The Battle Island w/player created structures.

EVILPIG · 2013-02-25, 10:31 AM

I've been holding this one back for a while, but I'm going to put this out now, though incomplete. Perhaps you can help with the design.

One thing that may change things up would be to have conditions on some of the new conts. This could be compared to the old Battle Islands and how they had different rules for what weapons and vehicles were allowed there. Just as new conts could have hazards, like Hossin's killer vines that attack players.

This continent would be a huge island. The island would be a mix of desert and jungle with rolling terrain that leads up to a volcanic cone in the center of the map. The volcano has jungle and trials that lead up the outside, too steep and dense for vehicles to climb. ATVs can maneuver the trails. The inside of the volcano has similar switchbacks leading down inside the volcano. Down in the depths of the volcano lies the sole capture point for the Island. The rest of the island is a wild expanse.

The foothold for each empire, is a massive offshore structure, similar to an oil rig. From this rig, a new amphibious vehicle can be spawned. The new vehicle can carry troops and deploy on the shoreline where it can act as a vehicle spawn. War waged across the cont must be waged from here. Any spawns must be imported and positioned as the empires fight for control of the Island. Basically, this is a huge sandbox where the players determine where the structures are. If outfit bases are implemented, this is a great place to use them. If not, allow the players to use Sundies or build little fire bases to operate out of. Either way, it would be wide open and always changing.

The amphibious vehicles would have some weaponry for defense. The primary defense for the shoreline deployment would be turrets on the rig which would be able to hit targets near the shore, but not further onto the island.

Finally, when the island is captured, the volcano erupts and wipes out anything inside the crater and would rain lava on the outside of the cone.

I'm open to any discussion.

Phantomdestiny · 2013-02-25, 11:13 AM

i think you could integrate some sort of resources that would need to be collected manually around the island . those resources could be used to create the outfit bases themselves. You would need to make them modular in order to adapt for the differents outfits prefered play . For example specs ops outfits could cover the bases in leafs in order to camouflage the bases . the air outfits could have bastion like flying fortresses . bigger outfits could have small implanted cities which could serve as trade center for the resources while smaller outfits could have little outpost or hiden underground bunkers

EVILPIG · 2013-02-25, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Phantomdestiny

i think you could integrate some sort of resources that would need to be collected manually around the island . those resources could be used to create the outfit bases themselves. You would need to make them modular in order to adapt for the differents outfits prefered play . For example specs ops outfits could cover the bases in leafs in order to camouflage the bases . the air outfits could have bastion like flying fortresses . bigger outfits could have small implanted cities which could serve as trade center for the resources while smaller outfits could have little outpost or hiden underground bunkers

I love resource collection around the island. I do however want to limit aircraft spawning to the offshore footholds.

Phantomdestiny · 2013-02-25, 11:44 AM

then we would need to create a naval unit that moves resources from the main island to the off-shore platforms in order to manufacture planes which would be pretty interesting for the meta game

HiroshiChugi · 2013-02-25, 11:50 AM

And possibly have the "bases/outposts" destructable? To prevent spawn spamming and base spamming and such.

MrBloodworth · 2013-02-25, 11:53 AM

Out of 100% of user created content, only 10% is even useable or appropriate to the setting, of that 10% only 1% is even of a quality to be used.

Lonehunter · 2013-02-25, 11:57 AM

Sounds like you wanna play Battlefield. Off shore footholds would be like any other shooters spawn point, a volcano that wipes the map and reset the territory? Air vehicles only pulled from off shore?

I personally have advocated for the Battle Island gear restriction for a long time. I'd love to see what happens when HA and MAX aren't aloud on a cont, or no heavy tanks, Libs, and Gals.

I'm also a huge fan of player generated content, but it would suck if the only option to play that happens to be the only place that limits play like that, I don't think both should be on 1 continent

Carbon Copied · 2013-02-25, 01:32 PM

Personally I think this is taking sandbox too far - while push out from the shore, the chance to build my own base, fortify it and all that stuff sounds great in practice I just don't think it works.
Also why would I bother building up this base of fantasticness if any faction caps the island it wipes all my hard work with a volcano eruption? Surely the volcano would just become another Crown?

My take on outfit base building if it took any form would be along the lines of satellite/mobile and destructible outposts that (just as an example) use a sunderer (or insert new vehicle name here) that pitches up and has to have x amount of terrain grid space to initially deploy (then built up with engineers?) similar to how the British Command Truck in Company of Heroes moves around (yes I know this is not a strategy game..). It can then be protected/upgraded with static auto guns (that appear to have models already in the content files). What would this serve? Well maybe it can be an advanced type of sunderer that when deployed you can combine certifications so setting up immobile stackings of: 2 utility and 2 defense slots (or something along those lines I'm just spouting cert names here and not paying attention to balancing).

