Reduce the round time limit

[S o l d i e r]

If you ask me, the most necessary change in this mod would be to reduce how much rounds last. Reducing the round time limit would:
1. Encourage faster gameplay (less camping and timewasting, the attackers would be more active)
2. Reduce the time you have to wait when you die
Five minutes is more than enough to complete the objective on any map, so there is always some extra time that does no good, quite contrary - it slows down gameplay. If some map is the exception to this rule, its objective can be tweaked to fit the new time frame.
On Wikipedia (Movie Battles - Wikipedia) I saw that this mod was inspired by Counter-Strike. The rounds in Counter-Strike last two minutes (2m 45s if the bomb is planted at the last moment), and that's why that game is so successful - its pace is very fast. In comparison, the rounds in Movie Battles 2 last whopping 5 minutes. I understand that the gameplay of this mod requires bigger round times (slower combat, longer time to die, bigger maps (most are too big in my opinion), different objectives), but 5 minutes is still too much. If you die in the first minute of the game, sometimes you have to wait more than 4 minutes, and time is precious. On the other hand, if you want to survive longer, the best tactic for that is camping, and that is something you should not be encouraging. Making dying less punishing would also encourage players to be more active and not so afraid of dying.
Developers should decide by how much exactly the time limit should be reduced, but I am certain that this change would do only good.

 

[Sammy]

I've read quite a bit of posts by Mace (the ex-dev) basically stating the time limit was tried & tested to fit the gameplay aspect of the mod. While of course there is always room for change, I myself have seen that this time limit, though sometimes seen as long, is sometimes necessary for gameplay aspects (such as getting to the objective with a small amount of time left.)

 

[Stassin]

It depends on the map but most maps could use a lower time limit indeed.

 

[Sammy]

It depends on the map but most maps could use a lower time limit indeed.

DOTF for example, the time limit seems sometimes necessary to complete the objective, while other times it can be completed within 3 minutes. For maps (the smaller type) a lower time limit would seem plausable (maps like Cloud City, I've noticed.)

 

[Jediknight Fou]

DOTF for example, the time limit seems sometimes necessary to complete the objective, while other times it can be completed within 3 minutes. For maps (the smaller type) a lower time limit would seem plausable (maps like Cloud City, I've noticed.)

Dotf, so many times killhungry imps stopped defending and go hunting while a jedi with speed breaks trough and wins under 3 minutes, always funny.
5 minutes would be enough even for dotf, makes game faster and encourage teamplay more.

 

[SeV]

Is it not possible for server owners to choose their own time limits within 5 min? Nobody ever uses it so I'm not sure it exists, I just remembered something from ages ago. Could make 4 min the standard (and also uncap time limits. Yeah I had to sneak that in there.)

Presumably, Mace's arguments will apply to shorter time limits too. Meaning that shorter time limits will ruin the gameplay the wise old devs intended. I just think the choice should be left up to users.

But in any case, I think 4 min instead of 5 could be decent. I don't think 3 min as the standard is long enough though. MBII is a bit of a slower mod and often you get a 10v10 situation then you need time to kill all the reinforcement classes etc.

 

[StarWarsGeek]

Is it not possible for server owners to choose their own time limits within 5 min? Nobody ever uses it so I'm not sure it exists, I just remembered something from ages ago.

No current map that I'm aware of uses the feature, but you can set the time limit for each map in the .siege file to be anywhere between 3 minutes and 5 minutes. If a server owner modifies this (for example to 3min), I'm fairly certain clients will still see 5 minutes on the clock, but the round will end with 2 minutes remaining displayed on their clocks.

Rather than reducing all maps to 3min, the framework is already there to have the time limit depend on the map. I think most maps could work well in 3min, especially ones like Smuggler and Alderaan. Some huge maps like Yavin Assault probably would still need 5min.

 

[S o l d i e r]

This time limit, camping and timewasting is more of a problem on bigger maps, on Smuggler it's not a problem at all.

