Update on new Hex Adjacency System via Higby

[Hamma]

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/sneak-peek-of-new-hex-adjacency-graph-for-indar-and-a-bit-more.103900/

Greetings Auraxians -

Many of you have requested that we take a serious look at the shortfalls of our territory control, influence and base connectivity in order to ensure we're routing players into great fights and encouraging a better overall battle flow. We've taken that feedback very seriously and have been working behind the scenes on a few different ideas to make that desire a reality, most of which have been inspired by ideas from the community - including this one that we're ultimately choosing to move forward with. Many of you probably saw a tweet that I sent out several days ago showing the first steps towards limiting the connectivity between regions. I'm going to share a bit more progress and talk a bit about what our plan is for this, answer a few FAQs and talk a bit about how and when you can help with this.

First of all, here's a complete map of Indar with the current prototype connectivity that we're working with.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/media/album/q4q5tnh4w8/20130313_514143cd2cc24.jpg

And here's a slightly more zoomed in image of a specific area:

http://www.planetside-universe.com/media/album/q4q5tnh4w8/20130313_514143d6aa56a.jpg

What we're doing here, in a nutshell, is reducing the number of adjacent territories from an average of around 6 to an average of around 3. Smaller outposts will have 2-3 connections in general, larger "hub" regions will have 3-5. "But, why?" you may ask. We see several benefits to doing this which have also been brought up by many of your fellow players who are advocating for some of these changes:

This Lane / Corridor approach means that rather than 5 different targets you can attack next or fall back to when defeated, we've got a more limited set of locations to fall back to. This will hopefully encourage fights to progress more often from outpost to outpost instead of "dispersing" after a large battle as often happens today.
Defenders will have a better idea of what targets attackers will be gunning for next, that predictability should hopefully encourage more active defense of outposts and facilities, as well as allow for proactive deployment of combat engineering.
Tactical severing of supply lines and base benefits will be more feasible as well as more understandable.

Along with this change we'll be adding & experimenting with several other features to both support and augment the changes to base connectivity:


Making roads, bridges, etc follow the connectivity more logically than is displayed in the above map - this will involve changes to the connectivity above as well as some changes to Indar's layout.
You'll also notice that each of the 9 primary facilities are now surrounded by 3 regions that used to be the "Forward Spawn" outposts, those will be turning into full fledged outposts and will be the only connectivity to the facility "core", which we hope adds a bit more back-and-forth to facility capture.
Standardizing capture times - influence and # of players on the control point will no longer cause the capture time to fluxuate so defenders can have a better timebox to gather reinforcements or set up their next line of defense.
Making facilities which are under capture contention no longer provide adjacency for capturing other territories. If you are playing TR and own Xenotech Labs but it is being captured by the NC, you will not be able to use it's connection to to Crossroads to begin capturing Crossroads until you've secured Xenotech.
Enhancements to the Biolab and Amp station base benefits to make them WORTH cutting off.
Showing more info on the map including:
Generator status on facilities
SCU status on facilities
Friendly as well as enemy troop populations for each region
Capture progress and time remaining on the map (in addition to the region "tooltip")

Now, before you start posting "Why isn't X connected to Y, it's connected to Z but that looks dumb!", this is just a first pass on the connectivity, and our next step is getting this played by you guys so we can figure out if 2-3 is the right number of connections or if 3-4 is better, or maybe 1-2! Check Shoprite Specials (https://www.especials.co.za/shoprite/) and Spar Specials (https://www.especials.co.za/spar/).We won't know until you guys get a chance to really PLAY IT. Now, this is still at least several weeks from going live... however...

Within the next week or so (fingers crossed!) we will launch our new Public Test Server. Once we have the Test Server up we will be putting this current iteration of the hex connectivity on there and asking you guys to come play it and let us know how it works. From there we will be making modifications, finalizing the plan for the Indar layout, integrating the other two continents into this flow, and iterating on the other features I mentioned above as well as tuning capture times, rewards, etc. We've been working on a plan to get a Public Test Server up and running for a while now and we'll have more details about how you can access the server as we get a bit closer.

