GU06 - more reason to capture continents!

[Assist]

Update: GU06 has been released:

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=54168

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http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/i...review.111452/

Yeah, it's only XP. Anything added is a good thing though.

Not sure I fully understand the ribbons, seems like they just wanted to give more XP beyond the medals.

Greetings Auraxians!

GU06 is right around the corner and has some pretty cool new additions to the game that I wanted to give you guys a sneak peek at. So, here are some highlights:

New Membership benefits:

• Members will have access to an additional 3 character slots
• Members will now have a new, exclusive Daily Sale in the Depot

Alerts System:
The new Alerts system is a dynamic server controlled system that initiates server-wide game events. When an Alert triggers, players will have a set amount of time to achieve the Alert goals. Players on the victorious Empire, regardless of where in the world they are, will receive a large bonus when the Alert is completed, and all players fighting within an Alert area will receive bonus XP. The first Alerts that we've implemented are continental conquests, but in the future we plan on adding more, such as: controlling the most of a certain facility type, or controlling the most of a certain type of resource.

There are two ways to win the Alert; a "Dominating Victory", in which the empire controls 100% of the goals, and a "Normal Victory", where they control a larger percentage to the other empires when the timer expires. In a Dominating Victory the Alert ends immediately and the entire Alert reward goes to players in that empire, in a Normal victory the reward is split based on the % of objectives controlled. Here's a preview of the UI displaying the current Alerts status. There is also a small notification in the main HUD letting you know the time remaining for the current Alert.



In the above example the reward is 3000xp, if the TR were able to rally and capture 100% of Indar before the time the Alert ends (good luck, guys!) each TR player on the server would receive 3000xp. However, if the territory control stays where it's at, VS players would get the victory and 1260xp, NC and TR players would get a consolation reward of 1050xp and 630xp respectively. Additionally, all players fighting on Indar during the course of the event will be getting a 20% xp bonus.

Alerts are designed primarily to fulfill two main goals for the game:

• Give players incentives and direction to participate in combat in other areas of the game than they normally might.
• Encourage competitive, exciting fights during offpeak hours.

As such, these events will primarily be activated when the servers are lower on population, during the offpeak hours, so more players online can participate. During the more crowded hours players have plenty of options and plenty of incentives to fight anywhere they want, so it's less likely this will activate past a certain server population threshold.


Service Ribbons:



We're also launching a new Service Ribbon system with GU06. The Service Ribbons system is primarily intended to give small, incremental goals to fulfill during normal moment-to-moment gameplay. Each Ribbon should take between 5-10 minutes to achieve depending on how you play and which Ribbon you're gunning for, but a lot of it is very situational. Ribbons can be earned for kills earned with Infantry weapons, vehicle kills with AV weapons, and support tasks (repair, heal, revive). Vehicle Ribbons are still being worked on and will be released with a future update. Each Service Ribbon you earn will give you 250xp, and the first 5 each day will give an additional 500xp bonus.



You can check out the progress of your Service Ribbons on the profile stats page:



In addition to Service Ribbons and the Alerts system, we've got a slew of balance, tuning and bug fixes coming along with this update. Full patch notes will be available as we get closer to releasing the update.
We hope you're excited for GU06 and as always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns let us know!

[Chewy]

Ribbons are to see whores and how much someone does a role (heal, revive, repair) without going deep into stats. Look up total ribbons and it becomes clear what someone is good at and where best to use/fight them. Just look at BF3 and that ribbon system seems about like what PS2 is getting.

As for cont XP and alerts. I like but can be zerg focused. If servers fill up like in the 2X weekend then it will be impossible for an outfit to go give aid or finish off a cont. Seems like it would be best used to slowly choke out indarside and make it planetside again.

[WSNeo]

Not bad. A good step in the right direction I must say. However something other than XP needs to be rewarded for these goals, possibly like the inability to use certain vehicle upgrades that was discussed before the game even hit beta.

But hey, DEFINITELY a good step in the right direction towards giving people an incentive to defend some areas now.

[Carbon Copied]

I'm not sure if I'm reading it right but it seems more as a band aid to the current situations that arise (a good band aid this isn't me being hyper-critical) - far as I can tell you only get the conquest xp if there is an Alert in place; if there isn't one activated then you get nothing as per the norm?
This kind of system could be abit of a zerg friendly mechanic that results in emptying other continents (creating a ghost cap scenario) and starts off some weird vicious circle? I don't know this is all speculation until its in place I guess.

[bpostal]

I'd rather see the merit system rather than a ribbon system. Something you can display on your character to give it that little extra personality.
Also, I may have to resub for more character slots.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by Chewy

As for cont XP and alerts. I like but can be zerg focused. If servers fill up like in the 2X weekend then it will be impossible for an outfit to go give aid or finish off a cont.

