Some guy cut me off on the way to work the other day and without thinking I shouted out ‘Noob!’

Regarding map balance. This morning I played- Kungur - Red wins easily Red Alert - Red wins easily Future - Red wins easily Rio - heavily favors Blue team but for the life of me I cannot figure out why I played all four of those battles in 30 minutes. Why? Quick Red wins were only part of it. The bigger problem was Blue team desertion - early battle termination kicked in at least twice when Blue team realized they were hopelessly outmatched. Back to Rio - it’s the same setup as on countless other maps - exposed single capture point and two flags. Lots of places for Red’s to pound the capture point and take out defenders. I just don’t get why Blue seems to dominate. I almost turned the battle around for Red, but we just couldn’t cap fast enough. My trick was rocketing into Blue base with full drugs and strafing the defenders with Twins for as long as my drugs and Overdrives could last. I never had the flag, rather my purpose was to draw off the defenders fire - then flag bearers can cap. But - Two Viking-Isidas and a Titan Twins were enough to keep the Blue point locked down. Blue also had a Wasp-Hammer spawn killing Reds. Other Reds also weren’t doing a great job of pouring damage onto point defenders. But that happens in other maps. Maybe the difference here is that there’s no convenient ramp Red can use to jump on top of defenders. I really don’t know. “Playing Blue Defense is too boring”. IKR but players do it. I’ve done it too. It’s kind of a nice break from grinding away on Red and in other modes. Isida and Heavy hulls are an obvious must have, but Freeze is often used to little effectiveness. Freeze just can’t slow down and or damage a driver with the flag fast enough since the flag bearers are only on a one-way trip. IMO there’s room for discussion on Blue team defense strategy. Magnum, Twins, and Thunder protection is a must for point campers, but there’s gold (read crystals) in figuring out the support system for these defenders. Probably need a spare Isida waiting to swoop in should one of the primary Blue healers be killed. Then the usual short range turret suspects could also be waiting in the wings to weaken (not necessarily kill) approaching Reds and or take over point defense. Then a Bue Scout with a midrange weapon can drug and spawn kill Reds. This last can be surprisingly effective since Reds are focused on Flags and Capture Points. Reds in Assault rarely consider Blue sleepers hiding out in map periphery - they just don’t have time - remember the clock is running against them. .

I haven’t played on Highways or Highland, but based on what I’ve read, I have to agree. Placing either the flag or he capture points in the middle of the map feels like a mistake.

Blue side was playing “with brain”. Noob red team still won. But as I said in my original post, players need a few days to adapt to this mode of game play. If Alterniva, makes big changes based on today, all that will happen is that the game will overcorrect and map balance will shift like a pendulum to the opposing side. .

Played a game this morning on Bridges - pretty balanced on the surface. But on closer inspection not so much. Blue team was very coordinated - two or three Isidas healing each other at the capture point, drugging of course and sharing Overdrives. Vulcan perched high wearing approaching flag carriers. Freeze, Rico, and Thunders cleaning up the rest. They should have locked a win. Blue lost Red won. Was Red team coordinated? No. Red team was a hot mess of players fighting for the flag and or multing doing just nothing at all. Red Flag carriers usually had to fight their way to the capture point past three to four blue defenders with little to no team support. The final score was very close. I capped the winning flag. If I hadn’t, Red would have lost. Still, if Red team had known what they were doing, Blue would not have stood a chance. My perception is that players know how to defend, but don’t know how to Assault, since this is truly new. Once players figure this out in a few days, I expect Red to be dominant across the board. The secret, Red players, is to attack the Blue defenders whether or not you have a flag. Otherwise flag carriers face an insurmountable Blue defense. .

So the :ph34r: emoji was lost on you. Yes, I realize we’ll learn about new modules via N&A. I use the wiki all the time for legit module research and value its information. My remark was meant as irony since I always hope I’ll see something new.

Thank you :D Assault Mode :wub:

In which case they would have just nerfed it after the Halloween 50% sale. By then pretty much anyone high rank who was even remotely interested in Magnum not only had it but also had it MU’d to at least 12/20 steps.

They will be in the existing bases. Heavy hulls camping on the CP spot will need Magnum protection for sure. But most bases have lots of corners for Viking-Freezes to hide.

Tomorrow is definitely going to be crazy. It took devs many days to get Yorkshire balanced for Assault Mode when it was the new year map last year. Expect wild imbalance on other maps tomorrow. Gonna be so much fun...

Yay! I echo that we should have Assault in PRO battles too. Last year, no-Supply was the only way defenders (blue teams) stood a chance.

Breaking news - Assault Mode is HERE TOMORROW!

Only thing I can think of is Assault Mode is coming really soon, and they removed maps they don’t think will work with Assault format.

Are all these maps really gone from Standard battles? Also, no surprise why the shift to 10x10. Map diversity needs to go away so that the Matchmaking system won’t infuriate players. Too late, IMO.

Completely agree. I thought the great Magnum nerf was due in October. Then again we are at the doorstep of another Holiday and you know how they like to nerf before a good sale... Regarding Shaft... it’s become a viable melee weapon, which I just don’t get. That was never it’s role in the game. .

I know this is only mildly on topic, but I frequently refer to the wiki page on Modules, hoping there will be new modules listed there :ph34r:

This. You just can’t get as many kills as a Legend when half your enemies are wearing double armor and 40%+ protection against your turret.

Clans teaming up in death matches. Did my mission and got the heck out of this mess. Will do the same tomorrow and back to real play on Monday.

I thought about that but disagree - so long as a minimum number of reports must be submitted before action is taken. Also, I’m not suggesting automatic kick, just making it easier to get a battle mod’s attention. That mod would still make the final decision. Side note - IMO the player base is not mature enough to ever get an automated, player-initiated kick system. .

The report option should be easier - say clicking on a user name should show an option to report in addition to View Profile, Add To Friends, etc. The current vote mechanism is clunky.

My perception was that animated paints were given away too often in containers, and thus lost their value.

Hello My local retailers are reporting that PaySafeCard is returning “Out of Stock” messages when purchasing PIN numbers. I’ve already contacted PaySafe but no response yet. Can you put in an inquiry to see if Alterniva is seeing PaySafe activity on your end?

Played the new Polygon in CTF Mode this morning. Forget ‘change’ - that’s a completely different map. I had always loooked at Polygon as a war between the two platforms, mostly for control of the CP point in the center pit. Now, those platforms are mostly useless and honestly I never went near them during the battle I played. Instead the added areas and the movement of the flags into those areas change the map from a North-South feel to an East-West feel (if ya feel me :D). I liked it. I will miss the inverted flag positions of old Polygon CTF, but this is the first updated map I’ve played on which actually felt new. It’s that different.

Wow new Highland is very different. Red team has a bit more advantage than before now that a Magnum-friendly launch area, only accessible from within their base. I wonder how many Magnum protection modules will sell during Christmas sale :ph34r:

On the other hand, defending team has a huge advantage with supplies off, should Assault Mode be made available in PRO battles. Seriously, last New Year, I would play Red team for Standard battles and Blue team for NS PRO battles. Red team won 95+% of Standard battles, and Blue team won 98+% of PRO battles.