(Part 3 of 3)
[Additional Ideas]
(Relations between Empires)
In order for Relations to occur, communication needs to be allowed between the Empires. This could be limited only to communication between Ambassadors.
- The Ambassadors would be chosen by majority vote in the Senate to be any online player in the Empire (could also be a senator themselves).
- The Ambassador would only be able to communicate to the other two ambassadors from the other empires if they have designated them. The Ambassador would have to have access to the Imperial Command chat used by the Council in order to relay from the Council offers and agreements to and from other Empires.
The Imperial Council of each Empire could by majority vote be allowed to declare their relationship with the other Empires:
- The senators should have the power to declare by majority vote (at least 5 votes in favor of) War, Peace, or Neutrality with any other Empire it chooses, and only when that other Empire does the same, does the new relationship take effect.
- The Peace relationship lasts only as long as a majority is held by both Empires in both Councils in favor of the relationship.
- Default relationship is Neutral.
- The War relationship is declared when any Imperial Council votes in majority favor for it, even if the other Empire wants something else.
The Relationships and Benefits could be
War - Current gameplay. Enemy names appear red.
Neutrality - Damage incurred on neutrals is less than if attacking war-declared enemies. Neutral names appear yellow.
Peace - Damage incurred on peaceful troops is less than attacking neutrals, and personal grief is incurred if players attack peaceful troops, however, the grief incurred is less than killing your own empire�s troops. Players in both Empires can share vehicles, and have access to each other�s weapons. Peaceful-controlled installations can not be hacked.
- The current official relationship status and the relationships offered from one Empire to another would be visible on the Ballot Screen to all players from all Empires.
- Could the world be at peace? Yes, but I don�t see how it could be for very long. Since the Peace relationship requires majority agreement in all Empires at Peace, it would only take the blood-thirsty population to vote out of office the Senators that supported the relationship. And since people play Planetside to fight�
(Provisional Capital Benefit)
If a majority of Senators are located in a single base SOI, the base is declared a Provisional Imperial Capital:
- Respawn would greatly decrease at the base and/or planet.
- There would be a benefit of a tech plant for all bases on the planet controlled by the Empire.
- Vehicle armor would increase, and MAX charge rate increase for MAXes and Vehicles spawned at the Provisional Imperial Capital.
(Stacking Benefits)
As previously mentioned in this proposal, a combination of area benefits from Senators and the Supreme Commander could stack on top of each other to achieve a maximum benefit of armor, stamina, and health based on their locations relative to each other. For example: all located in the same area, base, or planet, with the greatest benefits available to all troops in the area when the entire Imperial Council is located in the same base that really is a planetary capital, and the least benefit being when a single Senator is walking in the middle of nowhere with a single bodyguard reaping a small benefit from the Senator�s presence.
[Questions]
(Why not a Popular Vote for Supreme Commander?)
Why should the Imperial Council decide who becomes Supreme Commander - why not a popular direct vote?
- Although it would be nice to have the most popular person be the Supreme Commander at the whim of the populace, a problem would occur if the popular race was so close as to be a continual tie. Having a Supreme Commander installed and removed and then installed again in a matter of seconds as people log off and on as their preferences get counted and recounted would render the position near-useless except for short-term command action if at all.
A more stable online group of 9 people communicating with one another is easier to persuade to support a Supreme Commander, than say a population of several hundred who may be too busy fighting to care anything at all about politics. This is the benefit of the representative government system - the easy and emotional sway of hundreds of players is too unpredictable to maintain stability if there was a close tie for the Supreme Commander position. Since the Supreme Commander stays Commander even when Senators log off and new Senators are elected, until at least 5 of the 9 Senators agree on one of them being the new Supreme Commander does the change take effect. Of course this will mean a vacancy of the Supreme Commander position from time to time as Senators vie for the spot, but it is reasonable to believe 9 Senators are easier for the masses to convince than for the masses to convince the masses.
This system of 'government' is also a check and balance on the membership power of the largest outfits. Even if an outfit is in fact more than half the online population, it would be reasonable to assume even then they could only install 4 or 5 of the Senators because it would take a lot of people to support the installation of just one Senator (and they would have to split up their members� votes to get multiple senators in on the Council). This system would make the relative population conditions on the ground be represented in the current makeup of the Council.
A possible problem might occur in that the constant login-logout activity of players could render the Imperial Council itself useless in its function of selecting a Supreme Commander. (such as close ties for 9th place).
- This could be addressed by introducing a waiting time (15 minutes) for Senators to enter and exit the position as has already been introduced in this proposal. This gives a relative stability to the Council as 15 minutes is enough time for a Senator to help select a new majority for Supreme Commander, or decide on appointing an Ambassador or declaring a new Empire relationship, as well as forces the incoming candidate to stay popular long enough to take over as a Senator.
(Why not have multiple Planetary Commanders per planet, or each outfit appoint a Planetary Commander rather than the Supreme Commander?)
There should only be 1 Planetary Commander appointed/assigned per planet due to potential planetary map spam issues, force concentration issues (better united than severely divided), and the idea that we don't want a Supreme Commander appointing a super army of unlimited Planetary Commanders with a bunch of personal benefits to themselves and other players.
In reality, I see a Supreme Commander will be only needing 2 maybe 3 Planetary Commanders to direct forces on the front lines of three target planets. There could be more (obviously to watch over the other planets in the Empire's control), but any more than 3, I think, the Empire probably will have a problem concentrating forces.
(Could you further explain the how Planetary Commanders would work?)
- The general idea for Planetary Commanders is to coordinate the platoon activity of those platoons and squads chosing to report for duty via the squad/platoon chat channels now In Concept at Sony's Planetside forums (Can someone do me a favor and mention this thread in that particular discussion - I dont have access to do so unfortunately).
For example of how Supreme and/or Planetary Commanders would work, read on:
The Supreme and/or Planetary Commander (hereforth: Commander) sets up waypoints on a planet along with a short text of instruction for each waypoint, information which is seen on every players screen for that Empire (toggleable of course).
Platoon and squad leaders can report to the Commander via the (In Concept) platoon/squad leader chat channel saying they will take on one or more of the waypoint missions
When the Commander has accepted the platoon or squad leader's availability for the mission, the Commander only has to go edit the text near the Commander's waypoint with the name of the platoon or squad leader so people in that area can join up together to better enhance the success of that team.
(Why not have everyone see all platoons, squads, and their waypoints?)
Three words: map confusion, and spies. And I don't think the Devs would want the increase in server load - but the idea would be nice if they were toggleable and it didn't affect server stability and gameplay.
Really all a player needs to see is a Planetary waypoint with instructions, and the name of the platoon or squad leader responsible for that waypoint. All the player needs to do then is join up with that specific platoon or squad, and gain access to the additional need-to-know information.
This kind of restriction of seeing only your current platoon locations and waypoints on the planetary map is also good in order to limit the amount of information available to spies. Only the Commanders, if anyone really, should be able to see where all individual platoons/squads and waypoints are on a planet, if even that information could be made available to them.
(End Part 3 of 3)
So, what do you think?
- inigmatus