Theory: How Resources Are Distributed Based on GDC Footage

[AWP]

The other night I decided to rewatch the game play footage from the GDC last month just to pass some time. Upon watching it, I noticed something peculiar during the fourth part of the video and i'm not sure if this has been brought up before.




At the 0:41 mark you ACTUALLY see Higby gain resources just before he closes the map.

Based on this small gain of resources and the two resources that were toggled on the map, I began a ratcheted attempt to plug in some numbers followed by a haphazard use of MS-Paint. Here is the result of how I believe the resources are laid out across Indar and how often you receive resources in this build of the Planetside 2 Alpha.

Glorious MS-Paint Indar Map

A few things to keep in mind before I explain the math behind this map.

-Right now, we have no idea which specific resources are needed by what factions to buy Tanks, aircraft, power items ect... or how many resources are needed to buy these things so assume that these number values are arbitrary.

-This is an Alpha build! nothing is set in stone and will most likely change (it's most likely it has already changed since the GDC). The point of this map is to try to get a better understanding of what the developers are thinking when it comes to the resource system.

-I could be absolutely wrong and have no idea what i'm talking about!

With these things in mind i'l attempt to explain my thinking.

Each territory on the map (except the warp-gates) has a designated resource with two resource values; The Hourly Yield and the "Resource Tick". Every five minutes you personally receive resources based on the Resource Tick Value of each territory your empire controls on the continent you are fighting on. You see this tick happen in the GDC video. The Hourly Yield is how many resources you would receive assuming you maintain control of that territory for an hour.

Lets break down the resource tick seen in the GDC footage by referring to each resource by its colored icon.

Higby's character before the resource tick has the following resources stored up.

269 Blue

2667 Green

2670 Red

4984 Yellow


At the 0:41 mark in the video the resource tick takes place and resources are awarded to Higby based on the territories the New Conglomerate control on Indar.

the resource tick provides...

3 Blue from the 3 facilities the NC control (each facility has a resource tick of 1 (3x1=3) )

30 green* from the 11 territories the NC control that have green as its resource (i know 11x3 does not equal 30, the resource tick is more likely to be around 2.75 but i rounded it up because i doubt they want you to have a fraction of a resource. )

30 Red from the 6 territories the NC control that have red as its resource (Each red has a resource tick of 5 (6x5=30) )

56 Yellow from the 8 territories the NC control that have yellow as its resource (Each Yellow has a resource tick of 7 (7x8 =56) )

After the resource tick, Higby now has

272 Blue (269+3)

2697 Green (2667+30)

2700 Red (2670+30)

5040 Yellow (4984 +56)




However...

There are some problems with my theory that i'l point out.

-Some of this is fuzzy math and some of the resource ticks conflict with the hourly yield totals as shown in the resources tab on the map. For example the red resource's hourly yield total on the resource tab says its 350 yet the NC only control 6 red yielding territories. to make this more confusing i didnt speculate this number since that particular resource is toggled on and is shown on the regular map without all the MS-Paint.

Green is slightly off from my numbers but it is close to whats actually being displayed. My numbers would put the hourly total for green at 363 compared to the 360 that's being shown.

Blue and Yellow the math checks out.



I think i'm just going to shut up here and see what you guys think.

[Bluecewe]

I'm not really sure whether that sort of "automatic" distribution would be practical.

I would at least expect there to be some sort of barrier to being given resources without actually doing anything. I would hope that a player would need to get involved with a mission and then be rewarded a fair distribution.

Also, I'm aware of the whole faction system, however it might be possible for Outfits to "operate" territory, meaning they control the distribution of resources through handing out missions to players in the area and passing it down through their own organization.

[PlaceboCyanide]

( I got an invalid link message, fyi )

It would be awesome if we could get more info on this game mechanic, because just about everything will be a shot in the dark. That being said... Judging from some of the numbers on the map, they might still be working out this system. Each "cluster" of hexes gave the exact same amount as well regardless of how many hexes that territory was comprised of. At face value it appears 5 hex territories and 2 hex territories are equal value from that map.
60 Red
84 Yellow

Originally Posted by Bluecewe

I would at least expect there to be some sort of barrier to being given resources without actually doing anything. I would hope that a player would need to get involved with a mission and then be rewarded a fair distribution.

I hear what you're saying but just because a person isn't in the thick of it doesn't mean they aren't helping the war effort:
- Engineers staying behind to repair bases and/or vehicles.
- Pilots guarding their deployed galaxy and avoiding direct fight enabling teammates to spawn
- Cloaker avoiding combat in order to relay intel.


Assuming that the resource gain offline and online are not identical I do think some effort should be spent to prevent people from resource sponging and just going afk in a base. Auto-logout after 5-10 minutes of inactivity or something of the sort.

[Asp]

Originally Posted by Bluecewe

I'm not really sure whether that sort of "automatic" distribution would be practical.

I would at least expect there to be some sort of barrier to being given resources without actually doing anything. I would hope that a player would need to get involved with a mission and then be rewarded a fair distribution.

Also, I'm aware of the whole faction system, however it might be possible for Outfits to "operate" territory, meaning they control the distribution of resources through handing out missions to players in the area and passing it down through their own organization.

