My two cents i guess
First of all, i would say it depends what developers what to achive with the game. Do they want northen towns to be all out pvp towns or do they want northen towns to be a place which people get bounded to, create their own little goverment and so politics (WWP, BHH, TSAR).
Current Militia OverviewThe militia current strenght is acually a counter of their stupidness i would say. 20 merc militia? 2 Minigunners and 3 bluesuits can kill 20 militia using the room trick in between 30-60 minutes.
With bombers, it can be killed pretty quick aswell, especially if they are grouping in one place (there are militia positions that makes militia to group up to 6-7 militias, 3-4 bombs can take them all out).
This can be effectivly countered by having players inside town 24/7, which is impossible for non-international gangs. Players who point militia who to shot (the enemy bluesuits who block the doors for exemple) and keep buying new militia.
Face to face fight, 15-20 players have a chance to kill whole militia with good positioning, and maybe few extra sets of stuff to quickly return.
Having in mind that merc militia is expensive, town earnings are pretty much 0 in the end (exept after 2 weeks+). One good militia cost around 30-40 000 caps, not counting the times when you have to replace them if the luck is not on your side. In time of one week, each day avarage one have to replace 2-6 militias. Becouse of various reasons, some explained above, and others like bugs when militia kills eachother off.
What can be done better with militia?Again, depends on what developers want to achive. If they want pvp focus, then militia should be removed simply. If you want to make the towns more faction personal. Then the militia should be made more smarter and then they can be reduced in strenght. Some points which can be adjusted:
* Reduce their HP by 50%
* 16 militia is enough? Maybe could vary depending on town, maybe the number of militia should grow more slowely, 4 hours until 10 militias, then it goes each 6 hours to get another one up to 16.
* Allow players to choose what they want the mercs to aim at, allow players to decide what kind of perks should they focus on while gaining levels (I want you to focus on speed / critts / bursting ability / first aid / chance to hit).
* Allow players to choose Militia positioning in an specified area. / Remove the Militia grouping spots.
* Have diffrent settings for militia in general, agressive (Shot all faction enemies on sight inside a specific zone, Shot all that faction player triggers), neutral (Shot all faction enemies in side a specific zone if player shots them, dont help faction member attacking a neutral player unless the neutral player has stole/attack someone/attack militia/attack npc/exploded in last 60 minutes), friendly (Dont support faction players unless enemy or neutral attacks them or militia.). Those 3 modes could be changed with some cooldown. And could be represented with a color of town on world map (Red/Yellow/Green). Aswell as town income could be either boosted (with friendly) or reduced (with agressive).
* Give them memory, a dude explodes in front of them with a bomb? Then he should be attacked on sight for 60 minutes, same with suicide bursters. Attacking militia should be remembered no?
Think thats all for now, i will move to next subject
Town ControlI think a way to make town control more intresting is to make towns more faction based, for exemple, a faction decides that this town is our home land, and then they fight for it. It gives at least a reason to fight other then just to fight when players/factions can indentify themselfs with the "flags".
To support this way of thinking, 15 minutes is way to short time to throw out a faction that sees the town as their home. However, 15 minutes is aswell more then enough time to stand and wait for enemy to show up... So it is a problem in both ways. I would suggest something i suggested long time ago, that the towns would be split into 3 capture zones each. The third is the final zone, The zone that can be only reached by capturing the first 2, it must be done by steps. After the first capture the zone remains open for capture for 30 minutes, so the faction defending has an oportunity to strike back. Also once the first timer started, it also sets the time zone for the next day with 3 hours forward and back. For exemple: If a zone is taken at 00:00 GMT+1 and held for this 30 minutes, then next day, any faction can make another attempt at time frame 21:00 to 3:00 am. If it is the defending faction that takes it between 00:00-00:59 the time zone stays the same, if it takes it between 21:00-23:59 then the time zone is moved back 1 hour (20:00-2:00), if after 1:00 am then moved forward one hour. so to fully take over a town you need 3 days and you have to win 3 battles straight victories. Together with this remove TC from 3 AM to 10 AM and you got dynamic TC time frames.
I think there should also be diffrent ways of town control avalible to players. I mean, not everybody want to use those towns for pure pvp. Allow the pvp players to do their pvp and allow the rp players to do their rp. If a faction wants only to raid the town, they allow them to do so, with rewards. This could go outside of TC, meaning no timers need to be started, militia needs to be killed totally, and then treatning traders to give the faction caps aswell as sherrif, the total caps of gained/rewards gained will be reduced from the TC box aswell as future income, the faction in control will be in other words in dept to the town.
There should be possibilities for factions to invest in town other then militia aswell, like funding a shop, buildings, more bramhins in the pens. Which would pay back in diffrent ways (new reward in TC box? Need to fund something to get anything in the box overally?). I mean, not everybody in the wasteland are roleplaying raiders, some people are roleplaying settlers aswell. What puprose does the raiders have if there are no settlers? I suggest to remove all crafting workbenches from bases and put them into town aswell. To make towns useful.
Also reputation should be invovled in this, without faction reputation towards other factions both NPCs and player factions, there are limitations.
Life in a Ghost TownIs harsh. There is little things that help people into roleplay. Acually the only interactive part is brahmin pens? In Redding, The malamute saloon doesint even have beer! Casino is just scenery together with most things. The molerat mambo not mentioning the field of view errors while looking from one side to another over it, is locked and cannot be used.
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But yeah, like i said, it all depends on how developers see the game. If its pure pvp that you aim, then militia should be gone completely but without adding the "roleplaying sparks" in the enviroment the Roleplay will die, as pvp did kind of with militia.