Systems: A Proposed Alert Mode: Empire Conquest

CrimsonTemplar · 2013-05-06, 04:28 PM

Recently showed this to my outfit, which received this idea relatively well and now I open it up to you good folk here at PSU. This is a proposal of mine to introduce an Alert Mode: Empire Conquest.

Please note, this is provided as is. It is a draft and despite being changed, based on feedback from my outfit and PSU, still subject to tweaks and suggestions, made by this community and others. Also expect some spelling and grammatical errors as well. If you're one of those TL;DR people, prepare to be disappointed, unless someone can do so out of the following.

(Actually I think I need a TL;DR version. Experts to my side!)

With that in mind I present my proposal:

Empire Conquest:

Overview:

A cross between Continental capture, LMS and the Capitol system from the original Planetside, the Alert objective is for the Empires to capture or neutralise the enemy warpgates on a specific continent. Once a faction loses their warpgate, they are considered disqualified but not yet out (see below). It isn’t however as simple as that, for there a couple objectives required in order leave a warpgate vulnerable. Alert Time: 3-4 hours.

1) Attackers must eliminate ensure an enemy holds no specific facility at all (These can be chosen at random, with each new alert). Therefore they must attack these facilities, while simultaneously defending their own.

2) All adjacent territory (Hex system) around the Warpgate must be captured and held for a certain amount of time (5-10 mins?) before the force dome lowers or becomes accessible. For Rush-lane/lattice-hex system, it can be half the adjacent territory. Or perhaps, when Alert is active, have these chosen regions exempt from adjacency rules?

When the above is achieved, players can enter the enemy warpgate and must disable three generators and hack the central gate console, to either neutralise or capture the warpgate. There is a large XP and resource reward for capturing a warpgate. Once a faction has captured the other two faction warpgates, they are declared the winner and receive 15000xp (that’s 15000 for each player) as well as 250 resources.

At the end of the Alert, there is a 30/45 sec lockdown as the continent resets. Gates flip back to their respective faction as well as all adjacent territory. At the end of the lockdown period, all players are transported back to their warpgates and normal battle can resume.

Capturing an Enemy Warpgate: Mechanics

Facilities:
At the start of each alert, a random facility type will be chosen that must be secured so as to take a foe’s warpgate. These will be key bases such as Amp-stations, bio-labs and tech plants (which would make for interesting fights on Esamir). Empires must take them, while consolidating their own.

How would this work? Simple. An empire must secure all or ensure that none of a certain facility type, is in enemy hands. E.G The TR want to eliminate VS from Alert. The specific bases to take are bio-labs. TR must take all bio-labs or capture those belonging to VS to ensure they have none. When this is done, TR can proceed to take adjacent territory near VS WG.

It wouldn’t matter if the TR had all bio-labs or Amp stations etc. So long as the VS hold none their first line of WG defense is gone. We then proceed to the next phase.

When the battle-flow changes go live, this can be altered. For instance, the chosen facility could be exempt from adjacency rules.

Warpgate Adjacent territory capture:

Some of this is partly inspired by the Capitol system from Planetside 1.
So your empire has braved the storm of several facilities. Now the enemy has fallen back to their second line of defence. It’s time for the nitty gritty stuff to commence. Your empire has to hold all territory adjacent to your enemy’s warpgate, for a certain amount of time before the force dome collapses and you can charge forth with all your fury and hate, into the breach.

Adjacency rules function similarly to facilities, in that none of the enemy faction must be holding onto their territory around their warpgate, in order for the attackers to breach it. The difference here is that ONLY ONE attacking empire can enter that particular enemy warpgate.

Currently, as of this draft, the TR hold northern Indar WG. There are four territories surrounding the gate. These are Alkaline storage, Crater Firing Range, NS Salvage Yard and Camp Connery. Any attacking force must take these four territories, in order to pass through and storm the last bastion of VS on the continent.

