Ahhh…*breathes deeply*.  Northern Hemisphere Summer.  What!?  *Spits out coffee*  Spawn Delays??!!Yes.  We are getting many ".reports" about spawn delays.  They range from information to irritation to intimidation.  A spawn delay is a mechanism developed after testing other ideas for throttling the majority side’s spawn numbers to increase the reward for spawning in the minority.  Why?  Because for unpredictable human reasons, people tend to join a continuously over-populated side that stays over-populated for days, weeks or more at a time.  Why?  Because of PWNAGE.  Pwnage is fun.  You dominate.  You rack up kills.   You never defend – always attack.  Your morale is high every day.  This may be fun for you, but the other side’s players are experiencing the opposite effect of low morale, shorter periods playing the game, constant defense on the run and – if it's not fixed – they unsubscribe.  Unsubscription hurts us all.  More subscribers equals more fun stuff for everyone. 

The spawn delay timer ranges from 0-60 seconds.  Your side may be slightly overpopulated, but not enough to trigger a spawn delay.  The spawn delay timer is calculated on percentages, so that high population and low population periods can both avoid getting too unbalanced. 

The spawn delay penalty is a longer period to spawn in (up to 60 seconds), inability for underpopped side players to switch to your overpop’d team (unless they wait for side switch delay to expire), slightly faster despawn times for death on the underpop side (or maybe that’s just me, kekeke!).

Some time back the despawn/respawn period maximum was 2 minutes.  Players hated this even more because they don’t want any delay.  But the radio cap timer was also 2 minutes.   Now a 60 second spawn delay is fighting against an approximate 1 minute capping radio timer.  Overpop side players must not take unnecessary risks or they may find the underpopulated side able to defend a town despite lower player numbers.

Summer is a time where many people have many options for their time, and more daylight with which to try out those options.  Player numbers fluctuate more strongly and unpredictably and you may find yourself suddenly with entire sections of Time Zone depopulated.  Those crazy Finns want to see the sun for the rumored 12 days a year the sun vacations somewhere near Sweden (even the sun doesn’t go all the way to Finland) – so some parts of our gamer population are just not going to be as much.

What is fun about spawn delays?  Avoiding death.  It has an extra penalty.  Play smart.  Use your ears more than your eyes.  Defend well.  And make the other side experience the  downside of spawn delays rather than yours.

-JOKER007

FROM THE DESK OF THE AXIS COMMANDER IN CHIEF:

S! Axis Forces

It's been another exciting week for us as we have shown time and again that fortress Europe is ours for the taking.  There have been some great gains this week and some great teamwork on the battlefield.  The Allies have been doing their best to punch through parts of the line and we have been doing our best to stop the advance and push back. 

There are several key towns that we need to get before we can move westward, unfortunately for us, the Allies know this as well and have redoubled their defenses in those areas.  It will be up to all of us, working as a cohesive team to bust through those defenses and claim the territory as ours.  I have faith in our players, our officers and our squads.  We are the best in the business and we will prevail and crush the Allies, the trick is to do this without making mistakes that the Allies will use to their advantage.  Your OKW officers have been studying the map and making movements very carefully to insure that mistakes are mitigated.  We are playing a good game and the Axis officers should be proud of themselves and I hope our Axis players are proud of them too.  The officers have come a long way from a few campaigns ago from making blatant errors in map movements and giving the Allied officers the upper hand.  Those days are over!!

Now it's a stalemate on most of the lines with only our squads and players to make the difference in what we gain along the front.  It is up to you brave Axis soldats on the ground, on the water and in the air who are going to win this campaign.  Team Axis are counting on you to make well planned attacks and smart defenses in both the towns and fire bases.  Its been an exciting campaign thus far and its up to all of us working together, to bring home a victory!

I would like to welcome back a returning officer, Imbrutus. 

Imbrutus will be taking over the Propagandakorp CO position on the CinC staff.  Her responsibility is to ensure the welfare of the non-hc Axis players and will be the liaison officer between the okw and non-okw Axis team members.  In her own words, “she is the butter between the two pieces of toast”.  Having an officer dedicated to answering the Axis players needs is something that has been sorely missing in the past year.  I look forward to seeing what happens and if you see Imbrutus in the game, make sure you say Hi.

Player of the Week:
Samalpar: This weeks player of the week is Samalpar.  What can I say about this Axis bomber pilot.. that he is a one man wrecking machine and lays waste to any Allied ground forces before him?  Well that doesn't quite cut it.  Samalpar is a bomber guru who hardly flies anything but the Heinkel (He-111).  He is always over the most active battles dropping his iron on the baddies for team Axis.  He is like a an angel sent from the heavens to smite the wicked.  Thank you Samalpar for your service and dedication to team Axis.  We are very appreciative of your efforts and they do not go unnoticed.
 

Officer of the Week:
Jamesi: This weeks officer of the week goes to Jamesi.  Jamesi is an Australian Axis officer whose playtime is in the wee hours of the morning for us US folks.  He plays during a time period where there are very little officers and players on-line and he steps up and leads the Axis side during these times.  His dedication and intelligence has saved our collective butts on several occasions.  He is a smart map mover, a good leader and shining example of what an OKW officer can do with very little help and under a lot of pressure.  Thank you Mr. Jamesi, you do Axis proud and I want to recognize your efforts and commitment to team Axis.


 
Yours in team Axis,

-Alphie, Axis CinC