SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design - PlanetSide Universe
PSU Social Facebook Twitter Twitter YouTube Steam TwitchTV
PlanetSide Universe
PSU: You only visit on all the days that end with Y
Home Forum Chat Wiki Social AGN PS2 Stats
Notices
Go Back   PlanetSide Universe > PlanetSide Discussions > PlanetSide 2 Idea Vault

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rating: Thread Rating: 4 votes, 5.00 average. Display Modes
Old 2013-04-21, 07:29 PM   [Ignore Me] #1
SKYHEX
Private
 
SKYHEX's Avatar
 
SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


SKY’s blueprints vol. 1: Metagame and Base Design

Just a quick few notes: This project took over 3 weeks to assemble and I will be releasing the portions as I complete the visual aids, hopefuly getting them to look better as well. The written content is all finished and some of these changes have actually been already implemented, so try not to stone me for old news. Also, out of all the Volumes, this is the shortest one, so individuals with tl;dr policy are hosed. Based upon input, I may revise and polish some bits and release the whole thing again with the last volume.


Hello! For those of you who don’t know me, I am SKYHEX, a member of The Vindicators outfit operating on Mattherson. I decided to do this project because I see many great ideas or simple tweaks done by this community disappear into the abyss amidst a myriad of complaints about even the smallest of things. Thus, I will be reposting this project on 3 main communication channels for our community: Official Forums, Planetside Universe and /r/planetside. Twitter linking will also be utilized. Now, let’s get to work, there is a lot to cover.

Preamble

I am creating this project in order to put in my ideas and summarize other people’s suggestions to the development team in hopes to make Planetside 2 successful and enjoyable for many years to come. This project is by no means insisting these changes to be executed exactly as written and that they have to be done immediately, it is for the consideration of the development team and playerbase alike.

The format of this project will for now be in written form with as much visual aid as possible from sample pictures from various sources as well as ‘blueprints’ of my own creation. Those blueprints and visual aid are the sole reason for the title of this project, as I don’t lay claim to a vast majority of these ideas. I hope this format will be easy to understand and clear in all of its aspects so that no misrepresentation is possible. Provided enough time and experience with the software, I may make these either into single-image infographics or perhaps even video format for ease of digestion.

Main Idea Sources:
Official Planetside 2 Forums
/r/planetside
Planetside Universe Forums
Planetside Upgrade Project
Vindicators Teamspeak
Youtube content of: Spadar, Faint, MattiAce, Wrel, ZoranTheBear and Belthazor
And since I frequent PSU, Official Forums and reddit alike, all of you who comment there in detailed paragraphs should consider yourselves contributors in some manner.




Table of Contents
I. Vol. 1: Metagame & Base Design
II. Vol. 2: Factions & Asymmetrical Balance
III. Vol. 3: Classes & Equipment
IV. Vol. 4: Vehicles & Armaments
V. Vol. 5: Resources & Consumables
VI. Vol. 6: Monetization & Competitive Scene
VII. Vol. 7: HUD & Miscellaneous



Vol. 1: Metagame & Base Design
1) Grand Scale Goals
2) Continent Capture and Benefits
3) Overall Base & Outpost Design
4) Spawn Rooms
5) Capture Mechanics
6) Additional Defences & Objectives
7) Facility Benefits

Grand Scale Goals

Planetside 2 is one of the most unique games in existence and its potential is extreme. It has a solid FPS base, interesting mechanics and astonishing battle size considering the genre. To a common consumer however, it lacks one important aspect: reason to play, to care about decisions beyond simple cert acquisition. Territory control is meaningless as of now, both from game and lore perspective. While lore is much more important for single player games, people in general need to see a goal and subsequent rewards for said goal and a story is one way to drive them. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to entice the populace to prefer playing objectives instead of just grind to progression, which is infinitely more important in games with persistent worlds rather than match-based ones.

