Generator - Page 3

kaffis · 2011-02-23, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Firefly

I think it's more of a "I want XP for predicting that the generator was going to be attacked" thread.

And about as realistically as possible, it's already in-game. It's called, TR guy guards the generator. NC guy shows up with a Decimator. TR guy caps him in the face. TR guy gets XP.

But if the TR guy cares about XP (and thus, it's an appropriate reward), he would have gotten twenty times as much by following the zerg around and letting the NC guy cap the quiet base instead of sitting around, guarding the generator.

I can understand if you consider this an acceptable pattern of behavior, and believe that zergs wandering around until they clash yields a fun game. However, to claim that the one kill's worth of xp is a reward for defending a generator, which probably entails staring at an empty generator room (or swinging by an empty generator room every minute in your patrol loop of an empty base) for, say, an hour?

Wow, that's time well spent, man, this reward makes me feel so validated for doing it.

CutterJohn · 2011-02-24, 12:35 AM

One other thing I brought up elsewhere.. If squads had an option to just have a blanket equal sharing of all XP, regardless of position, it would help out with the untraceable non combat roles. The squads would have to police themselves, ofc, but people probably wouldn't mind sitting in the generator when asked by their SL if they saw a healthy flow of exp tics from the rest of the squad.

Traak · 2011-02-24, 12:43 AM

Or better yet, make it so bases have no generators and people can pre-choose what they spawn with, so they can spawn anywhere in the SOI like people do in the AMS SOI, and do away with tubes. THEN people would have to kill enemies, not gens or bases.

Firefly · 2011-02-24, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by kaffis

But if the TR guy cares about XP (and thus, it's an appropriate reward), he would have gotten twenty times as much by following the zerg around and letting the NC guy cap the quiet base instead of sitting around, guarding the generator.

I can understand if you consider this an acceptable pattern of behavior, and believe that zergs wandering around until they clash yields a fun game. However, to claim that the one kill's worth of xp is a reward for defending a generator, which probably entails staring at an empty generator room (or swinging by an empty generator room every minute in your patrol loop of an empty base) for, say, an hour?

Wow, that's time well spent, man, this reward makes me feel so validated for doing it.

Nobody's forcing you to do anything. But when you can come up with a suitable algorithm and coding method for predicting a living player's actions and detecting the brainwaves of those who predicted said actions and thus can aptly reward them, to say nothing of predicting hundreds or thousands of them, then you sir will win at the internets. Until then, just play the game Sally.

Originally Posted by Traak

Or better yet, make it so bases have no generators and people can pre-choose what they spawn with, so they can spawn anywhere in the SOI like people do in the AMS SOI, and do away with tubes. THEN people would have to kill enemies, not gens or bases.

Yes let's make this game like every other e-sports shooter with their 10-15min matches, 32-man maps, and mindless run-and-gun grindfest.

The Desert Fox · 2011-02-24, 10:47 AM

I agree that you should get some amount of xp for doing the tactical thing as opposed to the zerg thing. I spent 45 mins last night capping 2 vanu bases in the north of cyssor completely by myself. We had the entire north open to take almost the entire continent but no one would help me, and for that 45 mins of work i got 80xp. I'm not an xp whore but after that it just wasn't worth it so I joined the zerg in the south.

TRex · 2011-02-24, 02:10 PM

Whenever Ive been in a base defence , as soon as you see the ''generator under attack'' message , most non-retarded players I see quickly run to defend / repair said facility.As a bonus, theres a chance you get xp by killing said infiltrators , but even more of benefit is that you can carry on defending and gaining more xp as a result by keeping the base alive.
I agree with Firefly , wanting extra xp or reward by simply hanging around a generator on a whim is farcical . You might as well stand in a warpgate on a friendly locked continent and say you're defending this continent , wheres my reward.
A much better use of you time would be preventing said attackers from entering the base in the first place before they even entered the door.
I've lost count of the number of times I've been to fill an ant up only to just arrive at a base to find someone filling it up. Thats how it goes, same as the one getting the killing blow gets the xp from a kill , not the 2 before that died attempting said kill.
The counter to all this is teamwork , support benefits those in a squad /platoon and gives more people the benefit of most aspects of the game.
But just turning up and expecting a reward isn't on, maybe you could be doing something more pro-active , while keeping an eye on the chat log for incusions and being on voice-coms to react quicker in the first place.

wildcat140679 · 2011-02-24, 03:16 PM

The topic has some what mutated in to experience rewards for defending strategic base object/location like the generator and get rewarded for doing so. This off topic discussion might be better of having it's thread of it's own.

As much as I might like receiving a reward for my time spend down in the generator room or sitting in the corridor with my gun trained on the back door, I don't believe it's the right thing to do. For some might be dedicated in defending it, but many might be out for some easy experience while the went afk for a smoke or what ever the do while afk.

Instead of rewarding experience points, how about if you would over time slowly accumulate an experience multiplier, that can only be cashed if a kill is scored within or within the vicinity of that key location you have been guarding in.

