Wasteland is dying change my mind my guy

[󠀡󠀡]

So to start:

I've played this game for a long ass time. So much so that its an inside joke in my group of friends when dropping bombs on my enemies below calling them "Syrian kids" when I am in a jet. I've also used every vehicle, weapon, explosive, etc in the game so before you say "this was OP thats why they removed it", I know what I am talking about. TL:DR "the use of common sense would make the experience much better while the blatant disregard for people at lower wealth levels is what is killing wasteland".

The main problem as a whole:

So few active servers are either watering down the experience by removing so many features for the man children/ sensitive folk, screwed up player economics and player agency or closing up the potential to make money on their primary or sister servers(If they even have some left), for example stratis alone is unbalanced for some missions to be grinded due to the play area being too small meaning you might often not be able to even make it to missions due to the availability access to appropriate VS's or as soon as you get a vehicle, getting blown up straight away because of the small air space/map area and also poor terrain georgraphy causing you to constantly miss your potential mission or just simply going from point A to point B wasting money on loadouts constantly.

Odds of making it out alive at a mission on stratis:

This brings out the odds of your survival if you're lucky to make it to the mission being at a 1:3 chance of actually reaping that reward successfully without being screwed over by desperate team mates that want all the reward and BS you or enemies that know this scarcity and camp the site, watch you do the mission and then kill you as soon as you reach for it almost every time due to the distance problem stated above. Now to argue yes that is part of the game but when that is all that there is when it comes to completing missions whether as a team or solo, it makes you constantly waste money trying to suit up to do the missions and if you're like "screw it" and go for the default load out, you're at a severe disadvantage, especially on servers with thermal enabled.

Speaking of thermal - Virtual Arsenal accessible servers:

Just to call out as an example "Official Trailer Park", although enabling it was a good idea to allow players to have freedom in what they want to go to battle with, putting a price tag on top of a price tag makes it a waste in the long run when its for such a short amount of time especially with there being no sister servers to alternatively make money on (i'll get into that next) to repay yourself. What i mean by that is to obtain a virtual arsenal there, you have to fork out 500k every 7 days which is achievable if your group isn't toxic(due to the despration and scarcity of missions problem) and the gameplay area was actually big enough but due to the issues stated above you're biting a bullet buying a week long fortune on top of all your gear. its just not economical. We have lives, even in this current balance of these servers you might as well constantly kill yourself after putting player spawn money into an ATM and repeat than to attempt to go for some missions already knowing well that you will ALWAYS be camped or have the mission sabotaged by friendly players knowing you're doing the mission.


Now i've had people say "you can use territory cap money" but thats not gameplay, thats essentially afk farming for a week and hide behind an atm. Going to the extreme making sure you don't lose a single dollar. This game is meant to be played, this gamemode in particular is meant to be hard and you will lose money which money, fun and capping is the main goal of the game but when you do the maths and take typical loadouts (VA or manually bought) and the average probability of death when travelling into account during game play, you lose a lot especially if you play for short periods at a time and you're not always on a good, communicative team.

Here's a few options I can think of to fix or at least alleviate a bit of this unbalance as its getting out of hand.(Granted this is if you still keep it to 1 server, the map being stratis)

Option A
True access to the VA without ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ price tags or time limits on top of it (talking about the 500k cost, also buying your own gear is fine and fair), honestly it should be encouraged, not just on trailerpark but on all wasteland servers.

Option B
Or if you program your starter money to be in your bank account you can always pick what you start with when you're in VA and buy more when you can afford more and limit a few things to be bought only in appropriate stores to pay for.

Option C (most unlikely)
Have it like how TP does it and have it at a 500k or 100k VA cost but have it for a reasonable amount of time taking into account the average individual player death numbers in a 3 hour session and mission completion rates and taking into account that some of us don't actually spend all our time playing all week. And then there you have it, a system where you're not choking players by the balls when they spawn in. By no means am I trying to make General Stores and Gun stores redundant but you have to come at a compromise to make sure that players can at least afford first and for most to not light up like a chinese new years party in thermals against veteran players alike and to actually stand a chance when spawning in as this game is about being prepared for your objectives and doing them. What I am saying is the current system puts players at a severe disadvantage when spawning in.

Option D
Re script things in the wasteland server files, find coders and rescript the wasteland mod files to make bought items permanent but not infinite (similar to how warlords has you have your previous loadout but your ammo and such is not replenished every time you die unless you go back and rebuy new gear). As a way to balance (remove the ability to sell your gear to avoid abuse). If that isn't a bigger way to make it a better experience then i don't know what is then. The point is to give players spawning in a chance to not have their gear completely wasted if they get spawn camped or be killed in less than 5 mins just trying to move around the map with a vehicle.

