Gameplay: All Points Bulletins

[Cuross]

Originally Posted by Ratstomper

It will determine on what the skill discrepancies can be in the game. If you have a handful of LAs who are VERY good at what they do and are doing all the work, then killing all the bad LAs won't really help alleviate the fact. It would be a sort of sampling error, because not all players will contribute equal effectiveness, even if they have the same class.

Lol, yeah, I thought of that too, but if there's a particularly great group of LA's running around doing what they do best, then I think that they deserve to open the LA bounty, haha. I think it'll just add to the chaos, even for those players that didn't contribute much, just knowing that they're a class that's going to be hunted will bring on some interesting game play :P

[Ratstomper]

Originally Posted by Cuross

Lol, yeah, I thought of that too, but if there's a particularly great group of LA's running around doing what they do best, then I think that they deserve to open the LA bounty, haha. I think it'll just add to the chaos, even for those players that didn't contribute much, just knowing that they're a class that's going to be hunted will bring on some interesting game play :P

It would certainly bring chaos. However, wouldn't that be further penalizing LAs who can't quite play as well as the LAs who are tearing everything up? If a few LAs are doing amazingly good, and the others aren't, I don't know how fair it is to put a target on the backs of players who aren't really doing much in the first place.

My thought was the individual bounty system made it harder for individual players to steamroll others; whether it's the enemy in kills or their own teammates. It lets the regular grunts do their thing, but ups the skill cap for the really good players without screwing either over.

EDIT: Not too dump on the idea. I like when people come up with innovative ideas. It's exactly what we need.

[Cuross]

Originally Posted by Ratstomper

It would certainly bring chaos. However, wouldn't that be further penalizing LAs who can't quite play as well as the LAs who are tearing everything up? If a few LAs are doing amazingly good, and the others aren't, I don't know how fair it is to put a target on the backs of players who aren't really doing much in the first place.

My thought was the individual bounty system made it harder for individual players to steamroll others; whether it's the enemy in kills or their own teammates. It lets the regular grunts do their thing, but ups the skill cap for the really good players without screwing either over.

EDIT: Not too dump on the idea. I like when people come up with innovative ideas. It's exactly what we need.

I don't know if it's so much penalizing anyone but even if most LAs on a faction aren't doing so hot but there's this small group that's raising hell, I think those other LAs would still feel like they helped accomplish this. Sure they might not be as badass as these other guys and they might know it, but to be able to say "I was part of that" would be a great morale boost. Also, unless you were spotted, I don't think we should worry about a target painted on our heads, you'll still be playing normally, it's just that now if you know you're looking at a bounty you can choose to forget firing on everyone else and just focus on that guy. Maybe a merit for being involved in opening up the bounty would create more incentive to play within the role and make you feel even more awesomer when you do open it up

[Ratstomper]

Originally Posted by Cuross

I don't know if it's so much penalizing anyone but even if most LAs on a faction aren't doing so hot but there's this small group that's raising hell, I think those other LAs would still feel like they helped accomplish this. Sure they might not be as badass as these other guys and they might know it, but to be able to say "I was part of that" would be a great morale boost. Also, unless you were spotted, I don't think we should worry about a target painted on our heads, you'll still be playing normally, it's just that now if you know you're looking at a bounty you can choose to forget firing on everyone else and just focus on that guy. Maybe a merit for being involved in opening up the bounty would create more incentive to play within the role and make you feel even more awesomer when you do open it up

What if you were a LA and you had just picked up the class or you like being able to jetpack around and fight that way, but you don't have the twitchiness to have really good K/D ratios. If suddenly some LAs were doing really good an now every enemy in the area has prioritized killing you and anyone of your class they can for bonuses, you're going to die much more and be alot worse at a class you already have difficulty in playing. Conversely, an entire bounty mode for a class could be neutralized without actually even touching the people who caused the bounty mode in the first place, which would penalize regular players and maybe not even faze the skilled players. I don't know that it would be morale-boosting as much as frustrating when a class you want to play is higher prioritized by enemies and you die more than you would normally because everyone is gunning for you, specifically for what someone else on your empire did.

There's also no reason why someone who is very skilled at multiple classes couldn't just play well with one class until a bounty starts, then just switch to a different class and play at the same level of effectiveness. Essentially, leaving everyone else who might be playing the first class holding the bag.

With individual bounties, they cant get out of it by easy means and they don't make it any more easy or difficult for others on their empire because of how they're doing. Class based bounties, I feel, are like grading on a curve. It's not exactly fair to everyone else.

[Cuross]

I see what you're saying, I truly do, but there's more ways to get noticed than just K/D ratio and being a great fps'er. I don't even know if LA's will still be able to drop ammo or anything, but there was still that role of support they played. And I'm actually not very fond of the idea of a class or a person opening up bounty based on kills, sometimes the assist is more valuable than the kill itself. I actually think that for the assaults and the MAX units, they should only be able to open up bounties based on damage dealt. Everyone is contributing in that regard and I don't foresee a bounty mechanic lasting longer than a few minutes.

As far as people swapping classes after a bounty is open, the people who was part of the class when the bounty opened should still receive some incentive to play, I agree, an award, small xp boost, resource bonus, etc., but you can only collect at the end. With so many people proposed to be in game, I really think it might only last a minute or two at the most, which in game terms can be a lifetime. Or a half a dozen respawns :P

The individual bounty is a fine idea if there was a more right and proper way to brand someone a badass than just a large kill streak. I mean, the way I see it, the sniper/commando infiltrators are going to be the patient ones, waiting an hour before they get a killstreak high enough, but the MAX units with proper support are going to be racking up kills left and right just on base defense alone. I think it would feel unfair for medics and engineers who we'll all probably want to have their support guns out 80% of the time anyway.

