What will be PS2's "win"

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

I'm not at all talking about a win condition were one team gets some recognition or benefit. I'm talking about what will mark winning a fight.

In PS1 winning was generally seen as whoever won the continent you were fighting over and got the cont lock. Everyone had a small celebration, grats were given all around, and it gave a real sense of accomplishment and... winning! Taking a base just wasn't the same as finally capping a cont. It also gave a good time to take a small break from the action to regroup back in the sanc and form up for the next mass assault.

They have stated many times that the conts in PS2 are so large that 1 empire will never be able to take control of the whole thing (minus the uncapable bases of course). So I ask, what will give us that win feeling? Do we need some form of a win? Or, will the constant fighting be enough?

[TRex]

I used to like looking on the old ps website and seeing the map thing and announcing yesterdays winner. You could slide the time line to see how the map changed over the previous day .
They removed it after they allowed multi-empires per server.

[Xyntech]

It doesn't sound to me like the continents will be that much larger, but even if they end up being say 4 times larger, we will still have times when one empire caps the entire thing. It's bound to happen sooner or later, no matter how hard it is. If one empire could occasionally cap the entire world (minus home continents), even back when populations were high enough to make them have to really fight for it, someone will cap an entire continent in PS2.

Even if there is not just more space, but a lot more things to capture and fight over in PS2 than in PS1, there will still be times when a continent is completely captured.

Now, what this doesn't address is how hard this will be or how often it will happen.

Continent locks were not an uncommon thin in Planetside. It sounds like they want it to be harder, or at least take a lot longer in Planetside 2, so that will mean that it may not be as viable a "win" scenario as it used to be.

If the continents are large enough and there are enough non base facility things to capture, it could very well end up being that base facilities themselves are the new "we win!" victory condition. If it takes a lot more than coming over a bridge, capping a tower, overwhelming the outdoor forces, pushing inside and holding the facility for 15 minutes, it could end up being a real accomplishment to take control of a facility.

Maybe a daily win condition could also be given out to which ever empire had the most total land increase that day. So if one empire loses 10 pieces of territory by the end of the day, but gains another 15, they would have gained +5 total, which would make them the winners if the other two had only gained +1 and -6 respectively.

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

Originally Posted by TRex

I used to like looking on the old ps website and seeing the map thing and announcing yesterdays winner. You could slide the time line to see how the map changed over the previous day .
They removed it after they allowed multi-empires per server.

I remember what your talking about, and liked looking that over as well, but I'm not talking daily win. When you captured a base, it was a small victory but the enemy still had others you had to run to. However, once you capped a cont and booted them off it gave that fight an end with a winner and a loser. It was something you could look forward to, maybe even to end you play session on as again it gave an end to the current fight. I always hated when I had to log out while a cont wasn't finished, it felt like I wasn't done yet.

[BorisBlade]

I hope the "win" condition is not some boring number. Such as who capped the most resources or whatever, thats boring as hell and is not motivating or interesting in the least. Win conditions must be somethin that includes capping areas, it would be best if it were the cont or somethin mroe final than a simple region but region caps on a cont could work to a point. The feel of a win only works if it feels atleast somewhat final and lasting even if its for an hour or so only.

If you cap a cont in ps1 you usually had it for atleast an hour since the fight for it stopped and the attackers would move on, but if you cap somethin fully then you immediately lose it or the fight never stops, its not a win. If you are just capping resources all over the cont and the fight just goes on constantly without any definative territory capture that lasts a bit, then who cares, thats no win, thats just boring stat accumulation.

[Xyntech]

It all depends on the mechanics of capping and holding a facility, but I could easily see facilities being the new continent caps as far as that longer term sense of accomplishment if they make it both extremely involved to capture a facility as well as making it a lot harder than simply rehacking it to take it back once it's ownership flipped.

Maybe if you have to capture some of the surrounding territory to capture a facility, but then when you cap the facility, all territory immediately surrounding the facility also flips to your side. That way, at least the enemy would have to fight for a while and capture some territory before they could come back and retake the facility.

That kind of temporary finality to successfully capturing a base would probably be similar enough to warrant that brief moment of satisfaction and congratulatory celebrations.

[DviddLeff]

The way I see it you have individual, squad, platoon and empire win conditions. On top of that you have short, mid and long term goals as well.