Last points (Sister servers and removal of items/features):

i'll make this shorter than the rest, sister servers = multiple versions of the same server, the issue is most servers are going the direction where they no longer link your ATM balances which is just detrimental to the whole experience. Like if you have multiple servers and you do that, and your other servers are barely populated as a result then whats the point of paying for the others? Its just a waste of resources and money on server owner's pockets. My points above all link to being able to work across multiple servers (at least 2) or just 1 server having a bigger map like altis to function normally. Given how the public playerbase have favoured stratis for the small map area and CQB, its warranted that yes theres a need for a stratis server but given how you've made so many changes to missions locations, spawn rates and types in one area and how they keep overlapping on one another adding to the issues created above, its not that tangible to make decent money doing some missions and therefore you begin to lose interest fast if you're not a veteran player from the past. (I am saying this because some servers have purposely lowered territory cap money)

Either rebalance stratis or add a second server with a larger map size.

As for removal of items, this is a no brainer, people actually don't think of this because they either heavily relie simpler solutions that damage gameplay or just don't actually think. I'll just create a list of the basic and necessary items and vehicles that DO have counters to them and can be regulate if you just use common sense.

Arty tanks
Con: can hide in trees like the vietcong

Common sense Counter 1: Actually form squads and work together and cohesively to set out a search effort to find these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (spawn tanks or helis with radar to get its location when you get closer to it), and make the cost for them to be as expensive or more expensive then your jets. Restricting arty tanks to a slot should limit the spam as well is making it expensive and limit explosive ammo shots so that it can become a support vehicle using smoke, maybe even make rearming especially long for it.


Mortars
Con: can be spammed if you have a rearm source

Common sense Counter 2: Increase its base price a bit and actually listen for the firing of shells, you might also want to search for mortars too as they can be heard when firing their explosives. Limiting who can be mortars can change the land scape of battle significantly.


DLC Jets (All of them)
Cons: They're too fast and dodge AA

Common sense Counter 3: Yeah its just you or two guys bunched together firing at one jet within its first flare, I am a deadly pilot when it comes to fighter jets and have dodge more than 13 missile without flares many times yet I can be downed if I get overwhelmed especially from different directions and different frequencies. Set up AA defences, start up with launchers and spread out strategically like real soldiers do then fire in sequence intervals and you will down or severely damage the jet. Actually sacrificing less then 90k - 100k on a tigris/chetah might idk....save your team. The idea is not just to have AA but have enough in the area to act as a barrier, that barrier will slow the jet down to the point where 1 critical shot out of your shots is enough to end them. Just simply removing them creates a hole in tactical gameplay, air strikes especially on needed targets are important when fighting against enemies. Using just Griffins alone isn't enough air power to effectively be useful in both ground and air operations, be smart with the loadouts you give jets and price them properly.

Night vision on drones
Cons: honestly this one i don't have one because this is just too dumb.

Common Sense Counter 4: Just allow them to have night vision, it can also be used as an orientation instrument to see in the dark where you need to hit or look at especially when driving it.


Some High calibre weapons
Cons: Some servers remove certain how powered assault rifles or sniper rifles because of their shire power.

Common sense Counter 5: Anyone can get it and use it against the player who has it.

Default Rearm trucks at all runways
Cons: Jet or Drone pilots having quick stops to rearm refuel and repair

Common Sense Counter 6: No they don't. Their process for the 3 R's takes long enough, not to mention its been a staple in wasteland since its conception. This creates an environment where any attack vehicle you get is a one use vehicle which if thats how you want it to be you better lower its prices cuz it becomes pointless to purchase them at high prices then if you enforce that especially with low ammo capacities, it just adds insult to injury. There not always gonna be a player bought truck around.


Now to anyone with a decent level of intelligence, you will pick out flaws in my argument in a civil manor below. And I will be able to see if i can back up my points. This is not aimed to the people who did lots of hackers, money shipment and other money missions back in the days where wasteland servers were plenty, prices were lower and there was some balance in some areas that made it viable to actively grind missions even if some were indeed broken. You will be clouded by your ignorance as you've already made enough to not worry about these kind of small issues. I am talking to the people that are just starting out or have a decent fortune but are now seeing it lessen as time goes on due to these changes.

Its not about being skilled at everything but its about the lack of balance and removal of basic features that were designed to be countered on these servers and how its degraded the experience to being a flavourless, aids ridden game of wasteland and why really there are only a few populated servers left as a result.

[DarkFire]

The problem with jets is that ARMA is a horribly bad game for simulating air warfare. Air operations take place at a scale that is vastly larger than the biggest ARMA maps so consequently air ops in ARMA have a horribly artificially compressed feel about them. The reality is that if one has to rely on SHORAD and MANPADs for anti-air defence something has already gone horribly wrong.

Of course CAS is a thing but ARMA simply can't model SEAD, DEAD, CAP, fighter sweep or tactical strike missions because the game world is simply too small. ARMA is a great infantry sim, a decent armour sim and a passable chopper sim but a fast jet sim it will never be.

Otherwise, you make very good points but ultimately I think you've laid out a plan for fixing a game type that very few people really care about any more.

[Lera]

Originally posted by DarkFire:

ARMA is a great infantry sim, a decent armour sim ...

