Discussion on Key Points, are they harmful to the experience?

[Hannster]

Hello everyone, I am Hannster, not pro at this game by any means but would like to propose a discussion on key points.

To those that have not encountered them yet, they are those capturable buildings (dojos) present in some maps during matchmade/hosted battles.

First of all, the bonus this key points give are not small, they are quite good. So good that they actually help you dislodge that forested hill camper most of the time. In other words, they are very juicy targets.

On the other side, the behaviour of players changes drastically between maps with and without key points. I've noticed, from my few games, that when they are present, either both armies rush to the middle in an attempt to deny the enemy the advantage or one side decides he is not going for it, letting the other have the majority of the maps and the initiative.

This sorts of legitimate camping strategies, which is good and bad as they add diversity to the game at the cost of someone having to do all the work to win.

On maps without key points though, advancements are usually made with a lot more care, and battles usually last longer as reserves are kept behind the lines, instead of moving to capture buildings.

Still, campers exist in both cases, but are less annoying in the first one.

With this being said, we can't deny the positive aspects of having key points in a game, but they are not harmless. It also means that they way they are implemented now (randomly appearing on certain maps) is probably the best way since it allows both possibilities.

Although I know it is, most of the time, useless to suggest or demand new features in a game, I consider this an interesting exercise:

Let's discuss other possible implementations of key points, and their direct and indirect effects on gameplay. My idea is of "healing shrines", that would slowly replenish casualties of units outside combat, this would allow the poor soul left to climb the hill the option to pull back and regroup for a second assault.

Cheers,

[vanadis]

They should be added to all land battles imo. Especially on maps that favour spawn camping to begin with.
I agree that the bonuses they give can be a bit overpowered.

This is in particular the case when the capture points are positioned asymmetric, giving the player closest to the better capture point the advantage. e.g. sword dojo vs. shrine (forgot which map they were placed asymmetrical)

Healing shrines isn't a good idea, unless you're trying to bring zombie samurai to the game.