Thread: Great game - Inspired mods - Terrible implementation (Tl;Dr at bottom)

Allow me to lead off by applauding this community of administrators for their continued efforts to enrich the game and mod. The man hours spent monitoring, troubleshooting, executing on resolutions and creating refined, custom content is truly impressive and enough appreciation is not expressed.
Thank you.

Below you will find the elements and mechanics that I have observed as detrimental to the overall success of this server. I have attempted to be succinct and not spell out every nuance of each citing. Moreover, I have attempted to broadly describe the friction point, the source, and possible recommendations for resolution.

That being said, allow me to remind the reader, this is a recreational product. We play this game to recreate and have fun doing so. If the gameplay experience quotient results in an unacceptable frustration to fun ratio, players won't play. They will , quite naturally, transition to other servers, products, or outlets which they enjoy more. I write this in the spirit of improving this as a platform for achieving more FUN for everyone.

Engagements: This is the CORE game experience! A critical "MUST HAVE" design element in an Engagement based game is what I call, "Fun Time Reciprocity!"
What is FTR? Simply, it needs to be fun for both the player firing and the person being fired upon.

To illustrate...
Taking fire is thrilling! Judiciously selecting cover, concealment, movement methods and line of sight opportunities are all part of the positive play experience. Even in death, knowing how you perished and from which direction provides a sense of closure as the player plugs the data into their mental construct of the battlefield. A sudden, unannounced and unexplained respawn menu equate to a cheapened experience without any conciliatory satisfaction. Following, are a few game elements that detract from the fun as well as my suggestions. Afterall, a complaint without a solution is just whining! >_o


I. Grass - Turn it off server side, if possible.

I like the grass. It's a nice, immersive element that could also be a tactical element. However, it actually makes gameplay worse for everyone with it's inclusion. You are not obscured unless you are within the viewers grass draw distance range. Lying prone, with slight elevation in 2 ft of grass... if the viewer is more than 35 ft from you, you might as well be laying on a tile floor. There is no fix for this, at present. This game has a enough BS in it that we should make efforts to remove the frustrations that create negative player experiences as we can. This seems it would be an easy fix. Remove grass entirely and everyone has an equitable play experience.

II. Silencers - Pistol only

This is a pvp game, with a generously sized map. The #1 encounter conduit is noise. Regionalized mission indicators (red, blue, green, orange) as well as the new PVP capture and hold mission are a great facilitator for conflicts. However, it's the sound of gunfire that creates the engagements. You know what's not fun? Being one to two shot killed by a silenced opponent from 600+ meters away.

Silenced, long range, high lethality weapons actually remove the "Funtime Reciprocity" of the engagement. The target is injured and removed from play without ever having the opportunity recover, retaliate, or experience the engagement. It's this last part that is the worst offender. If the player does not get to experience the engagement, what's the point of playing a recreational product that is engagement centered?

III. Helicopters - Exclusively vendor purchased at EXTREME cost. No random map spawn.

Vanilla Arma 3 offers a mixed arms experience. It focuses upon the balance of land, sea, air vehicles and infantry elements to contribute to a unified, modern, tactical experience. On the contrary, the Epoch/Overpoch mod delivers almost exclusively on the individual infantry and small squad perspective.

Helicopters create several problems:
1) Hyper enhanced intelligence - A casual flight across the map reveals every base, every vehicle, every defensive layout, and mission status. The point of infantry recon is lost. The effort to build in secluded, well hidden locales is moot, as are any perimeter defenses. The individual (or team of) efforts to hide, judiciously construct, or tactfully engage missions is squandered effort. In other words, the individual, infantry level game play (i.e.- the core game experience) is diluted.

2) Hypermobility - The inclusion of vehicles provides enhanced mobility and dynamic storage. This is a good thing. However, as we all know, too much of a good thing can have unintended consequences. Helicopters shrink the map to meaningless proportions. Travel time and method become inconsequential as the Helicopter supersedes all other transportation options. While I enjoy helicopter flight and combat, this map is too small, and helicopters are too prevalent. Furthermore, they dilute the value strategic decisions such as base location, rally points (to reconvene with your group), and the consequences of selecting respawn locations.

