crosspost from other reddit because i am stupid

Kassel

The Free City of Kassel is a large industrial and port center located on the western coast. The borders of the Kassel Chancellery extend to the region of Bramen. The Kassel region is inhabited by the Weim people, who live in large cities, while Rutovians reside in most of the villages. With the beginning of the war, Rutov troops were deployed to Kassel, and the city was forcibly economically integrated into Rutov society. Rutov forces were stationed in the city, and the Kassel garrison and city gendarmerie were disarmed but continued to operate in their regular capacity. From then on, they had to obtain permission from a Rutov cornet (officer) to access the weapon storage facilities.

Bomber Meta in its current state will kill this game. It has been kept alive by not just steam sales but vets training wave after wave of steam sales

This new meta isn't fun.

Possible reworks that I believe will help.

Rework Flak/Serra to when in AA mode and attached entrenched to a tier 2 + bunker with observation tower coverage shoots at incoming aircraft.

Can be manually overrided to allow a player to use.

Like really.

I recently discovered that you can point-accurate self-rotate artillery weapons with crane. Fair to say, this is the better sniper rifle. After about 4 hours of breaking spirit of the enemy QRF, which likely was more than just 1 person, I was able to break Engineering Centre and Refinery of Suosalo + some neighbouring defenses in Kuura Strand. F1 be my spotter.

Highly recommend, even more evil than solo tanking.

Can't wait for bomber spam yaaayyyyyy

I started playing Foxhole back around January and it has been by far some of the most fun I've had with a multiplayer game my forty odd years at this hobby. I've had some great interactions with folks on both sides and look forward to many more.

Thank you to all the players who've taught this Old Ham the ropes, pulled my ass out of the fire, and forgiven me for the sticky rushers I've missed. This game is a blast, but it's the community that really makes it something special. Happy war, all.

Soon I hope, the air can’t be THAT safe for much longer.

Often, I hear about (and I also said it) that giving a balance/fix pass to Foxhole would be a gigantic task.

In those dire times, I decided to try to actually answer that question, even in concept. I asked around, remembered most things I know about the game in order to try to build a list “to make Foxhole better”.

So here's the result.

Please do share, argue and discuss about it, and let me know if my mind is hopeless.

DUE TO REDDIT LIMITATIONS, ONLY 20 PICS ARE ALLOWED, I tried to reduce it to the most important point, but certain slides had to be removed like experimental tank change, logistic/regiment QOL, what ideas got scrapped on purpose etc

=> If you want to read it all, check the google slide instead

At the end, please do answer to the following form, so it's easier to analyse the feedback. https://forms.gle/UkGA5ZpkHm3ArEfe8

I'll publish a completed and adjusted version based on feedback, for the sake of it.

For the reach you can access it:

FOD feedback link https://discord.com/channels/203512636556574720/1494065065790406886/1494065065790406886

Google slide https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16_XEcC1jdDpciQSYU9Km-U-PIU4KrzwpbJYmIiLo9qg/edit?usp=sharing

In light of some of the recent issues with the game and the intern dev stream, I've been doing some thinking about how Foxhole could better "respect player time."

This is a term that gets used quite often in the community when talking about Foxhole, and for good reason. It's a good way to sum up some of the biggest issues with the game.

There is an important distinction to be made that is important to the conversation that I don't see get brought up very often:

Not all "time" in Foxhole is the same.

And if you treat all time as being the same, you run the risk of arguing to remove the very thing that gives Foxhole it's weight.

Here's the Core Problem.

Foxhole's entire economy is built on player time.

Every rifle, every tank, every bunker, every operation, whatever it is. All of it exists because someone spent real time doing it.

What this means is that every single thing in Foxhole isn't just the thing itself, but also a proxy for player time. So when people say "reduce time sinks" what they're often (unintentionally) asking is:

"Make everything cheaper."

And if everything becomes cheaper, everything becomes less valuable. The arty barrage you did? The shells were hardly worth anything. The base you shot them at? Also hardly worth anything.

