Prepare for the FIA

[u/Polo117]

Sticking to the same US/USSR HQC playstyle will not work with the FIA in 1.7

Solo play will result in you giving your gear and vehicles to the FIA for free

• Solo building a base? You got caught by 1 FIA, who now has your construction truck, radio, gear and will use all these things against you

• Solo operating a heli or armored vehicle? 1 FIA will watch and follow you for an hour, waiting for the perfect time to kill you and take your vehicle

Arsenals at every base enables constant sabotage

• Every Arsenal is a place for the FIA to upgrade their gear from a simple pistol, to everything they need

• There should only be a few arsenals at heavily defended bases, with lots of player traffic

• Once the arsenal is not needed, it should be disassembled

Storage Depots are destructible

• Hoarding depots in one spot is a saboteurs dream, they should be built under camo nets, and spread throughout the base

• Depots can no longer be used for indestructible walls

Rushing to build bases or capture points will result in you getting ambushed

• Players can't predict safe paths to drive or walk, the FIA could be ANYWHERE

• FIA can reposition most of the default FIA AI, and landmines around the map

• FIA can recruit more FIA to position

• FIA can build defences

Bases need to be isolated so they're harder to infiltrate, and easier to defend

• Bases built besides towns, forests etc allows the FIA to walk right in, even with AI defenders

• A base built in a clear, open field, with sandbag walls makes it harder to infiltrate, and also protects the AI defenders

• Just need to avoid positions that have high-ground looking into the base

Abandoning vehicles at every base you attack gives the FIA free transport

• Many people spawn a vehicle, drive to an objective, and once they capture, will build a new vehicle station and spawn another vehicle, while their original one is a walk away

• These scattered vehicles give the FIA more options for transport, to use them as roadblocks or ambushes

The FIA punishes those who lack situational awareness, who don't work within a group, and those who rush to complete their objectives.

I'm keen to see how this new danger will change how people play, how will you as a soldier, Squad Leader or Commander change your playstyle in this new environment?

[u/TheeAlteredState]

In terms of player ratio, FIA faction will be a shitshow for public official play.

The chance of getting a game not dominated by FIA griefers will plummet.

I’m not at all hopeful that this will force more team play. Simply down to the fact that the advantage will lie with a coherent unit using asymmetric tactics.

You will never get the numbers required to clear and control lines of advance because in reality you would need >10x to lead an advance or protect vulnerable units (eg construction or logistics)

It will undoubtedly transform HQC but I really doubt it’s going to be positive for general gameplay. It will simply become a griefers wet dream, progress will slow to a crawl and casual players will just give up.

Backend roles are already challenging enough. Survive an FIA ambush only to have your construction truck flip on a small grass bank at 15kph.

[u/SWAMPMULE74 → u/TheeAlteredState]

I dont know what servers you play on but I use a small 4 man team to wreck buckling bases every game. The only difference now is I can do it to both sides.

I am a ambush, IED and VBIED player and am stoked to make people crash out.

War isnt fair and to hear people whine about how much harder this will be makes me laugh.

[u/TheeAlteredState → u/SWAMPMULE74]

Public official (ie vanilla hqc) as stated.

TLDR: it’s already frustrating under current normal* conditions to achieve most back end tasks, which most players don’t want to do today.

I just think those (official) servers will become too incoherent with FIA in the mix simply because it’s already takes fairly Herculean effort to build out to the PVP MLR.

The implied aspect of HQC is that your rear is secured. This does away with that with no explicit systems to support it, like improved AI management (eg patrolling). The defensive burden grows with your advance remember.

It’s not even a criticism of your preferred play style. Just that it has the potential to disrupt not just some progress, but when combined with all the other insane mechanics, will halt all progress. It’s likely that your leet ambush is the last straw, not the sole reason for a rage quit. But hey realism amarite!

• what ever constitutes reality on Planet Bohemia

[u/heDrewofIdeastoReddo → u/TheeAlteredState]

Well said, here's to hoping BI will main Ironbeards Conflict: Escalation mod that does help address the issues with defining the MLR and improving AI.

[u/TheeAlteredState → u/heDrewofIdeastoReddo]

Yeah I’ve been running vanilla CE ‘local stand alone’ this week to learn the mechanics