Warning: Text Walls. Sorry about this, but I feel like some of the exploits or fixes I suggest aren't straightforward to explain)
Love it or hate it, we can all agree (or disagree) that Frontlines gives a refreshing break away from the monotony and cramped maps of Random Battles. But seeing as Fl is being ended prematurely this year in favor for 4 weeks of Steel Hunter (Groan), and the fact that WG will probably capitalize on more FL episodes either later this year (unlikely) or more likely next year
But like last year, it came with its equal share of pains and terrain exploits, some of which have persisted from last year. If WG wants to generate more appeal for this mode, in my opinion these few changes should at least be considered for the next iteration of the large-scale gamemode:
- Fix the terrain Exploits at Kraftwerk's C cap. If you had the chance of defending C point at Kraftwerk, or attacking C, you probably know about this spot. The offensive side has a slight advantage due to an exploit with the cap circle size. If you don't know, there's a super tiny portion of the circle that goes into that building on the South of C cap, and this tiny edge is big enough to let smaller tanks like the ELC EVEN or BatChat 12 camp right next to a wall along this circle portion, and the game counts them as being inside the cap circle. This is incredibly dumb, and I'm surprised this wasn't fixed from last year, when Kraftwerk was first introduced. Since there's a FREAKING WALL, anyone camping behind this are pretty much immune to any damage (especially since there's a building over their head), and if it's the stupidly small EVEN 90, it might be difficult to get side shots around the wall in order to even get at the map exploiter. All the while, the Defenders have to expose themselves to multiple lanes of crossfire to sit on cap or try and remove the wall camping capturer, and I've always despised having to Defend this sector for this very reason, as 90% of the veteran FL players know what this exploit is an will immediately camp there. Literally moving those building clusters like FIVE MILLIMETRES SOUTH will force the attackers to actually SIT in the cap instead of relying on a map exploit that renders them invincible to a degree and allows them to farm cap points.
- While talking about Kraftwerk, let's talk about he final phase repair posts and Defender spawns. I'm not entirely sure if this is intentional, but the attackers have a very big advantage if they get to the final stages. Essentially, trying to repair late into the final area (which is 50% of the time due to idiot EBRs that are like moths to a flame to kill turrets) as a Defender is suicide. Meanwhile, EBRs can enjoy 2 minute escapades into enemy spawn to harass turrets and arty and then quickly retreat to repair zones to become full health again (as if the EBRs were not cancerous enough already). Granted, this isn't as bad as the C cap exploit, but the problem is, once defenders are limited to the turret zone exclusively, they are literally unable to repair without getting nuked by fresh spawned attackers, and when they die, the spawn points are literally the most inconvenient locations known to mankind. I feel like this isn't a huge issue, but what I would enjoy is either more red line spawn points for Defenders, or the repair posts to be placed in a spot where attackers and defenders are at equal risk for getting plastered by the other team (kind of like the B Cap repair point next to the church)
- The Turrets. Wargaming, PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE USELESS XP GAINS FROM KILLING TURRETS AND (not) "WINNING" THE GAME. I know it's crap, I get more Frontline XP from getting assists with Inspire or Stunning than shooting turrets, I've shot at the turrets just to test this theory. 50% of the noob players on the map probably have just bought their OP EBR car and have only played like 3 FL games ever, and despite the intelligent half of the playerbase knowing VERY WELL that the turrets do crap for getting to general trying to convince these turds to not YOLO, they are like freaking moths attracted to an invisible lamplight attached to the Turrets. I've seen a FV4202 YOLO and kill the final turret while he was a FREAKING SERGEANT. LITERALLY THE SECOND TO WORST RANK. WTF???? Do these clowns do this on purpose to piss off the entire playerbase in the game or do they genuinely don't understand they are making any chance of getting a T9 Reward tank virtually impossible???
If there's a slim chance a WG Dev sees this post, for the love of god, EITHER REWARD DEFENDERS FOR PROTECTING THE TURRETS WITH A SIGNIFICANT XP BOOST POST GAME PER TURRET NOT DESTROYED, OR GIVE ATTACKERS BONUSES FOR KILLING TURRETS.
No one has a right to say "But WiNnInG InCrEaSeS xP aNd CrEdIts" anymore. Everyone with some common sense is calling this BS by now. All the clowns that say this are 9 times out of ten running like five billion T8 premiums and/or Premium account time during this event. Heck, I don't have EITHEr and I can easily get 50-100k with credit boosters activated. Losing means crap for XP and Credits as far as I'm concerned, winners get only marginal amounts more than the losing team, if at all, and the XP gain is LITERALLY TIED TO RANK, NOT WINNING. The Fl Regulations literally say this if you look a the Ranks section. Sometimes, these noobs kill the things so fast, I could probably play one or two turbo Random Battles in the time that they left on the clock at game end. It's ridiculous, and regardless of whether the cars are mostly responsible (as I've mentioned, not all tanks that turret YOLO are EBRs, but they most likely are) for these FL turbo battles, either something has to be done to make the turrets more difficult to access before a certain point, or the game should reward those who contest or destroy turrets with significant FL XP gains. IDK how they would like to change this, but it has to change. - Limit the amount of light tanks you can start a game with or during the entire game. Or freaking nerf the EBR and Lynx. I can tolerate the clown cars slightly better than others on the subreddit, but EBR Platoons that circle you to death and then end the game prematurely literally makes my brain want to explode. Understandable, not all light tanks are bad, and when they aren't a-holes when it comes to attacking objectives or harassing spawnpoints, they can help accelerate the pace of the game positively and prevent heavies from camping out the attackers. But 90% of the time, they simply provide players new to Frontline to not play the mode. Most of the time I enjoy obliterating the suckers with well aimed shots or airstrikes, and when the game begins with no lights period in my zone at the start of the game, I can actually enjoy the game for a good 2-3 minutes. I suppose WG has brought this plague upon FL themselves, and because they have -200 IQ, they can't really nerf the EBR 75, because "Premiums can't be nerfed", but either A) Preventing EBRs from platooning together, B) Prevent how many you can start a game with like arty, or C) Nerf the crap out of the EBR. Maybe not the Lynx, as it struggles in Randoms, but the EBR 75 could probably be reclassified as a T10 Reward Tank and still overperform like the other pieces of cancer that is EBRs or T10 Reward doomsday machines.
- More FL! I get it, Steel Hunter has its fans. No need to alienate that portion of the fanbase. But doing this year, WG also alienated the FL fanbase too. Four Frontline weeks a year is dumb. Granted, the grind wasn't as much of a Full-Time Job as it was last year, and I think we all appreciated that, but Frontlines is more than "muh reward tonks". There needs to be a balance between the grindiness, the duration of FL events, and the Rewards. I get that if there was more FL weeks, the grind would just be a copy paste of 2019, something we all probably would like to forget about, but there needs to be a balance between the final rewards and the amount of FL, because despite its drawbacks, FL is insanely fun at it's best moments, and at the rudimentary level in terms of grinding and getting credits, Not enough FL is utterly disappointing.
Let me know your opinions (and maybe the baseless claims of "FL is about winning") below. I think these suggestions and fixes would drastically improve FL for 2021, as they are perfectly reasonable and don't screw with the balance (but they kinda were screwy to begin with, so….). Also feel free to leave your suggestions below.