Are we at the Comedy Awards already? decent armour simulation? Holy ♥♥♥♥, a single rocket from a Titan destroys every single tank, no matter what you do. Getting into tanks on wasteland is a waste of money, time and nerves since every single dude is carrying AT it feels like. Tanks shouldn't be oneshot and blow up right after, they should be disabled, damaged, pierced - but blowing up after every single rocket you get shot at you is pure bs

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Lera:

Originally posted by DarkFire:

ARMA is a great infantry sim, a decent armour sim ...

Are we at the Comedy Awards already? decent armour simulation? Holy ♥♥♥♥, a single rocket from a Titan destroys every single tank, no matter what you do. Getting into tanks on wasteland is a waste of money, time and nerves since every single dude is carrying AT it feels like. Tanks shouldn't be oneshot and blow up right after, they should be disabled, damaged, pierced - but blowing up after every single rocket you get shot at you is pure bs

I agree BI's Tanks DLC buff is a laughable joke, theres practically no Armour simulation at all, no stages of damage, just a 1 or 2 shot system. Being a game dev myself, i'd argue they just increased the health of tanks and added visible damage.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by DarkFire:

The problem with jets is that ARMA is a horribly bad game for simulating air warfare. Air operations take place at a scale that is vastly larger than the biggest ARMA maps so consequently air ops in ARMA have a horribly artificially compressed feel about them. The reality is that if one has to rely on SHORAD and MANPADs for anti-air defence something has already gone horribly wrong.

Of course CAS is a thing but ARMA simply can't model SEAD, DEAD, CAP, fighter sweep or tactical strike missions because the game world is simply too small. ARMA is a great infantry sim, a decent armour sim and a passable chopper sim but a fast jet sim it will never be.

Otherwise, you make very good points but ultimately I think you've laid out a plan for fixing a game type that very few people really care about any more.

I agree its implementation is poor in this game due to how big the maps are and where and how they spawn compared to how real operations work.
Though mostly in this game its used as a quick solution to problems and often leads to total dominance depending on who is in the driver seat.

I'd argue that the reason for that becoming the reality is because they made the lock on system too easy, they should've made it so that its like launchers where you have to keep the target on the reticle THEN have a fire and forget system to add 1. realism to it and 2. to make it so that the pilot actually has to put effort in getting kills but BI is quite lazy in my opinion. Plus the server owners setting up the jet loadouts give jets too much missile and bomb ammo, they should limit it to 2 shots for each explosive type and guns should have the highest ammo count to encourage dogfighting.

As for the community, yeah this post will mostly go on deaf ears but its just to bring awareness.

[Birdman Jr]

You can adjust the damage/power

[Birdman Jr]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡:

Either rebalance stratis or add a second server with a larger map size.

You do realize there are a bunch of other maps for Wasteland right? Not just Stratis.

[Henderson]

Originally posted by Birdman Jr:

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡:

Either rebalance stratis or add a second server with a larger map size.

You do realize there are a bunch of other maps for Wasteland right? Not just Stratis.

It's called an example.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Birdman Jr:

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡:

Either rebalance stratis or add a second server with a larger map size.

You do realize there are a bunch of other maps for Wasteland right? Not just Stratis.

That is a clear example of why I stated people with a decent amount of intelligence should respond below.

Observe my quote VVVVV

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡:

Given how the public playerbase have favoured stratis for the small map area and CQB, its warranted that yes theres a need for a stratis server

Meaning they voted to have stratis as the main map.

A quick glance at a server browser will tell you its mostly stratis servers that are populated. And while some have other alternate servers, they're not linked. Again another issue I stated above.

[Birdman Jr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyHb_HQG9YY

[Lera]

Originally posted by Birdman Jr:

You can adjust the damage/power

Wait, you can? How?

[Dada]

A slammer up in front or side won't be destroyed by a single titan (top not all the time), maybe they increased titan weapon damage in the mission, so the problem its the mission itself.
After all Wasteland its more like a free for all, so if you manage your tank alone you simply did'nt have the time to switch to commander then drop smoke.

I have played many times as tank crew with friend (gunner/driver/commander) i can confirm that smoke are effective.

Tank its like infantry, you need to find a good firing position and do not stay static in the open field.

Next time try to find 2 friend to play as tank crew.

[LastPlanet]

You need to try out , warlord at official gameserver

[DarkFire]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡:

Originally posted by Lera:

Are we at the Comedy Awards already? decent armour simulation? Holy ♥♥♥♥, a single rocket from a Titan destroys every single tank, no matter what you do. Getting into tanks on wasteland is a waste of money, time and nerves since every single dude is carrying AT it feels like. Tanks shouldn't be oneshot and blow up right after, they should be disabled, damaged, pierced - but blowing up after every single rocket you get shot at you is pure bs

I agree BI's Tanks DLC buff is a laughable joke, theres practically no Armour simulation at all, no stages of damage, just a 1 or 2 shot system. Being a game dev myself, i'd argue they just increased the health of tanks and added visible damage.

To be fair ARMA does model directional armour protection. Trying to take down a T-100 with an Alamut from the front is very difficult and will take at least 5-6 shots. Not so much from the side or rear. Steel Beasts it certainly isn't but ARMA could be much worse with regards to armour.