According to Higby in the linked post, it'll mostly trigger during periods of lower population (off-peak hours). Since they're planning on adding additional Alerts, those Alerts could possibly trigger during prime time.

Originally Posted by Carbon Copied

[...] far as I can tell you only get the conquest xp if there is an Alert in place; if there isn't one activated then you get nothing as per the norm?

I'm pretty that's how it'll work.

This kind of system could be abit of a zerg friendly mechanic that results in emptying other continents (creating a ghost cap scenario) and starts off some weird vicious circle? I don't know this is all speculation until its in place I guess.

It's primary purpose is to entice people to fight in different places.

One potential side effect I imagine is that these Alerts will encourage a "who can ghost cap the most territories the fastest" style of play rather than any kind of direct confrontation.

[Hamma]

Good stuff, updated OP with full post and marked as news.

[Snydenthur]

Originally Posted by Climhazzard

It's primary purpose is to entice people to fight in different places.

One potential side effect I imagine is that these Alerts will encourage a "who can ghost cap the most territories the fastest" style of play rather than any kind of direct confrontation.

I think the xp bonus is way too small for people to actually try it. And since it happens on low population, it really will encourage ghost capping. It should be like 10k-20k xp and at prime time and that might make people change continents.

I don't really like the idea of ribbons either. I do get it that most people play just to advance in something. That's why games have levels. But I play for fun and that might be the reason I don't see them as necessary. Well, more xp -> more certs to save up for weapons.

[Carbon Copied]

Originally Posted by Climhazzard

...
It's primary purpose is to entice people to fight in different places.

One potential side effect I imagine is that these Alerts will encourage a "who can ghost cap the most territories the fastest" style of play rather than any kind of direct confrontation.

Sure thing I get that (was just wanting to check that I was reading it correctly) - mutual concern on the ghost cap side affect though (see how it plays that's all we can do). Band aids and surgery.
I did ask if this is going to remain post Hex Adjacency: personally though I don't see it stopping, working (without tweaking) or being required when hex mkII is in place with continent locking as the nature of the beast is for continents to become potentially emptied while unlinked to an opposing faction's continent (if <the game that shalt not be mentioned> style linking is used).

[DirtyBird]

Membership benefits dont excite me, I dont use the slots I have anyway.
IF the daily sale gave me a larger discount based on my membership level that would be good.

Alert System.
As it is listed now, running off peak wont change the game for me so no real interest in it atm.
Current incentives are too low even if it was run during prime time.

I hope what ever is added to this eventually can drive people off Indar ASAP.
Drop a month long meteor shower and a sand storm on it, that should get them off.

Service ribbons....a step towards a merit system.


It seems to be a lack lustre GU06 so far, but I did enjoy the inclusion of the word "slew", its right up there with cadence imo

[typhaon]

Sounds like "Kill 10 rats," to me.

This may be the best SOE can offer and deliver - but had this been presented a year ago as the type of future creativity we could expect, I think most reading this - including people working for SOE - would've scoffed at it... or outright denied.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by typhaon

This may be the best SOE can offer and deliver [...]

I'm a cynic, but I can't even imagine the state of mind that allows you to believe that...

[Baneblade]

3000? Try something like 50000.

[Silent Thunder]

In all honesty I can see the Alerts filling the role that they seem intended to, making fights happen on other continents during off-peak hours and on some of the lower pop servers. Although the XP bonus isn't much, the simple fact that players will see that bar, means many of the lone wolf style "zergs" will hop on just because the game itself seems to be encouraging it. As long as they make an effort to prominantly display it when the alert goes up, I feel this will cause some sort of effect in the continent pops. Course the real solution is Hex 2.0 and continental conquest, but you gotta stabalize the bleeding while you wait for the transfusion, which I think this accomplishes.

That said, I really can't wait untill that test server comes up. Hell that was kinda my favorite thing in Beta, the wild changes they would implement as they threw new ideas to the wall to see what stuck. I mean sure it didn't make for a great persistance, but it was a fun experience.

EDIT: I do agree that 3000xp is REALLY lowballing it though. I mean with a Dual Burster MAX I can get that in maybe 90 seconds if the air cover is heavy enough.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

3000? Try something like 50000.

I'd agree that 3000 XP is low if it would only be rewarded to the winner. However, keep in mind that the "reward" will be divided amongst all the empires (everyone in the empire, globally) in the event of a "Normal Victory". Nearly 17k XP just for maintaining a balance is a bit extreme, in my opinion.

Also keep in mind that everyone participating in the alert will get an additional +20% XP bonus, too.