Gameplay: Rogue Regions

[Garem]

Although much of my conclusion may be speculation, I foresee that the addition of Resources to the game as playing having an enormous impact on Planetside 2. The game is going to be a whole lot different and better than PS1 with the options this unlocks.

So. What would Planetside 2 look like with an area that was Rogue. A place that the existing factions didn't even go to, and where the old allegiances to factions and ideologies meant nothing. Instead of fighting for TR, VS, or NC, each outfit was on their own to survive and make their stand. Where diplomacy, exploration, and resource management for long-term development actually played a role, instead of the here-today-gone-tomorrow aspect of territory wars in the main portion of the game.

Could it even work, or are the three factions simply too intrinsic to the game?

Maybe on a different planet, justifying for the story how you can still remain nominally with your faction, but otherwise isolated from the support of the infrastructure on Auraxis?

The closest thing I can compare the general idea to is Null Sec in EVE- a place where nobody is safe, and nobody is coming to save you. Granted, the resource management required by EVE could qualify its most serious players a degree in Business Administration from a university; I don't think anybody seriously wants that for Planetside 2, and that's definitely not what I'm suggesting.

Side note: Connecting it with these ideas might be a long term goal.
http://www.planetside-universe.com/f...ad.php?t=37173
OP credit @ basti.

[DviddLeff]

Great idea, this is one of the things I both love and hate about Eve.

[Lonehunter]

I would love a continent with no allegiances other then your Squad/Platoon.

But just a warning, this would be a stomping ground for large, organized outfits.

[WaryWizard]

wouldn't it make it hard to tell friend from foe?

[RedKnights]

Wow, I didn't even think about having some kind of continent where instead of sweeping team combat it's man on man survival.... would be a nice change of pace, terrific idea.

[Garem]

Bumping for more feedback, and because as crazy as this may sound, I like my ideas.

[Fenrod]

So basically, it would be a kind of FFA region ?

[Garem]

Originally Posted by Fenrod

So basically, it would be a kind of FFA region ?

Yup. Of course, this doesn't mean you want to shoot everything that moves! Alliances can and should form, even across the traditional TR-NC-VS lines, although the tangential benefit of having more powerful allies may preserve the old alliances... or perhaps inflame existing intra-factional rivalries.

[Bittermen]

Like nullsec in EVE.

[Purple]

the issue i see here is that it would lack the epic size of battles that planetside is based on. i can how ever see a tournament a few times a year in this style being fun though.

[Garem]

Xyntech, I'm sure it could be balanced to make it profitable without making it overpowering. And resources should only be awarded to the ones that earn it! Alternatively, new resources types that are only useful in these separated regions would help alleviate this issue as well. There are definitely workarounds, assuming balance couldn't be achieved- and I think it can.

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I really like the idea of phases, Purple. The Rogue Regions would only be open for set periods of time- a few days, or several weeks. A cool aspect of phasing is that it becomes more important to work with international groups so that you can try to protect your assets around the clock.

Imagine a game of Starcraft... but it's an FPS. You can enter a command structure, call down spawn barracks, harvest local resources, expand further- but you're actually PLAYING as the marines and gunners and pilots. PS2 has the opportunity to make this happen. The ultimate combination of strategy, tactics, and player skill.

So it doesn't really matter to me if the game lasts for one hour or six months or forever. Hell, what about if you had a choice between all three? PS2 can do it all, I think.

On the other hand, if that would be unfavorable (and there are ample reasons why), there are ways to set battle times with phasing as well- such as the darkness or brightness or radiation from sun movement patterns preventing war at particular times.

[Xyntech]

It's an interesting idea, could be fun, but I'm not sure if it would be able to fit into the game properly.

If there is nothing to be gained, then it's pretty much just a place to mess around and may not be that interesting.

If there are benefits, then who do they apply towards?

If they apply to your entire empire, then why would you be fighting your own empire mates for it?

If it applies to just you, is it going to make you overpowered once you go back to the main fight? If not, is it worth the effort?

There may be some way to make this idea work, but it seems kind of counter to the whole 3 empire thing in the first place, so I'm not sure I would try to find a solution myself.

I'd love an open world MMO game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but I think it would have to be built entirely around that concept. I just feel like any implementation of this idea I can think of would either be mediocre in the FFA portion, or would disrupt the main 3 way war portion.