At that point you're getting close to the idea of a resource economy, and I'm not sure the devs have thought out the idea well enough for that. In a game like EVE economy elements are central to the game for everyone. In PS2 resources (and keeping a constant source of them) is going to be the "carrot" to get everyone to fight, not the currency you loot.
So I can see bonus resource for completing missions maybe, or being the ones to actually take capture points. Though I think the devs want to make sure players (if their empire is successful) at least have enough resources to pull equipment/vehicles which are central to playing the game. If you're a mossie pilot who runs out of personal resources you shouldn't have to grind it out on foot trying to find a conquerable resource tile to try and take so you can get up in the sky again, imo.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Asp

If you're a mossie pilot who runs out of personal resources you shouldn't have to grind it out on foot trying to find a conquerable resource tile to try and take so you can get up in the sky again, imo.

Time to pull out an ATV

Edit, sorry, didn't mean to double post. It's early and I haven't had my coffee

[Xyntech]

Resources could be dolled out by some simple criteria.

One criteria would be how much of the resource your empire controls.

The other criteria could be a requirement that you do something useful for your empire.

Maybe you get a tiny amount every now and then for doing nothing (hopefully not), but any time you heal someone, someone uses a deployable you placed, you kill someone, etc, you get a more significant amount of the resource.

The more of the resource you controlled, the more you would get. The better you did for your empire, the more you would get.

Having things like tracking to see how recently someone got hurt by enemy fire would be important to tell how valuable a medic was being. Whether they were actually doing their job in a battle (should be worth tons of resources), or whether they are just healing somebody who keeps taking team damage in the middle of friendly territory just so you can earn easy resources.

[Asp]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Resources could be dolled out by some simple criteria.

One criteria would be how much of the resource your empire controls.

The other criteria could be a requirement that you do something useful for your empire.

I like the idea for sure, but while the game will definitely track lots of stats that could be analyzed; I'd bet it would be a huge endeavor to get the game to award resources on the fly based on those stats.. Damage done to an enemy = XP is one thing, but damage + support + "just being there" = resources / # of players present, would get to be a lot of number crunching ongoing, all the time. That and what happens if parts of my contribution to the battle take place slightly outside whatever is considered the boundaries of the battle for that resource.

I like the idea, I just imagine taking it from a simple incentive to fight, to a full blown (most likely constant balance requiring) crucial game mechanic is a lot more work than we may realize it is..

[Soothsayer]

Originally Posted by Asp

I like the idea for sure, but while the game will definitely track lots of stats that could be analyzed; I'd bet it would be a huge endeavor to get the game to award resources on the fly based on those stats.. Damage done to an enemy = XP is one thing, but damage + support + "just being there" = resources / # of players present, would get to be a lot of number crunching ongoing, all the time. That and what happens if parts of my contribution to the battle take place slightly outside whatever is considered the boundaries of the battle for that resource.

I like the idea, I just imagine taking it from a simple incentive to fight, to a full blown (most likely constant balance requiring) crucial game mechanic is a lot more work than we may realize it is..

This would be a good way to integrate the mission system as an additional way to get people who participate properly rewarded.

I think that there could also be value in class-specific missions that are personal in nature, also this could be automatically generated by the mission system based on the stat tracking.

If there is a lack of medics noticed by the mission system by way of an empire having a less than optimal amount of healing, the system could incentivize [spellcheck says that word doesn't exist] playing that class to make up for an empire's moment-to-moment lack of that playstyle.

The mission system is a dynamic system and as a result it could be used to shore up deficiencies based on the needs of an empire at any given time by rewarding under represented playstyles.

[Vamp Hunter]

Very interesting work, based on your estimates of the ticks that means one resource gives you 1 every tick, one gives you 3, another gives you 5, and the last one gives you 7.

I think that's interesting because it means they are all odd numbers and they are each the next odd number up from the last.
It also confirms what the devs have said in the past, some resources are rarer then others.

[Malorn]

One of the questions Higby answered about resources indicated that there are different yields for resources. So the reason you see differences in the number of territories and the amount is that some territories are worth more than others.

The blue resources was the currency with the "planetside logo" on it and I was wondering how that got accumulated since I saw no territories with it. That also appeared to be the currency in the shop, so that one accumulates much more slowly and makes sense becuase it may not be used for normal everyday stuff. The other three represent Infantry, Ground vehicles, and Air vehicles I believe, but it is different for each empire exactly what type a given resource is used for.

Resources were also described as a dividend of owned territories and indicated that it changes based on population. So high population might have fewer resources to go around. Not sure if the population indicator is absolute population or relative population. I think relative makes more sense and is easier to balance but its anyone's guess.

[AWP]

Fixed the link.

[Retrograde]

Great analysis, AWP. Thanks for doing the math.

These resource types might represent different scale items you can pull:

Level 1 - Game points (for upgrades)
Level 2 - Light vehicles, light aircraft, MAX suits
Level 3 - Heavy vehicles, heavy aircraft, MBT, etc...
Level 4 - Sunderer, Liberator & Galaxy

Based on the scale at which those resources are earned, capping bases provides "permanent" upgrades, that entice everyone. That would explain the 'planetside' logo on them.

If you were low in one area, you could look at the map and see where those 'points' came from and go cap that specific type of resource.

These probably don't correspond with how quickly the resources amass, but it's also impossible to speculate which is which due to the cost of the item being the major factor. If something is cheap and the resource is plentiful, there might still be a spawn timer on it.

These could also be resources for my empire, not my personal resources. In that case, there is no dis-incentive to using the most expensive resources. Or it could limit my style of play in that the empire has no aircraft points available.

[Higby]

I love you guys.

[Zenben]

Originally Posted by Higby

I love you guys.

We love you too! When's beta?

[Ailos]

Originally Posted by Zenben

We love you too! When's beta?

When we've analyzed every frame of the GDC footage in this manner.