Individual Goals
Short Term

• Next Merit
• Kill Markings on vehicles/weapons for kill tally based merits
• Merit top level headgear; caps for vehicle merits, berets for infantry merits.
• Camouflage added to uniform for continental environmental merits (ie bases captured on an ice continent)
• Clear support icons for support based merits (ie medic green crosses on armbands)
• Award granted by outfit

Mid Term

• Next Battle Rank/Command Rank

Long Term

• Reach the BR/CR Limit
• Promotion in outfit.

Outfit Goals
Short Term

• Claiming an outfit base and having conquest of enemy outfit bases recorded.
• Purchase or capture a naval unit.

Long Term

• Expand to x amount of active troops
• Rise in the outfit rankings (kills, points, bases captured, defence points, member count)

Empire Goals
Short Term

• Take the next base (and gain benefits).

Mid Term

• Take a continent (and gain benefits).

Long Term

• Be the first to reach a set amount of research hours, and thereby unlock newly developed equipment before the other empires.

[SgtMAD]

whipping everyone's ass

I forgot this one,the tells saying"that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen" or the "who are you guys" tells from the enemy empires,
number two is when new ppl get on vent and play for a while then make a comment like "that is the most fun I have ever had playing this damn game".

making ppl cry on the forums,thats whole different game in it's self (sp?)and can be very helpful for recruiting,every knock is a plug and it does draw ppl in.

there are couple of guys posting in this thread that know what I am talking about,I never played with them but their different outfits torn shit up too.

[IceyCold]

Killing everything not blue.

[Raymac]

I always kinda saw that capping a continent was a bit of a double edged sword. Sure when the continent changed to the color of your empire it was kinda cool, but many times it was bracketed by a period of lame boredom.

What I mean by that is many times when an empire is losing a continent, they see the writing on the wall and abandon it for another fight so you end up taking those last base or 2 with a 9-1 population advantage. Then once you had actually capped the continent, there was usually a decent chunck of time organizing which place to attack, many times with conflicting orders and bickering from the CR5s.

I guess what I'm saying is that there is a downside to capping a continent also. I'm much more content with a bunch of smaller victories that keep the game moving like taking bases or taking land as the devs have hinted at.

[Captain B]

Me.

[TRex]

Is there even a capital of a cont now ?
I remember the NC on werner achieving world domination pre- lattice , and the VS doing it in 2005 , next morning the whole map was red due to some crazy ghost hacking in middle of the night.
Odd one to quantify . Since there a safe zone on every continent , and resources from each , its possible there may be big fights, but likewise there could theoretically be small fights on every grid square all the time .The 'big' fight could endlessly be on Cyssor indefinately ,moving back and forth with one grid taken at expense of another.

[SavageB]

Originally Posted by TRex

Is there even a capital of a cont now ?
I remember the NC on werner achieving world domination pre- lattice , and the VS doing it in 2005 , next morning the whole map was red due to some crazy ghost hacking in middle of the night.
Odd one to quantify . Since there a safe zone on every continent , and resources from each , its possible there may be big fights, but likewise there could theoretically be small fights on every grid square all the time .The 'big' fight could endlessly be on Cyssor indefinately ,moving back and forth with one grid taken at expense of another.

Pretty sure we still have Capitals. THe pic where Higs shows his diet aka " Greasiest cheeseburger known to man and fries" pic, looks like behind that NC rexo is infact a shield, not saying this is def. a capitol, but possibly.

[Vash02]

Originally Posted by SavageB

Pretty sure we still have Capitals. THe pic where Higs shows his diet aka " Greasiest cheeseburger known to man and fries" pic, looks like behind that NC rexo is infact a shield, not saying this is def. a capitol, but possibly.

I think that probably all bases will have a capital dome and attacking forces will have to use the mentioned "dome-busters" to pop the shield.

[Brusi]

I like the idea of adding mini game-modes into the mix, like the LLU cap system had... and i think there was also another one around the time of core combat with locate and defend the fallen asteroid or something.

Perhaps randomly throughout the week, intel on a valuable artifact or a person of interest (an NPC) could become available, say a Vanu Scientist (initiating an automated mission). The Vanu would have to defend or escort the NPC while the TR and NC would have to either assassinate or capture them.

Provides varied gameplay styles as well as a definitive "you win, you have captured the person of interest!" moment. It could also be an avenue for them to continue to advance some storyline elements.