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Bhruic >
One can easily pass through (or on the periphery of) a gravity well to jump towards a more juicy planet. (The pirates do that, with no or few losses, when they have to reach their intended bounty-target.) Then :
1a. Won't the A.I. fleet bypass your well defended chokepoint-planet to flank it towards your rears, where your defenses might be weaker ? (For example, with a siege-frigate spam, to go bombard a core planet.)
1b-i. If the A.I. doesn't know how to do that, retreating before your chokepoint defenses, won't a human do that ? (A human might sacrifice a fleet of siege frigates just to wreak havoc on one of your core planets.)
1b-ii. I have read a lot of threads, on this forum, where skilled human players expose their frigate spam-strategies (recent ones discuss LRM frigate spams, and Illuminator spamming). I then believe that skilled humans would bypass your chokepoints and try to redirect their spam-wave invasion towards a more vulnerable point.
2a. Reading those posts makes me even more wary of all-human FFA games on ICO. I'm not an immature kid who derives cheap thrills from spamming other humans to death to satisfy a vain, crush-the-other-guy power-lust. I have a day job : playing on ICO in the evening should be for relaxation.
2b. That's why I believe it is important to identify trusworthy gamemates (such as Pogue and you), to not get thrashed on ICO by strangers who are only interested in an egomaniac's type of brutal victory. Even if you put "newbie" in the title of game, you don't know who you are going to attract.
2c-i. Also, all newbies are not equal : I am convinced that if it was a Bhruic vs. Pogue+CyberMage game, Bhruic would crush us -- despite all your humble reassurances. (Want to try it for our next game?
)
2c-ii. As it is now, I feel that ICO does not offer a rigorous system to identify the skill-level of players. (A Bhruic should not be matched, in a FFA, with total n00bs like Pogue and me!)
2c-iii. Of course, one could argue that being mismatched could be a "learning experience". Well, I am not ready to spend 3 to 4 hours, in an evening, to go to school, and then go to bed, too late, with a frustrating defeat.
3a. Personally, I don't think that I will be ready for all-human games for many months. I do not dispose of enough free time to practice. One of the best StarCraft players in the world (that was 10 years ago) was a local guy. I was told by a friend of his that he practiced at least 10 hours a day, each and every day. There are a lot of teenage (or
pseudo-adult) "kids" out there who seem to dispose of a lot of time to do that. (They are obsessed by their position on "ladders".) I have the responsibilities of a
real-world adult (job, family): I do not have the time, interest, and energy to practice each and every day -- with the settings at "fast" speed, against "hard" comps all teamed-up against me!
3b. If Ironclad and Stardock want to sell even more game units, they will have to take into account people like me, and offer balancing options (in the game and on ICO) to make the MP experience less stressful for ordinary gamers who do not have the time to practice like crazy. As it is now, I have not recommended the Sins game to any of my "real-world adult" friends. None of their girlfriends or wives would tolerate that a game could devour so many evenings of "practice" or on-line competition. (Last Sunday and Monday evenings, my own girlfriend went to bed at 9:15, and I joined her 3½ hours later -- she was not amused! We then both had to rise at 6:15 am.)
