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[Exodus]

Hey guys,
when I made these changes, I already knew that there would be some controversy about them, but the reason I did it either way is, that I believe it's for the better of the whole game. First of, I'd like to point to the discussion thread I opened in the Beta Forum, where everyone could voice their worries about the latest changes and I also tried to take the arguments very seriously. Like I do now.

1. I hate this old factory style in our base. It's like the third time since I began to play that they change factory and try to bring us to a Spawnning factory in our base. I admit that this ''old idea'' make the game shorter but now there's no more fun of playing a pub game. Now it's like impossible to make a comeback like before.

I'm not sure, which other changes you are talking about, but it's not important. Like I already said in the thread mentioned above, games in which you are pushed back towards your base (and all your CPs are lost), are lost games in most cases anyway. When you are pushed back into your base and you can't do anything, you get frustrated. When you push your opponent back to his base and you can't end the game in less than a half hour, you get frustrated. I just tried to reduce this time, because I believe the most enjoyable part about a game is the fighting for CPs and trying to catch your opponents to get an advantage over them and not trying to prolong the game by at least 30 minutes in which you abuse the protection and massive heal of your own base and feed of even the smallest mistakes the other team makes, since they take a way greater risk than you.

I also might add, that I've seen people fighting back, even when all factories were destroyed. In this case, there is no difference to the old versions, because the factories are gone anyway. You even got possibilites like repairing your buildings, rebuild them and to buil additional buildings like Tinker Tower and Spawning Factories.

2. Flying tank are sucking more. All those addition road you did in middle and before the ''special tank shop'' remove an argument to keep a flying tank in our team. Well, I was not a big fan of flying tank because of net but now it's ridiculous.

Ok, so you personally don't like Air Tanks, but that doesn't mean that they suck or are underpowered. Just because the biggest advantage of Air Tanks are their speed and mobility, doesn't mean we have to cripple the ability of the Ground Tanks to move around the map.
The change near the Tank Construction Hall of the Dark Force I only made, to make the terrain equal to the one of the Light Force side, since they could reach this shop way easier. One reason I changed the mid CP terrain was, to make it easier to capture them, easier to change the lane (since every other CP also has multiple ways that leads to them) and to give Ground Tanks a better chance of escaping from the CP, when the enemy is about to attack. These may be benefits for Ground Tanks, but I don't see how Air Tanks are now any weaker then before.

3. When we are more to capture a factory, it's faster. That make the teleporter more stronger when this item was already the best item.

Well, I was about to nerf the Teleporter too, but I figured this would be too much for now.
It's true, that the Teleporter is an essential item, but the change also makes teamplay and map awareness more important, something that is not provided by any item or ability. It's about the players, which have to adapt and it seems to me, that some players are not willing to. Keep in mind, that a complete team, that goes for a CP was already pretty dangerous and you had to keep an eye on them of course. I just wanted to award aggressive play more, than the passive one (just waiting until the enemy makes a mistake, rather then acting on yourself). This way you take a risk of focussing your power on one CP, with a slightly higher chance of success than before.

Actually. I like the new terrain change but dislike the new factories.
To win again, just focus on the base with mortar. It is kinda retarded.
Especially when there is leavers (4 games on 5?), the team with more players just have to send one player to focus on the base.

Well, this is true, but this also has been this way before, so I don't see the big change here. It's not like just because the normal factories don't heal anymore, you can't defend against a single player, that focusses on sieging anymore.

- Control Points are now captured faster, when more tanks are near it
This means the teamwork can decide a game really fast => pub games become less fun than before
For example, in league games, if one of your teammates has less aware of cp protection, a team could lost cps really fast, and I think there is no way i can save it, when 3-4 enemies are coming.
Also it rises the importance of a tp. Now it becomes a must to have (in early game). Without having a tp (or tp in cd), basically i dare not to walk far away from a cp.

Instead of repeating what I said above, I might add that you can't defend against 3-4 enemies anyway when you are alone. Additionally, when there are about 4 enemies on a single lane and your own team doesn't mind and just keeps on creeping, they deserve to lose the CP, becaue you have to notice the absence of enemies on your lane and watch what they do.

- Control Points heal only half as fast, when you take damage
I feel it heals much less than half fast. If i choose a short range weapon, and a mid-long range airship build a barri first and fly outside my range. I feel like nothing i can do, but sit next to the cp till die, and cp lost.

The trick is, not to stay near the CP to die. The new heal items are also not completely pointless, since they allow you to heal even when you are not at your CP, which means you can drive back a little, regenerate your lost HP and attack your opponent again.
I also tried to keep the total healing rate like it was before, so it shouldn't be slower, but I can check that again. Also, there has been no change to the amount of damage you receive.

- The normal factories in each base won't heal anymore and they got a new model
Remove the healing maybe reasonable, but i don't like the new factory model in base.
Also, after lose all cps, the mortars can easily take out all factories. Without cps and factories, there is no way to turnover the game. so the game is more determined, but less fun.

The main reason for changing the model, was to show that there was an elementary change to the factories - the remove of the heal. At first I also was kinda skeptical, but now I don't mind at all anymore, maybe it just takes some time to get used to. But if you guys feel, that the model is just horrible I can change it back again. Regarding the mortars, just refer to my answer to Althend.

new tank it is better than 8.72 factories changes if you want it on 8.72 please put it into additional mode. i dont like that new changes,i dont like the half heal cp and non heal cp idea but if you in official map of 8.72 you put it as additional mode so that i can try maybe give some suggestion about it ,try to keep original ,
new weapons and tanks it is what i or most players want ....

In my opinion a mode should only modify start parameters of game and not complete game mechanics, because the game feels completely different because of them. You then have multiple modes, multiple gameplays for which you have to balance the games, which just makes it really difficult to balance. I feel it's better if we integrate these things in the game directly and modify them until they fit. This way, we get the best things out these changes, which would normally have been divided in different modes.

Whats point of playing after loosing all cps now you cant even heal at your facs anymore i hate it i don't mind the terrain changes ,also i think having so many people around or in is to imba for countdown to take over

You see, there is another reason for the CP change, it is also easier to take them back, when you are able to pull off an coordinated attack.

Well I'll admit I don't know much about the problems we hear over and over but they do exist.
Speeding up the game is a good thing. However the new models of factories should be shrunk to their
original size so that pathing is less constricted.

In fact, only the model changed, but not the size. The collusion size is the same as before, and so is the pathing.
@the rest of your post: I'm not sure, if I understood this correctly, but do you suggest to somehow change the gold distribution?



Ok, I think I covered most of the critics here. Even if it may seem like it, I don't want to defend these changes until the very end. I'm willing to adjust the changes or even to take them back, but I want you to give them some time and to consider the real impact on the game that they have.

For now I thought about increasing the heal range of the Headquarters and the Vehicle Factory, so they cover a bigger area of the base. I might also add a small heal to the base factories again (like 25% of the original one), but I'm not too sure about this.

There might be some mistakes in this post, but it's way too long to proove-read everything now ...