Resources

[Kerrec]

First off, I know there are plenty of threads about Resources. I'm brand spanking new to PlanetSide and I've played a TR to BR22 and a NC to 18 (I think). It has taken that little time to start wondering WTF? I couldn't quite get a handle on what really bothered me about PS2 resources, until I read Hamas's Large Outfits ruining PS2 thread. I would have simply posted what I have to say there, but I'm afraid it will get lost in the noise and never get read. Same deal with posting in some otherwise dead thread about Resources.

Everytime I've played PS2, the three factions are zerging on three separate continents. Whatever, that's just human nature taking the easy route to whatever they feel is giving them their desired rewards (winning the map, getting certs, steamrolling defenders, etc...) However, there are always a select few that try to fight the zerg (and I will state that by Zerg, I mean a gross population imbalance for a particular continent. Doesn't matter if organization or tactics are involved or not). I like playing as the underdog, so I always try to accomplish something vs. a zerg, even if all I do is repair a AV turret and blast one MAX before being salvo'd by 50 different MBT's and Libs.

Here's my beef:

Resources are tied to individuals, and not to factions. There's no way to control the rate of resources coming in since there's no control on population. I'm not 100% sure on the details, but from what I gather, you get a fixed amount of resources over time. The quantity of the resource you get increases the more area of the continent you control. Then when you want to use those resources, you find a terminal "somewhere" that offers what you want, and spend it. The terminals themselves have no limits other than how fast the vehicles can clear the spawn pad.

Seems OK, until someone like me, who is all new to PS2 thinks about it with a fresh view and says, WTF? So I can log on into my warpgate, try to spawn a vehicle and see that I don't have enough resources, decide to go AFK and do something else, then return and spawn my precious vehicle without having made one single shred of effort or taken any risk at all? Huh? No wonder I face armadas of vehicles and slow moving unstoppable zergs almost everytime I log on to play.

The way I see it: Warpgates should spawn FREE but STOCK UNMODIFIED classes/resources/vehicles with nothing but a timer to stop you from chain spawning them. This gives a faction a fighting chance when they own nothing. Upgraded classes and vehicles should only be purchasable at appropriate bases. For example, Tech plants spawn armor, Amp stations spawn air assets, Bio domes spawn infantry upgrades and assets.

Next thing is no more individual resources. Those bases that spawn the nice stuff, they have a faction resource pool IE: Tech gets armor, Amp gets Air, Bio gets Infantry + AMS Sunderers. The rate increases by owning more territory. Any particular base will not be able to replenish an entire zerg worth of vehicles based on how fast they can move off the spawn pad. So, there will actually be a real vehicle queu. If you want your vehicle faster, then go capture more territory, or ultimately, MORE bases. Or go get a free stock one from Warpgate.

At least this way, small outfits can harass vehicle reinforcements rejoining the zerg from the nearest base. The fact that an entire zerg can currently quickly reinforce at a base they JUST captured only promotes more zerg. And the TIME it will take for reinforcements to rejoin the zerg will slow it down making it that much more unpleasant to be in a "mindless, size is all that matters" zerg.

There are plenty more benefits I can imagine:

Sunderers can spawn with a fixed quantity of Infantry assets, pulled from the Bio dome pool. Get destroyed before you can deploy? Should have had a better escort. Run out of resources during a push? Then your faction only gets to spawn stock classes. Or you can un-deploy and let a full resource sunderer move up and take its place.

Non-AMS sunderers can spawn at a Tech plant with upgraded weapons, Ammo replenishers or Repair; drawing from armor resources but otherwise have no infantry (AMS) resources.

The MAIN BENEFIT is that moving continents doesn't allow you to bring your resources to THAT continent, where you outnumber the other factions and just futher unbalance things. If you're a tanker only, and the continent you are on is over populated for your faction, then you may be stuck waiting 5-10 minutes in the vehicle queu for your upgraded tank. However, if you go to a continent that is less populated, you may get that upgraded tank right away. Only catch is, you'll have to play smart with that shiny new tank!