First option is to utilize the broad developer interaction with players. As in, tracking the worldwide progress of factions and rewarding those with the most territory control by showing exclusive previews or even perhaps releasing faction specific weaponry a day or two earlier, using the game launcher’s splash screen to advertise this. This social method can give the players heavily interested in the gear and game a grand incentive to not just sit and farm.

Another option is to use in-game mechanics and rewards of progression as well as lore. The first great step, the alert missions, has already been taken and with player generated missions, the per-continental incentives will increase greatly. However, possession of all territory on all available continents should be much more greatly rewarded, perhaps with a combination of XP, lore fragments, art, collectibles, special decals/other minor cosmetics, achievements or, albeit a bit cheesy, a Vocal Praise from respective announcers that could perhaps even taunt the remaining empires.

All and all, you want to get as close to a “You Win” state as possible, without actually having to roll the credits. It is very resource draining and perhaps not as important as other aspects of the game that will be covered, however if you want to achieve a complete, wonderful experience customers will gladly support with their funds, it would be a mistake to overlook this.


Continent Capture and Benefits

Capturing a continent: Yields the XP incentives akin to what is given with recently added Alerts, while Alerts themselves pertain to more specific tasks such as holding bases for X amount of time, conquering set amount of bases etc. and they do not provide as big of an incentive as a Continental Domination. Of course, it will be better to add this as continental locks are implemented as well, so that it may not be simply exploited for humongous amounts of experience.

Continental Benefits: As of now, the incentive to hold a continent is meagre at best, because 10% off of one type of resource that replenishes so quickly is not something players cannot live without. Thus, all continents give 10% decrease to all resources (more on a resource revamp in Volume 5), which stacks up to a maximum of 33%, therefore requiring a control of 4 continents to have such an extreme benefit. Other benefits include a specific resource gain bonus that allows supplying of counter-offensives even if a faction has a very small amount of territory on other continents. More on the resource handling is in Volume 5. Timer-less deployment in any base on a locked continent can also be implemented to incentivise exploration and map knowledge.

Overall Base and Outpost design

Common Ground:

Any facility, big or small, has an onion-like defensive design. From walls and AT turrets near entrances, AI turrets strewn across the courtyard to AA turrets mounted on the buildings at the core of the complex. Thankfully, it seems the PTS has an example.

Walls are of course not the only way to secure a base, using terrain is another great idea, which seems to be put to use on Amerish in large quantities.

Outposts:

While easier to capture even for small squads, it is necessary they maintain a degree of defensibility. Even though they may lack the sheer number of turrets, they should more than enough equate that with the amount of cover. Also, utilizing their position (Vanu Archives, The Crown) or degree of penetration resistance (The Stronghold) will prove as an additional defence mechanism.

Towers:

To offset their compactness, additional buildings are to be placed around, both for more cover and to house additional objectives (Volume 1, part 6). On the other hand, more access routes are required to allow infiltration, at the moment there is one chokepoint only – the staircase, which now can also be fired at from the safety of the teleport room.

Tech Plants: The AA turrets are to be placed along the runway leading to the resupply pad, to obscure them from shelling from the ground. Additional AT and AI turrets may take their place.

Amp Stations: The exterior may remain unchanged except for adding AV shields for back entrances, governed by a single generator placed in the conglomerate of buildings near them. Placement of the generator may vary from station to station.

Biolabs: Elevators to be placed inside the biodome leading to small platforms protruding through the dome itself with AA and AT turrets emplaced (image pending). Additional buildings around the base of the Biolab, similar to Saurva are also required.

Internal reconfiguration will be explained in Capture Mechanics.

Spawn Rooms

Current design of spawn rooms is less than optimal. It is still, like its previous iteration, a box surrounded by a death zone. The difference is now everything inside the box can be seen and its path predicted in exchange for the inhabitants to actually know where from and what is about to doom them.

It is possible to introduce spawning safe from vehicular abuse without constructing spawn fortresses. The Spawn Room is just that, a room that is a part of a bigger building that has 2 or more adjacent buildings right next to it and also leads to an outpost courtyard. Example below.


To prevent aerial lockdown of the spawn room, an entrance leading to the roof stairs as well as several shield windows should be placed on the top.

