Improvement: Technology/Araxium Resource Concept (PS1 Inspired Unique System)

[wave]

THIS TECHNOLOGY/ARAXIUM RESOURCE CONCEPT WILL:

-Bring real intrinsic value and meaning to every single base on the continent.
-Expand on a Planetside 1 playbook concept that is proven to work.
-Be a simple and very easy to understand concept for all levels of FPS player.
-Be relatively easy for SOE to implement.
-Add real worth to all vehicles to prevent vehicle spam.
-Integrate a diminishing returns style system to prevent winning factions from steamrolling a continent.
-Integrate support for factions with chronically low server populations.
-Reward good players.
-Allow players to determine how their own resources are spent.
-Introduce a new dynamic for strategic game play.
-Be a system that can easily support future additional metagame concepts.


TECHNOLOGY

-A factions technology level is used to determine they type of vehicles that are available to them on a given continent.
The higher the level of technology, the more and better the vehicles that are available to that faction.
-All small bases on a continent have a level of technology associated with it.
Small bases on Indar have 16 Technology, small bases on Esamir have 45 technology, small bases on Amerish have 32 technology.
-Factions start off with a technology level of 50 that is associated with owning the warpgate. Each additional small base under their control adds to the factions total technology level.
-Tech Plants give a technology multiplier of 30%.
-When a faction has a technology level over 500, all vehicles are available to that faction.
-A continent has technology resources in such a way that if all 3 factions control exactly 1/3 of the continent with a Tech Plant each, those factions will each have a technology level just over 500.
-Tying in the idea of getting better vehicles with owning bases makes every base have real meaning and worth in the game. Everyone knows that the ---Tech Plant in Planetside 2 right now has real meaning because it is tied to MBTs, this technology concept expands on that intrinsic value.
-This vehicles as rewards system comes straight from Planetside 1. Players of that game will remember that if your faction did not control a Dropship Center, or a Tech Plant, that faction was denied Galaxies, Liberators, Reavers, and Main Battle Tanks. This Technology concept only expands on and enhances how the Planetside 1 system worked.
-Just like Planetside 1, high technology vehicles can be brought into any continent from another continent/sanctuary through a warpgate as needed.


THE LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY NEEDED FOR VEHICLES COULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

50 tech = Flash (no weapons), ESF (no weapons, personal air transport)
100 tech = Flash (with weapons), Buggy (no weapons)
150 tech = Sunderer (no weapons), Buggy (with weapons)
200 tech = Maxes, Lightning (with weapons), ESF (front cannon only, air superiority fighter)
250 tech = Galaxy (no weapons)
300 tech = Sunderer (with weapons)
350 tech = Galaxy (with weapons)
400 tech = Main Battle Tank (no secondary weapon)
450 tech = ESF (all weapons)
500 tech = Liberators (all weapons), Main Battle Tank (all weapons)

THE DISTRIBUTION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR A TYPICAL SITUATION COULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:





ARAXIUM AS CURRENCY

-Araxium is used to purchase vehicles and infantry goods
-Araxium is given to players as a ratio of experience gained. Possibly a 10 to 1 ratio.
-Encourages players to go out and fight
-Rewards good players because they make more Araxium
-Brings real value to all vehicles in the game because players are using their own hard earned Araxium to buy them.
-To purchase a vehicle, first your faction must have a high enough Technolgy level to support the vehicle and next the player must have enough Araxium to cover the costs.
-Players who subscribe to Planetside 2 could be given a higher ratio of Araxium per Experience.
-Factions with chronically low server populations should be given a higher ratio of Araxium per Experience or passive Araxium gain.
-Low technology vehicles cost very little Araxium whereas high technology vehicles are more expensive. For example, a Flash might cost 25 Araxium whereas a Liberator might cost 250 Araxium.
-There would be a limit to how much Araxium a player could accumulate. Possible 1000 Araxium or something like that to prevent players from sudden vehicle spamming.
-Amp Stations would provide a passive Araxium gain for all players in the faction on that continent.
-Araxium costs for vehicles would increase the further away from a from a friendly warpgate it was trying to be purchased. For example: A Lightning might cost 150 Araxium at the warpgate but would cost 225 Araxium at a base beside an enemies warpgate.
-Prevents winning factions from steamrolling a continent.
-Prevents vehicle spam.

