Need more continents for Global strategy

[EVILPIG]

The #1 thing we need right now, is more continents. If we could just double the number of conts we could begin to play with Global strategy. As it is, there is no Global picture, because each cont is completely separate.

We need a Sanctuary so that raids can form up without it being known where they are going.

Home Continents are necessary and provide a purpose to defending ghost caps. Not just because it's your homeland, but by connecting the continental system with a warpgate lattice, you can actually flank an empire by the route you take across the planet.

I'm no artist, so forgive the basic picture. I would love all ten, but this is just a model of how it would look with 6 continents. As you can see, there are routes determined through a Warpgate Lattice. You could be on Cyssor and your home cont gets attacked, so you pull back what you need.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4181/auraxis.png

Now, should an empire receive a penalty if their Home Cont is "occupied"? Being occupied means another empire completed, or CAP'd your Home Cont. If they do, it is considered occupied until your empire can completely CAP it back. Occupying another empire's Home Cont should also grant some sort of benefit.

[EVILPIG]

lol - why do I have access to AGN tag?

[ChipMHazard]

I was wondering the same thing:p

[Dragonskin]

Must be a forum bug. I have it too if I wanted to make a new thread. If I have it then I think everyone does... since I'm not special.

[Hamma]

lol - why do I have access to AGN tag?

Beats me :p

[EVILPIG]

Ok, can we discuss the topic now? :P

[Sledgecrushr]

Certainly very necessary for greater tactical meta. Problem is I dont think we will get to six continents until next year. Can you come up with a model that features five continents since we know for sure we are going to get those five continents this year. You see I dont know if there is a readon to postpone continent locks after the next two come out.

[EVILPIG]

Certainly very necessary for greater tactical meta. Problem is I dont think we will get to six continents until next year. Can you come up with a model that features five continents since we know for sure we are going to get those five continents this year. You see I dont know if there is a readon to postpone continent locks after the next two come out.

5 conts would mean no Home Conts, with three conts having a link to two Santuaries.


http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4286/auraxis2.png

[ChipMHazard]

Aye, just the same old, same old. We need more continents before locking can be implemented and before we can even hope to see a sanctuary (Even if the devs have said no up to this point).
How many continents need to be in place before we see cont capping is the question, just Hossing or will we also need Searhus, at the very least?
I guess home conts could work instead of sanctuaries, although there would be a lot of whining about who gets what continent.
One problem with just having home continents is that it would be easy to warpgate a faction completely, since they would only be able to sally forth from a single location. Plus the WG cannot hold the amount of troops required to break through an entire faction camping it, imo.
I still believe that sanctuaries is a requirement for proper cont locking and subsequent invasions.

[wasdie]

Home continents work the same as sanctuaries. I would rather them spend the time making more continents than spend time on sanctuaries first.

A home continent just has 1 uncappable warpgate that is assigned to a faction. It works the exact same as a sanctuary and requires a lot less work.

It would also increase the value of your home cont. That is YOUR turf. You get them off of your home cont first.

The idea of some sort of a continental lattice system is what this game is moving towards. Don't expect it until we have more than 5 continents though. Right away when the next continent is added it will act just like the 3 we have now. You'll just warp there and fight. Trying to make a link and do all of this crazy stuff would just be too difficult. Once we have 6 continents then we're good.

[EVILPIG]

Home continents work the same as sanctuaries. I would rather them spend the time making more continents than spend time on sanctuaries first.

A home continent just has 1 uncappable warpgate that is assigned to a faction. It works the exact same as a sanctuary and requires a lot less work.

It would also increase the value of your home cont. That is YOUR turf. You get them off of your home cont first.

The idea of some sort of a continental lattice system is what this game is moving towards. Don't expect it until we have more than 5 continents though. Right away when the next continent is added it will act just like the 3 we have now. You'll just warp there and fight. Trying to make a link and do all of this crazy stuff would just be too difficult. Once we have 6 continents then we're good.

Sactuaries could be made very fast and cookie cutter. Just like the VR.

