Off Duty/offline activities.

Kumoblade · 2009-11-28, 05:01 AM

Planetside, obviously, is a game that relies on Population for success. When Populations begin to fail, the players who are still paying feel the pinch.

One of the ways I think they could alleviate this is by having Player Characters have off Duty Activities or Jobs when you're offline so you can continue to be an asset to your Outfit/Faction while you're not logging hours and raking in kills.

This kind of system would kind of coincide with many of the various ideas I've thrown around the forums and will be using several of them in an example. I'm really horrible at explaining things (being a right brainy and all), so hopefully an example will hit its mark.

Example 1.) offline engineering/researching/Crafting.

Your Outfit for House Harkonne...errr Terran Republic finally has accumulated enough RND (research and development for those who aren't familiar) to construct a new Variant of the Prowler (not an easy task, but a very rewarding one). The engineering Officer of the outfit accesses the Outfit garage and with a Vehicle creation UI puts all the pieces together and fastens.

He browses through the cataloged inventory of salvaged/manufactured/crafted/stolen parts retrieved from the hard working soldiers/engineers/hackers of the outfit and their respective level of the parts available. The Outfit had its heart set on the 'TW6000' Engine. It provided more speed than the Standard Prowler's 'PLR750 Single' at the cost of torque. He chooses the 'TF30 Tiger Fang' Tank Treads and a plethora of other parts that makes this Machine Unique to your Outfit. He crops out the Chaingun from atop the main cannons to add room, and adds a mine-sweeper to the front of the tank. Its still a prowler, but its YOUR Prowler. Satisfied with the changes, he strips the tank of its default colors, and gives it a fresh paint job with your Outfit logo centered right on the front for all who get mowed over to see.

Once the virtual schematic is assembled (Think Iron man, when he's working on building his Suit, he builds it virtually then it constructs it), An estimated time of Construction is displayed in the corner by the Confirm Assembly button. There will be an option of the Outfit Leader's approval at Outfit leader request, but he's the engineer's Officer, what does an Outfit leader know about building sophisticated drums of war?

With all the severe Modifications that will be performed to a stock Prowler, the build time is 72 hours. (The More radical the changes from the default, the longer the build time till complete.)

This build time assumes that there is 1 Engineer working on this fine piece of machinery. A lowly NPC working for Minimum Wage and has a nasty itch on his hind end.

Clearly, this will take a while with just him working on it. However, for this Build/Construction, there are 6 Engineer Slots available to work on this Project.

If your character is an engineer (of varying degrees), you can head to the garage and request to assist in working on constructing the Tank. There you will fill one of the engineer slots, and the Estimated time goes down. You may then sign off, and continue to help grow the Outfit. Or you may choose to stay online and continue fighting while still helping build/craft the machine. (Akin to fallen earth's crafting where its real time based, and can be performed while online or offline while you go about your business.)

With a Salary system, you could even continue to make money while offline as long as you were working on something/maintaining a job. And depending on your engineering rank, it would determine how much you made on the job, as well as the bonus you provided to the work.
Engineer Rank 1 - For every Hour you're on the job, the build time is cut by 5 Minutes.
Engineer Rank 2 - For every hour you're on the job, the build time is cut by 10 minutes.
Engineer Rank 3 - For every Hour/ - 20 Minutes from build time.

From a single person perspective, it may not look like much, but when you have 6 people working on it, every hour, you cut a significant amount of time from the total build time of the machine. A 72 hour build time with 6 level 3 engineers would be knocking 2 hours off the build time every hour, essentially doubling its build speed and your brand new tanks would be on the field by 36 hours.

Depending on Outfit Rank/level, you could store so Several vehicle variants in your garage. Once a Vehicle Varient/Custom vehicle is finished, it can be accessed for building at terminals for combat.

This example was longer than I had anticipated.

other Examples would be Weapons Development/Armor development/Information gathering/Resource gathering/Not doing a damn thing/Medic/Salvage RND for new parts/Guard or NPC Soldier/Convoy Escort/etc.. etc...

Firefly · 2009-11-29, 07:21 PM

Crafting = economy.

JUST SAY NO TO ECONOMY.

Kumoblade · 2009-11-30, 12:10 AM

by your squirrel logic, anything that isn't shooting an enemy is Economy.

Does that mean they should remove Looting ammo, weapons and medkits from dead enemies from PS:Next? clearly that's [booming Communist voice]ECONOMY[/booming Communist Voice]

Firefly · 2009-11-30, 12:46 AM

Looting isn't economy. Most games feature something where you pick up the spoils of war. An economy requires an exchange. Me picking shit out of your backpack after I rape your face isn't exchanging anything. It's me taking stuff after I have my way with you. The crap in your backpack I can easily acquire elsewhere - provided I kill the shit out of your empire mates or log into an alt/secondary and drop gear for my main. That isn't economy either.

Kumoblade · 2009-11-30, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by Firefly

Looting isn't economy. Most games feature something where you pick up the spoils of war. An economy requires an exchange. Me picking shit out of your backpack after I rape your face isn't exchanging anything. It's me taking stuff after I have my way with you. The crap in your backpack I can easily acquire elsewhere - provided I kill the shit out of your empire mates or log into an alt/secondary and drop gear for my main. That isn't economy either.

Alrighty Captain Contradiction. Thats where you're wrong. That IS Economy. Hopping on an Alt to Trade weapons. That's damn near economy in every sense of the word.

Also, quote you in a Previous Thread. "no Consumables". What are consumables? medkits? Grenades? Ammo? You state an economy is an exchange. However, if you ever read an ounce beyond "crafting, salvage, etc.." you'd realize that these, are infact, NOT ECONOMY.

how is salvaging parts from a Scrap yard or destroyed vehicle any different than Looting a dead person and putting it in your locker? How is turning something you Loot into something you can use any different than you hopping on an Alt from another Faction and Dropping weapons for yourself?