I like the idea of the continent description as a whole though I just don't see the implementation of fully custom bases and a resetting island as a mechanic. I like the idea of the environment being hostile as well.

Phantomdestiny · 2013-02-25, 01:38 PM

what if you adapter your idea by getting rid of the volcano neutralising the map and instead made it more like a ARMA 2 wasteland server mod but with a planetside 2 souce and outfits owning them

Babyfark McGeez · 2013-02-25, 02:06 PM

This is the kind of vision i was hoping to see from the developers. Thumbs up, OP!

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Out of 100% of user created content, only 10% is even useable or appropriate to the setting, of that 10% only 1% is even of a quality to be used.

If that would be true it would speak volumes of the players of this game. Ever heard of "Wurm Online"?
Besides, with "connect-able" Lego-like structures (which this game is made of anyways) the amount of penis and swastika buildings would be limited.

...or were you on for something else here?

MrBloodworth · 2013-02-25, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Babyfark McGeez

This is the kind of vision i was hoping to see from the developers. Thumbs up, OP!

If that would be true it would speak volumes of the players of this game. Ever heard of "Wurm Online"?
Besides, with "connect-able" Lego-like structures (which this game is made of anyways) the amount of penis and swastika buildings would be limited.

...or were you on for something else here?

Funny you bring up Wurm online. I was the art director of it for 3 years. My work paved the way for the new player models, trees, ETC.. Many of the useability refinements were championed by me as well.

Babyfark McGeez · 2013-02-26, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Funny you bring up Wurm online. I was the art director of it for 3 years. My work paved the way for the new player models, trees, ETC.. Many of the useability refinements were championed by me as well.

Then you should know it is very well possible to give players creative freedom without having to run through a landscape with dicks slabbed into it all around.

Also yay, you still play?

HereticusXZ · 2013-02-26, 04:59 AM

The offshore stuff req to invade the continent proposed I don't like, It reminds me to much of battlefield how you started off on a carrier and had to invade, at least not until they make it possible to travel seamlessly between continents without loading screens.

Player constructed content like Bunkers or towers is a looooong way from happening but then again something smaller like a engineer deploying a small sandbag wall or a big X like Tank trap to use as cover in place of the MANA turret might be more conceivable to see sooner - Something along the lines of what Engineers could construct in Mount and Blade Napoleonic Wars.

The idea that the volcano could erupt and reset all the stuff that players built I dislike because it would be to similar to any other FPS where the maps reset and load into the next battle.

With the exception of the natural environment purposefully attacking players and player constructed fortifications I wouldn't see how this special new continent would be any different then any other continent. Thorned vines to do damage to infantry in certain areas, mud that could notably slow vehicles, and a fog that would blind aircraft at a certain altitude could be patched into any other continent as is, same with engineers or any player in general being able to construct fortifications.

Why would we want to limit some of this stuff to a special snowflake continent beyond a possible MLG Arena use for competition between Outfits?

MrBloodworth · 2013-02-26, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by Babyfark McGeez

Then you should know it is very well possible to give players creative freedom without having to run through a landscape with dicks slabbed into it all around.

Also yay, you still play?

I should have expanded my comment.

What you see is the end result of a lot of work on the developers side. I ran a submissions system as well, being an indi game we took people works that they submitted and used them in game, however my first statement applied here. Most of it was technically unusable, as in, did not work with the system, or had an egregious overuse of polygons or texture waste for the item in question. That's before the evaluation of if it even fits in the world.

As for the in game tools, no, that was also a great deal of work as well, as users would do things like build 3 layers of walls with 5 high end gates each with pristine level locks on them. This was not good game play for anyone.

I'm not against the idea of user content, but its a huge burden on the keepers of a game.

There is a golden rule for games: The player will do what they can, when they can, and if they want to"

You can put all the radius and no build zones you like. They will find a way to cheese the system and call it "emergent". When you add a level of player ownership, they will game the system to make sure what they have built is impenetrable. They will use bugs ( Bounce hols, a Physics quirk of the terrain ) and call them features.

The list goes on. Once ownership or creation comes into play, expect the worst of people to come out.

I'm sure SOE has a plan for all this, but I do not envy them, nor would I personally take that on again. I personally think it will be a distraction more than anything, as players and whatnot figure out how to plant things in unintended ways and call it "skill".

Xaine · 2013-02-25, 01:27 PM

Much as I like the idea, at this rate the 'player made bases' we were promised seem a long way off.

As in like, 2014.