I think it's a good idea but the wrong game.

[Xyntech]

Having it only be an occasionally accessible area would solve most of the issues I have with it.

It's not that you couldn't find a balance between balance and reward, it's that it would be too fine a line, which would take way more dev time to balance it than would be worth the return on overall gameplay value added.

If there is too much reason to go there, it detracts from the giant battles of the rest of the game. The very thing F2P is trying to solve, this system would hurt. Then again, if it weren't interesting enough to take players away from the fight, the region would be underpopulated and it would be a waste of resources to have developed in the first place, like the caves ended up being in PS1.

But putting it like an event would certainly work. For one thing, you could have the region used for it also be used for other events, such as PvE battle scenarios, where all three empires team up against ai controlled monsters. You would get a lot of use out of the region by using it for many events, without hurting the ordinary battles during non event times. The ordinary game wouldn't suffer and developer time wouldn't be wasted.

[Garem]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Having it only be an occasionally accessible area would solve most of the issues I have with it.

It's not that you couldn't find a balance between balance and reward, it's that it would be too fine a line, which would take way more dev time to balance it than would be worth the return on overall gameplay value added.

If there is too much reason to go there, it detracts from the giant battles of the rest of the game. The very thing F2P is trying to solve, this system would hurt. Then again, if it weren't interesting enough to take players away from the fight, the region would be underpopulated and it would be a waste of resources to have developed in the first place, like the caves ended up being in PS1.

But putting it like an event would certainly work. For one thing, you could have the region used for it also be used for other events, such as PvE battle scenarios, where all three empires team up against ai controlled monsters. You would get a lot of use out of the region by using it for many events, without hurting the ordinary battles during non event times. The ordinary game wouldn't suffer and developer time wouldn't be wasted.

It just dawned on me- this balancing would/could actually be quite easy. Simply make the available resources or resource extraction rate be directly parallel to the number of players on the continent.

So if there are 100,000 units of W, X, Y, and Z resources with 100 players you'd have 150,000 units of those resources with 150. Or add a slight increasing return, thus incentivizing greater activity levels (100k with 100, 155k with 150, and 215k with 200...).

Anyways, what is it about Planetside that means it must at all times be a game with 3 factions against one another in balance? I'm somewhat confused at how that argument can get thrown around with no qualifications whatsoever! We need not be pigeonholed nor have creativity stifled with such a fantastic opportunity for game experimentation as we are afforded by a truly novel game like Planetside.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Garem

Anyways, what is it about Planetside that means it must at all times be a game with 3 factions against one another in balance? I'm somewhat confused at how that argument can get thrown around with no qualifications whatsoever! We need not be pigeonholed nor have creativity stifled with such a fantastic opportunity for game experimentation as we are afforded by a truly novel game like Planetside.

Planetside at it's core is a massive war. 3 sides are better than 2 for balance reasons, and a free for all just doesn't work for the kind of massive warfare that is at the heart of Planetside.

That isn't to say that Planetside has to be 3 sides fighting it out all of the time, but that is the core gameplay. Anything that creates a temporary diversion or a little variety from that is fine. Anything that damages that core gameplay on a long term is just going to dilute the game.

I don't have any problem with the idea, my only concern is how well it could live alongside Planetside 2's core gameplay. I mentioned that I would like to see something like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. MMO, but I don't think it would work well as a massive scale warfare MMO.

As fun as parts of the idea sound, I personally would want to see how this enriched the core elements of Planetside before I'd think it would be good as anything more than an occasional event that the devs gave us for variety. Things like space or naval combat are ideas that could potentially directly build on the idea of massive scale warfare, while this idea leans more towards individuals and scattered groups.

More over, if this were meant to be a serious gameplay addition and not a little side diversion, it would have to be finely crafted and well balanced. There is a reason for grief points and having 3 distinct sides, and it's so that you always know who to shoot and and who you don't need to worry about. Planetsides 3 faction solution is not the only solution to this, but a region such as you describe would require similar balance to ensure that some actual interesting gameplay could occur, and not just a grief fest that wouldn't warrant the effort put into the region in the first place.

As a side thing for a bit of fun, it sounds alright, but for any serious implementation, it's just too different from Planetsides core. You would essentially be asking the developers to create two separate games at once, albeit with shared content.