Losing my will to fight...

[Led]

This is just getting rediculous. It is bad enough that they destroyed my rifle, but now that people are finally learning the rules of the game, it is turning into a royal bore.

Everyone piles on a base, hacks, waits 15 minutes with next to zero action, and then piles on the next base. Repeat. Of course the other empires squads are retaking all the bases behind you, but who cares? /sarcasm

The first week or so (I got in at the beginning of april) was really fun. People were actually caring about their bases (well, more than now at least) and doing their damndest to defend it. Now they just run at the sign of a tough fight, and go hack an abandoned base for exp.

This game needs front lines, badly.

I need a reason to march onto the battlefield each night beyond 'get more exp!'

[Knuckles]

- Hang in there, Led.

Hopefully the Devs have something in their back pocket that will solve the current issues. We're still in beta and yada yada yada. (I think the next patch, addressing the lone hacker scenario, will take care of much of this.)

It would be a shame to You loose You before the game is even released. ;)

Patience is a virtue.

[Airlift]

I think it's a series of minor fixes needed to change this, and nothing on the huge scale of base matrixing. I would like to see these (or similar) changes to experience payouts for taking bases.

Every base has two experience marks representing caps and assists that rise and fall over time.

Base experience for a successful cap: 1200 xp per person for the capping squad, 300 xp per person for assists.

For every hour that a base is held by a single empire, 200 xp is added to the base numbers.

For every 10 people assisting a cap, 50 xp is deducted from the totals of both marks.

For every kill by anyone in an SOI, 10xp is added to the totals

For breaking a hack, all defenders in the SOI receive 400xp, which is deducted as 400/100 from the totals in the base.

For every hack, all attackers in the hacking squad receive 200xp, which is deducted as 200/50

For a successful cap, one third of the totals are deducted and given to the attackers up front. For an hour after a cap, 5% of the current totals are given to the attackers in 5 minute intervals (but the totals are only subtracted by a single 5% regardless of how many people are actually paid out. If you were in the squad that made the cap, you use the cap total, if you are just a person helping with defense in the SOI you use the assist total.

No experience is given for holding a base past an hour after the cap, but after this point, experience for kills in the SOI are increased by 5% of whatever the defender's kill is worth for every 15 minutes that the base continues to be held.

Base totals can be determined by looking at the NTU silo or the control console.

NOTE: These numbers are all arbitrary, but they reflect the kinds of changes I would like to see to the reward system, to encourage defense while minimizing restrictions on what bases players can attack.

[LesserShade]

^nice ideas

I think a lot of the problem is the lack of motivation for defenders to defend. Yes you should defend for the sake of defending, but there is absolutely no XP incentive to do so. It is easier to just let someone cap your base and then go back to recap it for massive XP. If there were some great incentive to go back and stop an enemies hack on a base, that would encourage more confrontations.

[Warborn]

I really hope the tendency for people to play for the sake of getting exp dies off soon, otherwise you're going to be really unhappy at BR20.

[Seabass03]

Me too, screw exp bonuses. Getting to BR20 won't be hard. Give regen bonuses and speed bonuses to the squads that hold a base for a long time so the attackers can get the feeling for knocking the "king of the hill" down.

[WickedDeus]

Originally posted by Seabass03
Me too, screw exp bonuses. Getting to BR20 won't be hard. Give regen bonuses and speed bonuses to the squads that hold a base for a long time so the attackers can get the feeling for knocking the "king of the hill" down.

Totally agree. Maybe a small xp boost like 200xp per kill up from 100xp while defending base. Also small incease in dmg per shot and decrease in dmg taken per shot. Oh, yeah maybe regen increase if not the dmg taken decrease.

[Cyanide]

I think what needs to be done is add some way to give increased experience for kills gotten while defending a base. I'm not sure what the current experience is per kill, but i think people would be more willing to defend if say that exp was doubled or trippled for any kills you get while inside the SOI of a base controled by your empire.

[Dovieye]

Getting extra bonuses for holding a base is a great idea. maybe even special bonuses for small packs and large packs. giving a realistic feel to the battle.

This relentless pursuit of base taking over seems like every other FPS. the difference is you dont get the feeling you Won. I think with the attention of many FPS players this game may become a novelty after a short while. Unless some major changes have been implemented.

I wish it was a HARDCORE INFANTRY 3D.

That game rocked and I can just picture there awesome Black mettalic full body suits with a deadness of life feel coming from there pitch black visor. Hanging loose with a high powered assualt rifle. Dam that game had it all except full 3d.

But I havnt played that in ages dont even know if it still operates but it had real good gameplay.

[euth]

Right now everyone wants to get there BR20 and CR5 that way they are l33t, after they accomplish this people are going to start getting into outfits and eventually wanting to claim a continent and hold it, well thats why my team is doing anyway...

[Seabass03]

Nice flash screen on your site Euth :)

[MilitantB0B]

I think this problem might be solved when more people hit the scene. Afterall, the more people there is, the more people that are going to be in any given base at any given time. As soon as I get to BR20 I will probably spend a mojority of my time defending, I just find it more fun. :D

[zMessiahz]

I don't think its much of a problem as it stands. The draw of the game is NOT getting experience points. Some seem to think that is all there is to it, but those will be weeded out after release fairly quickly. The combat is the real draw here and over time people will migrate to the fight defense or assault won't matter much. Most players will stop being obsessive about xp.

