Core Problems with PS2, Thoughts from Wrel

[HereticusXZ]

I haven't seen this here on PSU yet so I thought it wise to share... Some might of heard of him from youtube or seen him on the battlefields of Auraxis. Wrel shares his thoughts on what he perceives as the core problems that cripple PS2 and inturn he offers some healthy suggestions to solve these problems.

Wrels post is receiving alot of attention on Reddit and is making it's rounds across a few forums so here it is for PSU, please discuss!

The Post
http://checkthis.com/ps2problems

Reddit Discussion
http://brinx.it/wnt

[Aurmanite]

Wrel is a good shit.

[Phaden]

Can't believe this hasn't been commented on more. I re-posted this to my outfit, some really good new ideas in here that could change the way it is played for the better. I specifically liked the Conditional Unlocks and the tiered capture system. Really good read.

[NewSith]

Me no like. He says restrictions, but talks alterations.

[DirtyBird]

I'd wait until the massive influx of players, new and old, after the game saving optimization patch is released.
And if that brings no one back, not much else will, horse >>> bolted.

[camycamera]

i skimmed through it, some of his ideas are pretty good. since he is known by the devs i'm sure they might take thought in what he says here.

[GreyFrog]

I really like the base cap ideas, so much so I'd give much SC to see them happen.

The resource revamp ideas are ok if not a bit foreign to me and I understand his ANT reservations. I am however pretty happy with the devs description of their resource revamp ideas as well. Shit anything has got to be better than the current scenario.

[Sirisian]

Read it when it was on Reddit and didn't see anything good about his suggestions. They generally seem poorly thought out and are focused on creating a zerg-centric game. (Oddly that's about where SOE is going with their designs).

I think the most telling issue is he acknowledges that resource accumulation with a zone doesn't work by creating a design with:
Resources are no longer earned from experience gain within a zone.
Then he immediately goes onto design a system of getting resources non-specific resources from a zone:
Flipping a base gives resources to the attacking faction. So the faction to gains control of a base dispenses a sum of resources to the allied players in that territory.
So instead of XP for a specific resource it would be simply your faction's actions that get you resources. Also I'm not sure what he means by dispenses. If there are 100 people in the region when it flips how is it divided? Or is it not?

His concept of garages also creates a buffer against resource denial. This was brought up a lot when people were talking about metagame and if actions in the game are felt by players. The answer was that they weren't since the game employs a heavy buffer that stops players from feeling the effect of actions until a long time after they happen.

The auction house concept is more showing a flaw in the three resource model. There's a reason Malorn and most everyone with ideas switched to a single resource model. (It forces specialization without inconveniencing players and forcing them to play a stock market for their playstyle).

It also bothers me that his design keeps resources bonuses with subscribers:
Subscribers and players who spend a lot of time in-game are rewarded for doing so, as they will have more resources to barter with.
It's one of the last large P2W feature in the game that gives players a large advantage.

It's not clear what advantages his lattice changes have on the outposts. Other than having resources it seems like he's removed the point of them to make them act as static Sunderers.

Also his comment about TI Alloys bothers me that he sees this as a good thing:
Not only that, you can use the turret outside to help you drop the defenses of Crown itself.
I along with others have brought it up as a design issue that Indar is objective packed to the point people are sniping and using turrets on objective to objective battles.

I think one of the worst things he says is in his effort to take some of the oombf away from the zergs:
Dynamic spawn timers based on how badly you’re outnumbered. This number is tallied based on enemies versus allies in the entire territory, it’s not base specific.
So to fight the zerg the idea is to remove player skill and simply allow the enemy to spawn faster when they're outnumbered? There have been multiple discussions on how to better do this to encourage skill based defenses. One of the best ways is exponential individual spawn timers tied to spawn points in the lattice. Die frequently after spawning and your spawn time goes up. This allows defenders to push back players and allows skilled attackers to push back defenders. The idea that defenders need a biased advantage when they're outnumbered is absurd.

Also he tries to make it easy for the zerg by directing their zerg hivemind. Rather than dividing them into A, B, C he wants to direct them from A -> B -> C. I won't go into this as others have said it better than I have in the past about how to divide a base into components creating sub-objectives.
Bases should contain rush-style capture points, or a micro-lattice for capture, as in, all points must be captured in sequence before a base is flipped.

It also bothers me that he takes on drop pods only covering instant action.
Instant Action’s removal, in conjunction with the new spawn system, means that players will end up either at the warp gate, or at a base where their support is needed. They just won’t be able to drop into the location as a drop pod.
At that point it's hard not to mention drop pods in general, but he stops.

I won't touch on everything, but the last thing I noticed was this:
You could have non-facility bases “research” new weapons and abilities that you are already planning to add to the game. So, instead of everyone getting everything as soon as a new patch comes out, the dominant faction can research these technologies over time, and unlock them before other factions do. After a couple of weeks, they could be automatically unlocked to all factions regardless.
Empowering the zerg like this is worthless. You as a player feel nothing since your input was so little. Any system like this must be much smaller and individual focused. Arguably the medals and acheivements do that at the individual level, but having faction rewards is way too broad. The alerts themselves are already very zerg-centric.

[Rolfski]

Thoughts behind it are good, solutions not so much:

Too drastic, again an all continents overhaul: Not realistic atm.
Too complex, like resource trading system: Malorn's one resource system results the same effects without the added complexity.

Adding depth with the least amount of complexity is the name of the game imo. Wrel's solutions fall short on that.

[bpostal]

Nothing really new in his post, these are issues that have been apparent since launch. His ideas are interesting even if some are/will be moot once the core gameplay (proper resource revamp, global lattice, etc) comes online.

I do agree that territories need to be bigger, but it's been pointed out that places like Indar especially are overly crowded almost since day 1. IMO, outposts shouldn't even be linked to the lattice, and half of them taken out to add more in-between areas to foster combat in places outside the walls of a facility.