8v8 Discussion Thread
They have changed turf takeover to 8v8 to see what it’s like (for lag I bet) what do you lot think.
Forum Discussion
I believe that the TTK update and the Turf Takeover change were each so significant, that they should have been released separately from each other.
This right here is huge! Both were major changes and rolling them out at the same time really makes it hard to say which is having the larger impact on TT as it currently is. The 12 vs 12 might have been fine with the TTK changes, but we will never know unless they revert it back for a bit.
Sadly I think they did this to fill dead lobbies. I love this community but its slowly declining in its player count and the devs had to adjust to the small player count. I play TT and sometimes those lobbies aren't full or even dead. I love this game but every good step popcap takes they go bad 2 steps back. I dont even play the other modes anymore because most the time they're dead.
I didn't PvP last night but ran a bunch of Ops instead, I'll get some TT in tonight.
When I did play the night of the patch the lobby was always full (at 8v8) on NA east. At 12v12 it usually was unless I tried to get a match early in the day or late at night where it can be less active than we would like to see.
I'm wondering if maybe they turned it down to 8 to give some people less lag to make other adjustments to help with the lag issues and also to see how it works. I do wish they'd just add bots to the matches so that when you get one of those overflow lobbies and it's 5 people in them, you could get a decent match going at the very least.
The general gist I'm getting is that 8v8 isn't as popular as 12v12 between here on the forums and the tweets I've seen.
Turf Takeover is my favorite mode since I tend to like the potentially longer play time afforded by the bigger multi-stage map.
I had noticed the smaller teams this morning when I switched off from the Weekly Challenge but dismissed it initially as an underpopulated lobby. I will state that I was never really effected by lag issues in Turf Takeover- at worst all I observed is some minor stuttering or the Cart on certain maps and the audio breaking when things got really chaotic.
I don't think I've played enough just yet to form an opinion but based on the handful of games I have played so far I have some first impressions.
The map does appear under-populated as other people in this thread have mentioned and even when you are in the specific region where the action is occurring there doesn't seem to be a lot happening because a certain percentage of your team gets vanquished, then has to respawn and then sprint to try to rejoin.
The dynamic for Pushing the Cart or capturing an objective has definitely changed with the smaller team size. Previously you'd have certain players on your team working the objective- Pushing the Cart opposed by those trying to stop it from being pushed or players in the actual Objective Zone trying to capture it or prevent it from being captured. Beyond these players actively working the objective itself you had the other portion of the team supporting that activity by flanking their opponents or trying to support those working the objective with mid-to-long range fire.
With the smaller teams this dynamic doesn't work as well since not actively working the objective stalls the progress, so the attacking team can't really afford to spare any players to invest time in flanking the defenders to thin out the opposition while the defending players don't have to modify their tactics much at all on maps where Pushing the Cart is the initial assaulting team goal.
It seems that the first side to gel as a team gets an advantage and that any rapid vanquish streak removing members of either team quickly enough forces a shift in the tide of battle as those vanquished players race to try to rejoin the action. A team which gets a decent number of players vanquished is more likely to see more get vanquished which results in that team being strung out between their spawn and wherever the heat of battle is occurring which makes it less likely for them to be able to function as a team again.
My impression is also that the attacking team will be disadvantaged on certain maps where Bombs or Batteries need to be carried. Because players carrying an item to an objective point have their special abilities disabled, they can't sprint and their position is singled out to the enemy team they usually need to be escorted and there are now fer team members who can do so- especially since there can be three simultaneous carriers. With 12v12 this means that battles which reach the final objective point become desperate crazy affairs full of chaos- which is arguably the best part- but with the smaller team sizes I haven't observed the same level of action and I'm having a hard time recalling if the assaulting team has been successful in any of the more recent Turf takeover games I've been in.
Since I completed the Weekly Challenge I'll be more active in Turf Takeover so I should be able to flesh out what I think overall but I do agree with one of the other opinions that a choice between a 12v12 and 8v8 might be a good option- with the caveat being that players will probably ultimately wind up in whichever one is being picked more often on that particular day.
Does anyone else think they should bring back old maps? I appreciate new maps but I miss places like the lunar base and the time park.