3) Vehicle on vehicle porn -

A) While the feature is certainly neat, slinging vehicles into bases as a siege tactic is not clever use of game mechanics. It's ridiculous and borderline exploitive. As game editors and hosts, we already have mechanics within the game to facilitate siege work and this team is working to maintain that appropriate gameplay balance.

B) This feature also encourages vehicle hoarding, for just such purpose, thereby reducing the amount of vehicles available to the server population at large. How many times have we seen this sample conversation
Player - "Does this serve have vehicles?"
Admin - "Yes, there's 200! They spawn randomly and may also be on the traders."
This leads to my next concern..

C) This feature, most notably on server wipe, encourages the Cash Grab.
1) get the first helicopter.
2) cruise the map.
3) hoist and return vehicle for sale.
4) Profit.

A key component to build a positive player experience for everyone is a reasonably equitable distribution of resources. Fair access to the gameplay assets between players is critical! notice, I did not say "even," but "fair." The Cash Grab player effectively removes fair asset allocation from the resource paradigm. Moreover, he not only removes the asset, but sets a barrier for entry. Where once before the player stood the same chance of acquiring a vehicle as every other player, now he does not AND he must also acquire the necessary funds to acquire the asset! It's a double bite!

Thank you for reading.


Tlr - Grass sucks, helicopters suck, silencers suck; Make them go away.

Now this is how you bitch. Everyone take notes

This guy, I like this guy.

I've noticed a helicopter the other day running back & forth between a trader & base hauling vehicles.

I like pistol silencer only, gives a reason to even carry one. Zombies agro was a big reason for silencer. Epoch equals no zombies. Gogogo!

BL

i agree with most of what was said, although i feel silencers for rifles could still be included but be super rare. having a few really good items in the game with a very low chance of finding them keeps people interested in looting which in turn creates more of those unexpected encounters.

helicopters are definitely too easy to find (and subsequently buy). i assume most people use a vehicle to go looting or to do a mission anyway so they're basically only used to scout for vehicles and bases and then to fly trader to trader to buy/sell without any risk.

Originally Posted by Whiskey_Tempest

Allow me to lead off by applauding this community of administrators for their continued efforts to enrich the game and mod. The man hours spent monitoring, troubleshooting, executing on resolutions and creating refined, custom content is truly impressive and enough appreciation is not expressed.
Thank you.

Below you will find the elements and mechanics that I have observed as detrimental to the overall success of this server. I have attempted to be succinct and not spell out every nuance of each citing. Moreover, I have attempted to broadly describe the friction point, the source, and possible recommendations for resolution.

That being said, allow me to remind the reader, this is a recreational product. We play this game to recreate and have fun doing so. If the gameplay experience quotient results in an unacceptable frustration to fun ratio, players won't play. They will , quite naturally, transition to other servers, products, or outlets which they enjoy more. I write this in the spirit of improving this as a platform for achieving more FUN for everyone.

Engagements: This is the CORE game experience! A critical "MUST HAVE" design element in an Engagement based game is what I call, "Fun Time Reciprocity!"
What is FTR? Simply, it needs to be fun for both the player firing and the person being fired upon.

To illustrate...
Taking fire is thrilling! Judiciously selecting cover, concealment, movement methods and line of sight opportunities are all part of the positive play experience. Even in death, knowing how you perished and from which direction provides a sense of closure as the player plugs the data into their mental construct of the battlefield. A sudden, unannounced and unexplained respawn menu equate to a cheapened experience without any conciliatory satisfaction. Following, are a few game elements that detract from the fun as well as my suggestions. Afterall, a complaint without a solution is just whining! >_o


I. Grass - Turn it off server side, if possible.

I like the grass. It's a nice, immersive element that could also be a tactical element. However, it actually makes gameplay worse for everyone with it's inclusion. You are not obscured unless you are within the viewers grass draw distance range. Lying prone, with slight elevation in 2 ft of grass... if the viewer is more than 35 ft from you, you might as well be laying on a tile floor. There is no fix for this, at present. This game has a enough BS in it that we should make efforts to remove the frustrations that create negative player experiences as we can. This seems it would be an easy fix. Remove grass entirely and everyone has an equitable play experience.