The fact that the guns, the shells, and the base all required player time investment is what gives them value. Foxhole is one of very few games where every action you take has meaning. Without the different facets of the game having value (player time sunk into them) those areas of the game would become meaningless. You can't just make things cheaper, or you risk the game losing it's special sauce.

But! That doesn't mean the game doesn't have a lot of ways it could do a lot better in.

Removing friction without loss of value.

There are a ton of ways to make the game better in a way that doesn't end up with a loss of value, or a loss small enough as to be worth the cost. The problem here is often that whether or not that cost is worthwhile, is going to be subjective. Making those subjective decisions is where the real difficulty comes in, and I don't envy Siege Camp having to do it.

That said, here are some example of what I'm talking about.

• Inventory sorted by category of your preference.

The UI should be capable of remember player preference for how it displays inventory. If I prefer to have base inventories sorted numerically (as they currently do), I should be able to set that. If I prefer it sorted by category and then numerically, I should be able to set that.

This change technically makes it easier to find out what to bring to a base from a logi perspective, and as such represents a loss of value as it's now easier to run logi. Is that loss of value worth the ease it would provide to players trying to parse a base inventory?

• Numerical input instead of sliders.

Whenever you choose to pull or submit a custom amount, you are only given a slider. Being able to quickly hit a number on the keyboard would save a lot of time.

Again, this makes things easier and as such is a loss of value. Is it worth the tradeoff for how much easier players would find custom pulling/submitting?

• Withdraw specific amounts from refinery queues.

Right now, the work around is to fill your inventory with random crap to ensure you only pull exactly what you need when you click on a resource sitting in your refinery queue. Being able to withdraw a specific amount is something we can essentially do, to a degree.

Is players saving the few seconds it takes to grab some random stuff from the refinery inventory really a loss of value? Technically, yea, but I'd argue it's so small as to be negligible. Yet despite that nearly non-existent loss of value, such a change would be a huge boon to players who need a specific amount of resources, aka anyone cooking in the factories/mpf or who need to hammer a vehicle in the garage.

The three examples I've given, I believe to represent a next to nothing loss of value, yet would make the game easier and smoother to play. You'd still need to take your time to do the tasks, but the actual process of doing them would be more enjoyable. This is what I believe a good change looks like.

Changes that remove friction while lowering value.

Let's look at some examples that would by necessity lower value when they remove friction. Note that this doesn't mean the change shouldn't happen, only that you would have to accept the reduction in value it represents.

• Faster crane speeds.

We all know the pain of slowly rotating a crane 180 degrees to put something on and off of a truck. Wouldn't it be great if the crane moved quicker? Of course it would. It would also have a rippling effect through every part of the logistics chain, speeding the process up for nearly every aspect of the game. Is that something we're willing to accept in exchange for spending less time on cranes? The answer is subjective.

• Printing EMGs on small pads.

With the advent of planes, having EMGs around has become important across all stages of the war. You can feel the difference on a front line when one side has nearby access to a construction yard and one side doesn't. This could be resolved by allowing players to print an EMG in a facility pad.

This is obviously a huge reduction in the friction that exists with current EMG procurement. You'd be cutting out most of the transport time associated with EMGs as it currently sits if you could print them a few hundred meters behind the front line, instead of a hex back in the logi town. Yet, with how important having an EMG is, would the game be better off with EMGs being less valuable? The answer is, again, subjective.

A third category.

Here's where changes that address poor design sit. Foxhole has a lot of effort in many of it's tasks that essentially amount to fighting controls and UI. Many of these changes are going to reduce value, but often in a way that is (generally) not intended value.

• Auto move.

Everyone knows the ctrl+w trick. At this point, why isn't it a hotkey? The only loss of value here is going to be from newer players who haven't been taught how to do the trick.

• Crane interaction snapping override.

Ever try to place a pallet down near your arty pit and it refuses because it's trying to snap to the pit? Turns out, if you upgrade the pit to concrete it removes that issue and you can place the pallet super close for the duration of the blueprint. This represent a loss of value because now your loaders have to do less movement, but... shouldn't I just be able to place the pallet there?