[Phantomdestiny]

i'm gone throw a wild assumption here but from my experience of ps2 an ps1 .they will want to turn sanctuaries into a big social hub as well as a tool for the empire. Therefore taking more than a copy paste to make . But on the other hand they could just make a quick sanctuary for each faction one month after the new lattice to update them later into an amazing colony/city per faction which would work with the lore. Aka research/development of the faction increase and economic gains due to the war

[Timealude]

Wouldnt it require them to set up more servers for the sanctuaries? I would love them but I think It would take a bit of work, course they could just use the same map they use for the VR room and maybe extend it out a bit more to add a warpgate then it would work. I also feel we need the warpgate travel to work first before they add the sanctuaries as they would be somewhat useless.

[ringring]

I absolutely agree.

But I when last I looked I thought that the (intercontinental) metagame is scheduled to start with only 4 continents. I don't know how that would work.

If I had one wish it would be to hurry up with those continents.

[Canaris]

can't but agree EvilPig, been seeing the need for more Conts recently. More global strategy is really a key to making Planetside 2 so much better. Been hoping SOE would expand the design team necessary to bring Continent development forward.

[CodeVertigo]

I mostly agree with the sentiment that they need at least one more continent out so they can get some global-scale tactics going. Right now, three continents that have no context in common and connected by a terminal and a string of resources just isn't very involving.

Admittedly, introducing a continental lattice while there are only four continents would mean that everyone would just fight on the new continent (assuming it's in the centre of the lattice). However, it would buy them time to do the overhauls on the existing continents, while allowing people to play on a new, better-designed continent.

Base defensibility, for instance, has been a big thing that I think most people wanted, and I get the feeling they started to see that, but too late into the development of our three existing continents to really be able/bothered to do anything about it. But in creating new continents, they could be designed from the ground-up with these things in mind. Having a fourth, well-designed continent with deep-layered, defensible and unique bases will give everyone somewhere to play, taking the "heat" off of the design problems of Indar, Esamir and Amerish for the moment, effectively buying them more time to fix said issues.

The problem with this idea then is that until the fifth continent comes out, there's going to be a lack of environments to play in if you have to go through Cont #4 to get to two out of the original three. Although arguably, if you're a person who looks for the really big fights, you could say that this is what's happening with Indar already. >.>

[p0intman]

it really doesn't work until you get up into the 8-12 cont range. sure, 6 conts can work, but it really isn't enough.

[Assist]

I like it, hire more people Smedley! One team per continent, so you need 3 teams working on continents starting next week!

Start a kickstarter campaign to pay them, I'm sure everyone will pledge the salary's no problem if you can promise each continent done in short order!

[ringring]

I like it, hire more people Smedley! One team per continent, so you need 3 teams working on continents starting next week!

Start a kickstarter campaign to pay them, I'm sure everyone will pledge the salary's no problem if you can promise each continent done in short order!

I'd pay....

Put a beta ticket in the shop to give access to play on the new conts, there could well be takers for that!

[Stanis]

T-Ray said in a reply to some trolling "you're going to get 2 continents this year".

I started a thread and have mentioned this a few times in posts - but people don't seem to be picking p the bandwagon.

It is the single most disappointing thing about development.

Whatever else is happening or being done - now. in the first year of a ten year lifespan - we should have a whole development team front loading the effort on working and developing extra continents.

Everything else - lattice, warpgate traversal, continental locks, sanctuaries, are loverly - but we don't get a huge part of what made PS1 unique until we have multiple linked continents and the metagame it gives us.

I was hoping for a continent every month - or every two - after release.
I assumed releasing continents would be one of their highest priorities.

[Mustakrakish]

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad150/NinjaCP/Planetside%202/GlobalLatticewith5.jpg
Hossin, Esamir and Amerish don't need three links because one Warpgate is permanently occupied by each faction.

POW. Metagame.

[EVILPIG]

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad150/NinjaCP/Planetside%202/GlobalLatticewith5.jpg
Hossin, Esamir and Amerish don't need three links because one Warpgate is permanently occupied by each faction.

POW. Metagame.

That's the same way I set up 5.

[ringring]

http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad150/NinjaCP/Planetside%202/GlobalLatticewith5.jpg
Hossin, Esamir and Amerish don't need three links because one Warpgate is permanently occupied by each faction.

POW. Metagame.

The trouble with that is that if one empire gets really pushed back they can't be pushed back to one continent because you'd hit the population limit well before then. - You still need a santuary (maybe with 3 villas) able to hold 2000 people.

[Tom Peters]

Of course everyone wants to see things go back to the way Planetside 1 works.

What I'm wondering is how they'll keep the fights going across more than one or two continents once there's more in the game.