The windows are to have these properties:
no entity or projectile passes
see-through from the inside
obscuring the view from the outside
cannot spot players inside

The roof should not be shielded save for side railings and perhaps some clutter in order to prevent splash shelling.


Main Facilities have internal spawn rooms leading to the bowels and outside as well to maximize their defensive capabilities.

Interior – pertains mainly to main facilities

Divided into 4 elements:

Access
Corridor
Choke Point
Quarters
Arena

Access: Connects the interior to the exterior, spacious but smaller than Arena, exits in multiple directions and/or levels, may be phase shielded if leads into vehicle bay.

Corridor: A hallway or stairwell, similar to size of the current tunnels. Cover clutter optional. Connects larger areas with objectives or courtyard, can be used for intersections. Used primarily in large bases.

Choke Point: A small room placed between other elements or at intersections to either prevent attackers from advancing or establishing footholds before objectives.

Quarters: A medium room placed parallel to the battleflow path. Single exit, may contain Secondary Objectives or a Terminal.

Arena: A large room, 2-level in height, filled with cover, interior balconies and ledges with stair access possible. Houses Main Objective – Spawn Control Unit



Towers

The small room currently housing the points themselves to be removed, the entire floor becomes Arena.
Ground floor (Vehicle Bay): The two Vehicle Pads are next to each other, teleporter room elevated, the floor sectioned to allow better infantry/vehicle division.


Capture Mechanics

General

Timer-based Security Protocols corruption and override coupled with SCU destruction. The capture happens through the Control Consoles that are hacked manually (preventing accidental capture triggers) and a capture timer is started. The timer is fixed and dependent on the proportion of Control Consoles held from the total of 1, 3 or 5 and its first half – Protocol Corruption – lasts 3-10 minutes.



Once this first part completes, the Data Override is engaged with a timer of 5-15 minutes. At the same time, SCU shield is dropped and this objective becomes accessible for destruction. SCU shielded by a cylindrical shield and positioned in the centre of the room, surrounded by cover.

Base may be taken by attrition through the timer or the SCU can be destroyed, though its timer may have to be extended compared to current form. Destruction causes the following: capture timer is reduced to 40-60 seconds; Spawning, Spawn Shields and Painfield are disengaged 5 seconds after, allowing for a last-ditch defensive push.

In order to save performance in large fights, some buildings/elements may be moved underground or in larger complexes and Corridors of certain length near entrances may be used as culling points to separate the rendering for Vehicles outside and Infantry inside.

Outposts

SCU is located in an Arena-type building adjacent or close to Spawn building, Control Consoles are located in Arena or Quarters-type buildings either close to the Spawn building or across the courtyard.

Towers

SCU is located on the same floor as current capture point, but more to the centre. Control Consoles are on the same level and in adjacent buildings.

Main Facilities

Both SCU and Control Consoles are located in the main body of each facility (see Interior elements above).

Additional Defences & Objectives

Passive:
Auxiliary Terminals – Outposts and Facilities all have 1-4 external terminals. This is used by defenders for quick resupply close to the front or by attackers to establish a foothold via hacking the terminal.
Perimeter Generators – May be hacked or destroyed in order to open up new passages into base buildings.
Power Conduits – May be hacked to temporarily disable base defences. Require timed assault to be efficient.
Resource Silo – May be destroyed in order to cut off the flow from a nearby Resource Node (covered in Vol. 5) and thus deny resupplying of items or vehicle spawning.
Security system – May be hacked or corrupted in order to deny information or misinform about region activity, capture status, or enemy numbers.

Active:
AI turrets: Located in courtyards facing insides of the bases or near entrances to courtyards facing slightly outside the perimeter, mounted on the sides of buildings. Current chaingun form with ability to lightly damage vehicles. Cannot elevate past 20 degrees above horizon. Medium velocity, tight spread, high bullet drop.
AV turrets: Located at the edges of a base, mounted on walls, cliffs or base ledges. Cannot elevate past 15 degrees above horizon. No splash radius, high velocity, very high shell drop.
AA turrets: Located at centres of roofs on base buildings. Cannot elevate below horizon, but protected from non-retaliation air attacks by railings and other buildings. Current projectile model.