As always, we're very interested in hearing feedback on this, positive, negative or neutral. We couldn't be making this game without you, our amazing community and your ideas and feedback.

Thank you, look forward to hearing the feedback on this system!

[DirtyBird]

Finally a test server.....good news I think.

[Trefugl]

Finally a test server.....good news I think.

Definitely good news. It's not a good idea to test things on live where people are much less forgiving

[Sledgecrushr]

God I love this. No more bouncing zerg with the changes to instant action. A more logical and easier to forecast movement by the enemy forces. Of course we are going to lose a lot of freedom, but in exchange I think the game will be a little bit more predictable and fun. Overall i think this lattice is a great idea.

[OctavianAXFive]

I'm sure various outfits will be organizing to play on the PTS, but I think PSU should try to organize outfits in various factions so we can help the devs very definitively test this system out.

I'm looking forward to testing this out and providing feedback. I'll hold off on any judgements about the system until I've played a good deal of it. I'd really like to link up with other community members in the PTS so we can really put this thing through the ringer.

If we really work to hammer out the details of this for the community at large, we can give this thing a smooth launch. Hopefully that will lead to players returning and the networking of new players into the live game. It's time for SoE's gamble on community involvement to really pay off.

[Electrofreak]

Lattice-like system and public test server... things are looking up!

[Stardouser]

I am interested in hearing how a base that has zero adjacent territories will be easier for attackers to capture.

[Chewy]

I like, I like. It's to damn late for me to be giving thoughts about this though. Normally lack of sleep makes me think clearer with the lower amount of fucks given, not tonight it seems. To sleepy

[Vashyo]

and I was just about to drop the game again for months and you do this higby, damn you, lol.

This has pretty much everything I've been wanting from the gameplay, better information on player numbers, more focused action and less blitzkrieg capturing. Hoping to see some real struggles over every facility, not just crown!

It even sounds like some of the bases have some worth to them, too!

Very excited

[Silent Thunder]

Do we know if the public server is going to be persistant? Or if it's gonna be a hyper cert affair like at the end of Beta? If it's neither of those, then I seriously hope they wont be relying on the public test server to test new weapons. If it's persistant, I may infact just move there permanantly, change always keeps things fresh!

[camycamera]

BIG HAPPY FACE

this might actually somewhat solve (some of) the problems with the people fighting over the crown. but cont lock will completely decimate it.

this+cont lock= fights on all continents :D

[Rothnang]

I honestly have to say, I don't like test servers in MMOs. You always end up with this obnoxious test server elitism where only the people who either don't play on live servers at all or play so much that they have time to test everything and still play on live get to really weigh in on new features.

[capiqu]

There is
hope for the world after all. Very good news. I would have expected 50+ replies by now.
Also I think and hope that the test server will be open for limited periods. So please no post like it's not fair I can never get into the server, the test server has to change. I can see it now.

[Silent Thunder]

I honestly have to say, I don't like test servers in MMOs. You always end up with this obnoxious test server elitism where only the people who either don't play on live servers at all or play so much that they have time to test everything and still play on live get to really weigh in on new features.
You mean as opposed to the current method of rampant knee jerk speculation? Because that seems to work so much better. Im sorry, but the only way to determine if an idea is good or not is to do mass tests.

[Rothnang]

I'm not saying test servers are bad, I'm just saying I don't like it when you're forced to either abandon live play or put more hours than you want to into a game to be able to give feedback on new changes when it can still have an effect.

[Roy Awesome]

I'm not saying test servers are bad, I'm just saying I don't like it when you're forced to either abandon live play or put more hours than you want to into a game to be able to give feedback on new changes when it can still have an effect.

I expect that the test server would only be up for a few hours a day, and probably only for testing out ideas that probably just wants numbers to see what happens.

