Realistic Rally Points

[Truism]

Rally Points simulate reinforcements entering the battle zone. With very few exceptions reinforcements cannot deploy directly into areas that are in contest - they have to come in from outside the area and make their way in.

With this in mind, the idea of having RPs in the middle of the map that can be flanked and have no uncontested route to the edge of the map is highly unrealistic and is promoting bad play in the form of people not being scared enough of being killed because rallies can be so close at hand. This in turn reduces the role of suppressive fire and promotes radical risk taking that has a very high chance of making firefights a lot shorter than they should be. Another side effect is that because spawns are so easy to do, there are far fewer logical routes of reinforcement and choke points for more natural defenses than there would be in real engagements.

The solution is to make rally points only deployable within the narrow (depending on the map the depth could vary from 15 meters to anywhere out to 150m) ribbon running around the edges of the "Turn Back Zone". The distance, of course, can be tweaked, and could very well vary from map to map (some infantry unfriendly maps like Kashan, might need to keep present spawn rules). This will simulate the way forces actually have to physically traverse terrain and more realistically recreate the way reinforcements can be stalled and cut off. This is also going to mean that not all map edges are reinforcable - some are cut off by geographically impassable terrain.

Some points can be reinforced continuously because they simulate secure zones that are well garrisoned - these are simulated by FOs and would remain as are under this system.

In summary:

All rally points must be set close to the edge of the AWOL zone to simulate reinforcements coming in from outside the AO.

- Promotes desirable and more realistically cautious play (supply lines, while not unmanageable are now more punishing when you die).
- Allows more realistic and less digital delaying and cutting off of reinforcements than the current on/off system of killing rallies or letting them spawn does.
- Increases the importance of Firebases to assaults in the centers of maps.
- Increases the importance of geography in planning defenses, which in turn, should function more realistically because avenues of movement and attack will be more restricted, and less easy to set up on a flank.
- Has the advantage of being more realistic than instant spawns right by the action - 'nilla style.
- Squad leader retains some tactical control of the squad, while actual squadwork becomes more important because of more dependancy on one another for survival.





But is it hardcoded?

Edit: Adjusted for some concerns, included new thoughts and to clarified some times.

[Tirak]

This system + 4km map = fail. No, don't like it and ain't gonna like it.

[wookimonsta]

dude... imagine having to walk to the bunker complex on kashan ALL the way from the edge of the map. i can see where you are coming from, but it would mean that if the enemy takes down your transport choppers on a map like kashan, the game is practically over because it would be impossible to move troops and everyone would have to spawn at the edge of the map

[AnRK]

The more "realistic" approach to re-enforcements is in the shape of firebases and bunkers, I'm pretty sure RPs are now just purely a gameplay thing.

[Truism]

This system + 4km map = fail. No, don't like it and ain't gonna like it.

Which 4km maps again? Kashan where infantry are just fodder? Or Quinling where they're. . . Just fodder? Oh, you mean Al Kufrah, where they're just fodder. . . Sure, on some of these big, open maps let the poor footsloggers have rallies because air dropped reinforcements are more of a possibility, but certainly not on all the PLA maps bar Quinling (and Barracuda unfortunately), all the Militia maps and about half the MEC maps. Insurgency spawning is badly in need of an overhaul anyway, but this isn't exactly the way reinforcements work in the urban Insurgency scenarios mostly modeled in PR, the rural ones are crying for it though.

dude... imagine having to walk to the bunker complex on kashan ALL the way from the edge of the map. i can see where you are coming from, but it would mean that if the enemy takes down your transport choppers on a map like kashan, the game is practically over because it would be impossible to move troops and everyone would have to spawn at the edge of the map

Actually it's almost impossible to run out of Trans choppers on Kashan - they are on 5 minute respawn timers. But see above - I think Kashan is an exceptional map in that infantry have almost no place in it, obviously normal rules designed to make infantry on infantry combat work better don't apply so well here.

[Tirak]

What's the point of this system. You may as well remove rallies altogether and make people walk from main.

[Solid Knight]

Spawns should be FOBs and Flags only.

[gazzthompson]

not flags, to spammy to attack...

[BlackDingo]

I can see the point that Truism is trying to make, but really, this isn't actually the real thing when you die once and never have to walk that hellish 4k's again, hence and walking / choppering in over and over gets repetitive, not to mention causes crowding at the aircraft spawn points thats anything but realistic.

If your worried about having your RP outflanked, then set it up in a place that is more secure.

If a SL decides to set up a RP right in the middle of downtown 'Iraq' during a firefight, then really you should question his abilities as a SL not the restrictions coded into the game.

[Salah ad Din]

Ok, what about this:

Each Squadleader can place up to 5 (?) Rally Waypoints and one Rallypoint.

The Spawn on that Rally is only active if you can route a line from your Rally through any waypoints (waypoints from other squads do count for this) to your main base. Waypoints need to be within 100 m to count for the Route. FOBs contribute to the route, but allow a distance of 500 m.

Waypoints cannot be destroyed as such (they are invisible) but if more than three enemy soldiers are in a 50 m radius, this waypoint becomes inactive for routing purposes. If the enemies are in the area for more than 5 minutes, the waypoint dies (the Supply Route has been permanently compromised).

To add to this, I would like to see the proposal from the other Rally Thread incroporated, where proximity of three enemies inactivates the rally until it can be stabbed.

EDIT: Actually, change that. Waypoints behave like ControlPoints. For every friendly soldier within 100 m of the Waypoint it regenerates 1 hitpoint per sec, for every enemy soldier, it looses 1 hitpoint per second (or some other values), making it important and possible to defend your supply routes.