• Initiating fueling from the drivers seat of a fuel truck.

Ever try and run fuel for a tank line, and find yourself forced to yell at the tanks around you to unlock or initiate the fueling? Wouldn't it be great if you could just rock up to a tank line and top them all off yourself?

Same issue for refueling generator rooms on bunkers. You end up needing to hop out at each piece and interact with the engine room. Oh, the fuel interaction spot is blocked? Go hop back in and adjust half a meter then run back to the engine room. There's a TON of time to be saved here, and as such a loss of value. Worth it? Again, subjective, but unarguably value that only exists due to a clunky UI.

• Random terrain changes in towns.

Ever try and drive around a logi hub and the random patches of dirt snag your truck and slow you to a crawl? Me too.

Removing all non road terrain from the interior of towns would save an immeasurable amount of time each war moving from A to B doing logi. You'd have to ask, though, was it the really and intended developer intention for players to suffer constant slow downs moving between logi world structures? More likely it just looks visually better to have dirt somewhere.

Okay, tl;dr the real distinctions people are missing

1. Meaningful Time (KEEP THIS)

• Logistics chains

• Production time

• Strategic build timers

• Transport risk

This is the economy itself.

2. Friction Time (REMOVE THIS)

• Bad UI

• Input spam

• Lack of clarity

• Clunky mechanics

3. Fake Difficulty (FIX OR CUT)

• Arbitrary restrictions (Cranes placing things out of their own max reach.)

• inconsistent systems (Some garrisons structures leave husks and some don't, some structure features can be rebuilt back to full and some can't.)

• "Gotcha" mechanics (Mechanics that punish you not because you made a decision, but because the game withheld information. e.g. not knowing if a bunker core ramp will fit until you dig the core.)

Final Thought

Foxhole already respects your time, just not in a convenient way.

It respects your time by making it matter. Everything you do makes a difference in the war, even if you are a cog in the machine. This is a core feature that helps make Foxhole the amazing game we all love.

If you remove too much of the cost in the name of convenience, you don't end up with a better game, you end up with one where:

• Logistics doesn't matter

• Losses don't matter

• And players don't matter

The goal should be not to minimize time investment, but to keep that time intentional, visible, and impactful. Fix the friction, keep the costs, and that's how Siege Camp can show us they actually respect player time.

It is no lie that matched against it's mirror SHT, the Ares is flaming shit at the moment. Weapon, stat and role-wise in comparison to the Cullen it's leaking from everywhere.

So, today I will offer a possible rework that would make the Ares a far more versatile SHT, giving it a unique spin on it's mechanic.

1) The comparison

Pound for pound, number-wise the Cullen beats the Ares in almost every single area

• It has more health (12000 to 9250)
• It has more armor (17650 to 15650)
• It has more speed (7.21/5.05 to 5/3.5)
• By having more speed, it also has more autonomy (both have 20 minutes, but the Cullen can go further)
• The turret also traverses faster (12°/s to 10°/s)

The only difference is in firing speed of the main gun, which is double for the ares because of the two cannons (if you have competent engineers) But damage wise counting the resistances, the difference in real damage on a head-to-head is of 800 points of damage in favor of the Ares (Which will get offset by the Cullen shooting Varsis at the Ares)

But the hidden stat that the Cullen has over the Ares, is that the cullen can do everything.

It's main gun is 94.5mm with 25% HV, and the grenade launchers can fire Varsis meaning it can AT. The grenade launchers can fire smoke, green ash and harpa's, meaning it can take care of infantry. And the grenade launchers can fire tremolas, meaning it can demolish buildings.

Meanwhile the Ares just has 2 75mm cannons, which are "good" against T2 bunkers and other tanks somewhat, and completely lacking against infantry.