Facility Benefits

Tech Plant: Allows MBTs to be spawned in connected territory and Galaxies to be spawned in other connected Facilities. Spawning Flashes, Buggies, Sunderers, Lightnings and ESFs is 5% cheaper.

Biolab: Passive Regeneration. Extends SCU destruction timer by 10 seconds, adds 2 seconds of spawning after its destruction in connected territory. Medkits and Restoration Kits are 15% cheaper.

Amp Station: All Active Defences receive 30-40% damage reduction shielding against shells and rockets. Vehicle timers reduced by 60 seconds.

I look forward to your input and I shall see you in Volume 2, hopefuly sometime later this coming week!

Last edited by SKYHEX; 2013-04-21 at 09:28 PM.
SKYHEX is offline  
Old 2013-04-21, 11:19 PM   [Ignore Me] #2
Baneblade
Contributor
Lieutenant General
 
Baneblade's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


I'll post a more indepth reply later, but it looks good.
Baneblade is offline  
Old 2013-04-22, 12:23 AM   [Ignore Me] #3
Dougnifico
First Lieutenant
 
Dougnifico's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Go on... I'm listening very intently... Also, a little bit of nerdgasm...
Dougnifico is offline  
Old 2013-04-22, 03:17 AM   [Ignore Me] #4
leifnielsen
Corporal
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


You sir, are an outstanding businessman.
leifnielsen is offline  
Old 2013-04-22, 11:36 AM   [Ignore Me] #5
DviddLeff
Lieutenant Colonel
 
DviddLeff's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Response: Vol. 1: Metagame & Base Design

1) Grand Scale Goals
Great ideas here – all of which would work with few problems. Especially interested in the reward of new equipment sooner as it is something I suggested for the original game. However with fourth empire scum swapping sides this could sadly be a problematic reward.

2) Continent Capture and Benefits
Being present for a continental capture should be a major event – yet at present there isn’t even a notification. The benefit you mention is good, although I wonder about something more real, perhaps special pieces of equipment for that cater for that aspect of the game (eg heat dispersion suits to make you invisible to night vision if you own Indar).

3) Overall Base & Outpost Design
Seem like some pretty solid observations and suggestions.

4) Spawn Rooms
I am not convinced that spawn rooms need a massive change – I would like to see more of them either having tunnels to other buildings or having other buildings tight up to them so that defenders can exit straight into other buildings with multiple exits.

I also think that there always need to be multiple routes to objectives rather than making it a direct tug of war as you seem to have suggested through rooms and corridors – if you look at modern level design it is never just one route to go, discouraging camping of corners which can be very dull and frustrating.

5) Capture Mechanics
I do want SCUs to stop spawning and drop the shields, allowing attackers to clean it out and focus on the outside of the base as you say. I also think the idea of the cap point being captured first is a good one to give defenders a warning that they need to do something (this would also help stop people blowing gens behind the lines).

6) Additional Defences & Objectives
Looks good.

7) Facility Benefits
Looks good.

I am going to go back and add a few things from this to my upgrade project.

Nice work buddy, Ill catch up with you on TS tonight no doubt!
DviddLeff is offline  
Old 2013-04-25, 01:00 AM   [Ignore Me] #6
OctavianAXFive
Staff Sergeant
 
OctavianAXFive's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Controlling all continents should be for bragging rights. It's not in SoE's interest or your interest as a player for total domination to be the goal of any faction. Winning and saying "ha, we three capped the continents" is plenty. Adding in tangible incentives may not create a problem, but it might. And it would be the worst kind of problem.

My Speculation:
You see, if you incentivize players to dominate, then you will run into the problem of having 2/3's of your player base unable to play either through "hard lock" meaning continents are simply inaccessible. Or by "soft lock" where resistance is so futile it's frustrating.

