kilroy0097
10-07-2011, 03:39 AM
Ok so WiH has ordered a BF3 server and that's awesome! Now we have to think about how we would want to implement that server. This is NOT any sort of vote or choice of the future of the server. This is just me being curious as to what people would like to see.
There are several things to think about that come to mind. Server Settings as in specifics and flags that are enabled or disabled and then Server Maps types.
I'll break it up into two parts and you can discuss as you want. Just try and keep thing realistic that will probably be in the game, i.e. no core game changes such as asking for a "10 member squad" or "turning off flag locations".
We won't know what exactly the settings will be for the server or what the maps will be but we can speculate.
First off I would probably recommend that we keep the server settings at EA/DICE recommended default for the first or a couple of months just because everyone will be learning the game and so it's good to have everything on at first. Once people get used to the game and better then we can start messing with server settings and maps types.
I know we, WiH, tend to raise the bar higher than exists on default settings. Perhaps not as high as some other communities but certainly not scrubs on the landscape. Here is my personal recommendation for longer term settings to eventually implement on a WiH server. BTW there is a Hardcore setting in BF3 like there was in BC2. We'll see how close we get to that because maybe we might want to do that setting once in a while for events.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Server Settings
Minimap: On
I really hope they fix the big main map. I'd like to see the big picture again.
Spotting: Minimap only
No 3D as in seeing enemy red triangles on your screen behind bushes and buildings and all that. If you only saw what your squad spotted then I'd be for 3D but everyone spotting things will make red triangles all over the place I'd think. But I could be wrong so I reserve the right to withdraw this and change it to Yes for 3D.
Crosshairs: Off
No on screen crosshairs. Use your iron sights or scope like a real soldier or just know where the middle of your screen is. Hell they have enough unlockable scopes and other assists to have to be used for something!
Weapon damage: Normal
I think the weapons are plenty deadly at this point. No need to lower or raise the percentage damage of the weapons. After much reading the unbalance we are experiencing is not the weapons but instead is server/client communication issues and other problems. So it's possible in the release that the weapons will be more balanced than we realize.
Squad Spawning: SL and Mobile Spawn Only
I really have no idea if this can be limited. Right now it's supposed to be that the SL can spawn off any Squad Member (SM) and all SM can spawn off the SL but SM can not spawn off SM. Also anyone in the squad can spawn off the Mobile Spawn Point. I am a big supporter of the Mobile Spawn Point. Since BF2142 and using it in PR the idea is very cool and it allows everyone, including the SL, to get into the fight.
Spawn timer: 15 seconds
It was 15 seconds in BF2 and I think that's ok. 20 seconds would be a little longer and also ok if you want it to be just a bit harder. Could compromise and go to 18 seconds.
Infantry passive healing: On
I think it's not unbalancing to have this on. As far as I can tell from Beta it's not all that much. It takes a long long time to get off being critical damage to not seeing red anymore. And if you are willing to lay still and hide for 30 seconds then I say let them.
Vehicle passive healing: Off
Now vehicle healing is just dumb IMO. If you don't have an Engineer then you shouldn't get fixed up. People driving off to heal in a vehicle is just a waste of time and effort. Die in your vehicle or live but to sit idle doing nothing as you time heal a vehicle is a waste of an asset for your team.
Ranked: Yes
Yes I want access to a rank system so unlocks and all that count for something.
Unavailable Unlocks: Not sure on this one if this is even a setting. Someone mentioned it in another forum. I don't think we should mess with it if it exists unless there is a single item or single squad perk, for example, that is recognized by everyone as a piece of over powered garbage or something like that. I doubt it though.
Team Shuffle: Off
Um yeah. We don't want people going through the trouble of making squads only to be shuffled all over the place. Turn this off.
Auto Balance: On
Some people may think that Auto Balance is a useless feature that can be controlled by admins easily and more accurately. Well that's great and all if you have an admin on the server at the time going through and paying attention to do team balance. However that might not be the case all the time. So the decision has to be made. Would you rather have Admins making sure people aren't hacking or griefing or doing any number of other asshat like things? Or do you want them to make sure the teams are balanced all the time? I'd rather them just worry about behavior and having fun playing.
Limited classes: Off
We know this function and it works very well in the long run but I think we should have it off at first. However if Snipers become an issue then I say turn it ON and limit Snipers to a certain number per team to perhaps 6 on a 32 player full team. If that's possible.
