Yepp the mixture of reinforcements, overtime settings and wave times is the key here to a good game.
This in combination with the current amount of players per team too actually.
If only two small teams of ie 3-4 people play against each other then a wait of 40-60 seconds to respawn could be endless and could be enough already to get ie the attacking team so far away that noone can intercept them anymore if the attackers managed to kill all defenders within a short amount of time ie while they protected the laptop area all together.
A smaller amount of reinforcements can ruin the game for defenders too cause then a bunch of attackers can spread out, risk their own lifes to kill as many defs as possible. If they take out one defender by using one of their own lives, then it can already be enough cause the attackers normally start with more lifes than the defs. And this done quickly will end up in a whole team of defenders sitting locked in their spawn view waiting for an overtime reinforcement that will not happen before 5 to 10 additional minutes have passed... meaning the attackers will win of course if they do not TK each other. So setting up a very low amount of reinforcements ruins the match for defenders most times if the attackers are able to realize that killing all defs is way better than trying to accomplish the mission in the first place.
Giving a bunch of reinforcements right from the start balances things out a bit more. Defenders do not really get an advantage if they spread out to hunt down every attacker out there cause they will respawn in a short amount of time and you cannot get them all normally. So protecting the objectives is a much better tactic to win than to run around trying to kill as many attackers as possible. So defenders most times actually defend and only a very small group of them would try to flank the attackers or would try to intercept them. And this would be 'ok' cause the smaller amount of team losses done by defs flanking and intercepting are affordable if enough reinforcements are available.
Same for the attackers... if a bunch of reinforcements is available for the defenders then an attacker would not run and gun to take one defender with him. It would not work out normally cause the more defender reinforcements are available the more time is needed to get them all before noone is left... but then the overtime will jump in and will give defenders new reinforcements. So attackers will more concentrate on the objectives to ie. push back the defenders, advance their own spawns or to simply get the damn CD out to the extract. It would be way better to grab the CD and protect the guy on his way out then to run around trying to find and kill some defenders.
So, if the amount of reinforcements is not too high but not too low too then the gameplay will automatically shift towards the actual roles both teams should play - if the teams want to win and realize how to.
Restricting the amount of reinforcements would need to lower the time limits too and maybe even change the overtime settings to jump in sooner.
The things I do not like due to the reasons pointed out above:
- reinforcements lower than 3/4 with overtimesettings reducing the defenders total amount of lives to only 2 or even only 1 in combination with a standard timelimit of 18-20 minutes... => only results in attackers trying to kill all defenders as fast as possible, without caring for any risks taken... blindy running towards the defs with guns on auto, killing one def before the attacker dies himself would be all you need to win the round.
So, reinforcements are needed imho ... and a bunch of them. Our defaults are pretty good actually and balance it out for both sides, attackers and defenders.
A too low amount of reinforcements with a full timelimit ruins the game for defenders fully cause it will never result in the slow moving tactical gameplay that many think it would push the players into... it will result in exactly the opposite: run and gun, spray and pray... kill all defenders right away
Beppo