However what if the NC took two and VS took two? None of those factions would be able to pass through, for none of them possess the MAJORITY of adjacent territory. Where there are an odd number of territories, will ultimately decide who gets to enter. So if VS took one of the territories, previously taken by NC, then the timer would start for VS and not NC (and vice versa).

Time to hold the adjacent territories, would be perhaps between 10-15 mins. When timer expires, the force dome comes down. It can be restored (and subsequently kill enemies within) by re securing adjacent territory or taking a facility of the chosen type, away from an enemy faction (and killing any of the Empire forces entering the gate).

(EDIT: With the recent addition of the Lattice (GU9) and new Alert Types (GU10), I have partly revised territory capture, with regards to Major facilities and Adjacent Territory. If the Devs wish to maintain the same 2-4 hour timer, then for the Alert the lattice on Indar (and later Esamir and Amerish) could be replaced by a special Alert lattice system which connect the major facilities, rather than all territories. These would then form a link to the adjacent territories, around an Empire's WG, allowing them to be captured and subsequently, the Warpgate itself. Would make flow of battle, slightly faster paced but also encourage big fights.)

Capturing/Neutralising WG

Once the attacking empire, has taken chosen facility type and taken adjacent territory, the final stand can begin. There are three ‘Data Encryption Generators’ (or DEGs) located in particular spots inside the WG. Attackers must disable them before uploading a hacking software tool in the WG’s Central gate control console. One player (any class accepted, though perhaps Infiltrators get a slight time boost), must remain at the console at ALL times otherwise the upload will halt. After about 2-3 mins, the program will upload and the WG will shut down and become neutral, or flip to the attacking faction.

Perhaps there could be two ways to disable a WG. Destroying the central console or hacking it.

1) Destroying the console would grant a small 1750xp bonus to attacking faction. However this will only TEMPORARILY disable WG (perhaps between 20-25mins?), before the console repairs itself and WG comes back online.
2) Hacking as previously described above. Attacking faction would get a much larger 6500xp bonus as well as resource bonus of around 175 aero and mechanized. Unlike 1, the flip remains until end of Alert OR faction reclaims it (see below).

Warpgate Capture: The Eliminated Faction

So the attackers have breached and have either neutralised or captured the enemy warpgate and are now planning to move against the other faction. What happens to the defeated enemy? Are they simply out and just spectators to the remainder of the alert? Or can they still be active on the map, without being able to acquire the xp reward at the end? One idea that came up as a result of this is the concept of guerrilla warfare.

Guerrilla Warfare:

This happens, when a faction loses its warpgate to an enemy force. Any remaining territory is considered cut off and all bonuses rescinded. The faction is NOT removed from the continent entirely but until they recapture their warpgate (or else it returns online as described above), they cannot claim the experience reward at the end.

On top of this Guerrilla fighters CANNOT do the following:

1) Acquire supply lines by capturing territory. All resources are flat lined to around 25.
2) Cannot acquire bonuses of any major facility (including MBTs)
3) Enter or leave the contested continent. In the latter case, they can only leave if all Spawn points are gone (see below). In the former case Squad members can deploy on their leader, so long as there is a certain number of spawn points available on the continent. However once they are on the continent, there’s no going back.
4) (Optional) Capture any facility on the map at all, with the exception of the Warpgate and adjacent territory around it.

As well as the above, Guerrillas also suffer a 10% longer respawn time and possibly are reduced to only using their stock weaponry. Also MAX timers are increased by 50% and resource cost by 10%.

However Guerrillas CAN:

1) Spawn in and hijack NS common pool vehicles/weaponry.
2) Hack consoles at facilities to resupply and spawn in vehicles.
3) Sabotage secondary objectives at facilities.
4) Spawn on AMS and squad beacons, so long as players are still on the continent. However to prevent a ‘hunt for the last sunderer’ scenario, vehicle deconstruction timers are cut by 75%. There must also be at least FOUR AMSes left to enable continued spawning for the guerrilla faction (includes Squad beacons as well)
5) Benefit from a slight increase in speed.
6) Gain unique experience rewards and still receive the 20% boost from participating in the Alert.
7) Gain the benefit of NOT showing up on enemy radar, so other Empires will not know where they are (This excludes AMS and Squad beacons).