For me personally, I take it as a personal affront if someone tries to take a base I just capped. No way am I going to let them waltz in and retake it. XP be damned. Its a pride thing. Besides the game is most fun while killing people, the more targets around the happier I am.

[Hamma]

I play for the fun of playing, not to hoard XP. If thats what you are playing for, you are gonna get bored.

Anyway, base matrixing is a bad idea imo. It then eliminates "behind enemy lines" insertions. And draws all teh battles to one base at a time. I just think its bad news myself.

I would like to see how the ninja hacker issues, and incentives to defend are handled before i get all upset about this game :p

[BeerJedi]

I don't think i've seen defenders "flee" when we've tried takin' bases. If there was a good set of defenders, they're always callin' in reinforcements.

last night on Solsar - we battled (I mean battled) for Aton and Seth (are these the right names) I think it was. The bases were gettin' capped back and forth, but it wasn't for a lack of effort on either side to defend.

It usually turned out (at least for our side) that we were having to hotfoot it to battlezones and the spawn points were changing constantly for us.

I was holed up in Aton for a long time fighting the good fight. And non of us left until we couldn't spawn within a decently close area.

[Led]

That is just the problem, Hamma. There ARE no lines. It is like playing whack-a-mole with all the hacks and caps all over the map.

I agree, the base matrixing idea aint the greatest... I dun think everyone pounding on one or two bases is a good idea. I would like to see more of an actual line, spread along several bases/key points. Kind of like WW2OL :)

And no, more people will not fix the problem. More will just pile on cyssor or run to the big huge fights, leaving the far bases to the solo cappers and the exp jumpers.

[Ubernator]

I was under the impression that you could attack quite a few bases at one time with the matrix technique of linking bases....

Thus, the front line is essentially there. And the bases behind the front line are somewhat safe from attack.

[Airlift]

It's just a matter of encouraging defense, discouraging super-massive pile ons, and making longer-held bases a more desirable target than bases that just got capped.

As a self-avowed point-whore, I do play for experience. I like being rewarded for playing a game, and I'll take exp, coins, stars, ranks, purple horse shoes... whateva you got. It isn't the only reason I play a game, but I definately notice when the reward scheme isn't working as well as it should.

On top of that, there is the point that experience does make you better. To make the infiltrator I want to play, I need to be around level 12. To make an infantryman that I feel comfortable with, I want around level 15. To make a dedicated pilot, I want every single vehicle that I can get my hands on, plus hacking to take other people's rides.

Let's not start hating on the point-whores. Everyone plays for their own reasons, and the accumulation of rewards is a big one. Point-whores don't cause the problem, we just serve to illustrate this flaw in game mechanics.

[Ouroboros]

Yes, I had a experience with this. Last night, my squad mates and I had just hacked a base when the Vanu took the tower outside. A few of us went out to hack it back, but they had god be damned MAXs. I, as an advanced hacker, died. We respawned at the closest base which was not far. I asked the only other hacker in my squad to try and hack back the tower, but he told me, since he hacked the base, he was going stay there for the exp. I told him we still had roughly 5 minutes left, and the tower was in the SOI of the hacked base. He in turn tells me he wanted to help the MAX in my squad defend the console.

I'm starting to get that sinking feeling.

[OneManArmy]

I played CS for years and I never got one damn XP point ;)

But I do agree everyone piles on to a base and just sits there.. its very boring. for example last night, we were on a continent which required 3 hops from the NC sanc (so needless to say there were no other NC there) our squad took a galaxy over, established a base and proceeded to push forward. then a lot of other NC started showing up (we were causing "hot spots") which is fine but they ALL STAYED in the god damn cap room, in a base that had no enemys left, even though one of our other bases was getting hacked back.

and as was brought up in other threads I only see a few vehicles and they're used mostly to get from base to base, so far I've only had one good fight away from a base (some swamp cant remember) it just seems all the fighting is done inside a base and then everyone sits.....

[Seabass03]

So, still, hopefully people will max their XP and start caring about strats and fun. One can only hope.

[Chanfan]

I do think that as regular squads and outfits form up, it will improve. But it will take time to see how it goes - don't judge it by an influx of new players, give 'em time.

[Vis Armata]

It's way too early to sign off on PS...I think that people will end up creating the fronts once they realize there's more to the game than just hacking a base.

Case in point: Just last night, some TR (myself included) were under siege in a tower on Esamir (so there wasn't many TR troops available). We held off a Vanu force with their AMS nearby, routed them, and went on to cap a nearby base. There was really no reason to keep the tower - it was hacked, and it belonged to us (spawn, for sure, but there was no other reason to defend it), but a real good firefight ensued and we got caught up in it. Made the time keeping the tower real fun.

[Hamma]

It feels like whack-a-mole now because any hacker can fly around in a mosquito and hack empty bases. That will change soon :D