Improvement: Better Footholds, Continent Locks, and Longer Term Persistence

[Xyntech]

Preface:
"Winning" will never happen in Planetside 2. It's an ongoing war for our enjoyment. Despite this, the idea of longer term goals and some extended persistence are things that keep cropping up in discussions.

Another couple of things that keep cropping up are the problems with footholds, and a desire from many to see continent locks make a return as one of the solutions to having some longer term goals and objectives.

The way I see it, footholds are in most ways pretty similar to sanctuary warpgates. The biggest difference is that you have no load screen to get from the base to the rest of the continent. I think this just streamlines things and doubt it will be too big a change in most ways.

However the biggest way footholds change things is by removing the potential for continent locks. You take all of the territory, but then both sides can immediately waltz out of their foothold and start taking it back. No time to breath or take the fight somewhere else.

So here is my idea to bring continent locks back.


The Idea:
First off, this will require more than 3 continents, so it will be a "down the road" idea. At least 4, preferably more, would be needed.

Each empire would control at least 1 foothold at any moment. No two empires could have a foothold on the same continent as each other. An empire could control a maximum of as many footholds as there were continents, minus two. One continent/foothold each for the other two empires.

To capture a foothold, an empire must:
A) Capture all territory on a continent
B) Vote during the time the continent is locked to decide which warpgate will be the new foothold

During the voting period, the continent would be locked and no enemies would be able to gain access or capture territory. Players of that empire would be able to spawn freely at all warpgates on that continent. After the lock timer was up, whichever warpgate got the most votes would be the new foothold. However, the other warpgates would then become broadcast warpgates that the other two empires could use to access and start attacking the continent once again.

To lose a foothold, an empire must:
A) Have at least one other foothold on another continent
B) Lose all territory on the continent to a single enemy empire

Simply losing all territory would not get rid of your empires foothold if the other two sides were still fighting it out on the continent. If one enemy empire does capture all of your territory however, you will be kicked off the continent back to one of your other footholds.

All empires would have a minimum of one foothold at all times. If pushed back to that last foothold, the continent would not lock and your empire would still be able to leave the foothold to try and capture new territory (perhaps with excessively long capture times on all territory not connected to the foothold).


Conclusion:
What this idea would create is a longer term goal and persistence in the form of footholds that will probably not change as often as territory. When you log back in, odds will be reasonable that at least most of your footholds will still be the same.

Additionally, it will create a strong sense of propriety about true "home continents." Continents where an empire collectively decides that THIS will be the continent who's foothold they will protect at all costs. The continent which, if they lose it, they will fight the fiercest to take back.

Of course, you would not be limited to just one. If there were 10 continents, you could hold as many as 8 of them as your home continents at any given time. If there were 5 continents you could hold up to 3. Better start prioritizing which ones are your favorites.

Obviously voting is a touchy subject on things like "voting for leaders" and stuff like that, but I think it would be okay for something like picking which warpgate was your foothold. It's not something that would destroy your empire if the "wrong" one was chosen.

Voting could also be handled a few different ways. One being that everyone on your empire who is currently logged into the actual game during the voting time can cast their vote. Another is that anybody with an account can use that account to cast a vote, even if they aren't logged into the game at the time.

I tend to prefer the idea of only having players who are actively playing at the time being able to vote, since they will more often than not have been the ones fighting in the battle that won them the continent. But being able to cast a vote from your phone (one vote per account or whatever) would be another cool way to stay involved with the game when you weren't playing.



So give your ideas on what's right or wrong with this idea, how it could be improved, etc.

Obviously it's not something that's going to happen with just 3 continents, and I think that 6 continents would be a preferable minimum for the idea to work properly, but technically it should be able to work even with 4 continents.

4 continents would just turn it into a bit of a clusterfuck where two sides would be defending their turf and trying to take one of the third empires two continents, while the third empire struggled desperately to hold on to it's footholds and beat back the other two empires on their own home continents to try and deny them resources.

Could be a fun sort of a clusterfuck, but probably best if this idea had more room to work with. Maybe if enough people liked something like this, it could be worked into the 5 year plan. Maybe there is some variant of the idea which I haven't that of, that could be worked in sooner with just 3 continents.

Thanks for reading.