However, once there are no remaining territories in the guerrillas' hands and less than four sundies, then once they're dead, they're dead until the Alert ends. They can only respawn on other continental warpgates, unless spawn-points become available again.

Why guerrillas? To give them something to do and be a presence that can really ruin the other Empires' day, meaning they'll still be a threat the other two factions will have to look out for. For instance, if the the NC loses their warpgate to the TR, they can still actively sabotage and hinder the efforts of the other two. You wouldn't want your shiny TR convoy moving to support the Vanu front, only to be ambushed and harassed by a near invisible foe.

Re-capturing a warpgate:

It’s not all doom and gloom however for the defeated Empire, for they can still rise again from the ashes. If their warpgate was disabled, rather than captured, then it is neutral and will come back online after about a 20-30min time limit. When the timer expires, to help kick-start the faction back into the game, all adjacent territory will automatically flip back to the defeated Empire and comes under a 60 second protection time. Players of the said Empire will be given the option to warp back to the newly restored gate if they wish. They’ll also receive 125 in mechanized and aerospace resources.

However if an Empire had hacked and Captured their warpgate, then players of the defeated faction will have to mount an offensive and re-secure their primary foothold. They can recapture the adjacent territory around the said gate, though this isn’t required as re securing their gate will automatically give them back all territory around it. All the guerrillas need to do, is repair the damaged DEGs (which can only be repaired by the original gate owner). Once this is done, the DEGs will upload an anti-hacking program, after a period of two minutes. Afterwards the Gate and nearby regions, flip back to the original Empire. Along with this, the Empire receives 3500xp for resecuring their gate and is granted 200 in resources. What’s more they are now eligible to continue participating in the Alert and receive it’s bonus at the end.

Needless to say, retaking the gate (or it coming back online) will immediately reactivate the force dome. Any enemy left within will slowly die, unless they get out of there quick.

Winning the Alert:

A complete victory is earned, when one Empire captures the other two warpgates on the chosen continent. Each soldier of the victorious empire is granted a total of 15000xp and 250 in aerospace and mechanized resources.

If no empire has achieved a complete victory, then the winning faction is decided by the following:

1) The number of the chosen facility, under each Empire’s control. The result is a dominating victory to the Empire that owns the most but XP and resource reward is split. E.G At the end of the Alert, TR hold half the Amp stations on Amerish and NC hold the other half but VS hold none. The reward is therefore split between TR and NC, with the VS receiving nothing whatsoever.
2) Holding of adjacent territory around enemy WGs. This adds to the Empire scores at the end.

Empire Conquest as an Intercontinental Alert:

With some tweaking, this Alert game mode can function as an intercontinental type. Things from above, would have to be tweaked slightly and considered:

1) Guerrilla warfare- Would they be able to flee to another continent? Will they still receive the same bonuses.
2) Chosen facility types-Would they be the same or different for each continents.
3) Scoring and final results: When one empire eliminates the others from a continent, is that continent returned to normal, or out of bounds until the Alert ends? In the event of no complete victory, how would scoring work?
A- Number of chosen facility types captured
B- Adjacent territory around WGs
C- Number of WGs captured.
D- Rewards bonuses: Increase to 25000xp and 400 Resources?

