Unpopular (?) Opinion / Suggestion. I think the on foot CZs should work more like the new protect missions... hear me out

[GraphicEqualizer]

I think the on foot CZs should work more like the new protect missions -- where you drop in and there is a logical 'military' objective(s) to defend or attack -- e.g. a small thing/ship on the pad at first for the first wave (like the protect mission) and then you have to attack or defend a key building, like the CMD or PWR building, with increasingly tougher opponents (but not the current large, laggy number of opponents - at least not until performance is vastly improved). I think those changes would solve a lot of the real performance issues with on foot CZs.

Then, what is currently the on foot CZs be moved to the CQC menu - where CMDRs are queued to play 4 v 4 pvp (or mix of player and NPC team mates) deathmatches/capture the flag on a selection of settlement/environment types. That would more logically be where that gamey mode belongs, along with the ship CQC mode.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

That would be much more static than the current CZs.

I'm all for different types of CZs, but not just what you are suggesting.

 

[GraphicEqualizer]

The problem is for the majority of users the performance of the current CZs is just terrible. The powers that be need to make a bold decision to rework until performance can be improved to the point that framerates are at least steady and 60+ FPS for machines that meet the games "requirements".

The current CZs are meaningless capture the flag whack-a-mole gamified nonsense anyway. Their very nature of needing to run around everywhere with too many opponents is unsupportable by the framerates. They need to bite the bullet and admit the need to scale it back. At least with a more logical strategic capture/defend A then B then C (which does not sound that static to me) the gameplay would be more in keeping with a space simulation, not an arena game mode

 

[metatheurgist]

Why not just have more CZ scenarios overall? Doesn't have to be one or the other.

Been a while since I tried a CZ but if my 12 year old potato can successfully complete a CZ with playable frames I'm not sure if anyone else has an excuse.

 

[GraphicEqualizer]

Why not just have more CZ scenarios overall? Doesn't have to be one or the other.

Been a while since I tried a CZ but if my 12 year old potato can successfully complete a CZ with playable frames I'm not sure if anyone else has an excuse.

It depends what you consider to be playable frames.

For me with a decent rig (only native widescreen 1080 resolution) way over the recommended specs and seeing wildly variable frames from 20-40 frames per sec giving me a migraine that is clearly not ok. I just tried a Medium CZ an hour ago to check (I do a re-check after every update, and also replay the training scenario every update with FPS counters on). Virtually all other aspects of the game I get a steady 75 frames a second apart from the momentary annoying dip here and there.

I am all for more CZ scenarios (especially when the scenarios are actually logical and not just a gamified arena), but they have to be steady frame rate for the masses otherwise they are just not doing the job of enticing players like they ought to be, and is the reason why they had to just drop the console work. Any player of any other first person shooter game experiencing that will think it is an absolute abysmal joke. There is clearly something that the current version of CZs cannot do well enough, they need to change course or continue to damage the game's reputation with one aspect of the game that is not performing smoothly.

 

[londonx]

I would like to see an option to do a combat tour of a System, so you rack up credits and reputation and maybe materials as you successfully progress, if your chosen side wins a battle the drop ship will take you to the next combat in the System, if the side loses a battle you get returned to Frontier Solutions.

This will mix up combat zone types and get more difficult as you progress therefore completing a tour of a System should see great bonus rewards.

Some combat zone types: Combat POIs, not Settlement based, but hardened security outposts and temporary camps with hand crafted scenary around them and destructable buildings and assets.