[Mordelicius]

I was going to write a different post about PS2 I would title "PS2P: One foot charging, one foot retreating", then I was stunned how badly the new WDS scoring and award system is destroying the battles in PS2.

So, instead I'll just explain how busted the new WDS is. The effect on the gameplay is so severe that it requires immediate fix. I'll break it down in subsections:


Rewards drive the fight - First of all, the personal reward is so high that, everything else is unimportant. Basically, every player just goes to cap a base for the WDS points to get the personal tier rewards.

Fights are now driven by those personal rewards. Fights are no longer important. It's what give easy WDS points is where players flock to.

Solution - Personal WDS rewards should be based on actual fighting. Acquiring cheap points for capping empty bases should be severely deemphasized (read more at the very bottom for suggestions).

Alerts are now WORTHLESS - That's right. Alerts are now utterly worthless in light of the new rewards. Just had an alert, Vanu ignored everything, just capped as much as they can.

Solution - ALL WDS scoring will be completely suspended during Alerts, except for the particular alert areas. Example: during Biolab alerts, only the Biolab will give points. Better yet, the Alert areas should give extra points on top of the normal scores. Otherwise, just remove all the alerts. It's an utter distraction.

Capping empty bases is highly favored and rewarded - (this section is extremely important) I just spent almost an hour losing base after base (totally outnumbered) in Indar during and after the alert and how many WDS point do I get? ZERO. Where are the NC? Capping the whole Amerish.

Defending outnumbered during alert means nothing. Defending outnumbered during non-alert mean nothing as well. Everything is about capping free bases to get the reward. The fights are literally gone, since your empire just stacks where there are no defenders. NC lost Peris, the adjacent Peris Base, the Crown, then Hvar, then Indar bay point, with TR and VS just divvying up Indar and NC has 60% population in Amerish.

So, I went to Esamir. Got into a base that's almost capped with 30 seconds left. How many point do I get for that 30 seconds? Seven points!! How many defenders are there. Practically none. I went to the next base. It's the same thing. I can't go to the next base any longer. I logged out.

The battle flow, alerts and fights are just obliterated. Players just want the WDS tier rewards. I want it too, sure. But hell, I want to PVP for it. Just as the now-obsolote Alert system would used to make players do.

Solutions: - Base point value need a cooldown or a weighted score value timer (or both).
Example (now, the actual time can be calibrated, the hours are just placeholders):

Base A: <1 hour after capped = 0 point value
Base A: 1 hour after capped = 1 point value
Base A: 2 hours after capped = 2 point value
Base A: 3 hours after capped = 3 point value
Base A: 4 hours after capped = 4 point value (maximum)

That means, the faster the base is exchanged, the lesser points it gives. Currently, it's a mess. Do you expect players to fight when the non-fighting rewards the most points? The personal point system and scoring system has to be completely reconfigured.

Secondly, a weighted score value timer may not be enough. Players will still ghostcap everything. Score value should also be weighted in terms of the ratio of the population of defenders to attackers. If the attackers outnumber the defender 2:1, it should be halved and so on and so forth.

Even if the defenders gave up the base, the attacker faction will still be EVENTUALLY rewarded in some form because they will hold the base.

In short, capturing empty bases should give no reward (zero WDS personal point). If the defenders strategically say, 'let's give them the base so they don't get a reward', it's OK. They lose territory, they lose WDS faction points and eventually, they will have to reclaim bases because it is sustainable up to only the Warpgate. Right there and then, the fight will have to ensue, the the points in capturing a base will actually matter. If we flip the coin and the new defender says "they didn't give us points earlier, let's give up this base too and give no points as well". Again, it's ok. Simply put, no fights = no personal WDS points towards the tiered rewards. And finally, on congruence to that, Holding (defending) bases should be more emphasized, because that's where all the fights will should happen. If players are rewarded for defending (as we are now), then more fights will happen. Actually, they really don't need to change the defense scoring at all (just refine it for scoring balance), they simply need to deemphasize personal scoring based on attacking empty bases and by that, defense is emphasized automatically.