I went and made something that would make me want to pick up the game and give it a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mdn-7towfg
FAF name: Derp
Discord: Derp#6279

Almost all the footage was captured from ranked multiplayer games i played in.

Voice audio is from the UFN, T3, and FAF discord channels during the games.

I realise its not exactly what the brief asked for, but a little variety never hurt, maybe you can give me a wildcard entry.

"You wouldn't download an ACU....."

4v4 tmm is faster than lobbysim, has decent mirror balance, and nice variety of maps to suit different players. All my FAF friends play tmm rather than making lobbies now and its pretty fun.

I dont play much 1v1 because its kinda intimidating, i feel the early game is quite BO dependant and sweaty and i'm just not very good at that.

I don't play 2v2 at all because I got really overrated when it came out and played a bunch of matches in a row where it was me and 3 other top tourney players in the same game, whoever got me on their team just lost brutally and i felt real bad for them.

I know the objective of this thread wasn't to suggest fixes but it seems to me like the main blockers are:

-Fear
-BO related sweatyness on classic maps
-5x5 maps that don't allow teching
-20x20 maps that give depression because there's too much going on and we're only human.

So uuh, 7.5km and 10x10km mapgen would fix like 3/4 of these, right?

Tabula is a top tier 4v4 map IMO.

Had some fun games on it so far.

I can try. 1v1 Ladder games can be a pretty isolating and stressful experience, especially in a game like FAF where there's more things happening simultaneously than you can properly deal with. On top of that there's always the constant threat of the unknown from your opponent who has been working their hardest in the fog of war somewhere to come up with a way to kill you for the last 15 minutes.

I think getting crushed in FAF is a morale destroying experience you just don't really get in other RTS games. It has a unique hopelessness and depression to it that I think its mostly due to the overwhelming amount of things that can be going on at the same time, the large size of some maps, and the eco scaling/power stalling mechanic that results in thoughts like: "I think i am behind and the game is lost, but its going to take another 10 minutes of losing till I die."

I watch/cast quite a few 1v1 games with friends all in the same voice channel and during a close match, its not unusual for BOTH players to feel hopeless and behind the entire time.

This 'Fear of a bad experience' is the main reason ladder doesn't appeal to the majority IMO.

Hello,

I'm putting together a video with the top 5 plays from the ~200 or so replays i've watched this year.

These plays outright win the game, or hold off an otherwise game ending attack, or turn the tables on an opponent. These include a great defensive nuke, a teleporting UEF billy, a hilarious TML base, and some last minute all ins from an otherwise lost game.

I'll introduce them with some nice graphics, highlight some of the cool stuff that can happen in the game, and then set up a poll so people can vote for a winner.

What can i win: If this is popular or anyone cares, i'll fund a prize for the winner. Probably some digital art of the winner looking like a badass, or a FAF user ribbon if those are still a thing?

Why am i asking this?!
Inevitably the moment i post the video, 63 different people will appear with another game that and moment that could have been top 3, so this is your chance to post them here, or email me. Please Leave your replay, timestamp, and a couple of words to describe it.

Additional rule 1: Replay should be from 2023
Additional rule 2: No normal Telemazor snipes please.

ENTRIES CLOSE 25th JANUARY.

Thanks! ^^

I think that for lower rated players who dont want to get crushed 10 times in a row till their MMR settles, some AI opponents might be an easy, friendly way into ladder 1v1. Could bake them into initial soft MMR placement the same way other multiplayer games do with ranked matchmaking or something.

There aren't many sub 500 rated players queueing so from their perspective they get nothing for 30 mins in queue and then match vs a 1000 rated player and get crushed which doesn't seem like a fun experience.

I'll let the wrinkly brained people decide on implementation viability and whether 'padding' ladder at a low MMR with some AIs is the direction FAF might want to take to increase low rated ladder activity.

@thewheelie said in Mines?:

We already have walking mines

i feel personally attacked.

Yeah there's quite a few 40+ FAF players, i probably know some extras not on the original list.

Its one of the few RTS where speed clicking isn't so important.

gg wp !

Hello,

I'm putting together a video with the top 5 plays from the ~200 or so replays i've watched this year.

These plays outright win the game, or hold off an otherwise game ending attack, or turn the tables on an opponent. These include a great defensive nuke, a teleporting UEF billy, a hilarious TML base, and some last minute all ins from an otherwise lost game.

I'll introduce them with some nice graphics, highlight some of the cool stuff that can happen in the game, and then set up a poll so people can vote for a winner.

What can i win: If this is popular or anyone cares, i'll fund a prize for the winner. Probably some digital art of the winner looking like a badass, or a FAF user ribbon if those are still a thing?

Why am i asking this?!
Inevitably the moment i post the video, 63 different people will appear with another game that and moment that could have been top 3, so this is your chance to post them here, or email me. Please Leave your replay, timestamp, and a couple of words to describe it.

Additional rule 1: Replay should be from 2023
Additional rule 2: No normal Telemazor snipes please.

ENTRIES CLOSE 25th JANUARY.

Thanks! ^^

Wait, why shouldn't it be able to poop out a few UEF T3 units a minute?

Its an "Experimental Factory". Its useless at combat and nobody seems to be interested in fixing that, so why not give it the BP it needs to do something for a while before it inevitably gets killed by t2 air or t2 arty, or any other random experimental that finds it.

10 Hives near a factory already achieves the same construction ability with significantly less cost and less risk.

Vision is interesting, but not keen on the speed buff, Fatboy should not be faster than Crab IMO.

It does need something though, UEF "experimentals" are in a very sad state in the current meta.

• Massive increase to crab and Fatboy factory Build power.
• Fatboy Small Repair Field same area as shield to encourage supporting armies?
• Shield regen or base health buff for Fatboy to increase survivability vs Artillery.

Tabula is a top tier 4v4 map IMO.

Had some fun games on it so far.

i have a 7900x thats running default settings, my faf cpu score is 73

Remember that the Billy nuke also has a cooldown timer, you can't rapid fire them even with infinite BP/Mass IIRC

@morax The only welcoming example i can think of is the Final Fantasy Online one, and that's an almost exclusively PVE based MMO.