Recap and Final Thoughts:

Alert objective: Eliminate the Enemy Empires from a chosen continent (Or ALL continents), within the time limit. Achieved by:
i) Securing or ensuring that no enemy empire possesses the facility type picked for the alert.
ii) All adjacent territory surrounding the enemy WG is taken and held for a period of time.
iii) Warpgate must be captured/neutralised by disabling DEGs and disabling or hacking the Central Gate Console
iv) Once one or the other happens, Warpgate shuts down or flips and defeated faction becomes guerrillas, who are disqualified from Alert until otherwise (see above)

At the end, 30-45 sec lockdown period and continent resets.

-Attacking Empires must possess MAJORITY of the adjacent territory to enter an enemy Warpgate, since only one Empire can do so.

-Guerrilla fighters can retake their warpgate.

Now this isn’t continent locking but it’s a compromise at best. Continent locking isn’t quite yet feasible as of now and I thought and still does, this Alert mode would serve to tie players over until we get the real thing. What is more, this mode would add some depth and get people working together, like they do for continental capture. However unlike the former, this one will have a bit more meaning for they can now actually capture the warpgates and fulfil objectives at the same time. Players can feel as though they’ve scored some lasting victory (however short it is). Some people have said (and will continue to say) that they want full cont locking and nothing else will satisfy them. However most people realise that the game is simply not quite there yet, in terms of having enough conts (and good cont gameplay) to accommodate it. This Alert gamemode would help satisfy many until the real deal (at which point, this mode might interfere with the general flow of the metagame, so it could be removed or parts of it could be adapted who knows? )Also this mode wouldn’t seriously affect waiting times to get on a continent or limit people on the server for there are alternatives, even if a faction loses their gate.

The following are questions, by those whom I showed drafts of this proposed mode.

1) This isn’t continent locking, why can’t we have the full thing instead?

-See above for answer. It just wouldn’t quite fit in yet. It’s feasible with four conts but would end up being impractical. This is just a compromise in that regard. Better than nothing.

2) Wouldn’t this cause large fps drops, with so many people at one spot?

-In some cases yes (particularly if the Alert happens on Esamir with Tech plants as a chosen facility) but remember a faction that’s about to storm an enemy Warpgate must always be on the lookout for the third empire, which may want to ruin its day by sabotaging its effort to eliminate the other cornered faction. Therefore it would be wise to have forces remaining behind to keep that sneaky foe in check, while the main assault on the other empire continues.

3) Ok I understand that you say only one Empire can enter another gate, to encourage fights and reduce clutter and FPS drops inside a warpgate but even so, you’re still going to get hundreds of people in one place and it’s still going to affect many people.

-Yes it will you’re right but there would be a system in place which limits people entering that continent, since their foothold is being contested. On top of that, the defenders can still flee by using the warp terminals located inside. Besides you’d mostly likely get this if you had the full package anyway, so this wouldn’t be any different. And one more thing, not everyone is going to be on a continent when the alert happens, due to factors like time and territory percents as one faction might have an advantage and particularly if this Alert becomes an intercontinental one. Yet another thing, the whole warpgate disabling and hacking shenanigan, is to keep the battles in there short but sharp.

4) This might lag and crash my machine:

- Yes it could as with many things in the game.

5) Really don’t care

-Fine by me. See you in game.

6) I don’t fancy the idea of having a defeated faction becoming guerrillas. Once they’re done for they should be done for.

.-What on earth would you want/expect them to do? Sit around and watch until the Alert’s over? Go onto another cont or just log off? No, they need something to do and what’s more an incentive to do so, hence guerrilla warfare which would give them a second chance to get back into the game. By all means they’re free to redeploy to another continent WG, as the option will be there to allow them to do just that but at least give them a reason to keep fighting. If they don’t want to they’re not obliged to do so but the option is there for them.

7) Wouldn’t Warpgates have to be a little more fortified than they are now?

Yes. We can’t have them entirely wide open, in the face of an attacking force.

8) This would probably need testing to see if it would fit in the upcoming battle-flow system

Yes it would. It would need testing anyway but it'd need to be satisfactory with the new system.

Well that’s about it. I open this proposal to the floor and await your thoughts and feedback.