Giving massive bonuses for locking two thirds of your players out of a part of the game is going to lead to heavy 4th empire problems. This already is the Achilles heel of the alert system. For now the pros of moving people off of Indar outweigh the cons, but it should eventually be removed or heavily revised once other incentive programs are in place and the game's scale increased.

Some of the other stuff about developer interaction and giving one faction some stuff a day or two early for winning isn't a bad idea though, I actually think you're on to something there.

I can go on for a long time about how the game incentives should work...

But I won't.

As for your capture mechanics and base designs.

What you're proposing are simple, though effective, structural changes. However, they won't really change much other than to mitigate vehicle camping of spawn rooms.

It will not make bases more defensible because you are still placing the primary objective outside of the internal defensive position. The natural center of a base is the spawn room. The spawn room is the objective. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Not a single other thing in a base matters if the spawn room is not camped. You're just making the attack harder on yourself if you allow the defenders to reinforce.

An Aside: The Crown on the Test server is a superb example of really bad design. It's bad on live and somehow worse on the test server.

Back to what I was saying:

That's why the spawn room must be the stated objective. Right now, if you control the spawn room (camp it) then you control the SCU, control points, and any other remaining generators.

Though your outline makes the spawn rooms safe from vehicles, you still make them campable by infantry. A smaller force will never have a fighting chance if they are forced to leave their inner most defensive position to recapture an objective. It will just cause bases to flip faster and defenses to be almost as futile as they are now (assuming less defenders than attackers).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record:
The final hackable console to start the base countdown must be inside the spawn room. Leading up to that, generators must be protecting an SCU. Once the generator or generators around the SCU go down, an SCU timer should start. This will act as the siege mechanic. The attackers can either push through and accelerate the SCU shutdown time through manual override, or they can wait it out. Either way, once the SCU powers down, the spawn room is made vulnerable and spawning stops. However, a small group of defenders can hold out inside the spawn room itself, assuming smart changes are made to the layout and positioning of the spawn room. The actual base flip timer starts once the attackers have cleared the defenders from the spawn room and have hacked the central console.

I don't think what you're proposing will make bases any more defensible. I think it will play out roughly the same way it does now.

Additionally:
The facility layout is way too general. I can make an argument that says facilities are already laid out this way (more or less).

On the flip side: If you take that example picture of Internal Base Layout literally (which I don't think you mean to) then it's going to be way too hard to attack and really boring. A linear corridor with as much firepower as infantry can wield in this game? I mean, I'm all for base defense but there need to be better options for attackers than narrow hallways (at least leading into a base's interior).

Fixed position AA does need to be centralized inside the bases and needs to be made stronger. It needs to be strong enough so SoE can begin to scale back the strength of mobile AA to prevent impenetrable air shields from the ground in too wide a radius. Scarred Mesa Skydock is good evidence for what happens when you can cram a ton of powerful AA units into one location. Powerful, static AA at each base will allow for better developer control over how much flak can be thrown into the sky around a given base.

Not sure the ground floor of the Towers needs to be changed. Second and third floors could be more interesting.

Your passive things seem interesting but I'll wait and see what you've got for a resource revamp before judging those.

We'll see about turrets if other things get fixed. For right now trying to figure out whether turrets are too powerful or necessary in one location over another is useless speculation. (though I do still stand by my AA turret comments)

The facility benefits are fine. I think passive regeneration should be a normal thing, maybe biolabs can just increase it.

Lastly:

I obviously don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure that underground structures actually reduce performance in Forgelight. I may be wrong about that but I think that's why they don't have more of them. I think the game still has trouble with objects moving under or through terrain. I suppose that's something they can and probably will fix in the future, but for now I think it's a design handicap.

