Kail
2013-02-18, 02:14 PM
Today I realized one thing I really missed from PS1 - the fact that when a base was hacked, the base itself changed (yellow warning lights flicked on iirc). And perhaps for running out of NTU as well. What was really cool about it was how much the atmosphere change affected how you felt. As a defender it was "oh crap", for the attackers it was "phase 1 complete, dig in and don't let them resecure!".
With Planetside 2 that's not directly translatable since there is no hack-and-hold mechanic. But that got me to thinking how it could be cool to make bases that are cutoff more important than simply not gaining resources from the hex. Imagine you've been fighting somewhere for awhile, then all of a sudden all the base lights flicker for a second and yellow stand-by lights come on all over. You instantly know that you are now besieged on all sides and you're in trouble.
Ambiance aside, the other key piece is that it needs to matter when you're cutoff. How can you make it matter in a way that makes defenders really want to avoid territory being cutoff and an advantage to attackers, without screwing over defense so badly a base that is cutoff is a lost cause? My idea revolves around the auto-capture mechanic. For background, if no enemies are present at a capture point for a certain amount of time it will eventually flip back to the defending empire - this was done to prevent individuals from just running around everywhere, starting a base capture, and then leaving.
What I propose is that for bases that are cutoff from their empire's warpgate, their capture-progress decays to neutral if no defenders are near the point - ie, all empire bars are empty. The base itself never flips or anything, so territories that are cutoff but have no defenders are just 50% easier to capture if left alone for awhile. Bases that do have defenders require defenders to babysit capture points, which may be an annoyance at worst that they want to avoid.
Simply surrounding an already heavily-contested base doesn't change that dramatically by itself, besides maybe pulling a few defenders out of the fight. But cutting off chunks of territory can be very scary for an empire, because now all those territories that aren't being actively fought over are becoming easier and easier to take.
With Planetside 2 that's not directly translatable since there is no hack-and-hold mechanic. But that got me to thinking how it could be cool to make bases that are cutoff more important than simply not gaining resources from the hex. Imagine you've been fighting somewhere for awhile, then all of a sudden all the base lights flicker for a second and yellow stand-by lights come on all over. You instantly know that you are now besieged on all sides and you're in trouble.
Ambiance aside, the other key piece is that it needs to matter when you're cutoff. How can you make it matter in a way that makes defenders really want to avoid territory being cutoff and an advantage to attackers, without screwing over defense so badly a base that is cutoff is a lost cause? My idea revolves around the auto-capture mechanic. For background, if no enemies are present at a capture point for a certain amount of time it will eventually flip back to the defending empire - this was done to prevent individuals from just running around everywhere, starting a base capture, and then leaving.
What I propose is that for bases that are cutoff from their empire's warpgate, their capture-progress decays to neutral if no defenders are near the point - ie, all empire bars are empty. The base itself never flips or anything, so territories that are cutoff but have no defenders are just 50% easier to capture if left alone for awhile. Bases that do have defenders require defenders to babysit capture points, which may be an annoyance at worst that they want to avoid.
Simply surrounding an already heavily-contested base doesn't change that dramatically by itself, besides maybe pulling a few defenders out of the fight. But cutting off chunks of territory can be very scary for an empire, because now all those territories that aren't being actively fought over are becoming easier and easier to take.