Is PS2 going to be intercontinental enough?

[texico]

I've said a couple of times now that I really like the hex territory system concept for PS2, which I think will improve battles on the actual continents, because of a more fluid front line and the ability to attack from different angles. However, one thing that's been bothering me is, it really seems like PS2 is focusing too much on continental battles, with "other" continents seen more as just different scenery to fight in.

With a foothold on each continent for each empire, why ever stop fighting on a continent? Why ever stop fighting on every continent? Everyone is going to have their favourite, and if they're free to fight on it from footholds, they'll try and start one there all the time. This is especially true if the game has a large population, and is free. Basically, there's going to be no progression through Auraxis in an attempt to conquer the whole planet. Higher population caps create big battles, but the battle for the whole PLANET with ownership of land on that planet exchanged in said battles, is what gave PlanetSide its massive scale. Without that system, it's just 3 independent (or however many) continents staging battles for said continents.


So, I think there should be a mix of the CONTINENTAL Hex-territory system and INTERCONTINENTAL lattice-link system, based on these ideas:

-Each empire has a single uncapturable foothold on ONE continent, which makes that continent their home continent.
-Each continent has warp-gates that link to other continents.
-The warp-gates are "capturable" by capping a warp-gate station, which allows an empire to use that warp gate to enter the "linked" continent. (and for example attack the WG-station on the other side before moving on to facilities on the new continent)
-Empires can spawn straight to WG-stations they own from anywhere
-WG-stations are shielded from attack UNTIL the empire that owns it loses all its facilities on the continent
-At this point, the empire is only spawning at the unprotected WG-station and is in danger of losing their place on the continent
-If the WG-station is captured, the empire can only re-enter that continent via their WG (because they still own the WG-station on the other side)
-Of course, the empire that's just booted them can now use the WG to enter the continent they've been booted back too, capture the WG-station associated with it, and therefore prevent the booted empire re-entering their continent all-together.


In this way THESE things are achieved:

-Each empire therefore has "semi-uncapturable" footholds on each continent instead (the WG-stations), which are permanent until the empire completely loses on the continent facility-wise.
-The only truly uncapturable footholds are the one single ones on each empire's home continent. These are basically sanctuaries, they're just on-map on the home continent.
-Therefore
-A, there's always a foothold on every continent for people to spawn straight into so they can "get to the action" straight away
-B, but the continents are still ownable... still capturable
-C, and the front line is maintained, cross-continent. Even if Empire 1 wins Continent A, they'll be battling from the WG to capture the WG-station on Continent B against Empire 2
-Any person hopping in for the sake of killing doesn't have to bother about all this fancy tactical stuff. They just spawn at a foothold on a contested map, as in PS2 atm, and head to battle
-The "link" system is therefore basically a fight over exits-entrances to continents, and not the system of progressing through a single continent - that's handled by the current system.


It also creates GOALS/Victory conditions:

-There's a clear continental goal - capturing the WG-stations which basically means they would then own the continent
-There's a clear intercontinental goal - "lockdown" all continents to "own" Auraxis <---------------------- This ups the scale a lot and makes it seem like a battle for the Planet as a whole
-The progressive scale of goals therefore goes something like:
-Hack territory > Hack a facility > Hack all facilities > hack WG-stations > Hack next continent > Hack all continents > Win... (rewards such as enemy weapons/vehicles???)



Solution to desertion and boring clean-ups:

- Of course, the problem with the link system is an empire abandoning a cont, so the other empire is stuck clearing up for an hour
- Therefore, implement a mechnanism whereby if Empire 1 has 100+ people, and Empire 2 has >5% of the population, Empire 2's territory and facilities can be hacked instantly
- So if an Empire suddenly deserts a continent, the other one can hack all their stuff in the time it takes to fly 1 person to every facility... 5-10 minutes?



This works fine with just 3 continents, but kind of diminshes the point, because there's barely any continents to fight over and each of the other two are home continents. The only cont you could "lock" down and control would be your own, while the other two, you'd just have to drive back to their uncaputable home-cont foothold. 9 continents would work much better, because 6 of them can genuinely be "owned" if all the WG-stations on each linked continent are under your control - the enemy can't use their corresponding WG's to get to the owned continent.


I whipped up some quick drawings on my tablet which shows how a WG is exchanged, if it's easier to see




















tl;dr - A link system between continents would help compliment the hex system within continents to make the game more cross-continent. Link system can be the losing and winning of WG's.