http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6O0VdUGe0

Enjoy!

I'd like to draw some attention on the ABC lines.







We all know them since the good old days of FH 0.7. Their occurrence was rare, it seems like they came basically with maps from Otolikos. From what I expirienced, these ABC lines were always rather unwanted by the devs and came with additional code that kept enemy vehicles stuck within the area of the enemy base. Overall it caused almost more havoc than benefit.

On top of that their appearance simply clash with everything else we're used to. What bugged me most about them was their optical appearance. They are drawn in a red/blue color, a color that does not really match with all other colors appearing. Evenmore they are drawn with bold upright lines, as if a ruler has been used, contrary to the soft bended out-of-bounds hatching and they do not cease at the out-of-bounds hatching at all.

In the end they look annoying and out of place. Or in order to get back to a car comparison: ABC lines are as angular as 1985 car design while the rest of the map elements are soft shaped like a 1936 mudgear. Overall it does not fit together very well. It looks clumsy beyond belief and is not aestethic at all. I could make a 3 year old draw those lines. "Just start somewhere and stop somewhere, it doesn't have to match with the rest at all."

When FH 2.0 was released, we barely had ABC lines on each map. But nowadays it seems like they spring up like mushrooms. At first a few maps came with ABC code/lines, but now ABC code and lines are everywhere and added to maps even afterwards, it seems. Not only lines for the 64 player maps but also lines for 32 player variants and 16 player variants. And that confuses me. The modders and mappers are focussing on so many details both in textures and objects when mapping, but when it comes to the overall appearance of the minimap itself, it seems like nobody cares.

In fact we have so many layers on each map, it will confuse newbies for sure. At first of all the landscape itself, mostly transparent depending on individual settings of the players. The second layer shows which flags can be capped and which flags cannot be capped, showing green rings and red crosses. The third layer gives detailed information about the map itself, as it can be seern on Purple Heart Lane: Which flags cannot be recapped, what players are supposed to do, etc. The fourth layer then would be the ABC lines. Layers 5 and 6 can be switched by a key, they show spawnpoints and positions of your teammates.

However I think that these layers do not blend well with each other. They rather block the view on each other. Newbies tend to see only a few layers, but they never see them all at once. Thus you have to point them there.

Accordingly I'm very confused about ABC lines being added everywhere, most likely triplicated. Which lines do account for which version of the map at all? I consider that confusing. As harmoniously and lovely the maps might be designed, the minimaps are definetely not. I really wish that all the information given on a map would be more monolithic. Presented in an integrative design, taking each other into account, giving a harmonically picture and description. Currently it is an optically disaster.

At first of all I hope this won't be considered spam. I want to link a german filmlet created in 2007, my only problem is that I do not know in which countries this might be accessable at all. So, consider this as some sort of test. It is a german version with french subtitles, but I guess people here are that smart, that none of you would have to understand the speech, the pictures are rather self-explanatory. It won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.


http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/1697660,CmC=3084292.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyland_%282007_film%29

...in the plain of northern germany, and once again I'm not prepared at all. I'm still running on 225 rain/wet tyres and I was slipping home today. I hope this wont last longer. Are you pepared?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oib0BBR03Ew

Didn't really know how to find a headline that describes the topic properly. However it is all about tickets and the amount of tickets.

I'll give an example: If you set ticket ratio to 100%, you will notice that the average level of tickets in a campaign is balanced among each map of this campaign. With 100% you will find almost similar amounts of tickets on every Africa map, with light summits above or below average. But generally none of the Africa maps plays significantly longer than any other Africa map if you have the same teams, same amount of players and smilar outcome.

What applies for Africa also applies for Normandy. If set to 100%, tickets and playing time of each map is about the same if you have the same teams, same amount of players and similar outcome.

But the problem is, that tickets for Africa and Normandy campaign are not on the same level. If you'd ask me, I'd say that africamaps got an average of 75% more tickets than normandy maps. This means if you set ticket ratio to 100% and host Mareth after Lebisey, the amount of tickets will jump from about 350:350 to 800:1000. Don't nail me down on these numbers, it is only estimated. But accordingly to that an Africa map will last significantly longer than a Normandy map. The difference is about 20 minutes to 1 hour.

