SmedBlog: Harvestable Resources

[Satyxis]

Cautiously optimistic about it. As long as the harvesting had a measurable influence on the game, I could see having some fun doing it.

[Trolltaxi]

Resources are meant to be the key feautre of the "tactical layer" of the game. It was said a million times, that empires will plan their attacks along their own needs, or to deny other empires' access to their most important resource.

I don't know how well it will work in the final game. Maybe this isn't playing out well in techtest and beta and now they try to spice it up with the harvester idea?

[SpottyGekko]

I'm always in favour of features that make the gameplay deeper, but not if it's depth for the sake of it.

I'd say we need to play the game in release version for a while before this topic can really be tackled meaningfully. Right now we don't have a good idea of resource supply and consumption rates, so it's hard to tell how harvesters would affect the balance.

But I could see resource harvesting as a potential lifeline to a faction that's lost a large slice of territory though. Sending out ninja squads to setup harvesters deep inside enemy territory could provide an interesting meta-game. That faction's shortage of resources would be a strong motivator to do something that would normally be seen as "boring".

If the harvester diverted resources from the hex owner to the harvester owner, it would become an economic weapon. It would mean that the larger a faction's territory became, the more that faction would have to patrol their territory to winkle out ninja harvesters. This would add an additional cost to holding large swathes of territory.

[Ivam Akorahil]

i personaly like it because it makes the game more complex and rich. instead of having a forced engagement at the front this way players can also do mining operations in eve style, these require protection, everything takes coordination etc. it makes the continent seem more realistic, you have people going on about their business behind the frontline, gathering resources, being guarded, getting ambushed, planning ambushes on enemy resources etc etc

it makes it feel as if there is something to do on the whole continent not just on the front line or in enemy territory

because at the moment i wonder

once you captured the territory - what are you gonna do with it besides passively generating resources? there seems to be little else to gain in the current system

[XxAxMayxX]

sounhds cool maybe some like rare resources you can find in the middle of no where you can harvest with a team. this sounds really cool, the resources could do very specific things like give you ammo or vehicle cool down boosts.

Imagine setting up some sort of mobile mining rig over a small vein of minerals and defending it with friends... sounds great.

[stordito]

harverster, moving in!

could be a replacement for ANT... not providing "power" to the base but to the people fighting for it... i like it!
those harversters would need escorts and a safe trip back,adding another layer of coordination

[p0intman]

If I want to spend my time harvesting my own resources I play something like an RTS game. Again, this doesn't belong in a PVP game.

[Notsononymous]

My ideal for this would be combination of the Civilization stage from EA's Spore, and perhaps the Fatboy from THQ's Supreme Commander. I will explain what I mean in more detail below.

Spore's Civilization stage had a system where you would capture a spice geyser and then transport vehicles would automatically harvest "spice" (the hard resource which was turned into Sporebucks). We would have a similar system here. Any main base (biodome etc.) you capture would automatically generate small transport vehicles which travel only between that base and the resource nodes around it. Obviously these can be destroyed.

Now the other thing I thought of is have then a supply line between all the main bases you capture and your faction's sanctuary. The transport vehicle looks like this and is mega-super hard to take down. But obviously if it is taken down then your faction loses a whole bunch of resources. This it would create nice mobile objective for the factions to contest (obviously you would have to be notified when it was being attacked).

[Tzitzimitl]

I think the one way this could be implemented is the following. First off the resource should be a rare one that goes to constructing/obtaining a unique vehicle or item(s)

This idea could be added to cause impromptu battles to occur. What i mean is this resource randomly spawns across a continent and only has a limited supply before it disappears. Factions would then have to fight for their right to harvest said resource. The resource could then either be capture-able like a base or go more along their lines of their vision in which i vehicle would have to be used to harvest it.

The only potential flaw is that can potentially detract from the main focus of the game but I guess this is what we are all trying to figure out. How to add a mechanic that adds the game's focus instead of detracting from it?