Kind Regards

CrimsonTemplar.

P.S I need experts on creating TL;DR versions of long-winded posts. Please and thank you.

Corvo · 2013-05-06, 05:04 PM

Locking a continent is an extremely hard thing to do even now when players aren't rewarded with anything but the pleasure of watching the continent tab display their empire's logo (measly resource bonuses don't really count). Weeks pass without continents changing hands and changes that do take place are mostly ghost caps because it's virtually impossible to lock a continent close to server prime time unless a couple outfits make a decision to not participate in an alert and devote themselves solely to capturing a continent while the enemy is busy, which is the same ghost capping if you ask me. Conquering a continent is a war of attrition; whoever gets tired or bored first and logs off, loses.

I don't think the main goal of the proposed alert is realistically achievable in 3-4 hours.

Now I understand that you only need to hold the areas around the WG to make it accessible but that means you first need adjacency to these areas which in turn means you have to fight your way to the enemy WG. Not that different from actually capturing a whole continent. A little easier, since you only have to lock one warpgate and don't have to worry about Scarred Mesas getting in your way, but not a whole lot easier.

On the other hand, it doesn't look like it's going to break anything in the game so might as well implement it. A rare sight of an enemy WG going down might be that little something that is missing from the endgame. The alerts we have are made so that someone always wins, unless it's an infrequent draw. This might be a nice change of pace.

CrimsonTemplar · 2013-05-06, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Corvo

Locking a continent is an extremely hard thing to do even now when players aren't rewarded with anything but the pleasure of watching the continent tab display their empire's logo (measly resource bonuses don't really count). Weeks pass without continents changing hands and changes that do take place are mostly ghost caps because it's virtually impossible to lock a continent close to server prime time unless a couple outfits make a decision to not participate in an alert and devote themselves solely to capturing a continent while the enemy is busy, which is the same ghost capping if you ask me. Conquering a continent is a war of attrition; whoever gets tired or bored first and logs off, loses.

I don't think the main goal of the proposed alert is realistically achievable in 3-4 hours.

Now I understand that you only need to hold the areas around the WG to make it accessible but that means you first need adjacency to these areas which in turn means you have to fight your way to the enemy WG. Not that different from actually capturing a whole continent. A little easier, since you only have to lock one warpgate and don't have to worry about Scarred Mesas getting in your way, but not a whole lot easier.

On the other hand, it doesn't look like it's going to break anything in the game so might as well implement it. A rare sight of an enemy WG going down might be that little something that is missing from the endgame. The alerts we have are made so that someone always wins, unless it's an infrequent draw. This might be a nice change of pace.

Thanks for your thoughts. Indeed I agree about the time should be longer. The one I put in was just a rough estimate. Maybe closer to 7 or 8 hours? (Not too long but enough to stir the Empires into action)

One reason for the 'specific' facility was to ensure or at least limit ghost capping, during when this Alert would be active. Whose going to benefit if the territory is something other than adjacent territory around an enemy Warpgate (Places that will be frequented) or the chosen facility type (Which organized groups are going to keep an eye out for)?

As you say, it wouldn't make things that much easier but it doesn't mean you'll have to cap everything in sight. An armoured force could decide to attack through one space, pushing down from one angle of attack whilst another forces moves in another direction. At first I thought about having the adjacent territory around WG, exempt from the normal adjacency rules but I believed that once a chosen facility type, was capped and one faction didn't possess any (or they had none at the start of the Alert), then another faction would simply pack a few gals and just fly their way over to those territories, hold them down and go in from there. That would break the flow of battle, so I decided against putting it in the proposal. I'm very much open to suggestions here.

I agree it's a hard thing to achieve, even now just as it was relatively hard ta do back in the Ye Olde Planetside. Not everyone would participate at off peak times, I agree and it will be made harder since everyone would want to participate during the prime hours. Yet that'll make the fights alot more interesting and ultimately more rewarding.

