| DESPAWN TIMER? |
| Written by DOC |
| Thursday, 17 December 2009 11:12 |
After we reconfigured the host for the start of Campaign 57 on Monday morning, a small error crept in that was caught in the next few hours and rectified. This error changed the despawn timer from the usual 10 seconds to 15 seconds. We changed it back but it did bring up a point worth considering. I’ll try and illustrate this so that you can give it some thought. Most people think it’s the pilots who want a longer despawn timer, because of other pilots “punching out” when they are hit in an attempt to cheat their attacker out of a kill. In fact it has an equal consideration on the ground due to the nature of armor to allow you, in certain cases, to get hit without serious effect and which one can use to their advantage if they are quick to punch out by despawn. Imagine the following:A player is tootling along in their tank at a reasonable pace when they start taking hits. Maybe just the one hit. Now a new player might try to stop quickly and jump to the gunner position and scan for their attacker. Some might not even bother stopping although we all know that trying to scan and shoot from the gunner position while driving across country is exceedingly difficult. I imagine that most try to stop quickly and jump to the gunner as fast as they can, after they learn that scanning/shooting from a moving tank is not easy at all. Anyways this player is motoring along and they hear a hit impact their tank. Whether they stop or not, the attempt to “find” their attacker after jumping to the gunner position will almost always end with their destruction, because their attacker has them ranged and has managed to get the deflection required for a moving hit already sussed out. Should the target tank stop it will die in most cases before it can find its killer unless its killer is right in front of them and in the open. A moving tank might last a little longer but it’s unlikely it will kill its attacker before the attacker can kill it. We see this all the time in the game. So after a few “learning experiences” where the player learns that if they are driving along and they start taking hits the chances of winning a shoot out with an enemy they can’t even see yet but which is already hitting them is remote in most cases. It is a tiny leap of logic that if driving along in their tank and they hear a hit and they survive it the best course of action is to punch out before the killing blow arrives. The guy that set himself up to be in a good ambush situation or was lucky enough to see such a situation first (and get the drop on his opponent through observation and situational awareness) sees his target disappear into the ether before the kill is made. Now many people suggest that despawning should consider damage and “kill” the player as a reward for despawning to avoid further damage. This has a couple of realities that make such a suggestion not all its cracked up to be:
So ask yourself, given the scenario I illustrated at the start of this little piece, wouldn’t you actually prefer that the despawn timer were a little longer? It would be the only short term solution to despawning to escape being killed when you are under fire. It might prevent quite a few of those lost kills getting away. We thought it was worth asking because while some will quickly panic at the very thought of it, we wonder if it would be such a bad thing after all. It’s quite possible that the ground game would stand to gain as much fidelity from such a small change as the air game would, maybe even more so. |
Better still if a loss was recorded whenever despawning for anything other than an RTB. Though a victory might not be recorded for any opponent, it might still work by removing incentive for cheaters-of-death.
I dont play for points. And 15 secs makes a huge diff when you're guardg a bunker or CP. Add to that spawn delay and inf play is doomed.
S!
I mean I run into people who despawn maybe every 100-200 sorties I have so, I'd rather not wait longer on ever sortie just to get one more kill every blue moon.
despawn in less than 30s after last hit = KIA
despawn next to msp = RTB (or at least RES)
Tanks generally dont spawn out in the game when under fire, not tanks that are surprised moving either.
Its not an issue in game, so there is no reason to increase the timer.
despawn next to msp = RTB (or at least RES)"
AGREE 1000000000%
Also...how would a long despawn timer help against those that bail out of the game to avoid a kill....
The despawn timer should check first the vehicle status, if critical so 5 seconds, if intact so 30 seconds.