If you've read even a bit beyond your nose, you'd notice that I'm completely against Out-of-outfit Trade. That the things you salvage are used solely for you and your Outfit.

Do you have "No Economy!!!11one!" on a macro or something? Or is it okay for you emulate a self-serving economy by trading with yourself, but the game shouldn't have it?

ANaKeR · 2009-11-30, 10:08 AM

The idea of 'building your own prowler' is a great idea and it can be applied to the weapons as well. I would like to be able to have a choice between bullets, firing rates, scopes, etc. that are unlocked through achievements. For instance, say you unlock new cooling mechanism for the TR Mini-Chaingun that allows for increased firing rate at a cost of reduced projectile damage. This allows the player to adapt the gun to their style of play as opposed to the player having to adapt to the gun.

I'll write more about this later.

JackEarthrider · 2009-11-30, 12:42 PM

I'd like to throw up a bit of caution that you have to make sure the custom weapons/vehicles are not OP.

The moment that happens everyone will need to go through the motions to get their custom pieces (whether they want to or not) because they don't want to be ganked 50 more times by the guy who does.

Otherwise, customization is cool as long as it only conveys a marginal advantage, and can be reasonably acquired by everyone.

ANaKeR · 2009-11-30, 02:39 PM

Well if you're familiar with Team Fortress 2 you'll know what i mean. For example in TF2, the Natascha minigun: It slows the target (their running speed) but has a reduced hit damage. So you get an advantage in one respect, and a disadvantage in another respect. This keeps it fair.

To truly balance it, you need to look at the stats and make sure one weapon isn't repeatedly dominating another (like what was/is happening in PS1).

JackEarthrider · 2009-11-30, 04:28 PM

Ah ok, now I see what you mean. I haven't played Team Fortress 2 so I didn't know it was a advantage for a weakness compromise.

In that case thats all well and good and would make for some interesting squad combinations (if there were sufficent verities availible that is).

Kumoblade · 2009-11-30, 07:49 PM

Aye, the whole concept would be a balancing act and trade off (Oh Noes, I said trade! HERESY! =P). Think of it from a Global scale on the battlefield. All the various variations that every Outfit has come up with with various weapons, vehicles, armors, etc.. all with their own paint jobs. It would make for a real striking sight.

I believe in the idea of getting upgraded versions of parts as well that perform better than lower versions, however Enemies could try and sabotage your advancements in Research to stunt your progression, and you could do the same to them. With progression, advancement, and the race to better guns continues, it would give your faction a much greater reason to fight.

I would say there should be Faction Advancement as well as Outfit advancement. Enemies can try and halt your Faction advancement, and vice versa. Once you unlock a new Advancement level in the faction (Something that should take months to achieve with a big game of tug o war), you can unlock the next range of Upgrades, which provide slightly better benefits than the previous versions at a much steeper upkeep and build time so you can balance between "Bigger Better, Tougher and rarer" or "Faster, cheaper and more easily obtained." And you could strike a balance between the 2.

With Several advancement Ranks for every Faction, the game could continue feeling fresh for years as new Vehicles, weapons, armors and all their parts and combinations and such are unlocked through Research and Development.

Just throwing ideas out there. I like the Idea of a Dynamic World where customization allows for the most flexibility and creativity is rewarded instead of feeling like you're constantly being controlled in what you can and cannot do or make.

DviddLeff · 2009-12-09, 02:48 PM

What I would like to see is events around new equipment, allowing empires to unlock a new weapon or vehicle first if they achieve a certain set of goals (say holding x amount of research stations for x amount of time).

Kumoblade · 2009-12-12, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

What I would like to see is events around new equipment, allowing empires to unlock a new weapon or vehicle first if they achieve a certain set of goals (say holding x amount of research stations for x amount of time).

Goals is the key. There needs to be a Goal. And with obtaining that goal is a feeling of satisfaction, especially if its something that takes quite some time and effort.

Once you have that goal, you reap the benefits. The other factions as well are going to be trying to obtain that goal as well.

But I like the idea of Enemies being able to sabotage (carefully done) what you've gained. the ability to undo what someone else has done will keep morale up and give yet another reason to fight.

If so and so is 3 upgrades ahead of you, and is kicking your ass, whats stopping you from just rolling on that side to enjoy the benefits and kick the little guy?

Well, with sabotaging, the Little guy still has a chance to fight back, and thus, still have a reason to fight back in being able to sabotage and stunt faction advancement.

DviddLeff · 2009-12-13, 05:01 AM

Make it so there is a timer on switching empires initially, not after you have logged in and checked the populations.

Smaller empires must have the chance to catch up so there must be heavy restrictions on switching sides.

Kumoblade · 2009-12-14, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

Make it so there is a timer on switching empires initially, not after you have logged in and checked the populations.

Smaller empires must have the chance to catch up so there must be heavy restrictions on switching sides.

That can be counter-productive in such long term goals. If Empire A has acquired several upgrades above Empire B, people from Empire B may just delete their toons and switch to Empire A.

Thats why I say allow Empires to sabotage each other to keep giving the underdog at the time a reason to fight.

There has to be reasons to fight when under surmountable odds stacked against them.

DviddLeff · 2009-12-14, 05:43 PM

Agree completely; I don't see why there should even be a need to have even populations if the game was designed to account for it.

Even without adding artificial exp/health incentives to the mix there are many things that an underdog empire could do to counter the superior numbers; guerilla raids and striking behind enemy lines spring to mind, making the large numbers react to them rather than just smashing the smaller foe.