Gameplay: Crosspost: Patroll and Recon missions

[Dorest0rm]

The original thread was made by VSMarineCorps on the official forums and can be found here.

The original thread was NOT made by me, but i really love the ideas on here and had to repost them.

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With the new territories replacing the contential lattice on the maps I still believe the primary objective will remain building control of towers and the territory base. However I am concerned that we may be confined to only a few map spots as those will be the only territories that are capturable AKA contested. Although the only fights on another continent are either drains for backhacks or diversions I was thinking of a way to open up the battle field a bit for locked territories.

Contested Territories will have standard battle missions which are designed to gain control of the map. On territory control is established it becomes locked and now neighboring teritories become contested.

Enemy held territories will have recon missions which are designed to undermine the control strength of the occupying empire via sabotage and subverson making it easier for your empire to invade, or if enough completed open it up as a contested territory. Missions may be destroy a gen to plant a spy virus, lay mines and spitfires, steal vehicles, plant weapons caches, sabotage defenses or ambush enemies.

Friendly held territories will have patrol missions that are made to strengthen the territory control. These could have benefits such as a NO fly zone which will equip bases with a high Altitude Surface to Air missile Site to stop enemy empires from simply flying over your territory with out worries. Others are maintaining bases like gathering resources and upgrading your base defense, and some will be counter-recon to basically removing all those little gifts the enemy recon teams were doing to your secured territories.

These skirmish missions have persistent benefits besides XP. Also the benefits to these missions are counteractive to each other so say completing one recon mission will open a patrol mission and visa versa. The persistent benefits allow these missions to be played even after the other team has left, although there will be rewards if enemy contact if found on either side. Some of these benefits can be seen by other empires (aka No Fly Zone) therefore opening a counteractive mission (sabotage defenses). Some are not so subtle but will open a general mission, example planting a cache or a spy virus will open up a patrol mission in which the defending empire will have to look for signs of your activity and undo what you have just done. (An evil mind could think of these as ambush opportunities.) also completing one mission will not only undo an enemy mission but open up another mission for your side.

A couple of mission designed to sort of start out.

Patrol

Pass and Clear Kill enemy players in territory. (okay sort of a no brainier but this is just something to add to the territory influence and mission points. This is your territory, there should be no toleration of trespassing, you see one you kill em.)

Resource Gather Gather X Resource to base. (Again a no brainer but this maintenance is for if there are no enemies in territory and allows you to complete a mission without having to wait for some random guy to pwn. It basically unlocks further missions)

Build SAM network This is actually a latter mission that will require points from other missions before you can do this one. This will involve you going to each of the towers to make sure they stay in your control for a set amount of time. This will give you the Territorial Benefit No Fly Zone which will enemy aircraft flying over the hover ceiling (refer to Air combat improvement thread) Or simply target all enemies over a certain altitude. The benefit will be broadcasted so you can count on a few counter operatives tempting to sabotage it.

Investigate/Restore Power Loss Generator destroyed is rather suspicious, this is a counter-operative mission to any sabotage mission an enemy recon team may set up. Get there, see if they are still there (and DESTROY them), and fix what ever damage they have done.)

Recon

Ambush Kill enemy players in their territory, again a no brainer, but it will give something to do in a less populated area.

Infiltration Reach X amount on checkpoints randomly scattered throughout the territory. This is again the mission to complete if the defending empire decides to be absent. Although enemy contact will increase the value of this mission (as well as any other mission) It gives a goal for recon teams. Not to mention open up other missions as well as add activity that could be picked up by the defending empire maybe giving them a reason to show up to the party.

Sabotage This may be a destroy SAM site or Destroy Shield Generators mission to remove a patrol defending benefit.

Hack Spy Virus This one is fun, get into the enemy base (or tower) and plant a bug that allows you and your outfit to see what is going on. Nothing like a little espionage to break the monotony of war.
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I personally see great ideas in here which will keep the game rolling, even when theres not a big fight going on.
Really had to repost this as the official forums are kinda...dead and full of trolls.

[Malorn]

I see how these are meant to counteract each other, with the patrol mission guys fighting the recon mission guys, etc. However I'm not sure this is good for the game.

1) its taking away from the 'massive' battles that they want by distributing people across more parts of a continent.

2) it may not be necessary with the adjacency system since the front will be wide across the map as it is, so players may be better off simply pushing the front with a few responding to backhacks and other shenanigans

3) I don't think the patrol missions will be successful because it relies on the recon missions actually being taken and actively done on a consistent basis. Patrol by its nature may be quite boring because you're running around where there is no action. I don't expect many players will want to do that.

If you want more action away from the main zerg I think there will still be plenty of opportunities, including:

* going to a continent that doesn't have as big of a conflict
* working the territory hexes on the same continent that are away from the main front
* responding to attacks on the territory hexes away from the main front
* responding to incursions on other continents that your empire may have most/all of the territory

If you hve people split doing those things and split doing recon/patrol missions I don't think the front will be the front anymore, so I'm a bit concerned it'll just be too much distraction.

[MasterChief096]

Malorn makes a valid point but I do want to see some form of recon/patrol/etc in the game, either in the format of missions or just gameplay features/mechanics that make it possible.

Special operations are a large part of any massive war since the beginning of warfare for humanity, and I don't want to see a lack of special ops opportunities in PlanetSide 2. Hell, there are even outfits that would specialize in special operations. I don't think we have to worry about a lack of massive battles, as even if there were 10 spec ops outfits online, there would probably be like 30 outfits per empire in the "main fights" plus the random zerglings running around.

[Dorest0rm]

What Masterchief said, i don't think much people will do these missions, therefore i think its easy do-able.