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Topics - General_Henry

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1
Gaming / Chinese world of tanks
« on: 28-05-2014, 00:05:07 »
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dUCfNGzryrY

Ready for some Chinese bias! Looks promising....

2
warning: I am someone who writes poorly so the post might appear very disorganized or simply crappy.

Hello everyone, toke a long break from FH2. Actually I am still taking the break, but these days I had been trying to show my new friends this amazing game. Their reaction leads me to think that what this mod lacks is not contents but packaging.

Typical responses:
- Wow the graphics is really good, can my machine run it?
- Map is very large!!
- I don't know how to win in this game...
- I can't read English probably cannot play
- What game is this?
- You can respawn?
...

I can't help but to think how many players were turned away due to the difficulty of approaching this game. The game looked nice to hardcore players only because FH was already in our heart for a long period of time. However, for a newcomer, there were many barriers to break through...


Video promotion
When promoting the game to my friends, I try hard to find materials scattered all across the internet to show them about the gameplay. The lack of trial version means videos were the best way to explain the game. However, solid videos were very few and they were not successful in letting my friends know how this game is different from games like Medal of Honor. The videos I find:

- FH2 training videos: shows how to fight, not particularly inspiring

- FH2 trailers: well made videos that inspire the old playerbase, but to a newcomer there is no special meaning, it is "just another WWII shooting game"

- FH2 gameplay videos:
1. boring bot stomping videos (only to make the mod look bad)   
2. less skilled players making the game feel like just walking around and die (confuses new comers).   
3. Actually skillful players recording, but the videos failed to bring out the awesomeness of the mod in the attention span of homo sapiens.

As many of you might have noticed, people in the new age no longer compile information like people in the early information age. It can be said that people become dumber but the fact is that, people don't like to read giant blocks of text accompanied by some .jpg because their attention span is low, therefore, to adapt to the new age and bring in new players we need actually thrilling, concise, and informative videos.

The first release of FH2 was preceded by a series of awesome videos. Although the success of 2.0 release was not solely due to the videos, it can be argued that the videos play an important part in attracting players from all over the place.


Language barrier

I come from Asia, English is not my first language, I only know English well because my home city happened to be a former British colony. It might be shocking but there are many many people on the world that are:

- very poor in English
- knows basic English but does not enjoy using them

So, in the end, only people who actually is very interested in WWII and/or knows English well will get into this game. We can only help to imagine how many players were turned away when they saw a block of English text in the official webpage. Also players that does not feel comfortable reading English would not be able to enjoy this game as good.

Potential of acquiring playerbase from other countries? FHSW was the perfect example, FH was not only introduced with Japanese playerbase, the mod was also expanded twice or even larger, with numerous bug fixes and improvements on game mechanics.

For FH2 to effectively acquire new players, solid work needs to be done on presenting the game in more languages.

The next update would be the East Front, which would inevitably bring influx of Russian players during the release party. The more home the game is to the Russians, the more of them will come, and more of them will stay.

This also brings out that the webpage would need to be written such that people from all over the world can easily see what FH2 is about before their fingers were tired of clicking and scrolling.

To sum up:
Hopes cannot be put on that new versions will be more awesome
New versions are usually more awesome yet player count decrease
so the problem does not lie in contents, it is somewhere else.
.



I am already quite tired at typing all these and I am looking forward to your responses.

3
Off-Topic / World War II and the Art of War
« on: 26-03-2012, 12:03:24 »
I suppose many of the FHers here have read about the Art of War, the one wrote by Sun Tzu.

(edit: busy these days, will update later in the week)

If you haven't heard of the Art of War or know nothing about it, it is a book, probably written over 2000 years ago, somewhere in Ancient China. It do not talk about how to slay your enemy on the battlefield or how to cut a bastard into pieces, it talks about how to win a war in the strategic level.

History Channel has a pretty much dumb-down version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5jLYgc4nBs

I will skip here the biography of Sun Tzu as "who he is" is still a controversy.

People who have read it might think those are the "common sense" of a warrior/leader, I agree with that to a certain extend, but Sun Tzu is one of the few people who theorize strategies and write about it, and most importantly, his work survived.

Out of total boredom of my mind, and my admiration of the work, also my bit of interest in WWII, I decided to spend a little bit of time to find where this ancient work fit into WWII. And hope to start a discussion to kill more brain cells. If you think you could add more to Sun Tzu, do so and let's discuss!