If you're still adamant on individual bounties, then I think there should only be one bounty every so often per faction, goes by exp gain or capture points or damage dealt or something or something not entirely focused on K/D, and the bounty timer can't be too long. I can understand that you want the person to have a tough time escaping the bounty, but if they know they're not a particularly good player and only got there by luck, they're definitely not going to want to stay in the fight anymore anyway, and chilling back at a friendly base isn't how I'd want to see someone spend their fifteen or more minutes because of stats flukes and their lack of confidence in their ability.

Different kinds of individual bounties might be best. Perhaps for those killstreak junkies they'd have to get a thirty to fifty killstreak going before they open up one for themselves, capture six or eight points by yourself in one life maybe earns you another one, resupply 50,000 rounds of ammo earns you one, heal 10,000 hp, so on so forth. But make them short timers, no longer than five minutes, and give them an incentive to stay in the fight with rewards.

[Ratstomper]

Originally Posted by Cuross

Different kinds of individual bounties might be best. Perhaps for those killstreak junkies they'd have to get a thirty to fifty killstreak going before they open up one for themselves, capture six or eight points by yourself in one life maybe earns you another one, resupply 50,000 rounds of ammo earns you one, heal 10,000 hp, so on so forth. But make them short timers, no longer than five minutes, and give them an incentive to stay in the fight with rewards.

I would be fine with having some additional targets of opportunity besides just K/D ratios. I was using that as the most obvious example. The trick is implementing whats required and timers until the mode ends so that it doesn't get too annoying for support classes.

It's like a couple engineers keeping the enemy armor rolling and your own faction making them a target of opportunity. Both sides should get bonus XP for either continuing to do well or conversely stopping the enemy from performing some critical service.

My thought for the killstreaks was the only way to get out of it would be to either die or not make any kills for a set amount of time (a few minutes). I suppose the same could work for whatever service the class offers. Engineers and medics could also be viable for killstreak bounties, but also for healing or repairing large amounts of health/armor and dying or going a few minutes without performing those functions would reset the bounty mode.

[The Degenatron]

I like the idea.

I agree that a picture of the Bountied player wouldn't do much good, however, this might be a better option:



Spotted players with a bounty show a bright yellow crosshair in their spot icon.

[Ratstomper]

Originally Posted by The Degenatron

I like the idea.

I agree that a picture of the Bountied player wouldn't do much good, however, this might be a better option:



Spotted players with a bounty show a bright yellow crosshair in their spot icon.

I think you guys may be underestimating the visuals. With all the aesthetic customization people can do, a picture may go a long way to pointing someone out.

[Femtobyte]

This seems to be a way of penalizing people for doing well. :/ I don't like it. Maybe if you get extra xp for killing / assisting the kill of someone who was doing extremely well, but there was no announcement. It was just like; "OH, I just got the guy who was kicking our rears! Sweet!" and not like "$@*!, #$%#, I was really on a roll there, now the entire map is zerging in my direction.. -_-"

[Ratstomper]

Originally Posted by Femtobyte

This seems to be a way of penalizing people for doing well. :/ I don't like it. Maybe if you get extra xp for killing / assisting the kill of someone who was doing extremely well, but there was no announcement. It was just like; "OH, I just got the guy who was kicking our rears! Sweet!" and not like "$@*!, #$%#, I was really on a roll there, now the entire map is zerging in my direction.. -_-"

It would have to be pretty high K/D ratios that it affected. The risk is that people are gunning for you once you do so well, but the reward is that bonuses stack (in fact, they already do) for kills and once you die, your bounty mode resets. Not to mention it would only broadcast to people in your hex, which is a fairly large place and it doesn't give away your exact location, just your general area (the hex), name and what you look like. No markers or anything, as I think that would be a little too unbalanced. The focal point of the game should still be capturing objectives and fighting a tactical war.

It's just something to raise the skill cap for the good players and give them bragging rights for being able to survive being hunted and it gives the average players bonuses for finding and killing the guys who are causing the most damage.

[Dacrim]

i think including a picture is a good idea (there will be lots of appearance variations in PS2) as well as a note about what class or vehicle they were last seen in and their general area.

[Insert Picture here]
"This player was last seen in a MAX suit within .5km of so-and-so amp station"

or
[Insert picture here]
"This player was last seen in a Vanguard within .5km of blahblah biolab"

[The Degenatron]

Originally Posted by Femtobyte

This seems to be a way of penalizing people for doing well. :/ I don't like it. Maybe if you get extra xp for killing / assisting the kill of someone who was doing extremely well, but there was no announcement. It was just like; "OH, I just got the guy who was kicking our rears! Sweet!" and not like "$@*!, #$%#, I was really on a roll there, now the entire map is zerging in my direction.. -_-"

Yea, that's another reason I threw out the idea of a modified spotting icon for bountied players. You wouldn't KNOW he had a bounty unless he was spotted (had the icon above his head). But it would give people quick recognition both that this is an enemy who must be stopped and feared.

[Femtobyte]

The thing is unless you are fairly clearly broadcasting the location of the player who is doing so well, you aren't appreciably raising the skill level. And with a game this size there could potentially be 100+ enemies in "your" hex.

As far as bragging rights go, I can see where that would be cool, however this game will already be keeping really close tabs on all sorts of stats. I am sure the "elite" players will be bragging about those.

[Dacrim]

If im not mistaken this was already a thing in PS1 as far as giving extra EXP for killing someone who was alive for a long time. Thats why you get like 5 EXP for someone who had just spawned and 150 EXP for a person who had been alive for awhile (these are just approximations btw) But this idea makes it better imo ...as long as there's no indicator showing where u are or something, that's overkill

edit: im referring to an icon automatically appearing where the player is. Im not referring to spotting