Wall of text alert In another thread about how flags should work I had made a quick suggestion about delayed flag bleed that had been on my mind since back when Mestia had a starting bleed for the Brits. I always found it odd that the solution was a variable amount of bleed that rushed the team into action but just never thought about having a certain amount of prep time which would be represented by a delayed bleed. After some games where the side with control of most of the map lost due to the other team only having to hold up at one flag I realized that part of the reason for the middle flags being dead zones for tickets was that there needs to be room for the two sides to press the other, but with 8 flags there is just too much room to sit and wait on both sides. I wanted to flesh out the idea here so that map makers like Rhino can see how this concept can be used on multiple map types in more detail than my first comment.
Delayed bleed is simply starting the ticket bleed at a period of time after the flag has been captured, simple and to the point. This delay could be done from the start of a round or from the time a flag is captured. I will use Kolzsek (sp) for my assault map and Kashan for AAS map examples. I will also include an example for Insurgency as a possibility for kicks. All examples are with amounts that I suggest but of course the rates/delay amounts can be changed depending on map/situation so please don't argue that kind of detail in this thread.
The one downside to this is that one team can sit on their forward held position and wait out a slow bleed. The counter for this of course is artillery to push them off. With a slow bleed that is delayed the other team has plenty of time to stage a comeback, and is punished if they simply sit and hide while the other team controls the map.
Terminology
I will refer to 'tpm' or tickets per minute since that is how I think of ticket bleed when considering a slower bleed. 2 tpm would be a ticket every 30 seconds, 20 tpm would be a ticket every three seconds. This gives an idea of how fast the team will lose tickets after a flag is captured. I also will count the ticket bleed as cumulative when multiple flags cause bleed as capturing each new area should up the rate, and neutralizing a flag past the current contested one should not get rid of the bleed altogether. Examples below will explain this. I will also use a game timer starting at 0 (beginning of the game) and counting up instead of using the in game countdown.
Assault Maps
Assault maps (where one side starts with all flags) always need a reason to assault. Previously the bleed would start at the start of the map and if the assaulter couldn't get that first flag fat they would lose do to being behind on tickets for the rest of the map and having hard flags to push for a bleed. I like the idea of forcing an assault and delayed bleed allows for the team to get organized instead of rushing in.
On Kolzsek the Russians would have 30 minutes to contest (turn white) the first flag in the AAS list, if they did not then they would bleed 5 tpm. This means that at the 1 hour marker a Russian team who has not caused the first flag to turn white would have lost 150 tickets for bleed. This punishes them for slow play, and frankly if they haven't taken a flag by 1:30 they should be low on tickets from deaths and the game is likely over.
If the Russians take the first flag (or turn it white) and then at a later time the Chechyns push them back and recapture that first flag then the 30 minute timer would start for bleed. So in that case the Russians take the first objective at 25 minutes but the Chechyns take it back at 43 minutes and hold it until 1:23. At 1:13 the Russians would start losing 5 tpm and would lose 50 tickets for the 10 minutes of bleed before they contested the flag again at 1:23. If they had contested the flag by 1:13 they would not have received a bleed, giving them incentive to continue fighting.
Chechyns would still bleed as normal on their last flag unless Devs wanted to give them some time to mount a counterattack there by giving them a delay. The middle flag would not need to cause a bleed for either team in counter attack since the point of the mode is for the Russians to capture the whole map and should be given time for the last two flags.
AAS
On a map like Kashan the middle 4 flags have no impact on bleed. This means that if the MEC caps US to North Village the US can still defend and win since all that matters is Outpost and Main. This allows for back and forth game play although it generally means that the map is either a capout or the fighting stays in the bunkers because the next flags aren't worth the tickets to take.
Delayed bleed can be applied here by having staggered bleed times for flags to simulate overall battlefield control. This can either include all flags or leave a central flag as non-bleed.
