Improvement: An alternative to lattice and hex

[OctavianAXFive]

Hi there! Long time browser first time poster.

A lot of people propose a form of the lattice system as a way to rectify the battle flow issue. Hand in hand with this is the “metagame” discussion that ties into things like continent locking, intercontinental warfare, and resources.

I set out to try something different. Solving this problem is not easy and I am not a game developer by trade. I’m not terribly efficient at solving puzzles but I like the challenge. The following is what I came up with over about three days.

I call it the Go system.

The rules are inspired by the game of Understanding the game a little bit might help you understand the map.

Rules:

In order to attack a territory, you must have a territory you already control adjacent to it. You can capture territories in one of two ways.

• Capture all adjacent territories.
• Direct Assault from an adjacent territory

Territories should have set “capture” times. In addition, freshly captured territories go on “defensive cooldown” meaning they cannot immediately be retaken.

I’m hoping my system provides more large battles, but also leaves room for smaller squad ops.

Because there are three factions, some situations might arise where two different factions have surrounded a single territory.

For example: Let’s say the Allatum Bio Lab is controlled by the TR, but ends up getting surrounded on all sides by the VS and NC. Normally this would result in a capture of the biolab. However, because two different factions are vying for the territory, neither faction will automatically own it. Instead, the TR will lose the resource benefits of the territory and will have their respawn times dramatically increased within the territory. Meaning that even if they put a sunderer underneath the biolab, that sunderer would still experience high respawn timers. They would maintain control of the main spawn room until the SCU is destroyed via direct assault. If either the VS or NC manage to drive the other back and get a full surround without the TR breaking out, the biolab will instantly fall.

The Map:

The only way for this to work is to revamp the map with fewer territories and to make resource centers very valuable objectives. I decided when I designed the new map of Indar that the small outposts that currently dot the map are too scattered and too small/indefensible. Instead I would like to see each territory have more unique base layouts that are pretty well fortified compared to the scattered pre-fab rooms that currently populate the map. If you study the map you’ll see why.



I’d like to thank whoever posted the blank image of Indar on imgur.

How to read this:

• Red, Purple, and Blue territories are liberties to resource facilities.

• Resource facilities are yellow.

• The three-hex resource facility is actually not where the crown is. This territory is the home to the future Interlink Facility.

• White hexes are non-liberties but still contain spawning facilities.

• The light blue and light purple facilities are like the white hexes except they do not touch the warpgate.

• Black hexes are no-man’s lands. They break adjacency and are not able to be captured. Players may still cross them, but they usually should represent some geographical object that is impassable on foot or by ground vehicle.

• To gate lock someone, you must capture all of their territory, including the white hexes that touch their warpgate.

On this map there are territories that are not resource facilities that are extremely important choke points or in some cases count as multiple liberties. These territories should be very defensible.

You should only be allowed to spawn at immediately adjacent territories or the warpgate. If you have any questions about the map just ask.
I tried doing this for Esamir and Amerish but they are tough nuts to crack, especially since making a hex-grid for them in MS Paint would take me too long. If you like my idea and want to work on Amerish and Esamir with me and have some technical skills in photoshop, shoot me a PM.

Making Resources Count:

The main issue people have is that finding battles are hard, ghost capping sucks, and there are vehicles everywhere. I think I have an idea of how to solve these problems too.

Time for some economics.

Resources: The goal of the resource system is to create something that is scarce that needs to be allocated. The end goal of that allocation is the regulation of the number of vehicles a faction can muster based on how many resources they have at their disposal. You need two distinct resource systems. An internal system and an external one.

Internal Resource System: This system is the one that the player never sees and will require a lot of tweaking on the part of SoE. I’m kind of just spouting theory here with no real hard numbers but this is something that SoE internally can take care of much better than I can. I’ll try and explain this as simply as I can with the following example. These numbers are random and you can utilize more raw resources if necessary, I’m just trying to keep the concept simple.

The first 50 widgets, 25 sprockets, and 30 cogs a tech plant produces are worth 100 tokens each. A MBT costs 3 widgets, 1 sprocket, and 2 cogs to make. The player purchases the tank for 600 tokens. Each vehicle has different internal costs associated with it.

Now let’s say that the players have exhausted the “first batch” of cogs. The next batch of cogs is worth 150 tokens each. Now a player goes to purchase a tank and it costs 700 tokens. Why would I do this?
It will allow SoE to regulate how many of each vehicle type is on the field at once. If a faction purchases a ton of vehicles, the cost per vehicle gets greater and greater making them prohibitively expensive to spam. They can also make it so that with each tech plant you own, the threshold before certain “parts” become more expensive is raised so that controlling multiple tech plants provides greater benefit. The warpgate would of course passively provide these resources but at a much lower rate. This would make tech plants incredibly valuable and would focus the fighting around them. But of course, the other facilities need this kind of incentive so you can make Biolabs increase the number of sprockets or something. Ideally it would take the raw materials (sprockets, widgets or cogs) to make infantry things like grenades and medpacks. Biolabs could potentially provide more of the resource(s) that benefit infantry.

There would also have to be a diminishing effect on the rate at which you jump from one cost level to the next. Let’s say the TR build a ton of prowlers and jack up the price on each new vehicle. Now let’s say they attack some place and fail, losing many of the prowlers. Even if the number of resources available at the factory is “replenished” due to the fact that a lot of prowlers have been destroyed, it should still take some time before the TR can replenish its prowlers at a lower cost. AMP stations should help reduce the time it takes for Tech Plants and Biolabls to go back to their “first batch” pricing.

NOTE: Flashes should always be free in terms of internal resources.

The goal of this is to make vehicles and facilities more valuable and disincentivize throwing them away (like people do with galaxies). It should also help reduce the vehicle spam.

The external resource:

These are the “tokens” that players have to spend on vehicles and gear. They can be gained passively but they also ought to be gained much the same way someone gains certs. If you are more of a vehicle type of player but you run low on tokens, you will be forced to fight with the infantry for a while. However, if you’re not a great shot with a gun, you should be able to earn tokens providing ammo, repairing, healing, reviving, etc. This should be the fastest way to get tokens. It also means that they aren’t just sitting around the warpgate waiting for their tokens to replenish.
Lastly, tokens should be continent specific. In addition to this, if you launch a cross-continental assault using large tank/vehicle columns through the warpgate, you are using the resources from the continent you start on.

The Interlink Facility:

As a kind of side note my idea for an interlink facility is to have a base that allows for you to “hotdrop” vehicles or ammo/grenades/max suite to your location on a cooldown. It should cost tokens to do this in addition to the cost of the vehicle. You also shouldn’t be allowed to hotdrop sunderers or aircraft.

Sabotage:

People love this concept and I do too. Even if you don’t have adjacency to facilities, you should be able to go in and sabotage them. You can provide secondary generators that impact the amount of internal resources available/gained. These generators can be sabotaged until someone comes to fix them. You can’t take the capture point(s) without adjacency or attack the main SCU.