Round Start Time: 90 to 120 Seconds
This is the timer that happens after you load a new map before the round starts. Now before anyone bitches about the length of time I've suggested realize that not everyone is chomping at the bit to start the next round. After a round ends many of us like to stretch, get up and walk around, check on things, take a piss, get a new drink or munchies etc. I do not believe that a minute and a half is too long a time to wait and I think that less time such as 60 seconds isn't long enough to take a leak. Back in the day I played on several BF2 servers regularly that had this time set at 120 seconds and it was great and did not hurt population at all. So I suggest between 90 and 120 seconds between rounds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Map Settings
Infantry Only: Off or Map Specific
I'm speculating that you can set maps in the rotation to be Infantry Only and have other maps with vehicles. That it's a map specific flag or at least I hope it is. Once we have played on the maps for a while we can then opt to turn it on for maps that we know suck for vehicles. If we see a Conquest map that would be much better without vehicles then lets test it out and see how it plays. For example an infantry only 32 player map Sharqi Penn I seem to remember being pretty awesome and also Karkand Inf Only was pretty nice. While Gulf of Oman sucked hard as Inf Only and Wake was so so but not fun enough. I think this is a setting we should eventually do down the road to change things up when we get bored with the rotation or certain maps. Perhaps have Infantry Only Weekend Events or something like that. But I don't see this being a need for a while though.
Map Size with Player Size: 64 player map with 64 players.
Ok, obviously we are going to start out with all maps on 64 player sized Conquest maps with 64 players in the game. The standard default for that map size. But like we saw in BF2 and BF2142 sometimes sticking 64 players on a 32 player map made for awesome firefights and quick paced action and sometimes making those same maps Infantry Only made them even cooler. Some of the action we see in RUSH type maps in BC2 we got in BF2 by just decreasing the map size and having more players. Maybe that's where RUSH came from? IDK. So later on another way to change things up would be to take a nice 32 player Urban Conquest map, Make it Infantry only and set it for 64 players and just go ape shit on it.
Game Type: Conquest
I know our bread and butter will be Conquest. Doesn't matter what we do to the servers or map rotations or sizes or populations or whatever but Conquest will be the main defacto. However please do not take into account Operation Metro as how all RUSH maps will be. In BC2 there were some RUSH maps that were pretty awesome actually but a whole lot of them that sucked big time. So I think we may need to play some RUSH maps on other servers and see if one or two stand out as pretty awesome. If they are then maybe we can incorporate a 64 player RUSH map into our rotation. Obviously Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, and the other modes aren't an option unless we have a special tournament or we decided to host a clan contest or something.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there I've started it. Discuss. And my Disclaimer repeated again: This is NOT any sort of vote or choice of the future of the server. This is just me being curious as to what people would like to see.
If the owners of the server wish to take into consideration what is said in this thread that's their business. :popcorn:
There are several things to think about that come to mind. Server Settings as in specifics and flags that are enabled or disabled and then Server Maps types.
I'll break it up into two parts and you can discuss as you want. Just try and keep thing realistic that will probably be in the game, i.e. no core game changes such as asking for a "10 member squad" or "turning off flag locations".
We won't know what exactly the settings will be for the server or what the maps will be but we can speculate.
First off I would probably recommend that we keep the server settings at EA/DICE recommended default for the first or a couple of months just because everyone will be learning the game and so it's good to have everything on at first. Once people get used to the game and better then we can start messing with server settings and maps types.
I know we, WiH, tend to raise the bar higher than exists on default settings. Perhaps not as high as some other communities but certainly not scrubs on the landscape. Here is my personal recommendation for longer term settings to eventually implement on a WiH server. BTW there is a Hardcore setting in BF3 like there was in BC2. We'll see how close we get to that because maybe we might want to do that setting once in a while for events.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Server Settings
Minimap: On
I really hope they fix the big main map. I'd like to see the big picture again.
Spotting: Minimap only
No 3D as in seeing enemy red triangles on your screen behind bushes and buildings and all that. If you only saw what your squad spotted then I'd be for 3D but everyone spotting things will make red triangles all over the place I'd think. But I could be wrong so I reserve the right to withdraw this and change it to Yes for 3D.
Crosshairs: Off
No on screen crosshairs. Use your iron sights or scope like a real soldier or just know where the middle of your screen is. Hell they have enough unlockable scopes and other assists to have to be used for something!
Weapon damage: Normal
I think the weapons are plenty deadly at this point. No need to lower or raise the percentage damage of the weapons. After much reading the unbalance we are experiencing is not the weapons but instead is server/client communication issues and other problems. So it's possible in the release that the weapons will be more balanced than we realize.
Squad Spawning: SL and Mobile Spawn Only
I really have no idea if this can be limited. Right now it's supposed to be that the SL can spawn off any Squad Member (SM) and all SM can spawn off the SL but SM can not spawn off SM. Also anyone in the squad can spawn off the Mobile Spawn Point. I am a big supporter of the Mobile Spawn Point. Since BF2142 and using it in PR the idea is very cool and it allows everyone, including the SL, to get into the fight.
