Gameplay: From base to fortress

[Gandhi]

I've been bouncing this idea around in my head for a while now, what do you guys think?

The Why
Now that home continents and cont locks are gone PS2 might be missing some sense of priority on attack and defense. Why is it more important to defend hex A than hex B? What could force an empire to shift the bulk of its forces to a different target, either on offense or defense? The obvious answer is resources, and while they'll play an important role in this I'm not convinced they'll be enough on their own. Even if they are, it can't hurt to have another layer of priorities on top to add to the strategic side of the game, another layer of reasons for empires to respond to different threats with a varying sense of urgency.

And I think this idea would add another layer of 'mini win conditions' to the game, goals that give a real sense of accomplishment at the end, more than just taking another hex. The kind of offensive and defensive goals that can really bring an empire together. The old system of cont locks and home continents tried to do this, and in some ways it succeeded (but not without some pretty glaring problems that probably contributed to their removal).

The What
What I'm proposing is a sort of progression for bases (bio labs, tech plants etc). Lets say the TR capture tech plant Leza, it reverts to its standard form; level 1. Over the next few days (or weeks, the time scale isn't important right now) the base progresses up to level 5. Each level brings changes in appearance, at level 1 it's a standard tech plant with red markings, at level 2 maybe a few TR banners appear in the courtyard, at level 3 a couple TR flags appear and the red markings become more prominent etc. Each level could also make the base a little more powerful, or increase the resources it generates. Maybe at a certain level ES turrets start to replace the NS ones, there's lots of possibilities.

At level 5 the base has become a TR fortress, it's turned into a kind of symbol for the empire. At this point it's got very prominent markings, flags, banners, maybe the walls and buildings themselves have changed slightly to be more in line with the TR style. Maybe there's even a special TR fortress theme that plays inside its SOI. Besides the morale it generates the increased resources it's putting out also make it a prime target for the other empires, while the TR obviously want to defend it for the same reasons. Losing it would be a big loss for the TR and a big blow to morale, while taking it would be a great victory for the NC or VS. The important thing is that the base itself hasn't become more powerful (or at least not much more), the fact that it's become important to the TR as an empire, that the TR will drop whatever they're doing to defend it, is what makes taking it harder. If the VS do manage to capture it the base reverts to a level 1 tech plant, now in VS hands, and process starts over.

Again, the idea is to give people meaningful targets to attack and defend, beyond what resources can offer. Because at the end of the day meaningful victories, either on offense or defense, are what make competition fun.

The How
From a game design standpoint there's lots of things to consider with a system like this, here's a few that come to mind:

1. Is the level progression of the base passive or active? Is it just a matter of time? Does the empire need to invest resources to 'level up' a base? Maybe it's a mix of both. Maybe level 1 -> level 2 takes 24 hours and x Auraxium, which has to be donated by individuals (this could easily be tied into the mission system).
   
2. Should there be a limit on the number of level 5 fortresses on a continent? Should there be a server wide limit? An empire wide limit? A fortress should be something special, rare enough that having one really means something. If each empire has 3 fortresses on a continent something's gone wrong.
   
3. Should a fortress give a bonus besides the increased resource generation? Maybe a fortress provides a small amount of every resource, so the empire has a place to pull a limited number of tanks without any other source of the tank resource? In this case pulling a tank really would be limited to the fortress, those resources wouldn't be available at other bases.
   
4. Should there be smaller bonuses for the levels in between 1 and 5? Do those bonuses carry forward? Or might there be a good reason to keep some bases at level 3 to get the level 3 bonus over the one provided at level 4? If so, who makes those kinds of decisions?
5. Could a smaller version of this idea be applied to normal territory bunkers and outposts? Personally I'd rather see it be specific to bases, it means less work for the dev team and I'm not sure a 'level 5 bunker' would have the same impact...

And on and on, there's lots of room for ideas and lots for Higby to think about