I miss it. Does anyone else? Who else wants a return of the back and forth between points? Edit: I realize that some of the more recent or forgetful players might not actually know what Tug of War was in this game. I had a "What's Tug of War" option more as a joke, but I can put up a brief explanation. Tug of War was an old game mode that no longer exists in the current game. It started out with one team attacking and the other defending. The attacking team had to try and take anywhere between 3-4 points before the timer ran out while the defenders had to keep the attackers from taking the last point before the timer ran out. Once taken a point would switch sides and the next point would become the new objective for the attackers to take. Points had to be taken in and A-B-C order, but defenders could capture a point back from the attackers locking off the next point and forcing attackers to retake the now lost point before being able to proceed again.
The one where the defending team gets four control points and a fucking 30 minute timer where they're allowed not only unlimited respawns on each point, but the right to take captured points back? Yeah, not in that incarnation. The only way to win was to hope the other team started with fewer players, and for that enemy team to remain that way for a good three minutes, and then make a genuine push for D
But hey it will feel so nostalgic, as much of a vehicle spamfest as it was the fights at Olipsis point C underneath the landing pad were so much fun, In fact C and D I think it were the closest thing we ever had to objectives being out in the open. The ninja caps were annoying but you did only have to defend the one point where everyone usually spawns anyway as it tended to be the one closest to the actual objective. I would like to see at least that version of Olipsis back in its own game mode, because one thing I remember most clearly about that entire time was that there was a discernible front line, which wasn't a fortress and both teams had a set of variable objectives besides just attack and defend. Like do you want to retake A? or just hang back hold B? do you want to take a vehicle and secure the no man's land between those two objectives? Do you just want to go it alone and disrupt enemy reinforcements via anti vehicle or anti infantry? That doesn't really happen anymore.
I had no issue with the game mode per say but with the current environment of Bolter Fortress™ capture points I think the defenders would have amazing win rates.
What I miss most of all is actually the grind of pushing into a point attacking. One could say it felt like forcing your way into the enemy trench and digging them out of it, dragging them kicking and screaming from their fortified position.
Probably, and the issue of how to balance defenders vs. attackers isn't an easy problem to fix. But it's the challenge I miss. Clawing ground out of the enemy's iron grip felt pretty damn 40k to me and it was usually an uphill battle for the attackers. Maybe I have nostalgia goggles on but the tense close quarters combat around a point we were assaulting or the point the enemies were trying to take back felt great.
If it doesn't have tickets, it was a case of take one objective and move onto the next and take them all in order to win for attackers or prevent the enemy from taking them all as defenders but as defenders you can also take them back. There was none of this progress bar where each objective captured by attackers slowly contributed to eventual victory, it was just all or nothing, push or defend as hard as you can using whatever means were at your disposal. I do think it might make for a better test of balance than the examples the maps are doing now where the defenders and attackers have divided efforts between three separate objectives, or placed on pseudo tug of war maps like Maggon, Harkus, Aganathio which are ticket based and their objectives are too far apart.
This game needs tug of war and more definitive objectives. When you are constantly running between 3 points chaotically, its complete garbage. It also ruins the entire purpose and feeling of the game. If its a war between sides then there needs to be attack and defence. Not every map needs tickets, but having tug of war really creates a front line for people to fight over. In 15 v 15 or 20 v 20 there is never an instance where you get the whole team fighting. You HAVE to break off and go in small groups to avoid combat. The current meta is capture all 3 objectives quickly while 1 team is busy defending one of the other 2 objectives and then wait for the time to run out. Once you have all 3 objectives its extremely rare for the defenders to win. It feels so completely worthless to even try and play or come back when you see the enemy team now has 20 minutes to sit on 1 point and contest another one. I just quit at that point if I'm on the defenders as its just going to be a long drawn out fight where we have to slowly wait for the loss and less requisition/exp rewarded. Not worth the time. Where as if its tug-o-war then there's a sense of urgency and epic fights. No more sneaking past the front line to go cap an objective in the back that nobody is defending. Its great to have classes that have to go from the sides or the flank, but bypassing an entire team to cap an objective that is really easy to take is not very good game design. We're supposed to be fighting one another, not avoiding one another. Tug-o-war maps creating that front line that you can't avoid and must pass through. It makes fights a lot more intense and there is a huge scramble for the point on both sides. This is good but just needs some tweaking on some maps that have really congested choke points or allow vehicles to shoot in to. But yes, please bring back tug-o-war on all maps :|
^ This. Its all about that 'feeling' of clawing your way uphill. Or if you're the defenders, standing your ground and repelling the attackers. This does in essences create a great experience and holds more true to the Warhammer lore and what other games have done.
The old version of 'Tug of War' was frankly a poorly designed mode, as defenders had unlimited lives, strong defensive positions and they could easily back cap to completely remove any momentum that the attackers had built up as they had to turn around to deal with the counter attack. I'd like to see Tug of War return as an actual Tug of War mode. There is no attacking team or defending team in a game of Tug of War, both sides start off even. This could easily be translated to EC. Something along the lines of the 'Attackers' start off with A, whilst the 'Defenders' start off with C. B is uncontested. In order to capture one of the other teams objectives you need to control the previous point. So if attackers capture B they can then move on to attack C, whilst the defenders can only attack B. You could have multiple victory conditions for such a game mode, such as by holding B you build up influence points much like in the other game modes, if you fill the bar you win. Alternatively you could win by capturing all of the points as you do on maps like Maggon, Zedek or fortresses. Top it off by starting B full of Tyranids and you might have a compelling game mode.