More server merges?

[Vashyo]

Of course everyone wants to see things go back to the way Planetside 1 works.

What I'm wondering is how they'll keep the fights going across more than one or two continents once there's more in the game.

More server merges?

continent locking and warp-gate connections will keep it so that u cant be at every place at the same time.

We will also have that alert-system and player made mission-system so they and the players can control how and where we will be fighting.

[Mustakrakish]

That's the same way I set up 5.
Sort of, but without Sanctuaries.

I'd prefer to have Sanctuaries over Home Continents, and I agree that it would be really easy to do a single cookie-cutter terrain layout for all three. On the other hand, look at how long it took to get VR done. :(

Since for some reason Warpgate capture mechanics are being added before new continents, linking the continents and giving each faction a Home Continent is something that could be implemented as soon as Searhus is added. We wouldn't have to wait until Sanctuaries are finished.

[Phantomdestiny]

i'm sorry but do you seriously think it's possible to make a continent in a month or two while there is some many other issues to solve and cosmetics to make ? they do have to make money and they can't just make continents out of fin air .

[EVILPIG]

i'm sorry but do you seriously think it's possible to make a continent in a month or two while there is some many other issues to solve and cosmetics to make ? they do have to make money and they can't just make continents out of fin air .

It's all about resources. They can make them faster than they are now. The goal is to make the game better and therefore financially sustainable so that development can continue at a rate that perpetuates that financial sustainability. What Planetside 2 lacks the most, is a big picture.

[bpostal]

The trouble with that is that if one empire gets really pushed back they can't be pushed back to one continent because you'd hit the population limit well before then. - You still need a santuary (maybe with 3 villas) able to hold 2000 people.

Agreed, it's the most vital (and important) reason behind actually adding sancs in the game. Sooner or later someone's getting zero based. Where do they all go? To the VR?
Either way the game won't really get going, no matter what happens, until more conts come in, with the associated cont locking and global lattice.

[Phantomdestiny]

it is easy to say but not so easy to do. tbh if i was them i would try to get tutorials into the game faster than more continents. they need more players in order to make more revenues but don't get me wrong i want my global lattice and sanctuaries like hell. i mean i even asked maggie on FNO and she told me to quit trolling about getting sanctuaries back.

[p0intman]

sancs really wouldn't be that harmful. You'd still be able to drop people who are new into the game anywhere, and instant action would still work as it does. You could still join a random squad just as quick and drop on its sl as quickly as you can. What sancs add is it gives organised groups a place to recall to and rally at that isn't camped nor under fire. it also gives a place to go to when you want to get out of the fire and mess around with your certs and loadouts. it doesn't take anything away or slow the game down for those that don't want to use them.

Likewise, when you get tossed back to your homecont and have nowhere else to go, it gives people a place to log into if there are no other spots on other conts, so they don't feel like they are being completely locked out.

the argument that they slow the game down is bunk. in the end, its only removing useful content by not adding them.

[Rolfski]

I agree that the tempo in which these continents are released is way too low atm and our feedback on current continents, base design and battle flow hasn't exactly decreased development time. Also they need to take an overhaul of the reward & resource system into account.
So before releasing any new continent, they need to deal with these issues first and right now I can't help but getting the feeling that they are still struggling with this. Somehow, their original big idea of how hexes, base/continent design, meta game, capping and rewarding should work got completely changed based on our feedback and now they find themselves redesigning this game almost from the ground up.

[Phantomdestiny]

well i agree with pointman . sanc do NOT slow the game down because FPS twitchers can always just instant action . while it give organised outfits an incredible tool. Also Rolfski i feel like it is true that they are re-designing this game completely. Beta should have been longer but i'm gone trust them on this one. maybe they could release the other half of the one year plan as a sign of good will.

[ringring]

it is easy to say but not so easy to do. tbh if i was them i would try to get tutorials into the game faster than more continents. they need more players in order to make more revenues but don't get me wrong i want my global lattice and sanctuaries like hell. i mean i even asked maggie on FNO and she told me to quit trolling about getting sanctuaries back.

But this isn't an either/or .... different teams will do tutorials to those that build terrain.

I would thing it would be the same folks that who continents that would create sanctuaries though.

[Phantomdestiny]

But this isn't an either/or .... different teams will do tutorials to those that build terrain.

