Just because the current map has some drawbacks to doing some of those things doesn't mean you can't take your hyper-active team and do them - you just won't have any opposition. Furthermore, there have been several maps over the last couple years that have been highly conducive to those activities, and yet, they rarely seem to get done except in draft games.
If you agree with everything Bouncer said, including
, then you're acknowledging this fact and still trying to push a map based on how you think the game should be played rather than the best way to encourage activity from the current player base.-My main concern with the OP idea is player turnout. Unless both teams really get 8+ on at once, it will be hard to take a planet (which is the goal, I know). Still something to be concerned about though. It's unlikely both alliances will get enough to have support roles at ops.
Frankly, I thought all games should be draft games starting about a year ago, but everyone :D about it, so we stopped. This game can't be played to its fullest with the current player base unless it's a draft round, and even then, those have been dying quickly. You've already made my point with your own examples - your small alliance of hardcores and its subsequent iteration killed several rounds and discouraged a meaningful number of players. As for Halo, CoD took a bunch of their player base and the hardcore players still continue to play just like you play smr. Equipment ruined Halo 3, not this shift to casual, because no abilities were taken away from the hardcore players - it just broadened the player base and put less of an emphasis on playing 20 hours a day. You want to dominate Halo 2/3? You still can. My World of Warcraft example was MUCH more relevant since it's the second largest online game.
This is not about catering to casuals, it's about involving everyone and trying to maximize activity. Forcing people to do things they don't want or have time to do doesn't work. Just like your map, in its current state, won't work either (frankly, even with the changes we're proposing, I'm still not sure it won't turn out poorly when no one can take planets, which will likely drive the less active side to go inactive for the rest of the round). However, we will turn this into a reasonable draft map with a bunch of tweaks and play it next round. I am for anything that will help this game get more active/grow, and a draft round of any kind will hopefully allow new players to learn new things, which this map will force them to do.