[wave]

YOU CANT TAKE AWAY VEHICLES FROM ME THAT I PAYED GOOD MONEY FOR!

Let me start off by saying that right now in Planetside 2, if a faction does not own a Tech Plant, that faction is denied MBTs. People are already being denied vehicles that they have put certs into and paid money to enhance. My concept is no different, it just expands on what is already taking place in PS2.

Everyone knows that in PS2 that tech plants are the most valuable base because the reward is allowing players access to vehicles that they have certed into and paid to enhance. My system takes the value that we understand PS2 Tech Plants to have, and spreads that value around to other bases and enhances it.

People payed good money monthly to play Planetside 1 and a lot more vehicles than just a MBT was denied to them. Many times you would be denied, MBTs, ESF, Liberators, and Galaxies. Planetside 1 players understood the system, and appreciated that the system brought strategy and fun to the game.

Lastly, and most importantly, you can still get any vehicle you want from a different continent/sanctuaryand bring it through the warpgate to another continent. No vehicles are denied to you, what is denied is the convenience at which you can get your vehicle.


THIS SUCKS!, I WANTED ANTS/SILOS/NTU/PLANETSIDE 1

I too came from Planetside 1 and played on and off since release since 2003. I love the game and understand why so many people want to bring aspects of that game into PS2. What we all have to understand is that PS2 is fundamentally a different game in many ways that will never be changed.
PS2 will always have thousands of players vs hundreds in PS1.
PS2 will always allow players to spawn all types of vehicles vs the couple that people certed into in PS1.
PS2 will always have a lower TTK than in PS1.
And many more.

The point is that trying to bring over concepts like a pooled resource system or caches of resources for people to use will never work. Since all vehicles are available to all players, there will always be players who waste a factions resources by just spawning a different vehicle when the last one is lost. Tank blew up? Get a Sunderer. Sunderer blew up? Get a Liberator and so on.
Griefing would become a serious problem with people killing each other to get to the front of a vehicle line up or killing each other to prevent them from wasting resources. Single players should never have to suffer because larger groups of people do not like the way they are using resources.

Meanwhile, people who care that resources are running out will be the ones who have to do the dirty work of resupplying. Pugs will not give a damn. The fact that it will require a lot of teamwork to allow a system where ANTs supply resources would almost exclusively require outfits who have that level of teamwork be responsible to do the resource runs. This means that the pugs who are wasting all the resources at the front will be making the XP while the outfits are behind the lines trying to protect ANTs from enemy ESFs that can destroy said ANT with a couple of volleys of LOLpods.
The point is that the people who care about metagame would be the ones who are losing out.



THIS SUCKS!, I WANTED A MORE INVOLVED METAGAME

This Technology/Araxium system is just a small portion of the metagame! So much more can be added later on such as command ranks, influence systems, technology distribution nodes that can be destroyed, base hacking, and maybe even ANTs to supply cut off bases with power to keep spawn tubes going. Planetside 2 is never going to be a finished game until it shuts down in the year 2025! This Technology/Araxium system is just the base on which all the other more fun metagame stuff is added on. May is around the corner and SOE has indicated that they want to make changes to the resource system and that is the only thing my Technology/Araxium system addresses.

[Rothnang]

I don't see this system improving the game in any way. If you're completely outnumbered on a server and your faction never holds a lot of regions you might as well just quit playing with this system.

[wave]

Rotang you and I both played PS1 and our factions did not give up when we didnt have Dropship Centers or Tech Plants leading us to lose Galaxies, Liberators, MBTs, and Reavers. I do not see why people would give up now. What is your reasoning?

[Rothnang]

I never played PS1 actually.

My reasoning is simply this: PS1 was a hardcore game whether you were winning or not. It took a great deal of commitment to get anything done in it, even if you were winning.
PS2 is not a hardcore game when you are winning, but you are trying to make it a hardcore game when you are losing, and that will utterly cripple any faction that's already doing badly primarily because of population problems.

I am simply categorically opposed to any idea that makes the going easier when you're at the top because that leads to a snowball effect that we are already seeing. People are abandoning the game if they feel like they are stuck on the losing side of every fight. Even if there are a few hardcore players left who don't care and try to dig themselves out, they won't have much success.

The reality of PS2 is, if you have half as many people as the opponent you won't have half as much land, you'll have no land at all.