II. Silencers - Pistol only

This is a pvp game, with a generously sized map. The #1 encounter conduit is noise. Regionalized mission indicators (red, blue, green, orange) as well as the new PVP capture and hold mission are a great facilitator for conflicts. However, it's the sound of gunfire that creates the engagements. You know what's not fun? Being one to two shot killed by a silenced opponent from 600+ meters away.

Silenced, long range, high lethality weapons actually remove the "Funtime Reciprocity" of the engagement. The target is injured and removed from play without ever having the opportunity recover, retaliate, or experience the engagement. It's this last part that is the worst offender. If the player does not get to experience the engagement, what's the point of playing a recreational product that is engagement centered?

III. Helicopters - Exclusively vendor purchased at EXTREME cost. No random map spawn.

Vanilla Arma 3 offers a mixed arms experience. It focuses upon the balance of land, sea, air vehicles and infantry elements to contribute to a unified, modern, tactical experience. On the contrary, the Epoch/Overpoch mod delivers almost exclusively on the individual infantry and small squad perspective.

Helicopters create several problems:
1) Hyper enhanced intelligence - A casual flight across the map reveals every base, every vehicle, every defensive layout, and mission status. The point of infantry recon is lost. The effort to build in secluded, well hidden locales is moot, as are any perimeter defenses. The individual (or team of) efforts to hide, judiciously construct, or tactfully engage missions is squandered effort. In other words, the individual, infantry level game play (i.e.- the core game experience) is diluted.

2) Hypermobility - The inclusion of vehicles provides enhanced mobility and dynamic storage. This is a good thing. However, as we all know, too much of a good thing can have unintended consequences. Helicopters shrink the map to meaningless proportions. Travel time and method become inconsequential as the Helicopter supersedes all other transportation options. While I enjoy helicopter flight and combat, this map is too small, and helicopters are too prevalent. Furthermore, they dilute the value strategic decisions such as base location, rally points (to reconvene with your group), and the consequences of selecting respawn locations.

3) Vehicle on vehicle porn -

A) While the feature is certainly neat, slinging vehicles into bases as a siege tactic is not clever use of game mechanics. It's ridiculous and borderline exploitive. As game editors and hosts, we already have mechanics within the game to facilitate siege work and this team is working to maintain that appropriate gameplay balance.

B) This feature also encourages vehicle hoarding, for just such purpose, thereby reducing the amount of vehicles available to the server population at large. How many times have we seen this sample conversation
Player - "Does this serve have vehicles?"
Admin - "Yes, there's 200! They spawn randomly and may also be on the traders."
This leads to my next concern..

C) This feature, most notably on server wipe, encourages the Cash Grab.
1) get the first helicopter.
2) cruise the map.
3) hoist and return vehicle for sale.
4) Profit.

A key component to build a positive player experience for everyone is a reasonably equitable distribution of resources. Fair access to the gameplay assets between players is critical! notice, I did not say "even," but "fair." The Cash Grab player effectively removes fair asset allocation from the resource paradigm. Moreover, he not only removes the asset, but sets a barrier for entry. Where once before the player stood the same chance of acquiring a vehicle as every other player, now he does not AND he must also acquire the necessary funds to acquire the asset! It's a double bite!

Thank you for reading.


Tlr - Grass sucks, helicopters suck, silencers suck; Make them go away.

Fucking Democrat...

Originally Posted by LAYGO

This guy, I like this guy.

I've noticed a helicopter the other day running back & forth between a trader & base hauling vehicles.

Yeah I noticed a fish swimming off the coast of Cherno the other day. He was swimming back and forth and back and forth. Must have been trying to find food or something.