Spawn timer: 15 seconds
It was 15 seconds in BF2 and I think that's ok. 20 seconds would be a little longer and also ok if you want it to be just a bit harder. Could compromise and go to 18 seconds.
Infantry passive healing: On
I think it's not unbalancing to have this on. As far as I can tell from Beta it's not all that much. It takes a long long time to get off being critical damage to not seeing red anymore. And if you are willing to lay still and hide for 30 seconds then I say let them.
Vehicle passive healing: Off
Now vehicle healing is just dumb IMO. If you don't have an Engineer then you shouldn't get fixed up. People driving off to heal in a vehicle is just a waste of time and effort. Die in your vehicle or live but to sit idle doing nothing as you time heal a vehicle is a waste of an asset for your team.
Ranked: Yes
Yes I want access to a rank system so unlocks and all that count for something.
Unavailable Unlocks: Not sure on this one if this is even a setting. Someone mentioned it in another forum. I don't think we should mess with it if it exists unless there is a single item or single squad perk, for example, that is recognized by everyone as a piece of over powered garbage or something like that. I doubt it though.
Team Shuffle: Off
Um yeah. We don't want people going through the trouble of making squads only to be shuffled all over the place. Turn this off.
Auto Balance: On
Some people may think that Auto Balance is a useless feature that can be controlled by admins easily and more accurately. Well that's great and all if you have an admin on the server at the time going through and paying attention to do team balance. However that might not be the case all the time. So the decision has to be made. Would you rather have Admins making sure people aren't hacking or griefing or doing any number of other asshat like things? Or do you want them to make sure the teams are balanced all the time? I'd rather them just worry about behavior and having fun playing.
Limited classes: Off
We know this function and it works very well in the long run but I think we should have it off at first. However if Snipers become an issue then I say turn it ON and limit Snipers to a certain number per team to perhaps 6 on a 32 player full team. If that's possible.
Round Start Time: 90 to 120 Seconds
This is the timer that happens after you load a new map before the round starts. Now before anyone bitches about the length of time I've suggested realize that not everyone is chomping at the bit to start the next round. After a round ends many of us like to stretch, get up and walk around, check on things, take a piss, get a new drink or munchies etc. I do not believe that a minute and a half is too long a time to wait and I think that less time such as 60 seconds isn't long enough to take a leak. Back in the day I played on several BF2 servers regularly that had this time set at 120 seconds and it was great and did not hurt population at all. So I suggest between 90 and 120 seconds between rounds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Map Settings
Infantry Only: Off or Map Specific
I'm speculating that you can set maps in the rotation to be Infantry Only and have other maps with vehicles. That it's a map specific flag or at least I hope it is. Once we have played on the maps for a while we can then opt to turn it on for maps that we know suck for vehicles. If we see a Conquest map that would be much better without vehicles then lets test it out and see how it plays. For example an infantry only 32 player map Sharqi Penn I seem to remember being pretty awesome and also Karkand Inf Only was pretty nice. While Gulf of Oman sucked hard as Inf Only and Wake was so so but not fun enough. I think this is a setting we should eventually do down the road to change things up when we get bored with the rotation or certain maps. Perhaps have Infantry Only Weekend Events or something like that. But I don't see this being a need for a while though.
Map Size with Player Size: 64 player map with 64 players.
Ok, obviously we are going to start out with all maps on 64 player sized Conquest maps with 64 players in the game. The standard default for that map size. But like we saw in BF2 and BF2142 sometimes sticking 64 players on a 32 player map made for awesome firefights and quick paced action and sometimes making those same maps Infantry Only made them even cooler. Some of the action we see in RUSH type maps in BC2 we got in BF2 by just decreasing the map size and having more players. Maybe that's where RUSH came from? IDK. So later on another way to change things up would be to take a nice 32 player Urban Conquest map, Make it Infantry only and set it for 64 players and just go ape shit on it.
Game Type: Conquest
I know our bread and butter will be Conquest. Doesn't matter what we do to the servers or map rotations or sizes or populations or whatever but Conquest will be the main defacto. However please do not take into account Operation Metro as how all RUSH maps will be. In BC2 there were some RUSH maps that were pretty awesome actually but a whole lot of them that sucked big time. So I think we may need to play some RUSH maps on other servers and see if one or two stand out as pretty awesome. If they are then maybe we can incorporate a 64 player RUSH map into our rotation. Obviously Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, and the other modes aren't an option unless we have a special tournament or we decided to host a clan contest or something.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there I've started it. Discuss. And my Disclaimer repeated again: This is NOT any sort of vote or choice of the future of the server. This is just me being curious as to what people would like to see.
If the owners of the server wish to take into consideration what is said in this thread that's their business. :popcorn: