Poll: Rotation of empire footholds?

[bkx]

With the current system of empire footholds, if a person plays on one empire, there may be no chance for them to see all of the map. They will be fighting over the same several bases from the same direction. To keep things interesting, I think that it would be good to rotate the empire's footholds every so often (maybe 6 months.) This would keep the battles from getting stale and give you a new perspective on the continent.

On the other hand, this would reduce the sense of ownership that you feel over a piece of terrain because your hold on it is temporary.

What does everybody think?

[The Kush]

at first i was going to say this could be a good idea

but..

i want there to be a sense of that is the NC foothold that IS our home makes the game more personal

[Malorn]

Absolutely. I've been a big proponent of this for a long time. We need the variety or the game play will get very stale. With 6 permutations of foothold configurations that is a lot of new variety with existing continents.

The rotation does not need to happen frequently. Once per month would mix it up but limit disruption.

The idea of home continents really needs to die a horrible death. It led to stagnation in the game with the same battles on the same bases against the same opponents every day. Boring as all hell. Change it up and keep the game fresh.

6 configurations is a lot of variety.

[Arokel]

Originally Posted by The Kush

at first i was going to say this could be a good idea

but..

i want there to be a sense of that is the NC foothold that IS our home makes the game more personal

Exactly how I feel. Keeping them in the same spot very likely could cause each faction to regard a certain part of the map as their "homeland" on that continent. Nothing motivates people to fight more than the defense of their homeland.

While a video game will never be able to fully replicate that feeling of fighting for your home I think that it will still increase the motivation for the faction who are defending and that sense of faction loyalty PS is meant to create.

[The Janitor]

See that purple foothold? That will always be a purple foothold. Forever. Cause we're awesome. And purple.

[MrBloodworth]

No option for removal?

[Xyntech]

I don't like the idea of rotating footholds. I feel like it would damage persistence.

But once we have more than 3 continents, I'd like to see players able to capture footholds and lose them. Every empire would always have at least one foothold that couldn't be captured, either a set foothold or that they just couldn't lose their last foothold wherever that was.

The exact mechanics of capturing footholds would have to be worked out. There would be some problems, but I think it could be sorted out. Possibly by somehow limiting an empire to only controlling one foothold per continent.

[Synapse]

Originally Posted by Arokel

Exactly how I feel. Keeping them in the same spot very likely could cause each faction to regard a certain part of the map as their "homeland" on that continent. Nothing motivates people to fight more than the defense of their homeland.

While a video game will never be able to fully replicate that feeling of fighting for your home I think that it will still increase the motivation for the faction who are defending and that sense of faction loyalty PS is meant to create.

You're missing the point. You won't be proud of your homeland, you will be _bored_ of it.

Just like home continents did in PS1, faction footholds smack of having the same front line, fighting over the same 2-3 bases while the rest rarely see any action at all.

I want to see things get mixed up. Maybe not rotation, that seems heavy handed, but maybe handicap one faction or allow one to be pushed off the continent so the frontline moves around and the remaining players get to see the 1/3 of the map they've been missing.

[kaffis]

I don't think footholds should rotate. Their permanence should be a source of a sense of ownership.

However, I do believe that there is room for *other* means for a "spoiler" effect to enter the equation. Traditional warpgates, for instance, that could be captured to open up adjacency bonuses in variable locations on other continents, for instance.

[Synapse]

Originally Posted by kaffis

I don't think footholds should rotate. Their permanence should be a source of a sense of ownership.

However, I do believe that there is room for *other* means for a "spoiler" effect to enter the equation. Traditional warpgates, for instance, that could be captured to open up adjacency bonuses in variable locations on other continents, for instance.

Totally supported. Rotation would be heavyhanded, but some means to keep the frontline moving around will be crucial.

[Mr DeCastellac]

I think we should just do the Planetside 1 thing and not have footholds, haha.

But rotation would be a good thing to break up the monotony.

[Malorn]

Resources are currently static, as per higby a couple months ago. If that stays all the more reason for rotation.

People should be thinking of all of Auraxis as their "home", not small corners of it. Way too much clinging to home continent nonsense here.

[Xyntech]

Just to clarify, I voted no to rotation because I don't want it to actually rotate. I do want to see footholds change hands, but I want it to be dynamic and organic, not some arbitrary thing that fucks with the front lines every month or so.

[Arokel]

I think have a (rough) idea how to strike a balance between the two. So what would happen is that there would be muliple different faction footholds spaced around the continent. I think between 5-7 would be a good number.

Only three would be active at the same time so each faction only has one. If (and only if) a faction lost all of their territory on the map (aside from their foothold spawn point) They will be driven from the continent and their foothold will close.

This last bit is probably the weakest part of my idea. After a faction has been driven from a continent they would select one of the inactive spawn points (maybe not including the one they just lost?) and launch a new invasion from that point. The problem with this is who gets to choose? Any player of a high enough rank? Maybe it would require a minimum number of high level players agreeing on a certain point with some type of voting system? Or maybe it could be done by a member of SOE who plays as that faction?

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by WildVS

Yeah ultimately until the game matures more and expands, what the hell might as well change footholds daily. Looks to be 3 way grind fest anyway you slice it.

Perhaps. We'll see in beta.