Let us start by discussing the first chapter:

Chapter 1 - Laying Plans

Source: http://ctext.org/art-of-war/laying-plans      

Quote
English translation: Lionel Giles

"Sunzi said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected."

I suppose this is, now in the modern world, a common sense. Fighting solely for glory, for revenge, for bloodthirsty reasons, or hoping for of miraculous victory, are very much risking to screw your country up.

Arguably, I would suggest that Japan is the country that violated this principle, their goals are way too grand and too luck based for their power.

Almost all nations who start the war are devastated in WWII, put apart lost of lives, Germany lost a chunk of land and entire country in rubble, Japan become a nuclear testing ground and lost all their hard-fought imperial possessions. (What happened to Italy btw?)

Quote
The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

(1) The Moral Law - We see widespread use of propaganda in WWII. The side who lost support of people indeed fall apart: The most obvious example is that Italy is kicked out of war by her own people.

(2) Heaven - this is not about god, as stated above, weather is a decisive factor in WWII especially "general winter"... Germany paid dearly for not paying enough attention.

(3) Earth - It is a bit similar to (2), the muddy grounds of Russia (screwing panzers up), the mountainous area of China (essentially stalled the Japanese). Not giving enough consideration results in epic fail.

(4) Commander - I think this is rather obvious, the side with better commanders have the advantage, look at what Hitler do to his generals.

(5) Methods and discipline - it talks about supply routes and command structure, while I have no knowledge about command structures, supply is one of the reasons Germany failed, the lack of protection of merchant shipping of Japan also lead to her crushing defeat.

(btw, I thought Japan is an Asian country and would read about Sun Tzu, but apparently they act totally opposing to Sun Tzu in WWII)

Quote
Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise: (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment? By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat - let such a one be dismissed!

When we analyze the 1941 East Front: (1) No idea, but seemed Germans has a higher support as Stalin is not a good leader in the eyes of quite some number Soviet citizens, (2) Soviet leaders are purged (3) Certainly Soviets have this advantage (4) No comment (5) Not sure how would I interpret this, the Soviets have pretty darn good equipments and quite a lot of them, but to say Germans have inferior power I won't agree. (6) Looks like Germans have better training (7) No idea

Later in the war, (1) is losing for the German side, (2) is remedied by Soviet Generals learning more, (3) is still in the Soviet side, (4) I'd say roughly equal (5) The Germans start to produce stuffs like panthers but the Soviets offset it by numbers (6) No idea (7) No idea.

So it looks like Sun Tzu's theory is correct at least partially here, these factors are certainly something.

Quote
While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans.

The interpretation I accept is: it is crucial to gain initiative, the side losing the initiative need to devise a plan to try to gain it. This is common sense now but maybe not for some ancient people.

Quote
All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.

We see very clearly that deception is the common thing in WWII, one example is the Germans believe the Allies would not land in Normandy. Surprise attacks are always devastating. Against a foe of similar strength, brute force attack would not be a good idea. Military Intelligence is so important so yes, I think most would agree that this is very important in warfare.

Quote
Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

I don't think WWII generals/leaders do no calculation and send their force into battle/starting a war, even the crazy Japanese know the Americans is capable of outproducing them. This is quite obvious in modern times.

So here ends my comment on chapter 1. In my own interpretation, technology is not necessary as a separate category but a sub-element of the principles above (but I believe it relates to power, the quantity/quality thing), which I find quite amazing.



Chapter 2 - Waging War

Source: http://ctext.org/art-of-war/waging-war

Quote
Sunzi said: In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

This is nothing but saying that war is very expensive. World War II is indeed very expensive.

note: "li" refers to a distance unit in ancient China, I do not know how to convert, maybe just consider it as a mile or a kilometer.

Quote
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

You see clearly that Sun Tzu is against any kind of war of attrition. A third party might come along and take advantage of the war-weakened you.

In WWII, world is split into two alliances, so there is no "3rd party" to take advantage of you. Arguably, you could say the colonies benefited because the colonial powers are weakened, however, this is not of their own decision (Germany/Japan started the war). Nevertheless, this is a wisdom.

Sun Tzu would call it crazy when he know that US actually ended the great depression by being dragged into the war.

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It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on. The skillful soldier* does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice. Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough for its needs. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's substance to be drained away. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions. With this loss of substance and exhaustion of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare, and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated; while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses, breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields, protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons, will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue.

Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first. Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy, and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours. The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.

*"the skillful soldier do not raise a second levy" should be "the skillful leader..." in my interpretation, this guy likely translated it wrong.

This mainly is about logistics, in a very qualitative manner, Sun Tzu is such an evil guy that encourage the exploitation of your conquest. But think in a different way, Sun Tzu encourage the capture of enemy equipments and provisions here and it can only be wise to do so. He also encourage to bring the fight to the enemy in order to prevent messing your own country up. Indeed, the only country that wasn't messed up is USA.

The scorch earth strategy used by Germans and Soviets is to prevent other side to gain advantage by following Sun Tzu's advice.

The last thing here is to encourage the well-treatment of conquered people/surrendered soldiers if you want to exploit your enemies the most. The idea is that using conquered soldiers to fight is better than using your own citizens so your country exhaust slower by the war. The Germans made the mistake of hating their conquered people (but it is Hitler the evil, so erm...)

You start to see that Sun Tzu is a calm man over there. He want the country to win a war, not to make his country to merely "feel good". Pride and other "personal things" are something to be avoided at all cost if you don't want to turn your victory into a crushing defeat.

Quote
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.

This is more like to criticize people who bring their country into a prolonged war. Most leaders know this except Japan, whose plan is to "exhaust" the Americans by military victories if they don't shock the Americans to peace, no wonder they epic failed - that should never ever be a part of the plan to victory.

It is not to say you shouldn't prepare for an accidental lengthened period of war, not preparing for winter is a pure stupidity rather than following the Art of War.

edit: 2nd chapter included.

4
Hello, let me ask a hypothetical question. Answers, foolish answers, or any kind of answers are welcome.

(that "you" in the situation is not me)



Situation:

Once in your life, there is a good friend of you, he was very kind to you and often help you out with stuffs, share his food, whatever.

However, later on, he become someone who is annoying somehow. And you decided not to have such a friend any more.

Unfortunately, he keep trying to find you via whatever method, such as MSN messenger. How would you deal with such a guy? Yell at him? Punch him in the face? Or just quietly change your contact information/block-list?


Discuss.

5
Tactics & Tutorials / Basic Principles of Survival in FH2
« on: 01-02-2012, 03:02:08 »
This is a very very basic guide to survive in battle. Anyone who had played with me knows that I tends to survive when I wanted to, like our whole squad wiped out and I am still left alive there.



1. Nothing could really stops you from dying

The moment you spawn, you risk dying. The best way not to die is not to spawn.

You might try to keep spawning at a flag that is under constant bombardment and enemy fire. You'll die a lot, a lot, you'll complain of spawn raping, but that doesn't stop you from dying most of the time. Spawn somewhere else and organized a come-back, let's say, to grab a tank and surprise those camping buggers from behind or side, or man a certain artillery piece and blow those campers to hell, both are relatively less risky than to spawn again at that same place. Else, enjoy your horrible K/D ratio.


2. You don't get fired at for no reason

When you hear gunfire, when you hear bullets impacting near you, usually that isn't a good thing. There are chances that it is your reckless teammate thinking you are an enemy, but that is usually not the case, and even if it is the case, you still got to take cover.

When someone shoot at you, it means he saw you, and wanted to kill you. My very humble advice is not to pop your head up from the cover you disappeared into, as that is where his ironsights would be pointing at. Crawl to somewhere else to counter-fire. Or just run away if you cannot win or do any harm.

A good way to get away is to throw a grenade from cover, or whatever to deceive them that you are planning to strike back from the same position like popping your head for a split second to make them nervous. Then run away like hell.

Another situation is a mortar or artillery shell exploding near you. Chance are that you got caught in the artillery spot: the gunner sees you and want a free kill! Most of the time it is very unwise to get out of cover if you cannot run away fast enough from the spot - you'll just be blown to pieces when the next shell drops.


3. Don't shoot unless you have a good reason to do so

noise, noise attract attention, death messages make people furious. Yeah, sometimes you decided to go for that one lousy infantry, yes, you killed him, but you lost your AT gun to a random bazooka. Most of the time, an impatient, reckless player only gets 1:1 K/D ratio as that guy is the only kill that had before dying.

Remember that the kill messages and gun noise are perfect way to locate a certain player's location. If you are deemed a threat, or sometimes simply a free kill. You'll die quite meaninglessly.