The example for Kashan will use the current flag layout. Bleed is described for the US side, the matching flags on the MEC side would have the same bleed. An alternate layout would have bunkers as a large central flag with a 1 hour delay and 1 tpm bleed because of how hard it would be to take.
The North and south Bunkers (NB and SB) would work together for the initial bleed. There would be a 30 minute delay for a 1 tpm bleed from when both flags are held by the same army. If one flag is turned white the bleed counter is stopped and starts again at 30 minutes when one team has both NB and SB again. For the US the North Village would have a 20 minute delay for a 2 tpm bleed, Outpost would have a 3 tpm bleed after 10 minutes. Capping US main would cause a 60 tpm bleed so the game would end quickly.
Example: MEC first grabs the two bunkers at 20 minutes of game time. At 50 minutes the US starts to bleed 1 tpm. When the MEC turns the North Village flag white at 60 minutes (1:00) and captures it at 1:05. US turns the NV flag white at 1:20 and then MEC retakes it quickly by 1:30. At 1:50 the US has an additional 2 tpm bleed from NV in addition to the 1 tpm bleed from the bunkers. At 2:00 MEC takes outpost and at 2:10 the US is bleeding at 6 total tpm (1 for bunkers, 2 for NV and 3 for Outpost).
If the US was able to white out a bunker while NV was being capped but MEC still finished capping NV US would bleed 2 tpm after 20 minutes because the MEC has their rear flag.
Timeline:
1:00 US has bled 10 tickets from bunkers (10 total)
1:30 US has bled 40 tickets from bunkers (40 total) as NV never exceeded the delay for MEC
2:00 US has bled 70 tickets from bunkers, 10 tickets from NV (80 total)
2:30 US has bled 100 tickets from bunkers, 50 tickets from NV and 60 from outpost (210 total)
The holding of territory has a slow start and as the team dominates the ticket loss is increased quickly. If the US recaptures or turns flags white before the delay kicks in they won't even suffer a bleed. This focuses the fighting on the first flags and rewards a team that can 'quickly' fall back to a flag they recently lost but rewards a tam that takes new territory and holds it.
On an AAS3 map with 3 random flags the middle flag could either have a long delay for a stalemate breaker or simply be left without a bleed at all, but if one team has a majority of the flags otherwise they should be rewarded for their push. So on Fools Road if Russia has all three random flags + their starting main the Chechyns should start bleeding after a while (I'd say 30 minutes) even if their main is not captured by the Russians. It shouldn't be all or nothing for bleed, and the Chechyns shouldn't be able to sit and main and wait out the Russians and possibly gain an advantage by being the defender.
Insurgency
In one version of Basrah the peranent VCP was capturable by Insurgents and caused a bleed for the US. I liked this but since the bleed was immediate it caused too much of a response from the US or the US just bled out. For Insurgency having VCPs on a delayed bleed could give the US a secondary objective, without detracting from the cache searches too much.
For Basrah I would have the VCP on a 1 hour 5 tpm bleed. The one hour delay allows the US to respond slowly, but would reward an Insurgent team who can hold the US out for that long. Outpost on Korengal would work well for this also but the castle on Archer would not. If implemented I would also give the US some additional tickets to make up for the potential loss, and possibly a reward for holding the flag for a certain amount of time such as a delayed increase in tickets if possible. Say if they hold the flag for one hour they gain 1 tpm after. Obviously any time during this hour if the flag changed hands the timer would reset. I wouldn't want to see this on all maps but could be a unique thing like how the Outpost spawns items for each team when captured.
Summary
All in all the idea is to give a reason to attack somewhere but allow time to do so, and penalize if the team doesn't. While I like my implementation for AAS the idea was originally intended for Assault maps. I think it would even work in the case of last flag bleed such as on Muttrah for the US to mount one last attempt at docks by having a 20 minute delay on the bleed (but then make it harsh like 30 tpm) since it is the last flag.