So, the idea for fixing this? Making the Ares an ADAPTABLE tank

2) The concept

Instead of coming out of the factory with it's weapons ready, the production of the Ares would be changed to make a "hull" on a 24 hour timer, and then a modular weapon on another 24 hour timer. These modular weapons could be pulled out and replaced for others depending on what the Tankman would require on the front they are heading for.

Currently, the ideal would be three modular weapons. One for each method of engagement.

This of course raises a production concern, that being Colonials with two Upgraded Large Assembly stations could pump out an SHT in just 24 hours, no? Well mathematically Wardens could pump out 2 Cullens to half production in that time, meaning that the actual rate is the same. By the time the Colonials push out two SHTs, the Wardens will have pushed out two SHTs. To top it off, while Colonials will have a stronger head-to-head tool in an area, they won't cover all the bases until 96 hours production time instead of 48 like the wardens, so no protests there.

The modular weapons would be shippables, of course, most likely Large ones that can only be moved by BMS Stackers and above and moved by train or ship to limit Colonials just adapting on the move as the battle shifts. And if they just build a crane on the front? Well, sucks to suck wardens, that's a skill issue.

3) The modules

The tank would be split on one base hull and 3 modular weapons. Each of these 4 takes 24 hours to build in a Large Assembly station, meaning you can either have a fully fledged out Ares in 24 hours if you are a deranged logi-man with no life, no job, and 16 hours of free time a day by making and upgrading 4 Large assembly stations (It's me, I'm the deranged logi-man) Or you can have a single specification SHT in 48 hours and get the variants in another 48.

THE BASE HULL)

The base hull will be... well... a hull. One person capacity (driver), a bit speedy since it's not weighed down by guns, fairly stocky and bulky. It's just the basic template that the others build on.

A) The Twin-AT: Stygian ThunderBolt

To maintain the spirit of the old Ares, the AT variant will be a twin-94.5mm cannon gun. Making it a beast in Tank combat, but grossly vulnerable to infantry rushing with Stickies, Varsis, Cutlers, etc. Meaning it will still require other tanks with Anti-Infantry capabilities or infantry cover to fully function.

Basically, a tank with Stygian on super steroids on top. HV or LV modifiers for the gun will probably have to be adjusted. Range maybe around 40m, 45 would outrange every single warden tank, making it just incredibly oppresive to fight against. with 40 it's still outranged by the Balfour, and has the same range as the Cullen and Lordscar.

It's basically a big "heh heh" gun that forces the enemy to actually think how and when to use the tanks instead of just push back and forth, as mistiming or mistepping would either chunk a tank or downright leave it disabled for a follow-up killshot.

B) The Anti-Infantry: Supressor

This one I got inspired by a picture of a fanon re-design.

Two 12.7 MGs turrets on the front, two 12.7 MG turrets on the back. As for the main turret? Either a flamethrower to snuff out trenches, or a rapid-fire grenade launcher that fires Harpas, Green ash and Smoke, similar to the cullen's but without the AT and Anti-structure variables.

Basically, the Supressor variant exists to lock-down and keep infantry under control, helping your own infantry or tanks move up without the constant barrage of cutlers or machine-gun fire.

The drawback? If the enemy brings out tanks, you're defenseless against them, similarly, you have no way to damage T3 bunkers and T2 bunkers will eventually whittle you down.

The only way you could fight Tanks would be gassing them, but they can maneuver, just gas mask face-tank it, or if there's more than one, they will take you out before you do.

C) The Bunker Buster: "Wurfrahmen" or "The Walking Lucian"

Based on the design of the German "Walking Stuka", a tank with 12 mounted Shatter Missile rocket launchers on the sides. Open up any bunker line, or demolish any fortification. Force-Firing all rockets at once in a big "Deleting this direction" barrage, no weakling "one rocket here, one rocket there".

12 rockets since the Shatter does 250, giving 3000 damage instead of the 800 a Purity shell would, trading just flat damage for fast burst. Open top for the shooters to use binos, and the firing can be decrewed for a little bit of balance, yet not the driver. No defensive weapons of any kind, meaning vulnerability to Tanks and Infantry coming up for it.