Let's say my way to use AT gun would not include firing at a lone soldier that your teammates could easily take care of. If they didn't realize your presence, it is a good idea to wait for the entire enemy squad to show before firing. That way you have a chance of wiping out the entire squad and they won't be able to retaliate that easily.

If you cannot cap a flag, killing that poor loner asking for artillery spots near the flag is a very bad idea. You didn't contribute anything to your team other than making a useless guy rage. Wait for a better opportunity or a more juicy target.


4. Don't be reckless, this is not CoD

FH2 is not about pressing W at the enemy's direction and just keep clicking your LMB on an enemy. Chance are that you'd just keep dying that way. Running through an open field, or trying to stop your truck at an enemy position without cover is 99% suicidal. It is usually too late to regret of your recklessness when you saw the muzzle flash of that MG gunner, or a yellow rocket flying to you.

Patience is really important, waiting 2 minutes for the Tiger to look at somewhere else could earn you a chance of busting him and contribute to your team rather than dying again meaninglessly pressing W at Tiger after respawn.

If you have patience, teamwork is easy. And teamwork is the essence to survive - in any situation it is better to have 5 other guys to be a potential target under your enemy's ironsights or it is just you being aimed at by 6 guys? Your team could also deal with a much wider range of enemies so you don't need to use your pistol to fight with rifles or MG to fight with tanks.

In a war, or in this case, FH2, someone has to die. But dying without having a chance is really bad. Just make sure this guide helps you survive well and save a ticket for your team.

6
Come!  ;D

7
Suggestions / Removing tank healthbars for everyone
« on: 25-01-2012, 22:01:49 »
As in topic. I suddenly think that this would make tank battles more exciting. There is certainly no nuisance except someone entering a burning tank, speed up, hit a tree, and died.

Some sound effect could substitute the health-bar instead.

One obvious effect is that tank drivers would be much more cautious when fighting in cities - like the Tiger in Ramelle.The Driver would not have much idea how many zooks he could still take before going down unless there is a teammate wrenching and checking the health for him.

Please don't tell me that this is PR idea as I haven't played a second of PR and have absolutely no idea how other mods handle tank health.

8
Forgotten Hope 1/ Forgotten Hope Secret Weapons , to me, is always thrilling when I know I am about to play a round. I played FH/FHSW considerably more than FH2 (in terms of total hours), though they have less good game mechanics, they never get more bored. I always feel immersed and have a strong desire to win a round that there are many epic heroic moments like suicide satchel charge whatever that totally changed the outcome of a round.

Forgotten Hope 2 is a major improvement over the original forgotten hope 42 with ironsights, tank rounds, angle-mod, more historical maps, and prettier graphics. So, technically, FH2 should be even more interesting to play than FH1/FHSW.

However, I found that the gameplay tends to degrade very fast in FH2, many of the maps are just very chaotic in pubby - die a lot, kill some, cap, leave the flag, flag got back-capped, cap another flag, leave the flag, repeat. You just run around in the map to a flag, killing some guys in your path, and keep doing this for the whole round.

There is therefore no logical flow of a battle - it is totally chaotic. And very often it is the team with more skilled player would win - because most part of the game are random firefights that requires low reflex/god-like shooting skills (which puts less skilled players in severe disadvantage - good players are really deadly).

This issue is solved to some extend by introduction of push-mode (that again, the FH2 push-mode is better than the FH1 one as it eliminates the possibility of glitch). But that is not dealing with "what caused the problem", instead it is just bandaging over a wound. Some push maps are quite chaotic also.

This issue wasn't really apparent in Africa - vast open desert, there is a clear objective to attack/defend, even non-push maps don't feel chaotic there, and team balance is better as those maps depend more on teamwork than individual skills.

Some might say that the maps are too large and players too few - I partially agree on this, 128 players indeed proved this practically. Because it could be said that the maps become relatively smaller and less random spreads in force distribution. But many people failed to see that what really makes 128 players shine is actually just that they force you to use teamwork to survive/win - individual skills are much less important, that a better coordinated team of noobs, led by a few experienced players, would beat the crap out of a poorly coordinated, higher skilled players.

So why FH42 feels more teamwork oriented? It is quite simple actually because they have fixed spawn points and the spread of players are considerably less than what we see in FH2 (Think of each spawn point to propagate a "wave" of players out, the spread is definitely affected by how spawns are spread out). When people spread out more and more, individual skills become more and more important.

