End an objective game when it reaches the point of no return for the EV push stuff

(SinDonor) #1

This may have been discussed earlier, if so, please reply with the link to the other thread.

If an attacking team is doing so horribly that they reach a point of no success with the timer, shouldn’t the game end once that point is reached instead of wasting everyone’s time trying to push along an EV that will never make it to the end by the max time, aka the “Mercy Rule”? Maybe my tired 1AM brain is missing something, but I see this as a problem in the game for release. Once attacking players know that “Oh crap, we’re not even 25% done and there’s only ~5 minutes left”, then they’ll all start to drop out and it’ll turn into an empty server instead of wasting their time just to lose.

Unless the XP and GC benefits are too attractive to let the Attacking team quit. Like, keep playing and earn your 100 GC win or lose, leave and only get 50GC. But this may cause frustration if the Attackers are “forced” to hang around and get mauled for their XP and GC gains over the last 5-10 minutes.

I dunno, am I making sense here?

For a normal non-F2P game, players have nothing to lose by quitting and joining another server, but if either the “Mercy Rule” finish or XP and GC penalties aren’t in place for quitting players, then they’ll always leave to try and make XP and GC for a WIN somewhere else.

I’d prefer it if the game just ends when it is logically over with the Mercy Rule. Then the attackers will say, “Oh well, at least that was a quick death. Next game please.” and stay on the same server. This will also keep everyone happy by not forcing the Attackers to keep getting mauled for the entire 16-20 minutes in a game that they can NOT win vs a team of uber Defenders.

Yes? No? Maybe? I went to http://yesnomaybe.info/ for the answer:


The oracle has spoken.

(SinDonor) #2

Actually, the Mercy Rule could work for ALL Objective games. Just have a team of players on the Attacking side do a speed run to complete each OBJ map as fast as possible while the Defenders do nothing. Record that time and then subtract it from the Total Time. Of course, it’ll have to be recorded per objective leg so the Mercy Rule timer can “reset” properly at the start of each leg.

So, for example, let’s say an Obj Map has 4 legs and a total time of 16 mins. During a speed run, the map can be won in 6 minutes. The first leg can be completed in 2 minutes, the second leg in 30 seconds, third leg in 2m, and the final leg in 1m30s, the total Mercy Rule difference is 6 mins. So if the Attacking team hasn’t even left their spawn and the game timer is at 5:59 left, Mercy Rule kicks in and game over man. Sorry you guys got spawn camped for 10 minutes straight, but hey, at least it wasn’t for 16 mins!

But, if an attacking team was able to push up to the 4th and Final leg, then the Mercy Rule timer would only be set to 1m30s. So, in that case, the game would be over if during the final leg, the Attackers are stuck and the clock hits 1m29. Mercy rule, Attackers cannot logically win no matter how hard they try, game over.

Makes sense? No good? Do you guys like to keep playing as Attackers in OBJ games even when you know there’s no chance you can win?

(Hyperg) #3

I’m all up for something like that, though I’d personally would like to see the map time being put to good use, till the last second. To this end, I like the “delivery” type of endings, because they revolve around a person / group more than a prop on a path. Watching the paint dry on a truck/ev/tank as it moves to destination is fun but it’s even more fun to stop “that” dude, carrying the objective. Even that scenario has its own well determined time of completion because of player speed and map layout but it feels a bit more elastic.

Also prop interaction can be fun as the last phase (hack/bomb, etc) as the action itself is short enough, but attracts plenty of gameplay around it. Probably the escort model is the most detrimental to a mercy system because of its length and the fact that it can cut out a good chunk of the map time if the mercy trigger is hit.

(stealth6) #4

One possible solution would be give limited time (5 minutes to repair the EV), if you succeed then another 5 minutes is added to the timer. This has a downside that if the attackers are very strong and they repair the tank on the first wave, they’d have 10 minutes to get past the first barrier, which may lead to spawnkilling at the end (as we saw yesterday). To solve this problem you could just reset the timer instead of adding time (Repaired the tank, timer is restored to 5 minutes). I don’t like the idea of “Mercy rule” that the map would just randomly end because the objective can’t be completed.

(SinDonor) #5

This is a good idea, and really, it’s just another type of “Mercy Rule”. In your scenario, the Mercy Rule states: If you can’t complete Objective Section X in Y minutes because the other team is dominating you, then game over.

Works for me either way. Anything’s better than getting humiliated for 20 straight minutes by a much better Defending team.

(tokamak) #6

I think it should be done the other way around, as long as the objective is active the game should go into overtime and extend the limit until the objective turns passive.

IE, the game will continue as long as the EV is driving. The moment it is stopped the game ends.

(iwound) #7

server vote, mercy or extended time. that way players can decide per game.

(tokamak) #8

That’s just a recipe for drama.

(iwound) #9

even better if a level thumb appeares wavering, then its either thumbs up or thumbs down plus sampled CHEER!

(SinDonor) #10

[QUOTE=tokamak;414094]I think it should be done the other way around, as long as the objective is active the game should go into overtime and extend the limit until the objective turns passive.

IE, the game will continue as long as the EV is driving. The moment it is stopped the game ends.[/QUOTE]

This won’t work for every leg of the EV stuff. Like when it blows up the door at Whitechapel and players have to get the ammo. That might work for the end of certain missions, but not for an entire mission back to front.