Will REAL WORLD strategy come into play?

AcidCat · 2003-02-28, 09:36 PM

What I mean is, strategy based around players' tendencies in the real world to take advantage of a time when not many people would ordinarily be playing.

I was thinking, since this is a constant battlefield, even taking into account different timezones, there will be timeframes during any given 24 hours when a lot of people will be playing, and times when significantly less will be playing....

so I'm wondering, - will there be a significant number of players taking this game serious enough to orchestrate a strategy to take advantage of these slow times? Would it give an advantage to stage a mass Vanu offensive involving a few dedicated Outfits at like 4 AM central time, for example?

Just a random thought, sorry if something similar has already been brought up.

Nightmare · 2003-02-28, 09:38 PM

Geez, good point. Since the servers are all based in their own time zone, people indeed could take the night to their advantage. Wow, the tide of the game could easily change over night...

Hellsfire123 · 2003-02-28, 09:39 PM

4am central, u mean primetime? heh.

With this game as popular as it is in Europe and the states there shouldnt be to much of a slow time. I wouldnt worry about it to much. While a outfit might be able to do quite abit in this time, it will sort itself out over the course of time.

WNxUndeadFenix · 2003-02-28, 09:40 PM

thats why i REALLY think that all the servers shoudl merge into one... so when one time zone is sleeping another can keep your bases and continue the battle... but then again i dont know the cons of only one server...

Nightmare · 2003-02-28, 09:44 PM

heh, you go to bed with a continent locked by your faction. You wake up and it is still locked, but by another faction!

OmnipotentKiwi · 2003-02-28, 09:55 PM

The early morning stuff isn't a giant concern for me. This actually allows more of a constant changing of the bases, rather then a constant winning side.

Virtuoso · 2003-02-28, 10:17 PM

Any large, orginized assaults will take place at about 3-4 AM local server time. That's just a fact with MMOGs. If you played UO, DAoC... any game where you take control of something... that's how it goes. No way around it.

-Virt

Sturm · 2003-02-28, 10:34 PM

WNxUndeadFenix if they did that it would be THE MOST GROUNDBREAKING game of all time... However that simply isn't feasible or logical to do with a FPS game where there are no "queing" of attacks like in mmorpgs. Other games do it because they are somewhat lag resistant with their genre. Games like Everquest que attacks so the server handles them. In a FPS it's usually on the players end who sets the latency.Everything is in real time in Planetside. If you are looking for a MMO that is going to be all on one server(or so they are planning too, and it looks good so far) check out EVE:The Second Genesis.

30,000+ people or so on one server would generate a whole lot of lag....I just don't think Planetside is built to even have say 5,000 people attacking a base at once....thats just phenomenonal. I don't even think the world is large enough....it's big granted, but not that big.

I think you'll find it's much harder to take a whole continent that it seems. There will always be those late night addictees who play..
So what if a bunch of people do take over the planet? It will be near impossible to hold all the ground they have gained when the rest of the server peeps log back on.

I don't think you should worry about it too much. Nobody can really loose the battle....they can be pushed back and humiliated but they will most certainly make a comeback.

Hellsfire123 · 2003-02-28, 11:22 PM

Originally posted by Sturm
I don't think you should worry about it too much. Nobody can really loose the battle....they can be pushed back and humiliated but they will most certainly make a comeback.

Hell if one empire manages to lock a continent like this, the other empires will just take it back the same way. Anyway, this kind of coward tactic will be largly discouraged anyway. Whats the fun in taking under or even un-defended bases? Thats not what the game is about. I know i wouldnt want to do one of these missions.

Arshune · 2003-02-28, 11:36 PM

Originally posted by Sturm
THE MOST GROUNDBREAKING game of all time...

The virtual reality steak-eating simulator!

Like someone said before, ninja raids are just a fact of life in MMOs...you'll just have to depend on nightowls like me to mount some good defense.

Tobias · 2003-02-28, 11:46 PM

I doubt we will see many battles with more then say three hundred people, and few bases will ever have that many at them at once, but that is still a hell of allot of people. This game is gonna rock. And on the subject of the thread, I dont think people waking up in the wee hours to conduct massive assults will be a problem.

Nightmare · 2003-02-28, 11:53 PM

Bob - "well, I'm off. cya later Joe."
Joe - "Bye Bob."

10 minutes later

Joe - "la la l-" *sees a drop pod* "I wonder who that is..." *sees dozens of drop pods landing* "that's odd..."

2 minutes later

Joe - "We're under attack!!! Were is everybo- *gets shot by sniper*

Hopefully we won't see many of these situations.

AcidCat · 2003-03-01, 12:40 AM

Originally posted by Tobias
. And on the subject of the thread, I dont think people waking up in the wee hours to conduct massive assults will be a problem.

LOL, well personally I never thought it would be a problem, I thought it would be pretty cool to have an organized sneak attack based on this kind of philosophy.

"Whats the fun in taking under or even un-defended bases? Thats not what the game is about"

Well, aside from the fact that it's not up to any one person to say what this game is "about" or not, I think it's an interesting concept anyway, kind of a crossover between the real and virtual worlds.

TheGreatCarbini · 2003-03-01, 01:14 AM

Well I know people will go on late night raids and you might be able to make a few night strikes. Can't stop it but, your side will most likley have people doing it too, so it works out.

As for people not attacking then because it defeats the purpose of having fun... hehe there are WAY to many people who play games to "get everything" or to win no matter what. If anyone here has played warcraft 3 you all know what I'm talking about. It's all rush tactics anymore, only a select few will actualy have a full battle, which is the fun part. Still happens though, you get a wierd tactic where someone starts building inside your base or some wierd strategy.

Anyone play CnC Generals? The GLA tunnel rush is an example. It can win easily unless you enemy does the same, if not you win in about 4 min. Defeats the purpose, yet people still do it.

So never underestimate how much a polyginal building is worth to some people.

Even with just automated defenses.

Virtuoso · 2003-03-01, 01:38 AM

The major raids will be at the pre-dawn hours of the local server times. Anyone who thinks otherwise either hasn't played a game with goals like this, or doesn't know what they're talking about. I'm sorry if that sounds cocky, and don't take it as a flame cause it's not, but that's just how it is.

-Virt