[Sirisian]

Making roads, bridges, etc follow the connectivity more logically than is displayed in the above map - this will involve changes to the connectivity above as well as some changes to Indar's layout.
I pointed out before that this was an issue, and not to design around it by removing bridges that happen to overlap hexes. The hex system is a neat idea, but it's purely aesthetic. Having overlapping connections would be very powerful and really open up the map design for bridges and tunnels to increase the vertical gameplay which is sorely missing from the game.

If you stick to the hex system please implement a 3D map. This was brought up during tech test that a 2D map really limits the player's visualization of where vehicles are and soldiers are in a 3D world. A 3D map would also allow the hex system to follow bridges and tunnels and exist at different elevations in the world and overlap seamlessly without the issue that 2D maps cause.

[NewSith]

Feedback:

Let's start with saying that everything not mentioned is OK or at least is neutral.

Now let's go in for the "good" and "bad" part

Good:

Scarred Mesa Skydock not affecting Tawrich adjacency.
The Crown being able to get cut off (despite what would seem 2 TR links, in reality, the upper link usually belongs to the Northern gateholders).
Howling Pass being very distinct now not only through the landscape, but also through the hex map.
ARC Bioengineering is not the most useless hex now.


Bad:

Leopardwood Nursery being a useless hex.
Hvar is hex-clusterfucked.
If I read the map right, the Rashnu Tower is connected directly to Howling Pass. NS Material Storage was a good and necessary checkpoint, no need to remove it.
Saurva adjacency design as opposed to other bases. In reality this Biolab is the least contested territory, I don't see a point in making it more defensible than the bases close to the frontline. If anything it should be vice versa.


Anyway props to the "mappers"!

[psijaka]

Like this a lot; huge potential.

If you look closely at the map there do appear to be some illogical connections, but also I suspect that a lot of clever stuff is going on here; especially around the major facilities. We'll only really know when we get to play it.

Hopefully they will sort out the illogical stuff, and make connectivity follow roads etc (or modify the route of the roads to suit the connectivity!).

Good times ahead!

[Malorn]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the additional satellites on Saurva and Allatum yet...

[Sonny]

This hex system looks so much clearer than what we have now! Hopefully should lead to more armies sticking together than having them disperse into 5/6 pieces that sometimes happens now.

[Canaris]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the additional satellites on Saurva and Allatum yet...

the picture is bad.... ;)

[raw]

Am I the only one who'd love to see how the current hex system works out, once proper outftitting is in the game?

Oh well, it wasn't ment to be. Maps are too small for a 6con hex.

[Gonefshn]

At this point how can anyone say the Devs are not listening. Just because they don't change or fix every issue right now doesn't mean it couldn't work and they aren't thinking about it down the line. A lot goes into making games, frankly I'm amazed we are seeing so many changes so quickly based on feedback. Looking more and more like planetside 1 every day! :)

[ChipMHazard]

I am playing George Frideric Handel's Messiah as I type this, I am that excited:D

A more complete view of PS2's lattice system.
More meaningful facility benefits.
The coming of the near mythical test server.

While this won't be all that I believe is required, the potential is enormous.
This right here may very well make me come out of retirement!

One quick note. I would like to see more defensible positions around each of the factions' border, akin to the one north of Hvar.
I am really looking forward to seeing how you guys end up changing Indar to better allow for this new system.

[igster]

Great news and good way to approach this.

Love the fact that you are taking out the variable capture timers - finally we're going to get some Planetside moments back in the game. The new players will wet themselves when they get to experience these last minute recaptures / gal drops by a proper organised team.
Proper co-ordinated teamplay will now be possible

All systems have pros/cons - some of which you don't work out until you try them. With a test server we should be able to iron out the big issues

GJ Malorn / Devs
:)

[Assist]

All good changes in that post.

[Hmr85]

Awesome changes. This is a step in the right direction imo. It also is going to help out some of the smaller Spec Op outfits giving them a defining role now.

[Gimpylung]

This is a giant leap in the correct direction. Obviously it will need refinement but that's what the test server is for.

