nades are always either too powerful or they have so small effect that they are futile.
Sure, currently maps like Whitechapel might suffer if more explosions were put in the game, but I would say it’s the map that has the problems. The movement in the game might very well currently be too slow to allow much more explosives, but I’m hopeful that the movement will become more responsive in the future.
This is a bit of a tangent and just one simple scenario, but there are two types of simple, there’s the free simple, and then there’s the restrictive simple. The interesting thing between these two types of simple, is that the free kind is the only one that allows strategy in a game. Like lets humor the idea, that engys would drop an explosive on the Waterloo gate, and then it could be armed by multiple engineers, and then lets say that the assault has a panzerfaust that has a splash radius comparable or even smaller than current nades. The match begins, and the attacking team is clearly weaker when it comes to aiming, but they got brains. First couple minutes is fumbling and corroding the defence, but then they manage to push with multiple engineers through the tunnel to the gate, and they bumrush the arm on the explosive, all getting killed instantly after it’s armed. Luckily, the engy of the defending team was gibbed earlier, so it takes couple seconds for him to come disarm. The trick of the attacking team, is that assault was in relative safety during this whole time, he was maybe hiding, or he might’ve timed his death so he comes now from the spawn, gets a line of sight for just half a second to blast the engy and the assault who is covering the engy with his body, and the attackers win that obj.
In the current game this scenario is impossible. The restrictive simple princpile that is in the game currently, makes it so that planting is a very simple task indeed, but it is very restrictive. If multiple engys could plant faster it would still be simple, but free, which would allow for more strategy. And no one except a great aim would be able to get that kill on the defensive engy. An assault was covering his body, he was sitting on medpacks, everyone was looking to shoot anyone who might try and kill him. Only great aimers get clutch plays currently, which is fine and all but it gives no value to strategy. Sure if bigger explosions were in the game they would be used also not so intelligently, but does that make all the strategies that revolve around explosions worthless? Adding some “chaos” doesn’t make the game instantly scrub.
As I said, my blatherings might be dumb, so please tell your ideas.