[Rat]

I like it, sounds like EVE 0.0, I see it only being done on continents where outfits own the bases, any weapons or equipment used for defending your base or attacking other player owned bases would come from whatever resources you aquire through mining. maybe you could also attack enemy mining operations and steal their resources.

And whos to say that warfare has to be limited to enemy factions? open the combat up to interfaction warfare....bring politics and aliences into the game

open the sandbox

[Rat]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

We didn't need outfits owning bases for ant runs, so no.

Loyalty to the Empire is an oath in Planetside. I will never combat a fellow Vanu.

this could be sooo much more than simply droping a ant out of a loadstar and calling it logistics...I for one would like to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

[Duskguy]

Originally Posted by ringring

However the questions that occur to me is why would you do it?

Would the resources you harvest accrue to you? To your outfit? To your squad? To your empire?

Originally Posted by ComerEste

Honestly, while killing people in PS2 will always be fun, it would be interesting if there were other elements besides killing people. I am definitely looking forward to them letting us build our own bases/towers/outposts in the future and it would be awesome if this was part of it. Like you have to use the minerals these things gather to upgrade your base, so they become another strategic asset to defend/attack.

someone also mentioned these could be used only for rare materials.
played a f2p game where colonies were added in and guilds could take them over and then upgrade them. to upgrade however, required lots of resources as well as some rare ones only able to be gained by other colonies, which promoted alliances and business deals.

if they add in outfits being able to get their own supplies of resources and create bases, these harvesters could be used as a means to get rare resources needed for upgrades for the outfit base.

example could be that the outfit uses x amount of auraxium and some other resource to place and set up a base which would be basically just a barracks. after that they could create a harvester shed which would supply one harvester at a time at the cost of x amount of x resources. to build other facilities such as a ground vehicle garage/spawn point you would need x resources as well as x amount of x(rare) resource, while an air hanger would require a different rare resource. turrets would require yet another, and everything else would work on differing amounts of normal and rare resources.
and by strategic placement, outfits could create small towns/forts where one outfit contributes more AA guns while another contributes ground turrets and another builds small barricades around the bases' perimiter.

TL;DR when/if we get outfit bases, rare resources gathered by harvester type units could provide a basis for upgrading said outfit bases

[Phisionary]

I think some resource gathering/harvesting mechanic is a superb idea. I've read and supported suggestions in the idea vault similar to this. There could be some interesting transport type missions if there was a cargo / skycrane type of aircraft.

I like the idea of different and more varied missions of various types. Ones where you have to defend targets, protect convoys, escort couriers, and so on. Perhaps a mission, where a random area has some valuable resources fall/appear/be discovered, and a formerly unimportant part of the map is the center of a raging three way resource battle.

It's an interesting idea of using new limited resources to balance and control new gameplay aspects. If a faction-objective-optional outfit resource-gathering operation was required to build a special outfit structure or vehicle, for instance...

[Neurotoxin]

I want a vehicle, or type of weapon for multiple vehicles, that allows for resources to be reclaimed from destroyed vehicles... or to steal resources in the form of armor or other parts from enemy vehicles with a close-range drill or beam or something.

Maybe players should be able to manage and maintain the resource acquisition systems for any hex they own. Resources could always be in flux, so people have to check bases every day or every few hours to make sure they are collecting the richest resource in the region.

[Gonzo]

It could be cool to spawn some sort of harvester vehicle at your foothold, then drive it to a base in a hex that provides resources to boost that hexes output.

Ex: A certain hex is controlled by a capture point at a Mine, and the hex produces catalysts. When you bring the harvester vehicle to the hex and activate it, the catalyst output of that hex gets + 20%, until the harvester is moved or destroyed. Deploy another harvester for another +10%. Capped at 2 active harvesters per hex.

Empires looking to increase their resource income would work on deploying harvesters in applicable areas (not all hexes can be harvested from), and defending them to keep up the resource boost. Hunting down enemy harvesters on deep-strike missions would be a valuable strategy.

Harvesters should be very large (3x the size of a Sunderer), heavily armored, and have a fair amount of defensive weaponry. Spawning should be limited to the foothold only, and then they will be slowly driven to the desired location.