In the OP, I had a suggestion about this being an Intercontinental alert, so as to encourage fights on all continents. This might ease pops on other, more heatedly contested conts but only for a while I'll admit as eventually, the others factions will realise that one empire is winning and they'll move to a cont, which they believe they will have a better chance of seizing.

Thanks for the feedback again. I appreciate your thoughts.

HereticusXZ · 2013-05-06, 11:03 PM

Personally I don't enjoy the Alerts at all. I won't deny the XP reward for winning a Alert is nice, but it's a nuisance when you're trying to organize a Outfit Ops and players would prefer the Alert over the Ops objectives.

IMO the greatest fun in this game is the stuff the Players create, Outfit organized stuff, when someone calls on the Command channel "Hey we're doing a Harasser Race at Indar WG!" or calling for a Galaxy Drop, or whatever stuff players organize, THAT is fun. Not this system Alert BS.

Alerts also happen to frequently, just finished a 2 hour long Alert, 15 minutes later there's a new Alert happening already? wtf?!

They need to fix or modify the rewards for defending a facility, because as is during the Alert most players as I've seen just don't defend, they only attack and that costs us a Alert when you don't defend a critical junction. They need to give us a greater reward for taking over a continent outside of Alerts, and fix the frequency of the current Alert, they happen way to often.

I'm sure other players have there own opinions on Alerts and fixes to the game, But IMO all this has to be done before we talk about new Alert modes and objectives

You're proposal for a new Alert Mode though does seem pretty cool, if they end up continuing down this system content over player content path, you're new Alert Mode would be interesting.

CrimsonTemplar · 2013-05-07, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by HereticusXZ

Personally I don't enjoy the Alerts at all. I won't deny the XP reward for winning a Alert is nice, but it's a nuisance when you're trying to organize a Outfit Ops and players would prefer the Alert over the Ops objectives.

IMO the greatest fun in this game is the stuff the Players create, Outfit organized stuff, when someone calls on the Command channel "Hey we're doing a Harasser Race at Indar WG!" or calling for a Galaxy Drop, or whatever stuff players organize, THAT is fun. Not this system Alert BS.

Alerts also happen to frequently, just finished a 2 hour long Alert, 15 minutes later there's a new Alert happening already? wtf?!

They need to fix or modify the rewards for defending a facility, because as is during the Alert most players as I've seen just don't defend, they only attack and that costs us a Alert when you don't defend a critical junction. They need to give us a greater reward for taking over a continent outside of Alerts, and fix the frequency of the current Alert, they happen way to often.

I'm sure other players have there own opinions on Alerts and fixes to the game, But IMO all this has to be done before we talk about new Alert modes and objectives

You're proposal for a new Alert Mode though does seem pretty cool, if they end up continuing down this system content over player content path, you're new Alert Mode would be interesting.

Thanks to whoever moved this. Sorry I should have posted here but was a wee bit tired and distracted at the time.

Oh of course, player/outfit done content will be much more fun ta do then what the system (at least what the system currently does) throws down, for us to play with. Yet I'd disagree with you that Alerts aren't always fun for there are moments, when you're clawing on to your territorial control, as the last minutes tick away. That can be quite suspenseful.

Also technically, isn't this proposal (if it ever makes it ingame) of player design rather than the system?

I certainly agree that Alerts happen rather too much (sometimes our outfit has just disregarded it and gone our own way) but you can see why. With rather little to go on everything else, they need something to stir up people and attract to the servers and this continent or that. Maybe a few tweaks so it lessens the chance of one happening off the cuff, I dunno. Also with only one kind of alert, people will and are starting to, become rather tired of the whole thing.

For facilities, there does need to be more incentives but that is largely for another discussion. However I will say that perhaps, when any kind of Alert begins and not just the proposed one, then a special facility defense bonus (1500 more xp) might entice people to defend.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.