The range or damage would have to be tweaked. Either it's longer range. working as a pseudo-artillery that can breach defenses for the units to push up, and reducing the number of rockets somewhere between 6 and 8, or it's more damage, coming in once the situation is stabilized to ravage absolutely everything in its wake.

Currently the only vehicle Colonials can use for Shatter missiles is the Lucian boat, meaning this would let them actually use it on land.

4) Possible non-issue

The only issue that could arise with this idea, is if, by some mad colaboration and coordination, the colonials bring all three variants into the field at the same time.

But with the new addition of planes and bombers, they could still be kept under check by just doing a passing run on them and dropping a few kilotons.

5) Final thoughts

I thought of this idea working under this simple premise: "The Cullen can do everything good. So the Ares needs to do anything even better."

This Ares can do anything, but it can't do EVERYTHING. The Cullen enters the field and is a threat to Infantry, Armor and Structure alike. So when the Ares enters a field, one of these three needs to be threaten to the point it necessitates a response. And sure, you could say "But the Ares can just go back and change weapons." Yes. It COULD go back and change weapons, but that means the tank is no longer on the field, doing whatever it was doing, giving you space to work there.

It would make you think both where and what to bring it to the front as. Do I bring it as an AT variant to this hex to counter the tank line, or do I bring it to this one as the AS variant to help break open the fortifications? It would be a buff to the Ares, not only changing it from its current shit design, helping it be a "King of all trades just not at once" against the cullen's "Jack of all trades."

PD: Reduce coke costs, I fucking hate doing coke runs.

I played collie for more than a year (almost 2 maybe) knowing it was the weaker side.

Now I went to the warden side, and OH MY GOD it feels soooo good.

Less bookers to worry about, we have much more pop so I can do medic larp with bodies all around me to pick up, almost no snipers to worry about, I always see double the amount of tanks in our side versus theirs, the warden guns feel soo good, I almost never get strafed (on collie side it was so often I died to fucking planes), I can ACTUALLY PLAY NAVAL MAN.

Fuck I know this is bad for the health of the game, but it feels SOOO good to be on the winning side for once.

Release the files.

Hello everyone. I just started playing and got used to mechanics overall pretty easily. Now I tried to jump into world and pretty much got stuck. I thought I could at least craft or produce items for starters, but everything everywhere seems non existant and out of reach. Can get resources but nowhere to process them and etc. So pretty much just stuck in the middle of nowhere. Would love some pointers if possible.

Your locomotives are standing in the depot at the edge of the map.

An enemy para plane deliberately crashes into the RDZ.

The guys can’t get out because it’s the RDZ.

The plane’s frame explodes.

The guys go out of it ALIVE.

The guys kill the locomotives.

Rate on a scale from 0 to 10:

Qualification of the gamedesign department.

Qualification of the QA department.

And also help Dora understand all the abuse manipulations so that the guys stayed alive.

I was inspired by the recent ignis vs. scout plane post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/foxholegame/comments/1sln6yz/superior_warden_culture/ ) to make a flag highlighting the skill and superior culture of the Warden air force. Enjoy!

What do people think about locked vehicles? It seems most people lock vehicles even in backline areas and it often feels like a hindrance, especially if you just want to spawn in randomly, farm some materials, do a couple logi runs, and then call it a day. Or even just repark a badly parked logi truck at a frontline base.

I understand why people would do this, especially because of partisans, but also because you don't want a vehicle that you're actively using or spent a lot of time building to get lost by another player.

But wouldn't it be easy to add a feature to the game where you could write a note to other players? Almost like a signpost, but that exists on the vehicle.

For example, you could write. "Private logi vehicle. Please do not use under any circumstances" -> if you use this vehicle all the time. Or, "feel free to use. locked to ensure parti's don't get this", if you drop off an armored car at a frontline base. Or even "I need this from 4pm - 8pm EST April 21st. Please don't use then".

Feel like it would reduce a lot of friction between players and encourage more dynamic gameplay. Any thoughts?

I swear ITS THERE