I would thing it would be the same folks that who continents that would create sanctuaries though.

except the creative designers like Higby that have to jump from project to project

[Aveox]

My best guess at a 4 continent global layout:

http://i.imgur.com/4lGDs5w.jpg

Each Sanctuary links to two home continents. Each home continent is contested by at least one other faction. It's an end to the constant 3 way stalemates we have now, replacing them with 2-way fights that are winnable.

Sanctuaries are definately needed. They can be, as said earlier in the thread, cookie-cutter continents like the VR. They don't have to be feature rich major landmasses. A smallish island with a warpgate and some platforms for loading vehicles and forming raids is all that is needed. Note that the warpgate on the sanctuary should be a "broadcast" warpgate that allows you to warp to any gate that you own. This is in case that you happen to lose both your home continents but still own other warpgates in the system.

Access to the center continent can be achieved by capturing the warpgate leading to it. Non-sanctuary warpgates (so in this example the warpgates leading to Hossin) should be capturable like major facilities. Sancuary warpgates remain uncapturable.

[ringring]

My best guess at a 4 continent global layout:

http://i.imgur.com/4lGDs5w.jpg

.

Now that has strategic possibilities! :D

[Phantomdestiny]

hell yes Aveox get a dev in here . Higby please magically appear please

[Sledgecrushr]

That looks like a winner Aveox.

[Sardus]

The #1 thing we need right now, is more continents. If we could just double the number of conts we could begin to play with Global strategy. As it is, there is no Global picture, because each cont is completely separate.

We need a Sanctuary so that raids can form up without it being known where they are going.

Home Continents are necessary and provide a purpose to defending ghost caps. Not just because it's your homeland, but by connecting the continental system with a warpgate lattice, you can actually flank an empire by the route you take across the planet.

I'm no artist, so forgive the basic picture. I would love all ten, but this is just a model of how it would look with 6 continents. As you can see, there are routes determined through a Warpgate Lattice. You could be on Cyssor and your home cont gets attacked, so you pull back what you need.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4181/auraxis.png

Now, should an empire receive a penalty if their Home Cont is "occupied"? Being occupied means another empire completed, or CAP'd your Home Cont. If they do, it is considered occupied until your empire can completely CAP it back. Occupying another empire's Home Cont should also grant some sort of benefit.

Agreed! I've been lobbying for something like this for a while. We need continent lattice links.

[Sardus]

Home continents work the same as sanctuaries. I would rather them spend the time making more continents than spend time on sanctuaries first.

A home continent just has 1 uncappable warpgate that is assigned to a faction. It works the exact same as a sanctuary and requires a lot less work.

It would also increase the value of your home cont. That is YOUR turf. You get them off of your home cont first.

The idea of some sort of a continental lattice system is what this game is moving towards. Don't expect it until we have more than 5 continents though. Right away when the next continent is added it will act just like the 3 we have now. You'll just warp there and fight. Trying to make a link and do all of this crazy stuff would just be too difficult. Once we have 6 continents then we're good.

I agree. Home continents can function as sanctuaries for the time being.

You just have to make it so if your empire is completely pushed back to the home continent - people can somehow back hack somewhere. Some sort of fail safe to keep people from getting pop locked and unable to push out.

Like if you had 6 continents, and one continent was in the middle of everything, and at the middle of that continent an inactive wargate existed that no one can use unless they're completely pop locked and stuck in the home cont. Then they can spawn there and push out. Something like that.

Searhus was the middle continent in planetside 1. It was the farthest link away from your home continent. Some really interesting battles happened there.

There were VERY rare instances in planetside 1 where your sanctuary and home continent were pop locked. The sacntuary was the "buffer to help filter people into the battles. VERY rare did you have absolutely NO LINK to anything outside of your home continent. There were normally "bubbles" of territory that you had.

Even still, in planetside 1 there were ways to make a base go neutral so you could start a new "bubble" of territory outside of your home continent and push out from there. That was the fail safe to the lattice link system. But this game is different and a new system will need to be used.

[ringring]

Higby has said the working warpgates and a lattice between continents will be coming. The limiting factor is the speed with which continents are created.

[Rahabib]

I never played PS1, so explain to me how the "locking" part works. If TR wins continent A, then NC and VS cannot attack that continent for how long?

