Gook, in case you missed it:
"Basically, the disengagement rule is akin to gaining air superiority so that the ground troops can work on overoming the defences. The defences, in this game, mostly being ai. What it does then is allow the side victorious in battle to fight ai relatively unmolested by the other side. It gives a more meaningful role to those races that don't excel at hex-flipping, but are more suited to pvp. It makes a campaign more about racial teamwork."
I am fed up to the back teeth of your snide jousting remarks, when it's been proven to you time and again that not all of us who believe in the rule a) fly the big ships, and b) believe that only equal sized opponents are worthy of engaging.
D2 nowadays has something for everyone. Pvpers and hex-flippers both have their place, working together. In the past, as you so clearly showed with Sockfoot's campaign guide, pvpers had no real place. In fact, according to that, we were a burden, as we weren't always killing ai.
By lowering the time penalty for losing a fight, I think that makes it even better than what it was before. Also, the reverse of this: "If you really wanted to, you to could jump into a fast flipper and counter what the flipper was doing to you." applies to the hex-flippers too.
You call us pvpers "lazy". Why are we lazy? I've done the death drag droner thing many , many times. It's mind-numbing. It's simple. A pvp battle, where a strategic target depends on you winning that battle requires intense concentration and cleverness. It is far from lazy. I take that as an insult. Thing is, both types of play are needed on the D2 nowadays. Can you accept that?
We all have an opinion, and I'm as tired of your line as you are of mine. That being said both are valid stances and the horns of the dilemma we face.
I get banned for an hour in a flipper so the jouster doesn't have to chase me about. Now that may seem equitable to you but it doesn't to me. It seems to favour one style of play over another, but again that's opinion.
I either change my style of play to suit yours, or I am marginalised in a potentially crucial area, may seem just to you, does not to me, but that's an opinion.
Don't like it when the shoe's on your foot, but you're willing to stuff it on someone elses?
While you're complaining about "being marginalized" by a "jousting" PvP player, you're also advocating that everyone should fly ships that have only one purpose on the server, which is to run missions in the shortest possible time to make the DV move in the player's favor the fastest.
From the sounds of this comment, combined with the other comments made so far, you sound like you're not happy unless you're given free reign to run sub-2 minute missions in a hex repeatedly till it turns your color.
Anything which interrupts this holy quest, is a distraction. If you are
forced into PvP, you want to be able to completely annihilate, or at least seriously cripple, another player's ship in one salvo with a fleet solely under your control. Especially if you're crippling a ship that costs 5 times the amount of money your entire fleet does.
If I wanted to play that game, I'd be Mirak. Guess what, I'm still ISC, after all the attempts by the "vocal droner" crowd, and the prior conditions, to marginalize
me.
D2 is a "mission matching generator", or at least according to what was advertised lo so many years ago. And these missions should be worth more than a 5-minute delay (after being drafted, getting into the run, taco-belling, and finally hex-hopping to try again. They should be worth more than my 15k PP ship blowing up your 5k ship. Too bad Taldren, in their haste to get the game to work, couldn't make it happen.
Or at least too bad for me, in my Plasma ship, as you get what you want. The ability to make the "biggest" impact on what counts according to Taldren's released design, which is the fastest ability to move the DV in your direction.
I'll admit, the Disengagement rule
was written to make these D2 "matched" missions worth something more than the original content. And I view it as a bitter pill, while it makes plasma worth flying somewhat, it comes at the cost of affecting droners. I saw the effect the attempts to make Plasma worth-while have had on the Mirak. I recall the days when KAT and KOTH were a 30+ person fleet that was a force for any team to reckon with. Too bad that at that same time we were lucky that the entire Plasma-contingent (Rommie, Gorn and ISC) were equal to the size of the Mirak.
Now, here's the deal. These threads
can be used to search out compromises that would allow
both plasma
and droner the ability to have fun on a server, with associated, and balanced, costs to both sides.
As long as both sides recognize that things
do have to change, and are willing to take penalties along with the gains.
Be honest with me. Are your 72 or 144 point of damage a turn Mirak DFs or DWs significantly (I mean more than 1 minute or 2 rounds) slown down against a DD or CL instead of a FF? And, would your hex filp times change significantly (on the order of needing one additional pilot for a full hour), if your missions were increased by 30 seconds each but the requirement for resupply every mission or 2 in a "hot" area (where you need all your drones in case of a PvP) is removed?
After years of being on the short end of the stick, as it were, according to Taldren's "stock" design (ie, my race is not optimized to flip hexes the fastest, and even if I did engage and destroy the fastest hex-fliipper their loss is best termed Marginal, as they can be back in their original state within an hour or 2, while a loss of a ship that can even remotely compete on the hex-flip side often costs me close to a day's work) , I face a situation where my continued enjoyment, and willingness to stay here, nevermind reason for me to be here, is dependent on certain steps, not necessarily my steps, being taken to insure that I have a reason to be here, and that I play on the most level playing field we can provide within the limitations of the game, it's source, and what we can manipulate within it. And I want these steps to preserve the core fundamentals of the ISC (ie, the biggest bunch of barbarian-ship @$$-whoppers in the game, that can find and engage in a combat that means something more than a short delay to the opponent), not make me a Mirak-clone in a blue hull saying "ribbit" instead of "meow".
I have been patient. I am remaining patient as long as I humanly can. Yet the fact that I am here on a soapbox ranting reminds me that, in the overall scheme of things, my patience is wearing quite thin. I feel that I am still capable of comprimizing, and maintaining an overall (hopefully) fair sense of balance. I realize that certain avenues won't accomplish my wishes, but can still "balance" the game. If, when all is said and done, the game is balanced, but I cannot stand the balance, probably because I am not an ISC pilot anymore but something that only looks like an ISC pilot, then I will gladly, but solemnly, leave.
I still hold out hope that, when the dust settles, the (returned) KAT / KOTH fleets can still flip a hex unapposed in less than an hour, but if the resurgent Plasma forces do manage to catch some of these kitties, they're out a little more than 4 DV points and 2 hours of PP... (losses figured as the DV point lost in the death mission, 2 un-run missions waiting for the replacement flipper to be purchased and outfitted, and the 1 mission run by the victor in the loser's absence. At approx. 300 PP a mission, 5000 gross PP is earned in approx. 17 missions, which can be run on average (assuming a 2:00 mission) within 34 minutes, with additional time being spent travelling to resupply points, returning to the hex in question, and suffering through the briefing screen and load times. It is theorized by me that 5000 net PP can be easily earned within this time if certain cost-saving measures (ie, relying more on stock reloads or cheaper munitions rather than buying expensive drones every mission, resupplying every 2nd or 3rd mission in quieter areas, being right on top of a supply point instead of a few hexes off, etc. are in use.)
Topic: 11 & 12 none contentious ? (Read 63445 times)