That's all I got for feedback kind of off the cuff. Hope I thought of everything.
OctavianAXFive is offline  
Old 2013-05-02, 12:13 PM   [Ignore Me] #7
SKYHEX
Private
 
SKYHEX's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


My sincere apologies to everyone, but I have been extraordinarily busy for the last 10 days due to my duties, I shall post my responses as well as Volumes 2 and 3 this weekend. Also, I am trying to transition from Gimp to Inkscape so I can work on the project faster. Let's say Gimp doesn't have the most intelligent or stable environement out there and my patience is heavily tried because of it.
SKYHEX is offline  
Old 2013-05-11, 09:48 PM   [Ignore Me] #8
leifnielsen
Corporal
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Originally Posted by SKYHEX View Post
I shall post my responses as well as Volumes 2 and 3 this weekend.
Don't lie to me, SKYHEX.


I trusted you...
leifnielsen is offline  
Old 2013-05-12, 03:33 PM   [Ignore Me] #9
DviddLeff
Lieutenant Colonel
 
DviddLeff's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


I keep nagging him but real life stuff has got his attention, he's not been on our TS server much.
DviddLeff is offline  
Old 2013-05-15, 10:38 AM   [Ignore Me] #10
SKYHEX
Private
 
SKYHEX's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Alas, as David says, I am very busy unfortunately. Only now I have a semi-spare hour to catch up to all things planetside. It's the last week of my semester, so virtualy every assistant has lost his shit and suddenly remembered that they need to give us some semestral projects. Which means I am buried in calculus and CAD programs till 2 am.

I posted my last response about 40 minutes before I checked my e-mail and discovered the shitstorm of work awaiting me. I am not happy about it as well, but I have to put my vocation before Planetside and its community due to time constraints.
SKYHEX is offline  
Old 2013-05-15, 06:49 PM   [Ignore Me] #11
Noxxia
ReachCast Show
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


I see your post about being busy, so don't feel the need to rush to a response (considering I only read this post monday lol), but I like your ideas on capturing bases. They definitely need to be a bit more engaging. Right now it's just a task to get the SCU gen, then the SCU, then wait.

I've had ideas of my own running through my head, debating writing my next blog post on, but I don't think many people read the ReachCast blog, so I'll respond here :P Or maybe I'll think it out some more and this is just practice.

Anyway. My ideas apply primarily to the larger outposts, such as the Biolabs, Tech Plants, Amp Stations, and hopefully not TOO long off Interlink Facilities. I think the static 10 minute timer is too long to sit idly afk, and it's too short for a reasonable defense to be mounted. I like a variable timer, and I understand the desire to have predictable time so players can understand how much time is left on something, but I don't think that means you can't do a variable time. Displaying the time left on the map is sufficient, whether it changes or not, given additional information.

So originally this started in my head with population percentages. If the population is 5:1 vs. a 2:1 population balance the timer would be faster in the 5:1 case. Then I thought, "you know, if everyone leaves to mount a pushback and the timer drops because they leave to gather up, that's no good".

Then I thought that the generators such as horizontal, verticle, armor, scu shield, scu itself could play a part in the time left. This would include a sort of recover system allowing the defending team to regain time, which i'll explain after I utilize my modification to this idea, based on Sky's.

So rather than those objectives applying to the timer, why not terminals that are hacked similar to PS1? I like sky's idea of terminals and what I assume the number is based on the size of the base. But let's just play with the 5 number since I'm talking about only large bases.

The basic jist of the idea is hacking a terminal reduces the capture time (in addition to the capture points). Hacking vs. blowing up is crucial in this idea, because the ability for an infiltrator to sneak plays a large role in the strategy behind this working correctly. If it didn't work how it does in my mind, they would essentially just become additional capture points that only an engineer can take back.