Also, I don't see how this really fixes strategic game play. So if a battle is on X continent, it doesn't change how the battles will work on that continent, its still going to be zerg fest. You still have the resource problems (which should be priority 1), and you still have population imbalance issues. Its just an extended version of the lattice system as I see it - which may be wonderful for battle flow predictability, but doesn't reflect any strategic elements being added.

IMO, fix the resource system. If air is decimating, rather than nerfing the hell out of it, make them more expensive and allow a team to go and cut off the resources that allow that empire access to them. Air is now dealt with without nerfing. Now if air was successful before, they may go back to retake it - and there is strategy. If they cant retake it, then they can change strategy and cut off tanks from the enemy (or lower resources so they cant use them effectively), then once armor is dealt with, roll in and retake the air regions, etc.

This adds strategy to the game, once you have strategy, then you can work on an "endgame" (or final objective) where you can move from continent to continent and eventually have some sort of "win" requisite that takes a long time, sustained tactics (ensuring you hold territory - which means defensibility needs to go up), and thus an endgame accomplishment can be achieved fair and tactically.

We have none of this. So I think these home continents are premature at this point. I say fix the game on the micro level before we worry about the macro level.

[ringring]

I never played PS1, so explain to me how the "locking" part works. If TR wins continent A, then NC and VS cannot attack that continent for how long?

Also, I don't see how this really fixes strategic game play. So if a battle is on X continent, it doesn't change how the battles will work on that continent, its still going to be zerg fest. You still have the resource problems (which should be priority 1), and you still have population imbalance issues. Its just an extended version of the lattice system as I see it - which may be wonderful for battle flow predictability, but doesn't reflect any strategic elements being added.

IMO, fix the resource system. If air is decimating, rather than nerfing the hell out of it, make them more expensive and allow a team to go and cut off the resources that allow that empire access to them. Air is now dealt with without nerfing. Now if air was successful before, they may go back to retake it - and there is strategy. If they cant retake it, then they can change strategy and cut off tanks from the enemy (or lower resources so they cant use them effectively), then once armor is dealt with, roll in and retake the air regions, etc.

This adds strategy to the game, once you have strategy, then you can work on an "endgame" (or final objective) where you can move from continent to continent and eventually have some sort of "win" requisite that takes a long time, sustained tactics (ensuring you hold territory - which means defensibility needs to go up), and thus an endgame accomplishment can be achieved fair and tactically.

We have none of this. So I think these home continents are premature at this point. I say fix the game on the micro level before we worry about the macro level.

(PS1 Definition)

There is no timer and in fact there is no physical 'lock'.

Really it simply means that your empire owns the entire continent.

But it can go a little bit deeper.

Think of the bases on a single continent. You can't hack any of them unless you have adjacency to one of your bases.

With multiple continents adjaceny stretches between continents. If you own the base that is linked to a warp gate, that warp link links to another base on a different continent and that warpgate links to a base in turn.

Because you own the original base you are able to hack the base on the far side of the warpgate links.

If you do hack that base and capture it the original continent cannot be hacked via that link and if you do the same on the other warpgate on the continent (assuming 2) then the continent is truly locked and is safe unless and until those linked bases are lost.

[EVILPIG]

(PS1 Definition)

There is no timer and in fact there is no physical 'lock'.

Really it simply means that your empire owns the entire continent.

But it can go a little bit deeper.

Think of the bases on a single continent. You can't hack any of them unless you have adjacency to one of your bases.

With multiple continents adjaceny stretches between continents. If you own the base that is linked to a warp gate, that warp link links to another base on a different continent and that warpgate links to a base in turn.

Because you own the original base you are able to hack the base on the far side of the warpgate links.

If you do hack that base and capture it the original continent cannot be hacked via that link and if you do the same on the other warpgate on the continent (assuming 2) then the continent is truly locked and is safe unless and until those linked bases are lost.

Actually Conts could lock, due to events, such as Rabbit. It would lock the cont, which was a "planet" for 2 hours. The "lock" portion prevented the use of the HART (High Altitude Rapid Transit) to drop onto a "locked" cont. You also forgot the Benefit Plan-conts.

[Raymondo]

I wish Hossin & Searhus wernt so far off :(

[Phantomdestiny]

well we might see hossin this friday let's hope so

[wasdie]

I guess sanctuaries are going to be required if they want continent locking. You would hit the 2000 player limit way too quickly if you had a home cont.

