Addressing 'why' - 2017
Introduction
For four years we have fought over nothing more than the joy of the fight. Well, that and directives. And KD. And perhaps alert wins. But not VP score, no. But what if there was more? What if taking territory really mattered? What if your outfit performance mattered? What if your empire could be hands down better this month than all the rest?
This is in part a response to ReNz0r’s recent video rant about lack of reasons to care about fighting and I include here various concepts I have worked on over the years to address this exact problem, with some extra refinement.
What I suggest should give individuals, outfits and factions a number of reasons to care about not only how they fight but where they fight and hopefully care about taking and defending territory. This boils down to two core ideas:
Fully dynamic intercontinental lattice
Daily, weekly and monthly victory points and alert leader boards
I considered detailing further leadership improvements to help support players as they got to grips with these two features, but I think I'd lose the will to live if I beat that dead horse any more. Anywho, onto the other things...
Fully Dynamic Intercontinental Lattice
The intercontinental lattice (ICL) can be put in place with no extra continents and no redesign of the warp gates using the method explained below. The ICL would give us more map to fight over as we push to currently rarely seen territories, more strategy to entice leaders and more meaningful victories. It would also give us two way fights on a continent, where progress can be made without the third faction stabbing you in the unprotected kidneys (or as it is sometimes known, Ceres Hydroponics). I have always seen alerts, and now victory points, as a placeholder, tiding us over until we got something better. Something grander. This.
Each warp gate would be able to be captured and connect to another continent and serve as a bridge between them. As a result empires would be able to be pushed completely off continents, giving a win condition more satisfying than the current jarring Victory Point win that we have now as you could near enough drive your enemies into the sea. Also as the center of the warp gate would transport players and vehicles to the joined continent there would be a natural progression of the fight, reducing the downtime that follows a continent locking that causes many to log off (assuming the defenders get spawn options at the joined continents nearby territories).
One obvious issue is that if warp gates are no longer safe then potentially empires can lose all their spawn points – this can be avoided in a few ways but I would have an empire unable to lose their last remaining linked set of warp gates, ensuring that they always have two safe spawn points that they can push out from. This would hopefully promote coordination between a factions leaders as no one wants to be stuck with the shittiest warp gate pair.
Another problem is that of player density however the devs have mentioned what they call a ‘dynamic lattice’, which reduces the lattice lines available to fight over on a continent (think early Hossin where the outer lanes were not available on the PTS). This idea would solve the issue of player density by cutting down the available front lines to fight over. In the first image below the center of Amerish and the outer lanes have been shut down which could be an option for medium population, whereas in the second image the options are further reduced to cope with smaller population.
How warp gates are captured has many possibilities, however I would make it as simple as possible where to capture a warp gate an attacking faction simply has to take all of the adjoining territories and the gate switches control, as do the three warp gate adjacent territories on the continent the warp gate connects to. Construction could also play a role here with siege structures needing to be built. Alerts could also be triggered when a faction loses one of their warp gate adjacent territories, lasting until either the territory is recaptured or the defending side gets pushed off the continent. alerts could also return to encourage us to capture and hold specific facility types across the entire world or just individual continents where all three factions have a stake. You could also have invasion alerts when an empire first gets a foothold on the continent, challenging them to cap a certain amount of the continent while the opposing side has to stop them.
With the ICL I would also open up the reinforcements needed spawn option to more than three options and more than just the continent you are on. I would also give players attacking Sunderers as an option, rather than just 3 defensive fights on the same continent that it is now. This would support a more offensive play style and help spread population out with more even fights across the board.
Continent locking via VP would disappear with this system (although VP could be re-purposed, see below) and be replaced, if needed, by having continents that get captured by a single empire lock for a set period during which they cannot be fought over. This would further reduce the available play space, increasing player density on the other continents and be a boon for the victorious faction that would likely have the other factions gunning for them.
Daily, Weekly and Monthly Victory Points and Alert Leader Boards
Our victories are fleeting things which in 24 hours will mean next to nothing. It is no wonder that most of us these days care primarily about our own stats – that is all that has been recorded over the years so that is all we care about. This is a game where we fight over territory, yet capturing that territory means little. We can change that, we can change the way we think if we want to.
To do this I would award VP as it is now (with a few changes here or there to take into account the dynamic continental lattice and remove it locking continents) however have a global amount which is tallied up every day, each week and overall across the entire month. This would clearly show which empire is best in that period of time. I’d also put VP on the TAB screen so people actually look at it every once in a while.
But why would I care about this you cry? I don’t care about VP as it stands so why would I care about this new-fangled version? I would deploy the ever so useful carrots. Big fat carrots that are tangible, and not just the laughable XP that trickles in constantly anyway. What rewards you ask? Titles, decals, camos, armour, constructions, banners, directives, etc. and all stuff that people can’t pay for.
Also unlock new weaponry/vehicles/equipment to the winning faction first (and only to players who have played that faction and server the most in the time period), giving them a real reason to fight.
How to earn the other rewards? Massively expand the leader board system to something that matters to everyone at every fight. make being top of the leader board mean something at every fight be giving out real rewards or at least contribution to a directive, and not only for you but have a battle leader board for each squad and outfit - imagine two outfit squads competing to see who is best.
Have another leader board for when a continent captures and give the runners up some rewards to boot.
Have it pop up in your face when you log in for the previous day you played and show your own,your squads, and your outfits contribution. Have it show the top players, squads and outfits for that time period and show what rewards they earned because of their achievements. Make it pop up at the end of each day, week and month so it is a big deal, something to strive for. Ensure that not only the biggest outfits with most players get rewards but also the outfits that performed well for their size with separate leader boards for outfit ‘tiers’. Be sure to not only give the winning faction rewards but the top players and outfits from each faction to discourage fourth factioning and give big bonuses and rewards for sticking with a underpopulated faction. And put a ‘Join now’ button next to the top outfits on the leader board, I hear they are the lifeblood of the game, no?
These two changes would make us care about territory, and in game where territory should matter, but doesn’t, that could make a pretty big difference to how long the lights stay on.