So, the Scenario:
Team A is attacking
Team D is defending

The Rules:
-Team A controls 100% of capture points.
-Team A can now hack terminals to further reduce the time to capture.
-Team D can still take back control points.
-Team D can hack back terminals hacked by Team A

-In order to hack terminals, 100% of control points must be captured by Team A
-If Team A controls loses control of any point, all hacked terminals become "unhacked" for Team D. (this one is important) The time to capture would increase the same way it does currently when this happens.
If a Team D captures a point, The capture time would reset similar to (The time Period since the first hack) minus (the Total Time since the first hack) in addition to the current SOE capture mechanics
-Hacked Terminals reduce the base capture time by 0 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, or 1 minute. That time is accrued into a hack reduction time
Capture Time: 0-1:59 minutes = 0 seconds
Capture Time: 2:00-3:59 = 30 seconds
Capture Time: 4:00-6:59 = 45 seconds
Capture Time: 7:00-10:00 = 60 seconds
This becomes challenging when doing dynamic reduction. I don't like 1:00 because then hacking 1 terminal with a minute left turns the base over. But if you look at the numbers like I am now, you'll see the defense can lose a LOT of time...I think maybe it would be flat 1:00 up to a certain point, then terminals just can't be hacked. This might be the easiest
-Recovering a Hacked terminal increases the capture time by the largest terminal hack reduction time up to (The time Period since the first hack) minus (the Total Time since the first hack)

-It takes 5-10 seconds (based on hacking skill levels) to hack a terminal while on Team A
-It takes 0-2 seconds to hack a terminal while on Team D.

The idea here is that it gives increasing the hacking speed more value, as you can die in 2 seconds, but .5 gives you the ability to hack a watched terminal. This way organized outfits can mount a defense while only leaving a few guys behind to keep the base from turning too fast.

The Events:


Capture Time: 8:00
Hack Reduction: 0:00
Total Time Since First Hack: 0:00
First Hack Time: 8:00

Team A has 8 minutes left to capture after controlling all control points.
Team A hacks all terminals before the 7 minutes mark. We'll assume the first one is right on 8:00 on the dot for proof of concept.

T1: 1:00
T2: 0:45
T3: 0:45
T4: 0:45
T5: 0:45

Capture Time: 4:00
hack Reduction: 4:00
Total Time Since First Hack: 0:00
First Hack Time: 8:00

30 seconds later

Capture Time 3:30
Hack Reduction: 3:30
Total Time Since First Hack: 0:30
First Hack Time: 8:00

An infiltrator from Team D hacks a terminal back. The time left to capture is increased by 1 minute because the largest reduction time from Team A is 1:00

Capture Time: 4:30
Hack Reduction: 2:30

30 Second later

Capture Time: 4:00
Hack Reduction: 2:00
Total Time Since First Hack: 1:00
First Hack Time: 8:00

Team A Hacks another terminal

Capture Time: 3:15
Hack Reduction: 2:45

30 seconds later

Capture Time: 2:45
Hack Reduction: 2:15
Total Time Since First Hack: 1:30
First Hack Time: 8:00

Team D hacks another terminal adding 45 to the capture time and losing 45 from the hack reduction

capture Time: 3:15
Hack Reduction: 1:30


**** KEEP OF THIS POINT IN TIME. REFER TO THIS AS "SPLIT POINT" ****

1 minute later

Capture Time: 2:15
Hack Reduction: 0:30
Total Time Since First Hack: 2:30
First Hack Time: 8:00

Team D hacks a terminal back. Even though the terminals are all worth 0:45, they only have 0:30 remaining, so that's all they gain

Edit: I'm looking at the math here and thinking that if Team D hacks all terminals back, but Team A still controls points, the Capture time should be equivalent what it would be without terminals to hack at this point, which would be 5:30 I think...modifying rules in further edits

Capture time: 2:45
Hack Reduction: 0:00

Now, even though Team D still has 2 terminals they could hack back, they won't increase the time before the base is captured.

Making sense?

Maybe it's a bit complicated for this game? I don't know.

To the SPLIT POINT

Team D captures a point

The total time since the first hack is 1:30, so the Capture time is increased to 6:30, all terminals recover, and SOE's current capture mechanics are applied.

phew, that was a lot! Please let me know what you all think.

This mechanic doesn't necessarily help defenders have an easier time, but it helps reduce the idle time when capturing a base that is empty.