Well done Mallorn and the dozens and dozens of other voices that were begging for this kind of structure. Well done SOE for finally taking the advice on board.

This will bring vets and players jaded with the mindless free for all back to the game.

It will give small and medium sized Outfits a role.

[ringring]

I agree with everyone who commented. This is a giant step in the right direction.

I'll be interested in seeing:
- what length the timer is, I'd want it to be long enough for resecure battles to occur and to bring back the "Yes!" when a closely fought capture or resecure is achieved.
- what the new base benefits are, I'd prefer something that hurts or conversely really boosts your empire. e.g. extra health/armour/loss of special abilities for troopers

[Rolfski]

Well done devs.

Although I've no experience with the PS1 system, I can see how this new limited adjacency system with more predictability could potentially improve the overall battle-flow. I can still understand why they originally went with the current hex system though, predictability in the end is a double-edged sword that can potentially lead to repetitive game play.

What excites me most though is a public test server. This has a great potential for drastically improving the quality of the Game Updates. Just make sure that people don't play on test servers only all the time.

[Blynd]

This is a giant leap in the correct direction. Obviously it will need refinement but that's what the test server is for.

Well done Mallorn and the dozens and dozens of other voices that were begging for this kind of structure. Well done SOE for finally taking the advice on board.

This will bring vets and players jaded with the mindless free for all back to the game.

It will give small and medium sized Outfits a role.

only if they allow benefits to be cut from source - ie if there is a link from havar back to the sw WG and up to dakah then cutting a link between dakah and the tech plant wont effect much there has to be a gen or something that doesnt need you to have contol of the hex to be able to deny benefits

[Ruffdog]

Awesome. All of it.

God I love this. No more bouncing zerg with the changes to instant action. A more logical and easier to forecast movement by the enemy forces. Of course we are going to lose a lot of freedom, but in exchange I think the game will be a little bit more predictable and fun. Overall i think this lattice is a great idea.

Freedom is overrated citizen

[Gimpylung]

only if they allow benefits to be cut from source - ie if there is a link from havar back to the sw WG and up to dakah then cutting a link between dakah and the tech plant wont effect much there has to be a gen or something that doesnt need you to have contol of the hex to be able to deny benefits

Yeah, thats what I'm hoping for, seems like an obvious enhancement, hopefully its obvious to SOE now that Mallorn is in there.

[Fishy]

Great, also a test server!

[Baneblade]

I am cautiously optimistic.

[Takoita]

Test server is a good thing.

I'll be the odd one and disagree with proposed changes though. I'll quote myself from another thread:

###
No!

Bad, bad idea!

No offense meant to whoever decided on this concept, but do they even play the game?!

With such a system, every fight will degenerate to the state of Ti Alloys. PS2 cannot support such a meatgrinder now (and I'm not talking about the newest GU perfomance issues either). Drawing distance less than a room and fps no more than 15 - is that what you want?!

Ghost capping needs to die, but this is not the way to do it. Alter base capture mechanics instead, no need to reduce base connectivity.

Resource system (and especially its effects on cut off bases) needs to be rehauled before you can even suggest something even remotely limiting as this.

Base defence will not magically get better either. While all possible paths on an outpost from the spawnshack to the cap point can be camped by a score of MBT's and a couple of libs hanging above, none of this will help. HE nerfs won't either. Also, whoever decided that turrets are ok as they are, should get the turret duty during a major Zurvan Amp siege. The moment the fight gets bigger than 10v10, they get exponentially less useful. The only base people even bother with them is the Tech Plant; on all others engineers simply use them as a source of easy repair XP, nothing more.

In the picture shown above, any kind of flanking becomes impossible. Because when you try to advance on the second 'branch', guess what you will meet? The same meatgrinder you've just came from. All fights will stalemate until people get bored and leave.

Thankfully, we will get a chance to playtest it before release and you will see how bad this idea is.
###

[Assist]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the additional satellites on Saurva and Allatum yet...