 

[MaceMadunusus]

To FORCE a lower time limit, many levels would have to be reworked. Kind of like what I did to Comm Tower for EC to try and get the round time to 4 minutes rather than 5 (though still needs actual testing to see how far it can go in practice). I also want to make movement speed slightly higher in EC as well to help lower the limit (like 10% boost). I would probably merge soldier/commander if a lower timelimit was forced as well.

For levels like Smuggler and Alderaan they are built in a way that could work in 3-4 minutes no problem without any class balances. I think even some of the medium sized maps could potentially be at 4... though the larger ones (JT, Cloud City, RC, DOTF) need 5. SWG is also right about the clock issues when modified server side. Deciding which ones can fit around 4 minutes would need a lot of testing and a lot of statistics recording before it is officially set in a level.

Still, as with any timelimit modification it would require a lot of work and without that work it would have to vary by level which also makes the gameplay a little inconsistent. I don't like that but it would probably be worth the issue in regards to the wait between rounds on a few levels. That wait is part of the reason I get bored playing MB2 sometimes anyway and would love to see it reduced. Still is a lot of work if we want to reduce it on every level. The designed limit was always 3-5. Though most levels were designed around 4-5.

 

[S o l d i e r]

This should've been thought about much earlier. Now it basically requires to overhaul the whole mod for this. I remember when I played in v0.something, the round limit was even higher, like 10 minutes or something, and it felt really bad to wait so long and the gameplay was much slower. I never played much back then.

 

[MaceMadunusus]

The timer has been locked at a min and max of 3 and 5 minutes respectively since the fix was reintroduced in RC2. You shouldn't have ever seen a 10 minute timer in V0. It was thought about much earlier.... just after a majority of the levels were already done. It was too late years and years ago. Way prior to V0 for example. That is why I am fixing it with EC's level design instead.

 

[S o l d i e r]

Somehow I thought that the timer was reduced somewhere in v0. Who knows, maybe I played even before v0, I don't remember, it was a long time ago.

 

[andrew]

you're remembering incorrectly, at no point during the time you've played was the timer over 5 minutes

 

[S o l d i e r]

I didn't say it was in v0, I said maybe I played before v0. If I didn't play before v0 then somehow I remember something that didn't happen.

 

[LoU]

I've read quite a bit of posts by Mace (the ex-dev) basically stating the time limit was tried & tested to fit the gameplay aspect of the mod. While of course there is always room for change, I myself have seen that this time limit, though sometimes seen as long, is sometimes necessary for gameplay aspects (such as getting to the objective with a small amount of time left.)

He has different pov on this aspect. I would like to see reduced roundtime to 3:30-4:00 at least.

In the past there was "bug", so it was possible to mess around with time limit.

 

[andrew]

I didn't say it was in v0, I said maybe I played before v0. If I didn't play before v0 then somehow I remember something that didn't happen.

thats why i didnt say v0, i said during the time you've played

there was a bug during rc1, thats about it

 

[S o l d i e r]

thats why i didnt say v0, i said during the time you've played

there was a bug during rc1, thats about it

But how do you know whether or not I played before v0 in RC1, when I myself don't know that?

 

[andrew]

its a pretty good indication that you werent if you dont know, especially since
a. 10 min round timers never existed
b. the rc1 bug was mostly used by rp servers

 

[S o l d i e r]

These are the third Movie Battles 2 forums I have an account on. Two forums were deleted since I started playing. If you can tell me the timeline of the Movie Battles 2 forums, then maybe I would be able to find out since when I have been playing.

 

[Blazer]

I love what you are saying here Soldier. I thought about this at some point, this game really bothers me with the time, I think of it this way: To players who die in the beginning of the round, have to wait 2-5 minutes just to respawn and get killed and wait again. If you were one of the first to die 3 rounds in a row, you just wasted on average 10-15 minutes of your life just sitting in spectator. TL;DR I'd rather be playing a whole round of COD than just sitting here, I understand this is what MB2 is about but I hate just sitting there and having to wait 5 minutes to play because I lagged or made one mistake and died.