Intro:
I will be comparing at some moments to a diffrent game called Forgotten Hope that is a Battlefield 1942 mod. (its a WW2 first-person shooter)
As a start, we should figure out what are the key elements to a victory, whatever it is, modern battle, medieval duel or simple street fight, the key elements are still the same. No matter of size of the army. Few i dig up are, perception (see the enemy before he sees you), knowlage (knowing enemies options) and finally decision making (where, how and when). Now, in TB Fonline combat, none of those are base to victory, very seldom and mostly by the enemies complete lack of those rather then ones superiority one can make use of those 3. In RT combat (TC) those come to use, however, could be on bigger scale?
Something a nerd can call experience;
I can tell from Battlefield game and realism. So, in battlefield 1942 players had a lot HP (like in Fonline), and most guns were weak (like in Fonline, majority of guns are weak). Only head shot was one shot kills (like eye shots/critticals in Fonline). If you shot a whole magazine in ones torso, he would not die (like Fonline). So, the battlefield 1942 was a lot about, reflexes, quick button pressing and joysticks (insert aimbots)(mean, which players were favorized by the game to win). Now, Forgotten Hope is a mod that tried to make the game more realistic, players were given a lot less HP and weapons did more damage, a torso one bullet shot most often ended in player elimination (meaning, totally the opposite way). Now that players were so easly killed, they had to think, exacly those; where is the enemy? What does he see/do? what weapon does he have? how do i kill him without getting killed, or should i risk? My main point with this is, the mod made the game a lot more about those 3 key elements then luck, and gave this feeling (which i think is good) that you play the game rather then the game plays you.
TB encounters and its Luck
In Fallout Online a lot of things depend on luck and items unfortunatly. Especially in TB. You cannot decide where you gonna spawn, you dont see who you meet until you spawn on him, and you cant decide what to do becouse its not your turn (and to make it worse sometimes never is!). I my opinion the whole TB PVP should be reworked and rethinked from beggining. Why not make for exemple not only outdoor count but the amount of lets say KG of armour and items that are in encounter, meaning if there is a big fight, you should hear it coming from far away and easier spot it before it spots you, and the other way around, if you are a level 1 char walking in blue with a knife then it should be harder to spot you.
The maps are really too small for a player meeting aswell (especially the cave ones), in my opinion should be at least 4 times bigger, and when walking into an encounter, instead of them just standing there looking stupid why not making NPC walk (caravan walks from one side of the map to another, rats do not work as a team no more but run around the map for themselves, a deathclaw hides behind a wall waiting for you to pass, and maybe some items could be found aswell like in caves). Few days ago i spawned 1 hex from a player(!?), i mean, who the hell am i, some kind of a spiderman? On the side note, i do not agree that the higher HP on animals make the game any more intresting, encounter system is quite broken and so is leveling becouse of it, higher HP just makes the annoying things more annoying. Sitting on the sun drinking a beer is great, killing 3000 scorpions in Fallout online is just priceless. I dont really know what really are the enconters made for aswell, TB or RT? maybe there should be two encounters for each encounter type, like, Scorpions for TB and Scorpions for RT.