It does however spread out the attackers as they will want to make sure the terminals don't get hacked back. They lose in that scenario. Hack 2 terminals at 8:00. if a terminal is hacked back, the defenders gain that minute back, but if the attackers then hack it back, they will only get 45 seconds because the capture time is now below the 7 minute mark. Spreading attackers out will inadvertently give the defenders a bit more ability to mount a defense.

The reason the defense has an easier time in the hacking front is because this mechanic should only exist to eliminate the idle camping of an empty, or virtually empty base, but they should NOT be able to GAIN time from it. If players are causing trouble for the attackers so their friends can mount a defense, I see the mechanic existing in such a way that (or modified, it's definitely not in it's final form in my head) a few people from an organized group can give their group time to organize.

Last edited by Noxxia; 2013-05-15 at 07:07 PM.
Noxxia is offline  
Old 2013-05-18, 01:38 PM   [Ignore Me] #12
SKYHEX
Private
 
SKYHEX's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Alright, I am back on track!

@Noxxia:

While your suggestion would definitely make the capture mechanic much, much deeper, I am afraid that because of the huge range of variables related to time, it'd be a hot mess. In order to let the players experience battles and allow any planning whatsoever, you have to keep the time pretty much constant so that even the complete lonevolves can figure out if going to a base will accomplish someting.

Even the system in this project is pushing it, however it's simple enough to allow the players to make decisions. If you had the countdown jump around like a madman every minute, you'd pull your hair out due to confusion.

Also, I'd like to answer your concern about campaholism you raised during the ReachCast. Putting spawns like so is not made to make camping completely impossible (I don't think such a thing can be accompilshed in this game), however to reduce the ammount of vehicular camping or force a camp with infantry, which is easier to dispatch of and push out with force.

@leifnielsen: my apologies friend, life's a bitch sometimes

@OctavianAXFive:

Hmm, you do have a point with the tangible incentives creating potential 4th faction scumbaggery. I shall scour my idea dump and try to figure out something to alter this.

As for the Spawn Room being the Main objective, it kinda already is by proxy due to the requirement of the SCU. As for its campability, as I already said to Nox, it's substantialy different trying to push out against infantry. Especialy since my plan is to have the spawn room on an elevated position overlooking a large room as you can see in the pictures. This room is there to let defenders regroup. It is very defensible, you should remember that the building I am using is the current SCU shield gen room in the biolabs.

As for the layout, yeah I kinda halfassed the draft because it was the last thing I was finishing and I was popping a vein due to Gimp being extra derp. Which in turn made it seem like a linear tug of war. My apologies for that

Last edited by SKYHEX; 2013-05-18 at 01:40 PM.
SKYHEX is offline  
Old 2013-05-19, 01:40 AM   [Ignore Me] #13
Noxxia
ReachCast Show
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Hmm yeah, a valid point, concerning the time jumping around like crazy.
Noxxia is offline  
Old 2013-05-19, 03:29 PM   [Ignore Me] #14
SKYHEX
Private
 
SKYHEX's Avatar
 
Re: SKY's Blueprints Vol.1: Metagame & Base Design


Don't worry Nox, I have found something in my idea dump that you might like if you want a deeper system. I will do that as a part of "All in one" thingamajig once I completely release the project and get feedback.

As for volume 2, expect it tomorrow. It is already made in entirety, however I get a hunch that weekends aren't exactly a good time to release these. Players are concerned with playing/other stuff and devs want some peace as well I would imagine. This is more of the "lets start this, people" begining of the work week material. With GU09 coming up, it will be busier for them, but who knows I expect Volumes 3 and 4 to be done around 24th to 26th, after I complete one of my semestral exams.

Last edited by SKYHEX; 2013-05-19 at 04:39 PM.
SKYHEX is offline  
 
  PlanetSide Universe > PlanetSide Discussions > PlanetSide 2 Idea Vault

Bookmarks

Discord

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:59 PM.

Content © 2002-2013, PlanetSide-Universe.com, All rights reserved.
PlanetSide and the SOE logo are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. © 2004 Sony Online Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
All other trademarks or tradenames are properties of their respective owners.
Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.