Whats the purpose in this game?

[RadarX]

This is an honest and understandable concern but rest assured something they've considered. Obviously no one wants a single side dominating and having three Empires will help with that.

[aceshigh]

Originally Posted by RadarX

This is an honest and understandable concern but rest assured something they've considered. Obviously no one wants a single side dominating and having three Empires will help with that.

Actually, as long as it is my side, I'm pretty OK with that.

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

I'm just going to quote myself from a thread I made back in November.

Originally Posted by DOUBLEXBAUGH

What will be PS2's "win"?

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.

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?

People need to be able to "win", constant 3-way stalemates are NOT fun. Launching with only 3 conts and uncapturable footholds promotes 3-way stalemates.

[Raymac]

I still find it silly that people are hell bent stuck on needing continent locks when they actually accounted for the largest chunk of downtime in the game. Oh you made a continent turn a color on a map. You must be so proud. Nevermind the hour or so of downtime it involved.

[Mod]

The fact that it sounds like a facility is now going to take more of a team effort to capture than the old 15 minute hack time, and that capturing them will directly affect the amount of resources you receive and therefore how much you can buy for the next fight - I think capturing a facility/hex will feel more like an accomplishment that what it did in PS. A mini-win if you will.

Plus there is the potential of turning a whole continent one colour still, I think it will be much harder to do so, but that option hasn't been completely removed. Oh, and the uncapturable foothold isn't really an argument here as the old home continents really had exactly the same mechanic - a warpgate that provided a way back for the home team that could not be taken away.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Levente

what you are talkin about is called baserape. i dont know about you but seeing 500 people attacking an enemy foothold for a week, that will be very frustrating for the other team i dont think thats fun. There should be 3 seperate small islands for each empire which are non capable and 3 other continents which are capable.

In Planetside the main bases will be footholds. At other bases, while they may not be "main" bases, you may indeed get killed coming right out of certain areas, this is a clue that you need to do something else if you keep dying where you are spawning. It is only BC2 and BF3 that have led players to expect protection at their bases. Main base attacks are absolutely legitimate, though footholds will probably be shielded, and if you send a lot of guys to the foothold, they might come attack through the warpgate, plus there's the other empire to contend with.

Hopefully Planetside doesn't provide the handholding in this regard that Battlefield is. Defend your base, and spawn elsewhere if you are getting raped.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Raymac

I still find it silly that people are hell bent stuck on needing continent locks when they actually accounted for the largest chunk of downtime in the game. Oh you made a continent turn a color on a map. You must be so proud. Nevermind the hour or so of downtime it involved.

That had nothing to do with the cont lock mechanic, that came down to simple 15 minute hack timers. If the other 2 empires in Planetside 2 just up and left one continent for the others then wouldn't you be facing the same 1 hour downtime to capture all that territory?

edit: Also I want to say the cont lock mechanic had some faults, but it gave you some overarching goal to work toward. Every facility capture was a mini win, every kill was a mini win, but above it all you had one 'grand goal'. I feel like that goal is what's missing in Planetside 2, even if it was rather shallow in the end. Whether that's actually a problem I'm not sure, but I don't think resources alone are going to replace it.

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

Originally Posted by Mod

Oh, and the uncapturable foothold isn't really an argument here as the old home continents really had exactly the same mechanic - a warpgate that provided a way back for the home team that could not be taken away.

But it IS different. Yes in PS1 they always had a link from the sanc, but when you won the cont they lost all spawns there and got booted back to sanc and usually went somewhere else. Now with only 3 conts, if server pops are high enough, they will get stuck on that cont. You can either camp there WG or let them out cause they are stuck fighting on that cont.

[Kipper]

I do still kinda think that allowing a faction to be driven out of a continent would be better, but balancing by allowing an empire without territory to be able to HART directly into any hex from orbit.

That would mean that people will get their continent 'win' but with a tiny bit of organisation, the exiled team(s) will be able to re-establish a foothold and it won't always be in the same place, so it should be practically impossible to keep them out. (Clever teams will use the HART to attack two or three distant hexes at the same time and split the defenders)

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

Originally Posted by WildVS

Like I said earlier. Cap server pop well below combined cont pop. 5K server, 2K conts?

Yea, you replied while i did (i type slow) Capping servers will probably be needed at launch so people will have the option to move around more. I still think they need more than 3 conts, that is just way too low.

[SniperSteve]

I can foresee TR claiming a continent for a week and refusing to fight anywhere else except that continent, and just preventing any other empire from leaving the footholds.

[Kipper]

Surely this is where the 3rd faction comes into play. If you waste enough of your available force trying to camp the smallest faction out of the game, you'll just lose everything on your front line with the 3rd lot.

Likewise, if you could/did drive both factions back to stronghold - your team would only be able to camp them both with 1000 players, whereas each of their teams would be able to break out with 2000 players....

The winning team would take a pop hit too, because some players will switch conts to find a proper battle, we're not all into spawn camping

[Trolltaxi]

EDIT: no direct linking from blastwave-comic.com... check this to find out the purpose of our fight! http://www.blastwave-comic.com/comics/20060501.jpg

[RadarX]

Originally Posted by WildVS

That's not the point RadarX. Back in the day one empire or outfit could join a three way on a cont (or 2 way) and simply outplay an evenly pop matched group of players.

A fair point but this is a new game with years of hindsight to look back on. It's been heavily considered.

[CuddlyChud]

I don't think capturing conts was necessarily the purpose of PS1 either. There was a large chunk of the player base that just wanted "the good fight." If you only had 30 minutes or an hour to play, capping bases in PS1 was the point. You would never be around long enough to cap the continent.

Also, I think that people are really underestimating resources. The devs keep insisting that they are going to be an important part of the strategy and purpose of the game, and people keep ignoring them.