Honestly not sure what you're referring to. Are you talking about the section on the south east side of Allatum that is sectioned off by the white lines? I assumed that was part of Snake Ravine influence, since I see no physical object/base there on the map.
For Saurva I assume you mean the section to the south of it, same situation as Allatum - I assume a structure of some sort will be placed there?

[Shamrock]

It looks good, moving in the right direction.

[bpostal]

Looks good, now to play with it!

[CraazyCanuck]

Optimistic. Reading this took the grrrr out of me after reading Higby's mine modification idea.

[Forsaken One]

They NEED to fix the bases BEFORE doing this.

I love tactical gameplay, but right now defending most bases is unfun, its a pain in the ass, and honestly its mostly just "How long can we hold out getting sprayed into a tincan of a spawnroom?"

Honestly one of the only bases where defending is fun or even worth a shit is Crown, everywhere else its just may as well fall back and join whereever is being attacked by the team.

The reason people don't defend is because its pointless. even if everyone had everything and certs didn't matter. It would still be pointless defending most bases.


If they do something like this now it will simply be anyone with a brain /still/ goes on the attack while the teams just "trade" attack lines.

[PoisonTaco]

I see where you're coming from Forsaken but I think it should happen at the same time on the testing server. As Higby points out that when it becomes easier to predict where the enemy will attack next, it's possible for some combat engineering. Since you know where the other side will move to next, you can set up minefields, you can get defensive turrets ready and you can position your squads accordingly. We've never really been able to do that in base defenses before. Right now when you go to defend a base, you're arriving to a base where the walls have already been breached.

I think the bases have a lot you can work with for defense, but it's impossible to defend ANYTHING without preparation. Hopefully we'll see some good tug-of-war action with this new change.

[OmegaPREDATOR]

Are you all kidding ?

This prototype connectivity is a joke !!!

You want something more predictable than we already have ? Just add 3 bridges form warpgates to the Crown "in order to ensure we're routing players into great fights and encouraging a better overall battle flow". Don't want to just have warpgates and the crown in the middle to go faster???

Come on! What is hard in these small maps to anticipate ennemies movement ? Especially Zergs who go straight.

I know lots of actual games have the same level of intellect than players ("push 'Y' now. Go here. Do that...) but maybe something who is call strategy (and tactics also) could be interesting to continu to use. Because "Go straight away, and nothing else" is not really somethiing interesting for PS2.

Maybe you can change the game in quad race? That would extremely "routing players"...

Be a little realistic please. Actually after one territory cap (anywhere) you have basically 3 or 4 possibility to continu mouving (quite hard to predict, even with "ennemy presence on the map"). So what ? Is it hard to play with that ?

The only problem I see here is Ghost Caps of some alone players in ESF who go every where they can to launch cap and don't stay in place. Because of that, players have to go at 6 or more place to cancel cap. So they have to go where nobody are cause of lonely players. Before make something like your "limited connectivity" stuff re-use what have been in Beta version of the game. If nobody is on a cap point more than 15s, cap point return to the base owner. Add also 2 points of cap in tech plant (even 1 more in small bases). That way players haven't to return def some ennemy-empty bases and can concentrate on more interesting objectives full of ennemies.

[Figment]

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3595/newlattice.jpg (http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3595/newlattice.jpg)

Just gonna leave this here. :p

[igster]

Re: incentives for locking continents : call me old fashioned but access to enemy faction tech tech used to be a kick ass incentive - for both attackers and defenders

Denying dirty reds and blues from getting their hands on my mag riders definitely drove me to defend.

Perhaps also as a by product of making this feasible we might even get the old hacking enemy vehicles back into the game

Both of these things would really bring planet side back to life for many people.

Bring back the rich gameplay and lose the n% nonesense

[Baneblade]

I don't miss that part of PS1.

[p0intman]

most interesting.

