Planetside Idea Lab

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

What's next?

Sleep.

[EarlyDawn]

You're not allowed. Back to work

[Hayoo]

[EarlyDawn]

Only on watchtowers, I hope.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Only on watchtowers, I hope.

That's the initial idea, yeah, since repair silos will also be available at urban outposts. This is just something to make the watch towers as unique and valuable as the air towers. However, while the repair/rearm part is free, the capacitor recharge ability will only be an Outfit HQ base update (lasts as long as the HQ is there) or a rank-salary expenditure (lasts for only a few min).

Someone once posted about having a howitzer atop the gun towers. That would be pretty sweet.

Oh, here's another screenshot of the ntu silo that's also attached. These silos power the supply line (which includes capacitor recharging). Remember that an isolated tower can be captured, unlike an urban outpost, but unless it's connected to the supply line, the tower drains the silo till empty. After that, you can only get basic weapons and equipment. Equipment terminals, spawn tubes, and turrets continue to function, unlike a base.

I'm still debating the actual action that drains the silo, whether it's timer-based, respawn based, terminal use, etc.

[EarlyDawn]

Sounds good. Tower NTUs for the win.

I don't really understand, though. How does salary work regarding capacitor recharges? You pay to refuel?

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Sounds good. Tower NTUs for the win.

I don't really understand, though. How does salary work regarding capacitor recharges? You pay to refuel?

You only have to pay if an OHQ hasn't activated the recharge-capacitor upgrade of the repair-silo. The repair and rearm is free no matter what.

The reason I did this is because if I made recharging completely free for everyone all the time, then there's no reason for it to be an OHQ upgrade (and that kind of upgrade is just too juicy to pass up for OHQ). Besides, they have to pay for powercells if they get it from a goods terminal at an urban outpost. It's pretty much the same thing. Also, friendly Urban Outpost repair silos will recharge for free, with or without an OHQ, so long as there's a supply line back to a Capitol or linked WG.

Orginally I had the recharging part deactivate if an OHQ hadn't picked that upgrade. Then I thought, well that's not fair to the non-outfit guy, he should be able to access the upgrade too if it's a friendly tower. And what if the Outfit there picked a different upgrade, how would they recharge? So I'm letting any player drive up and purchase a refill for a small one-time amount. And it's a communal service, so if one guy pays, the silo recharges everyone in the tower SOI...kinda like when an Adv Hacker access a terminal, everyone can use it. A player can still rearm and repair at a friendly tower for nothing. Same with air towers, an aircraft will use the pad in the same way.

I know people will resist pay for something as 'needed' as power, but that's the kind of thing the rank-salary will go for. It can't be used to buy uber weapons and such, it's a key to unlocking something which you wouldn't have access to otherwise.

Edit:Also remember that there are alternatives to the tower recharge:

• Any friendly Facility SOI recharges vehicles for free (so long as there's a supply line back to the Capitol or a WG.
• ANTs recharge vehicles for free
• Lodestars recharge nearby vehicles for free
• Warpgates automatically recharge vehicles for free
• Any engineer carrying a powercell can use his Nano-dispenser's secondary fire to recharge a vehicle for free
• A Landing Tarmac/NTU emplacement (i've combined the two) recharges both air and land vehicles.
• A well organized squad can bring an extra ANT or bring a towed storage full of powercells

lots of other 'free' choices. A tower recharge is meant to be a special upgrade, allowing it to be a base of operations for an outfit in enemy territory. And of course there's the other upgrades like Turret weapons, longer IFF locks, Spawn-to-surface teleporter, barricades, MGs on the rails, etc.

Repair silos will also be used to 'store' vehicles and it's the same method as the recharge, but it's for all friendly silos everywhere: You drive up, hit G and then you can choose "store". I'm thinking one or two vehicles, like a locker. You can then go to any other friendly supply-linked vehicle terminal and retrieve your garaged vehicle.

This feature must be purchased as an upgrade at:

• Outfit Barracks - once an outfit pays initial price and continued maintenance, it's a persistant upgrade anywhere.
• Outfit Headquarters - once you pay initial price, it's a persistant upgrade for as long as the OHQ is active on a continent (OHQ's and their upgrades are removed if the authorized player cancels the HQ, cancels/changes the upgrade, or when the last outfit member signs off.
• Friendly vehicle terminal - once you pay a small garage fee at the silo, it's persistant. Retrieving the vehicle is free.

One more thing, remember that such outfit upgrades will be Outfit Linked Benefits or Alliance Linked Benefits, if you prefer. Any allied outfit on the same cont will recieve the benefits your outfit paid for...so long as they have bought an OHQ upgrade themselves. Can't get something without giving something.

[EarlyDawn]

I love the whole system of supply you've got going. Between the "implied" supply system (neighboring Zones) and "practical supply" (Bringing extra fuel, munitions and gear), the player gets the feeling of a real war.

BTW, I don't speak for all but I'd defenitely find a spawn-to-roof teleporter a more useful upgrade for Towers.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

I love the whole system of supply you've got going. Between the "implied" supply system (neighboring Zones) and "practical supply" (Bringing extra fuel, munitions and gear), the player gets the feeling of a real war.

Thanks, although a lot of people have helped me tweak and nudge it along, you included.

Sorry about the above post, I had to do some last minute editing. You might want to take another look at it, as I clarified/added a few things.

[EarlyDawn]

Likewise, edited my post.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

BTW, I don't speak for all but I'd defenitely find a spawn-to-roof teleporter a more useful upgrade for Towers.

Heheh. Same here. Turret upgrades could be useful too, but against vehicle attacks turrets don't seem to last long. Suppression machineguns on the upper rails would be useful as well (I mentioned these in an earlier post), as is vehicle storage. AAaaaaah! it's hard to decide after the teleporter one.

There's lots of customization available if you have more than one outfit based there or more than one alliance-outfit on cont. Everyone benefits and it encourages outfits banding together for the common good.

[7ruth]

All good stuff, hope we could see such a thing in-game someday.

[Hayoo]

Work in Progress diagrams:


Unfinished illustration showing use of ANTs and powercells to recharge silos and AMS.



Unfinished illustration showing supply line feature of the new territories.

[EarlyDawn]

A good recap of what we've been discussing.

[JetRaiden]

Hayoo you should put everything together in a folder or something and bring it to PSU:MA. *just in case* a dev comes. such well done work (like Maglev) shouldnt go unnoticed.