SL spawn has its value - it is very good for you to group up with a few friends instead of walking from the rear to join them after you got killed. But what this might mean is that, we cannot just use the SL spawn system as it is now - the spread effect is not obvious in Africa as there are many places that a SL won't bother going (running in the open?) but in Normandy style maps the spread is IMMENSE as the SL could appear ANYWHERE. Another thing is that when you spawn at SL that means you are not spawning at a flag that you are supposed to be defending - why bother defending a flag when you could spawn without any kind of limitation, on your SL? It isn't worth it (for a random pubby player). And therefore the best tactic is just to running for the flags for most points earned and most kills.

There are three trivial solutions to this:

1. remove SL spawn - solves the problem, but a step backwards.
2. change the SL spawn mechanics - A solution that preserves the current maps
3. change map design - would work for future but what about the current maps?


Of course - if we could get 128 players working ... sure, that is a solution also.

9
Suggestions / voice commands suggestion
« on: 28-09-2011, 18:09:35 »
It'd be a lot of work but could it be made such that the voices are more like real person rather than cold machine: "enemy infantry spotted" , "enemy tank spotted"...

In other video games people just scream: "Germans!" when an American soldier spotted some German soldier. I mean, for regular spotting over radio it still make sense to use the current set of voice.

This would add much immersion IMO.

10
General Discussion / Accuracy of Bazooka
« on: 03-09-2011, 08:09:21 »
Anyone think that it is really a bit too low for the accuracy of the regular bazooka. It leads to a lot of damn TKs/suicide when trying to shoot out of a window - making it a rather useless weapon.

it totally sucked compared to the PIAT and panzerfaust in this manner. Those two are still very accuracy even at medium range.

The M9 bazooka is good though it is just the right AT weapon to use against tank. About the panzerschreck not much comments as it is rare.

11
recently it is a really popular server it deserve some attention! It is becoming the FH server of East Asia and it'll (a full server) attract more and more players to FH.

12
When I was posting in the "teamwork theory" thread I come up with this idea, that is, potentially a solution to eliminate the game-ruining effect of jeep-rushes, or sneaky behavior changing the game flow in an unjust manner.

That is, to implement flags that can be neutralized by an enemy presence (to simulate flanking), but not capped (to simulate supply lines so you cannot spawn in it).

We already have push-system but it cannot be extended to some maps like Villers Bocage, as we should allow things like flanking to happen.

If we take Villers Bocage as an example for this proposed system, naturally we'd think that:

-the cathedral flag and villers bocage flag should be out of reach of British supply lines when map started.
-they cannot be protected using our current push-system.
-yet some lame people tends to sneak up, cap them, and spawn with a lot of PIATs, wrenches, killing any German tank that is trying to get out of the base.
-if under my proposed system, those flags would be able to be neutralized, but not capped by the British in the beginning.
-to open them up for capping, they need to secure either tilly, or crossroads.

meanwhile, this has a benefit over the push-system, as it acts on the germans as well, that is
- Germans cannot capture tilly back if they don't have either cathedral or villers bocage + crossroads,
- but they are still able to cut-off british reinforcements to the front (cathedral/villers bocage) by neutralizing those flags (crossroads/tilly), thus adding a new tactical depth of hedgerow warfare.


the obvious benefit of unable to cap out-of-supply flags is that it would be easier for one side to wipe out an encircled enemy:

in the villers bocage case, if you take crossroads and cathedral as British, you'll cut off Germans at tilly making it an easier battle as Germans cannot cap it back once neutralized by British, that is, even the counter-attacking wave of germans, those re-spawned before the Tilly flag fall, beat off the British that neutralized it, cannot recap it, only to defend it.


and reduce the lame impact of sneaky behavior on game-play.

another benefit is that it prevents everyone spawning at an encircled flag defending it fanatically ignoring all those flags behind and left the rest of the team being massacred there. That is, it also helps sticking the team together doing team-work. Yes, the SL hiding-at-fallen-and-cutoff-flag trick is not gonna work as well under this system, which is good. (hide, spawn your squad, cap, get spawn-point, now you could only neutralize, not getting that spawn point from capping)

13
Bug Reporting / Bugs I found
« on: 16-07-2011, 13:07:57 »
Check out El Alamein CooP. Not sure a server problem or is FH's fault. Floating AT guns?