[ThatGoatGuy]

The thing I'm afraid of cont-locking is that the continents that have New, fresh potential-fights will end up being ghost capped, so that people with still endlessly play on Indar. I await the day that SOE decides to lock people out of indar for a week, so that we can finally get some fights on Amerish. (Coming from a Mattherson pov)

[Figment]

Anyone notice the four links in the south east from the warpgate, opposed to three north and west?

Especially the west one seems to be a bit harsh due to the one it links to near Hvar. Doable though.

[ChipMHazard]

Anyone notice the four links in the south east from the warpgate, opposed to three north and west?

Especially the west one seems to be a bit harsh due to the one it links to near Hvar. Doable though.

Aye you're right. I can see why the eastern WG has four because of the roads (mainly because of the canyons), same reason for the western one only having 3. Wonder why the northern one has three and not four, could certainly add in one more at the SE side of it.

[Riekopo]

This is the best thing to happen to PS2 in my opinion.

[Whiteagle]

Bad:

Leopardwood Nursery being a useless hex.
Well to be fair, the Leopardwood-Scarred Mesa Skydock was a pretty exploitable connection... Especially going East to West...

All an Infiltrator had to do was fly over the bay and hack Leopardwood's Terminal for a AM-Sundy and BOOM, the entirety of Southwestern Indar is flooded with Zerg rushing out of there with their own Sunderers.

Hvar is hex-clusterfucked.
Yeah, but that's probably because Quartz Ridge Camp is still set up to funnel everything to Hvar's Eastern Satellite.

As much as I liked Quartz Ridge as a check point, it should probably be replaced with a "Saltflat Garrison" to ward against Southern advances and two check points on passes branching off to Hvar's Eastern and Western Satellites.

If I read the map right, the Rashnu Tower is connected directly to Howling Pass. NS Material Storage was a good and necessary checkpoint, no need to remove it.
Eh, I don't know...

I mean on the one hand, the Abandoned NS Offices no longer bridge Mao to Crimson Bluff, so attackers can't just airhop around Howling Pass...

...On the other, Howling Pass is one of only two routes that the North can use to attack the Southeast, so its capture is vital while NS Material Storage is only a temporary stopgap from using this route to continue Westward.

Personally, I'd chop that winding Eastern road out of Howling Pass Checkpoint into its own Hex and put in some kind of Air Defense Station there...

...Then again, I wouldn't mind Defunct Solar Hub being put back into service as a link between the NS Refinery and Howling Pass...

Saurva adjacency design as opposed to other bases. In reality this Biolab is the least contested territory, I don't see a point in making it more defensible than the bases close to the frontline. If anything it should be vice versa.
Actually the Indar Excavations/Helios Solar push is a big part of any Southwestern on Northern assault, so Saurva often falls BEFORE Dahaka.

Really though, that whole plain between Saruva and the Northern Warpgate is a pain in the ass, so Saruva having less connections can only be a good thing.

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3595/newlattice.jpg (http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3595/newlattice.jpg)

Just gonna leave this here. :p
Nice, though Xeno Tech Labs connects with Broken Arch Road and not Northwestern Tawrich...

...Which makes one wonder if it shouldn't be removed all together, since it only allows the Eastern faction to bypass Crossroads Watchtower while Broken Arch can be assaulted from ether side...

Still, this is only a prototype, so it's not like the layout is still set in stone or anything...
Personally I'd move the "West Highlands Ridge" so that it separated West Highlands checkpoint from Quartz Ridge Camp, then remake Coramed Labs, Indar Comm Array, Seabed Listening Post, and West Highlands Checkpoint into much more substantial bases.

Anyone notice the four links in the south east from the warpgate, opposed to three north and west?

Especially the west one seems to be a bit harsh due to the one it links to near Hvar. Doable though.
Aye you're right. I can see why the eastern WG has four because of the roads (mainly because of the canyons), same for the western one. Wonder why the northern one has three and not four, could certainly add in one more at the SE side of it.
Uh, I think you guys are looking at two different things, unless you are both talking about links leading out of the Warpgates...
If you are, I'm guessing the reason is that they don't want to directly link the Northern Warpgate with Briggs Laboratories, which would then require a new base in that now empty area once split into three Hexes...
Plus it would make the Southwestern Gate the odd one out, unless they made a hugeass bridge base connecting it with Sandstone Gulch Mining...