The problem of different ticket ratios existed already in FH1, but was not that obvious and pestering as it is nowadays. WOLF had a ticket ratio of about 100% and some maps did never end while some others were over to quickly. The problem was encountered by adding a maximum playing time of 1 hour, though that was rather a stopgap. Personally I like short, fast-paced games. After 30 minutes it has been determined which team is the better, no need to keep pestering me with endless one-sided slaughter. Accordingly I prefer low ticket ratios in general.

With the difference in ticket-ratios between Africa and Normandy, serverhosters hosting games with low ticket ratio are in a snafu: Africa maps take very long, Normandy maps don't even last half the time. In opposition the different ticket ratio is no problem for serverhosters who set a high ticket ratio, as the difference doesn't really matter, the game is being ended by timeout, not by an outrun of tickets.

On top of that comes, that Africa is more unpopular than Normandy, so mixing up Africa and Normandy maps causes the unpopular Africa maps to last forever while the popular Normandy maps end quickly. In the end it is very hard to host a server with both Africa and Normandy maps while keeping its regulars at it.

So, due to this problem it seems that hslan doubled its ticket ratio on the server this week, thus Normandy maps last longer while Africa maps are ended by timeout. And obviously nobody is happy as the amount of players dropped about 1/3rd during weekdays when I play.

So somehow this problem of the different tickets need to be adressed by devs ASAP. I guess it is also in your concern to see people play Africa maps. But to get new people used to africa maps, it would be useful if tickets for africa would be about 75% less, not 75% more. Then people would rather dare to stay whenever an Africa map comes up.

...is a pure pain. I don't expect much from a PII, but with 2.2 the abilities are cut once more. Currently I'd prefer a Sd.Kfz. 250 or Sd.Kfz. 251 over a Panzer II. At least the mounted MG here got no bulletdrop or only very little.

At first of all, the Panzer II got a new ironsight and it seems like the magnification has been increased which results in a smaller field of view. I can't tell whether it is due to the different magnification or due to a change, but the bullet drop is now bigger and harder to control. Both on the 2cm and the MG. Of 10 shots at maximum distance 2 hits with the 2cm KwK are already a lucky occasion even when you re-adjust while shooting.

Now it seems like the damage caused by the gun has been decreased as well. The splash damage of the HE is just ridiculous. With the bullet drop on the MG and this lousy splash damage both guns are useless. I'd almost bail and shoot the enemy infantry with my rifle than rely on these guns.

So, as I couldn't fight infantry with a Panzer II, I tried to fight vehicles. But as mentioned, the damage caused by the 2cm has been reduced in general. It requires 5 hits on a 2 pounder to disable the gun, which is already about 25 rounds or 3 clips when using standard ammo. But when fighting a 6 pounder it is getting more ridiculous. I needed about 15 hits on a fully repaired and probably manned 6 pounder to destroy it at maximum distance. 15 hits is about 8 clips of standard ammo.

In order to destroy 2 guns in such a combat situation at maximum distance you'll need about 11 clips or 110 rounds standard ammo while the max loadout is 17 clips or 170 rounds total. Additionally you have only 30 round of that armor piercing ammo which is useless agains AT guns and about 8 clips of HE ammo.

Overall, you'll be running dry within 1 or 2 minutes of combat in which you not necessarily might even have left the base when attending enemies at maximum distance. So, if you wonder about bailed PIIs lately, it might be that they just ran out of ammo.

Panzer IIs were not everybodies darling so far, but now, you need an ammo trailer to get along. Problem is: I'm aware that the gun is weak, especially on long distance, but it doesn't really play well and feels totally useless. If it was really that bad like it is now, germans would rather have send cavalry then make use of it. Currently I don't have a need for the PII neither in infantry combat nor vehicle combat. I wish it might be useful in at least one of those situations. Otherwise you can really scrap it. It is almost like a waste of space.

However I wonder what others think about the PII and what expiriences they've made. Is it just me? Or can Devs maybe review the PII once again?