I don't expect a continental lattice system for at least a year. The next two continents will play out just like the 3 we have now and they'll up total server capacity.

[Phantomdestiny]

give it 3/4 month because i'm pretty sure they will get a cont lattice with hossin . it is possible PSU just showed it right now by adding copy paste sanctuaries made in no time at all.

[bpostal]

give it 3/4 month because i'm pretty sure they will get a cont lattice with hossin . it is possible PSU just showed it right now by adding copy paste sanctuaries made in no time at all.

I'm gonna hope that you're closer to the mark but I'm afraid Wasdie has the right of it. A year at least until we see these mechanics show up and get fleshed out.

[Obstruction]

it wouldn't be hard to set it up around 4.

you just put the interlink facilities to work controlling who has access to which warpgates on the home continents then watch the fur fly.

[Sturmhardt]

I support this thread. Bump!

.sent via phone.

[Lonehunter]

VR = Sanctuary Once they add the ability to zone vehicles to continents they just have to add that to VR.

But first it needs to be improved. We need access to our loadouts in VR, and you need plenty of warnings/labels/precautions to make sure you only leave with what you have actually unlocked.

On more continents, I don't think anyone doesn't want more. But realize how much it could thin out the battles. You'd probly have to have one of them locked (as in no one can enter) at all times.

[ringring]

VR = Sanctuary Once they add the ability to zone vehicles to continents they just have to add that to VR.

But first it needs to be improved. We need access to our loadouts in VR, and you need plenty of warnings/labels/precautions to make sure you only leave with what you have actually unlocked.

On more continents, I don't think anyone doesn't want more. But realize how much it could thin out the battles. You'd probly have to have one of them locked (as in no one can enter) at all times.

I hope VR can be made into sanctuaries.

I've seen this said more than once about more continents thinning out battles. It didn't happen in PS1 to any great extent and if it happens in PS2 it would be indicative of something being wrong and if it does the devs should revisit PS1 to work out why.

My thought on why it didn't happen on PS1 are:
-Good and simple information on hacks being available on the map (ie a straightforward flag over a hacked base, no mouse hover involved)
-Active and effective CR5's
-A base hack took 10 minutes in the caves and 15 on continents and that was enough for hacks to be spotted and a resecure crew dispatched.

[Aveox]

On more continents, I don't think anyone doesn't want more. But realize how much it could thin out the battles. You'd probly have to have one of them locked (as in no one can enter) at all times.

More continents doesn't have to thin out the battles if the global lattice / connections between continents is properly designed. If each continent is a self-contained map that is freely accessible like we have now, then yes, you start thinning out battles. But if you have a lattice structure between continents themselves you create intercontinental front lines that will shift back and forth.

That is why it was never a problem in PS1 with 10 continents and 4 caves: there were only 2-4 active front lines on various continents. The rest was either locked for an hour due to capture or inaccessible due to location in the lattice.

[Artimus]

Based off the original post what if you had the sancutary as some sort of massive fortress located off the side of the continent. Maybe towards the middle like were Mesa Sky Dock is on Indar. This way all warpgates can be capped and it allows the factions home cont. To choose which warpgate they want to try to cap.

[Aveox]

The problem with a single home continent and no sanctuary in a lattice structure: It's only one continent. In PS2 each continent can hold 666 players per faction if I'm correct. If things turn against you and your home continent is being invaded you have lost all other facilities worldwide already and are down to just your home continent.

What will most likely happen in such a case is that the defending empire will only be able to field 666 players. The rest of the players is probably no longer able to log in to the server as there is nowhere to go for them (or they end up in the VR?).
There is also no way out for the defending empire. Those 666 players have nowhere to go but defend that last stretch of land. While it does make heroic stories, it really stinks in terms of gameplay. You're basically with your back against the wall and your only hope is that you can bore your enemy enough so they eventually leave or hope that you get steamrolled quick enough because people are demoralized and switch faction/log off.

This is why you need a sanctuary with multiple home continents. Sanctuaries act as a lobby: You are always able to log in, even if your empire owns not even a single outpost or all continents are population locked.
Multiple home continents means it's more difficult to be backed into a corner (but still not impossible). Even if one home continent is a lost cause, you can shift your forces to another continent and hope to do better there.
It's still possible to lose it all, but it won't be as frustrating as just a single home continent.