If Chip is talking about links between Faction Territories, yeah, it is a bit sad that North/Southeast only have two connections, but I already laid down my spiel on that area earlier...

[Figment]

You're right, wrong link north of Tawrich. :)

Uh, I think you guys are looking at two different things, unless you are both talking about links leading out of the Warpgates...

We are both talking about links leading out of the warpgates. :)

If you are, I'm guessing the reason is that they don't want to directly link the Northern Warpgate with Briggs Laboratories, which would then require a new base in that now empty area once split into three Hexes...
Plus it would make the Southwestern Gate the odd one out, unless they made a hugeass bridge base connecting it with Sandstone Gulch Mining...

Now the southeastern one is the odd one out. ;)

If Chip is talking about links between Faction Territories, yeah, it is a bit sad that North/Southeast only have two connections, but I already laid down my spiel on that area earlier...

We've always said since alpha that there was more southwest-southeast flow than south-north flow. We've been talking about the disconnected feeling of the north for ages.

And remember, before there were LESS links there. Two new bases have been installed since on the slope down (one far west, one far east).


Hvar is mostly this way because there is no northern outpost at that base, the connectivity is in principle the same as the others in numbers, just the spread is non-triangular with the main base in the center of the triangle, like with the others.

[Hamma]

Nice Photoshop there Figment :lol:

I'm really looking forward to trying this I think it's going to make things interesting.

[DviddLeff]

Looks solid, few tweaks needed to the terrain supporting this system as others have mentioned but should be a great way to keep the fights raging.

Now what do we do about resources?

[typhaon]

I honestly have to say, I don't like test servers in MMOs. You always end up with this obnoxious test server elitism where only the people who either don't play on live servers at all or play so much that they have time to test everything and still play on live get to really weigh in on new features.

Confused...

I may never venture over to the test server, ever... but I'm happy that those that want to help test stuff, can. Also - there might be times when SOE would like to stress test something and this can now easily happen.

Play however and wherever you want to play!

[Climhazzard]

I'm curious about how the new adjacency graph will play, but I'm also extremely skeptical that it will be the boon that everyone thinks it will be. Personally, I think it's premature.

The lattice system wasn't the only thing that made base capture enjoyable in the original game. The ability to drop a generator in an enemy base to deny benefits, draining a base in order to start a hack, etc. all made sure the game was more than just two bucks ramming their heads together. PS2 currently has no equivalent to any of those things.

Until those features, or equivalent features, are added to the game, the new system will do nothing but limit possibilities in a negative way.

"Spec ops" is already a nearly nonexistent thing in the game, limited only to capping poorly defended regions in an attempt to draw off enemies from the main force or cut off an enemy-held territory. The new system will make even that half-baked spec ops role much more difficult by forcing these teams to take potentially longer chains of bases in order to cut off a territory.

I believe there's just too much currently missing from the game to make the new adjacency graph a Good Thing™.

[Noivad]

Test Server - This is a good idea. Please make sure you have a time schedule for a test long enough so as many different people can try it out if they so choose. 1 week per test would be appropriate.

I play on Mattherson.

This new system is going to be dumming down the game for people who have no idea what tactics are, how to read a map with terrain on it, an insult to Outfits who know how to play. It was bad enough when you put in the adjacency rule, that took out a whole area of Meta game play, and now you are going to draw lines on the map for the sheep to follow because they have either no leadership ability, no leader or they have no understanding of the flow of battle.

The game is already very easy to predict where one needs to go to get into a fight. It is very easy to get enemy Outfits to respond to your moves on any of the maps if you know what you are doing. If you don't know how to do it then that is good reason to get into an outfit that does know.

