Territory 2.0 - 2014

Finally decided to find out what people are referring to when they mention 'Territory 2.0' and found this comment by Higby in a topic made by Mustarde a month ago:

The strategic value of resources on territories was never a particularly strong drive for holding them, and with the steamroll effect we felt like it broke more than it improved. That said, we did know that by removing it it'd take away some of the perceived meaning of territory control until we could put "something" back in. We do have the second phase of resources coming in a few months, which will add things like harvesting and securing resource nodes as strategic activities, more immediately I'd like to put better facility benefits in. We've been ideating better facility benefits for a while, but if you have ideas for some good ones that would make you stand up and pay attention to facilities under contention, please let us know! I like the idea of more unique benefits per facility in a facility type (i.e. Rashnu, Allatum and Saurva) would have unique benefits around a theme which stack or harmonize between them, rather than "eh, we already have tech, who cares if we lose Malaka".

Longer term (like, post resource revamp), we are starting discussions about a redesign we're calling territory 2.0. This is still early concept, but it involves attaching all outposts/facilities to a region group, which has a capitol facility (Capitols would be lattice linked to each other, regions within the region group would not) and giving all outposts in the region group benefits which are local to the region group. That way we can create good, powerful, meaningful and localized strategic goals and hopefully mitigate some of the steamroll effect. An off-the-top-of-my-head example might be high powered AA batteries up on Ascent which are powered by maintaining control of adjacent regions. That's much longer term and challenging because we have to solve a lot of UX issues relating to peoples confusion when non-local changes affect local game play (see old adjacent territory control affecting capture times with the influence system, as an example).

The idea intrigues me so I have started this page to detail my thoughts and put together a document. Essentially it boils down to removing the lattice between everything aside from the main facilities, and all surrounding territories are turned into support for it with the given example that of a satellite base with high powered AA, which once taken out will make it easier to bring in attacking aircraft.

Given these few details, I would imagine that each region would consist of either a current Amp/Tech/Bio facility as the regional capital, with the surrounding outposts supporting that capital, giving us around 9 regions per map, with 7 for Esamir as it only has one Tech. See a mock up for this below along with a view of the current map (thanks to PS2maps.com for the map):

Current NW of Indar:

Territory 2.0 NW Indar:

Alternatively we could have an entire third of a continent as a region, with each having their own Amp Station, Tech Plant and Biolab facility and surrounding outposts, although this feels too large an area to focus on as a separate region. However if we had the continental lattice then perhaps not as a single empire could sweep through an entire continent over the course of a few hours or days. Personally I would prefer having more regions as it makes it more directed, avoiding the games initial pure hex system that often had forces avoiding each other entirely through simply lack of predictability.

Some ideas:

• The zerg would simply push from capitol to capitol, not worrying about any outposts aside from those directly in the way.

• Small squads would take on the out of the way outposts to deny specific perks, and help the zerg make progress in the region.

• Perhaps have no spawn rooms in small outposts with players have to bring Sunderers to them from larger facilities. This has been a hot topic on reddit recently and I am fascinated by the possibility. The distances between facilities after all is not far, even in a slow Sunderer it only takes a minute or so to drive between adjacent ones. Perhaps Sunderer garages could be protected to make them last a bit longer:

• Could have destructible components on outposts, say destroying a resource pipeline with a timed charge instead of capturing the outpost. Essentially the same mechanism as the current capture system but with a visual change of state for the base as the perk disables. This of course depends on the perk being knocked out rather than being captured and switching to help the attackers.

• I would only make regional outposts vulnerable if the adjacent territory it captured by the enemy or perhaps in the process of being captured.

Regional outpost perks:

Here are some possible themes and perks for outposts, I'll likely remove or add some and possibly consolidate some of them.

• Nanite Pipeline: Resource denial to region from adjacent regions.

• Communication Array: Redeploy to region denied from adjacent regions.

• Radar Station: Aircraft radar without having Engagement Radar certed and long range AA missile batteries available for players.

• Electronic Warfare Installation: Sunderer deployment radius increased by 50% and Spawn Beacon denial within the main facility.

• Turret Control Center: Automatic base turrets across the region, firing at half speed and only targeting within a small radius.

• Power Hub: Hardened shield and spawn room generators that take double the time to overload.

If you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments section on this thread on reddit.

My feedback:

Why would anybody bother going to the outposts if they do not need to be captured to take the main base? Even if you do need to go to them to start the capture process may not see them actively defended just like the satellite bases in the hex system. These never really entertained good fights as people just spawned at the main facility and pushed out. Can't remember if you could even spawn at the satellites though...

My real fear is that with this system the entire game will devolve into fights purely around the three main facility types and unopposed ghost capping of the perk giving outposts after a zerg smashes it's way straight to the main facilities gates.