Graphics all low, the Hetzer lack some wheels? (resolution 1200*720, all low except texture medium, viewdistance 95%)





On Eppeldorf I could see through snow here. Conquest mode online.





Oh, just to say, this thing runs super smooth for me. Thanks devs for optimizing the game :)    I am moving to a powerful system very soon and maybe this is the last all low bug reporting from me.

14
Tactics & Tutorials / Bayonets: When and How
« on: 11-04-2011, 08:04:18 »
Welcome! This thread would be, as stated, about the art of using bayonets in the game of FH2. If you have any ideas please share them, if you don't consider them as a secret.


Introduction

The bayonet is one of the underused weapon in FH2, because in many circumstances it is not really useful. Players use bayonets merely for fun or/and humiliation, i.e. to stab an unawared enemy from behind, or as an reaction to a guy who pulls out a knife in a close fight. Of course, we'll not discuss a lot about these, as the former is intuitive, and the latter is more like the common FPS-skills rather than decision making.

Before talking when to use bayonets, why not first to talk about when NOT to use bayonets. A bayonet, is obviously a short ranged weapon, you will have no hope of killing your enemy unless you get very close to them, so do use your rifle for medium/long ranged engagements. Also don't use the bayonets when you're tired - well it does not take the mind of Einstein to figure out that you cannot stab effectively if you don't even have the stamina to sprint.

If the bayonet is that crappy, why should we use it other than in the most desperate moment? It is actually the same reason as why you pull out your knife when you run out of ammo in a close fight - a bayonet does not require reload and just require minimal aiming. A bayonet is a very time-efficient weapon, that is, a weapon that traded space for time. Another good thing about the bayonet is that it is quite psychologically shocking to your enemy if you managed to get really close to your enemies, and they won’t fire as effectively as careless shooting might end up TKing 3 of their teammates and himself stabbed.

The main point here is that, under a certain circumstances, the bayonet could be useful even as an assault weapon.


Fool’s Courage

There is a few important points to notice, when you are thinking of using the bayonet to assault:
-   Using bayonets requires a super-human courage, but having a super-human courage doesn’t means that you should use bayonet
-   Do you have sufficient cover for you to get close to your enemy? Charging in an open area like in the movies don’t really worked.
-   Could you take out the target more effectively using your rifle?
-   Do you have enough stamina to approach the target quickly?

Bayonets are useful in the follow situations:
-   When your enemies are pinned in trenches, or generally, pinned by fire, in those situations people’s judgements and reactions aren’t as good and you could take advantage of it. Bayonets could be used effectively even if you’re suppressed by friendly fire (accidentally).
-   In places with a lot of cover, like a building. It might be difficult to shoot 3 guys with your bolt-action up close but a bayonet charge might ended up stabbing all 3 of them due to the “chaos” you induced among them.
-   When your enemies are throwing grenades and thinking that they are safe, just charge forward and stab them.


Tips


1.   10 meters should be the maximum distance, under very few cover, you should charge through. Use smoke as a measure of cover is a good idea.
(note: the smoke shouldn’t be blinding yourself – instead it should blind your enemy)
2.   If possible, charge with full stamina, the worst situation is running out of stamina right in front of your target.
3.   Plan ahead your movement before your move out of cover, including where and when you stab.
4.   If you cannot stab the target effectively, consider running around like mad – your teammates would take care of your enemies as your enemies would be severely distracted by you, which they’d automatically consider as the greatest threat.
5.   Tossing a grenade do help getting your enemy to hide in cover – a good moment to charge without getting shot. Don’t get blown up by your own grenade.
6.   If you have a Garand, don’t use the bayonet, just reload for a new clip.
7.   Switching targets wisely would not only save your life, it’d also earn you some kills.
8.   Don’t hesitate when you’re on the way already, unless you have a chance to hide in cover.
9.   Don’t run in teammate’s line of fire – it’d only get you TKed.

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Suggestions / The G43 limiting
« on: 02-04-2011, 20:04:05 »
I understand that it is good to limit the number of G43s, but I observed in map like Luttich, that as G43 is limited, there are no unlimited kits with grenades, in particular, K98+grenade.

I think that would kind of limit the offensive/defensive abilities of the Germans. One solution is maybe to have a 2-weapon system that as a scout you could select either rifle+smoke+binocs or rifle+grenade+bayonets.

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