Mattherson has some very good outfits playing on it from all factions, and they do know what they are doing.

The problem with the game is that it is so predictable it is almost boring. There are just a few minor things that need to be fixed that would have a dramatic affect on game play.

1. Require infantry of any class to actually stay on a cap point for that area to cap. Stop the ghost hacking. Maybe require at least two people be on point, no more 1 man army types. We get to a lot of caps that have been started an either no one is there at all, or they have hacked it, then get back in their vehicles to wait out the cap. Some caps have 30 tanks around it and no one on point. Infantry should be the most important player in the game. All vehicle types are merely support roles for infantry type units.

2. Require for a main base to be taken, that X amount of influence from surrounding hex bases is captured. This makes surrounding hexes have more value. Maybe increase the Value Cap of a surrounding main base cap higher then on not adjacent to a main base.

3. Require that Factions need to have a tech plant to pull certain vehicle types and or configurations.

4. Fix the Galaxy Drop and die problem - No one should die when they drop from a gal.

5. Fix everything that has to do with Outfit management and specialization, so that Outfits have a more specialized role.

6. Get rid of adjacency rules as it was in tech test and first part of Beta. Make a capture of a back area more important. Assign some type of equipment/benefit to smaller hexes.

7. People still do NOT understand that defending bases gives you more points then taking bases. Redo your point spread for defense, give the sheeple some cap defense points that they can see and make them happy.

8. Publish some tactics training so people know what to look for on a map to find the fight and see how the battle will progress.

9. Make AMS have the option for Outfit only spawns. So no zerg people show up an give it away for special operation type units.

10. And this one I am going to take some flack on for sure. Make Outfit Leaders cert into specialties, and members of these Outfits cert into Outfit specific type specialty certs that they can only get if they are in this special type of Outfit.

11. Make individuals specialists, so they are (feel) more important to their organization.

You have made a war game SOE. The attraction of playing a war game is that you actually play war. Taking that way by making it easier, drawing lines on a map, makes war uninteresting. Killing people in this game is easy. If you take out the strategy, and tactics of the game, the x factor of not knowing what the other side is doing, and just say go fight here or there next, what fun is that.

[Snydenthur]

So they want to change this game to be more linear instead of open world. And I'm guessing it's because of crown. But I don't see this changing the situation. There aren't really much real attacks on crown. Usually it involves people getting on the crossroads hills to shoot at crown. This changes that how?

This might help the crown situation, in some cases, but for the most part I think this will hurt the game. Bigger fights, but less options. Zergs are going to love this, though. Well, everyone is in a zerg after this.

[Phantomdestiny]

So they want to change this game to be more linear instead of open world. And I'm guessing it's because of crown. But I don't see this changing the situation. There aren't really much real attacks on crown. Usually it involves people getting on the crossroads hills to shoot at crown. This changes that how?

This might help the crown situation, in some cases, but for the most part I think this will hurt the game. Bigger fights, but less options. Zergs are going to love this, though. Well, everyone is in a zerg after this.

actually it's completly the other way round . you are looking at it the wrong way. reducing the number of paths from 6 to 3-4 makes it less of a cluster fuck. Right now specialiased outfits simply CANNOT cut off territory . this change will allow to implement meta game because of easier defense and later on adding a logistics system like ANTs . Also it reduces the importance of the crown because now you can cut it off easier making it drain of resources quicker

[OmegaPREDATOR]

Also it reduces the importance of the crown because now you can cut it off easier making it drain of resources quicker
I never see player on The Crown be careful on ressources. They only use their gun so ressources are useless for them. (How many time did I see one faction only on The Crown with only 1 or 2 territories who are only defend by few players who care of stategy). Change The Crown for a lake, and players will start to do something on Indar and other maps.

ps: Noivad + 1

[CzuukWaterson]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the additional satellites on Saurva and Allatum yet...

Update overload...

[Dougnifico]

One huge thing I noticed, Crossroads and the Crown are no longer connected! Woot!