Alright, time for my answers.
1. How do you imagine the FH2 of the future? What can we as a community do to make such a future happen?I'd love to see more people playing FH2 in the future but that has a really slim chance of happening, barring some extraordinary breakthrough. Still, my ideal future for FH2 would be the following:
- Healthy population, being able to find a full-ish server every evening on workdays and any time on weekends. I'd also love to see a revival of the North American community
- More quality content: new theaters, especially early war France, Italy, Pacific and South East Asia.
- More maps featuring "special" game modes. Push with additional objectives, tanks only, naval battles, air maps... Maybe toss in some capture the flag too ? I remember when CTF was introduced in BFH. It was great fun!
I think it would really help if more people in the community were interested in learning high quality mapping. We have some great talent that makes maps for the tournaments but their approach is often "raw" and lacks certain finesse and polish the official maps have.
One other thing I noticed is that FH2 is quite lacking in the Public Relations department. The devs are doing great with devblogs and livestreams, but we lack a community which can create a buzz and preach the qualities of FH2 to other sources of players. The server admins could also step up with helping to organize funny events like it used to be in the past. Another (war) bear hunt anyone ?
2. How do you think should the mod we all know and love rise up to the challenge of the newcomers, with their shiny graphics, smooth engines, innovative gameplay mechanics, never before seen factions and map locations?Unfortunately on the graphics front there's not a lot that can be improved. FH2's visuals are pretty damn good for its age. Still I'd love to see some reworks of the effects and sounds. PR for example has some really great explosions. And their sounds are pretty powerful which makes being in a firefight really awesome.
I don't think moving to a new engine is feasible, unless FH2 merges with some other dev team that already has lots of motivation and experience.
New gameplay mechanics in FH2 are something I feel that has been woefully neglected for the past few years. The mod's gameplay is pretty solid and really balances that thin line between arcade twitch shooter and hardcore FPS. Still, that doesn't mean there's no place for a few more improvements.
Gameplay wise I'd love if FH2 of the future sees some work on the
forgotten features that FH 2 started with, but today feel like unfinished placeholders. Evolutionary leftovers that can still somehow be fun and sometimes even significantly alter the gameplay. I see some potential in the following:
- Bringing back the commander and increasing the significance of his assets. Airdrop tanks in a Market Garden scenario? Airdrop jeeps for squads stuck somewhere in the middle of a desert map with a long walk ahead of them? Airdrop AT guns on Crete? I say why not ?! It's not like it would be that degrading to history if it's properly balanced so it can't be spammed ...
- Ammo resupply. It's a wholly underutilized vBF2 mechanic
- Objective mode. I've had some really great rounds on Op. Hyacinth and Anctoville in the past. But they rarely pop up these days. PDH is still played though so maybe that is the right way to incorporate more Objective based gameplay
- Destructible chokepoints. Something that in CoH can really alter the flow of a map and make it feel fresh again
- Selectable alternative kit loadouts like the NCO kit. This would really make FH2 better compete with the newer titles that offer unlimited kit customization. Why not have rifleman separated in the long range Grenadier and more close quarters focused Assault (maybe with a permanently attached bayonet ? *wink* *wink*)
- Deployables. Right now they feel like a gimmick. The kits on some maps are way too far from the front for their worth and therefore they get rarely used. I'd love to see that improved.
- Score system. The current one is quite nice and has been improved several times in the past but I feel there's room for more improvements. Why not reward more points for following SL (or commander's) orders? Currently on average 50 % of the players don't join squads and just do their own thing. When lots of new players join a team gameplay often degrades into boring stalemates where nobody bothers to squad up and good SLs with cunning plans are ignored while everyone wanders around aimlessly, with no sense where they might be needed. I feel that sometimes an experienced central coordinator that has some tools at his disposal to "nudge" players in a specific direction could lead to decrease of those uncoordinated borefests that pop up from time to time.
3. What should the main focus of a future FH2 be ? The goal is to scoop up some stragglers and lost souls that will inevitably come when they get bored/disappointed of the new games.
New factions and content, more insanely polished maps, new game modes, new gameplay mechanics, easier distribution, installation and learning curve for the newbies?I think the greatest strength of FH2 are the maps and that should continue to be the main focus to attract players. Beautifully recreated historical landscapes coupled with painfully crafted models make FH2 stand out in the midst of countless average WW2 games.
It seems to me right now the main problem is distribution. FH2 videos are filled with clueless (young ?) gamers willing to try it out but having no idea how to get it, having been spoiled by the new digital distribution channels.
4. Go back to a time when you first discovered FH2. What were the things that annoyed you the most, the main sources of frustration? What were your expectations and greatest disappointments you had while playing? How does the game of today compare? Have the issues been fixed?When I first started with FH2 the main source of my frustration was that everybody felt overpowered. The learning curve coming from more arcade games in FH2 is downright brutal and the short TTL gameplay on some maps does not really help you enjoy the game for the first couple of months.
In game (and even out of it for some things) we lack quality tutorials that would explain sector push, objective maps, spotting, artillery, the importance of bleed... And also some funny mechanics like the ticket reinforcements on Sidi Bou Zid. I've seen countless new players stumped on those things.
The game of today is quite different and with improved map design and my own skills I find most rounds really enjoyable.
Today my main sources of frustration are quite the opposite from the micro level frustrations of my beginnings.
Now I am frustrated at the macro level:
I see patterns in the maps and player behaviors and lack the proper tools to communicate them to other players. If I use the available tools I have a problem of motivating other inexperienced players into following me.
I see people doing some extraordinary things and have no way except chat to commend them and get their deeds recognized. I feel there exists a way to solve my frustrations but I'm not really sure how.
Should the in game tools be improved to solve these ... Better VOIP (Mumble anyone ?), longer lasting map markers, chat commands for commendations ?
Or maybe we need better external tools? Voting for the
SL of the week,
teamplayer of the week and having the poll results show in the launcher? I think the official awards system had some great potential but was not accepted due to community (762) already having developed their own and unwilling to lose their progress... Maybe it could be reshaped into something different ?
That's all from me for now, please keep the discussion going! Maybe we can squeze something useful out of all these lines of text
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