Dogs of War Online

Sometimes, especially in the Acheron map, two armies can see immediately that no one can win.

An example of a situatin of this type is if a Lion player uses the northeast corner in the first turn to fortify his position and then waits for you to suicide yourself there (I tried just for fun 4 different times to break in, with both Acheron and Wolfen, changing everytime strategy, using both ranged or melee units, however everytime the mages/archers behind made too much damage without any possibility to get to them in time, + sparklings and Valkyrie healing every damage that can pass through).

A possibility to ask officially only once per game the other player to conclude the match as a draw should be added (with a double confirmation screen to be sure), since at the moment in those cases the only possibilities are conceiding the battle or waiting for 14 turns for the draw result (clicking frenetically on the hourglass symbol)

Almanro wrote:Sometimes, especially in the Acheron map, two armies can see immediately that no one can win.

An example of a situatin of this type is if a Lion player uses the northeast corner in the first turn to fortify his position and then waits for you to suicide yourself there (I tried just for fun 4 different times to break in, with both Acheron and Wolfen, changing everytime strategy, using both ranged or melee units, however everytime the mages/archers behind made too much damage without any possibility to get to them in time, + sparklings and Valkyrie healing every damage that can pass through).

A possibility to ask officially only once per game the other player to conclude the match as a draw should be added (with a double confirmation screen to be sure), since at the moment in those cases the only possibilities are conceiding the battle or waiting for 14 turns for the draw result (clicking frenetically on the hourglass symbol)

the option is nice indeed. That map really favors turtle strategies but can't be helped i guess...

Deep Blue wrote:That map really favors turtle strategies but can't be helped i guess...

It most definitely can be helped.

Best way to discourage "turtling" in video games is to have multiple objectives spread throughout the map (turtling is ineffective in multiplayer RTS, for example, because turtling gives your opponent easy access to the entire map's resources).

A trivial solution (not necessarily a good one, but bear with me here) would be for simple "powerups" that significantly boost damage or stats to appear in the middle of the map around turn 6-7 if the area is uncontested.

Another trivial "stalemate-breaker" solution would be to implement a second victory option involving bringing your Notable to the center and holding it for a set time (much like King of the Hill).

Would advantage fast movers (hint, wolf) too much.

The lack of engaging gameplay following entrenchment ("turtling") is what we're trying to solve here. If one player entrenches himself and refuses to move, relative speed is no longer relevant.

Presumably if neither player entrenches, there is little or no significant change in the gameplay.

Serdak wrote:Presumably if neither player entrenches, there is little or no significant change in the gameplay.

On that I disagree

Incidentally, with proper execution this sort of "fight or lose" mechanic would also stop losing players (particularly Wolfen) from disengaging and running out the turn timer, forcing a draw. (As I understand, this sort of play is less prevalent nowadays, but still pops up from time to time.)

So, yeah. One fix that solves multiple problems with minimal fuss. Parsimony. I like it.

Add in something like this and change how disengagement works, and you've got a very solid set of base mechanics.

Serdak wrote:

Deep Blue wrote:That map really favors turtle strategies but can't be helped i guess...

It most definitely can be helped.

Best way to discourage "turtling" in video games is to have multiple objectives spread throughout the map (turtling is ineffective in multiplayer RTS, for example, because turtling gives your opponent easy access to the entire map's resources).

A trivial solution (not necessarily a good one, but bear with me here) would be for simple "powerups" that significantly boost damage or stats to appear in the middle of the map around turn 6-7 if the area is uncontested.

Another trivial "stalemate-breaker" solution would be to implement a second victory option involving bringing your Notable to the center and holding it for a set time (much like King of the Hill).

i like the buff idea altough i wonder how it can be used...all units get it? only one gets uber? VIP map can't have more objectives unfortunately but i would really love a dominion map with multiple areas to control.

Even if there were some gameplay changes like some of the suggestions you've made. I still think there needs to be a draw option. If two players have two teams that they know are pretty much in a stalemate I think having the ability to offer a draw never hurts in situations like that. I'm in favor of both having an option to offer draws and making some gameplay changes that might encourage people to engage.

Most important is discouraging absolute turtling with everything you have, especially Lion's super-healing, spell and arrow-shooting blobs.

How to do it? I'll give it some thought