Based on strategic importance and on how frequent enemies will pass through that area an experience multiplier accumulation rate and a maximum can be set and based on. But other factors might also be useful to weight in like number of enemies with in the SOI

For example, back door guarding, over a period of 10 minutes you experience multiplier will increase to a maximum of 200%. killing an enemy after 5 minutes with in the vicinity of the back door would rewards you with 50% more onto op an usual kill reward. Enemies try to break to the back door quite frequently, so you often don't have to wait very long to cash in your guarding reward.

But guarding the generator on the other hand, isolated deep with in the base can be a long wait before enemy makes its way to it, that is, if the make it to the generator at all. After 10 minutes guarding your experience multiplier could be 800% maxing the next kill 8x its usual value, if an enemy does show up, it's a very rewarding kill.

Going out of this key location for to long will cause this multiplier to rapidly decay to zero or rest back to zero. But it should be long enough to run to the closest equipment terminal and back again, and have some time to spare.

Even if no one shows up, the thought of being rewarded if the enemy does show up, will be more appealing for "active" guarding players.

I'm assume afk experience multiplier harvester, will have a much harder time cashing this reward for you need to kill something and those active are more likely to land the killing blow.

kaffis · 2011-02-24, 04:47 PM

Wow. I think the reading comprehension in this thread is approaching some pretty epic levels of fail. That, or the strawmanning is just getting out of hand.

Raymac · 2011-02-24, 07:30 PM

Looks like this conversation has turned more into should there be xp rewards etc. and I really have no opinion on that other than the more complicated it gets, the less likely it will be in game.

Back to the original idea, I like the idea of a rolling blackout. The main reason is, just imagine the suspense it would create. We already have the "Generator is Under Attack" message to get us to scramble to defend it, so what if we took that same excitment and spread it out? As equipment and stuff start dropping around the base, the tension will rise.

It's alot like the cliche ticking clock we already get when a hack is put on a base. At 14:55 there's a little bit of tension, but at 0:59 it is a crap ton more intense. So it would stand to reason that for generators, a rolling blackout will make the tension build and build.

I like the idea, but I'm a fan of Hitchcock films too. There's alot to be said for building suspense.

Hamma · 2011-02-25, 11:01 AM

Man this is a great thread imo hehe.

While I agree there should be some incentive for defending the Generators I also agree with Firefly in that it's pretty much impossible to track.

There are some times in games where we just have to cut our losses and have people do the right thing because it needs to be done, not because there is something in it for them.

Someone mentioned 500% XP bonus for the first kill, but that is farrr to exploitable.

CutterJohn · 2011-02-25, 11:32 AM

Yes. I said that. It would work, but it would also be exploitable, as you say. But did bep ever really mean so much that people would honestly care a great deal about people exploiting?

At any rate, my other suggestion would be the best. Letting squads fully and equally share bep & sep regardless of location. As an option, of course. Now people who want to emphasize actual teamwork can. The guy sitting back guarding the hack is still getting BEP from his squad. The dude cloaking on top of the dropship center antenna calling out galaxies departing is getting his share too. If he's not pulling his weight, the SL will kick him, or people can leave the squad and get one that doesn't have the sharing option on, or one that does and is actually working together.

Hamma · 2011-02-27, 12:46 PM

I do want to know one thing.

Why do people get their panties in a wad about blowing up generators? If it is a good tactical move to eliminate the generator and get to the next base quicker and with less resistance why not blow it?

But anytime that happens all sorts of people get their panties in a wad that it just happened. There's plenty of XP to be had at the next base people..

Bags · 2011-02-27, 12:51 PM

Because I pay $15/mo to play the game, not to fight for five minutes and sit on a base for 15 minutes.

I'm all for eventually blowing a gen, but blowing it after a couple of minutes is just plain boring.

Hamma · 2011-02-27, 01:37 PM

Well I guess there is the difference.

I play to kick the shit out the other empires by any means necessary. If there is a tactical advantage to destroying the generators and saving a 5 hour waste of time just so players can pad their killstats.. I am going to opt for the tactical advantage.

brinkdadrink · 2011-02-27, 01:57 PM

I like the sharing xp across the squad option because then you wouldn't mind doing the task's asked of you by the SL or PL because your all getting the same thing. This includes sharing support xp and fighting xp so if your a well organized squad everyone will be making a lot but if your running around in a squad not working together then you might be dropped if your not doing anything.

On the topic at hand.
I like the rolling blackout. Just because you have a minute to still spawn doesn't me you will be effective. If you spawn and the terminals dont have power you will be running around in standard with a shit weapon. You can scavenge for a good weapon but your still not going to get the armor you want if you do.

The second backup generator idea for the spawn tubes could work but again would have the same effect that even though you can spawn you wont be able to get your equipment so most people knowing the main gen is down would spawn somewhere else anyway.

My personal opinion is that the rolling blackouts would be cool and at certain times would be useful and help defenders keep the base that most of the time is lost anyway.

Little off topic:
As far as a reward for defending the gen I thought bonus xp for killing someone in a friendly SOI after being inactive for some time would be good but could and probably would be abused.
The best way to have people defend those bases would be by making the lose of a base more significant. As it is now if you lose a base so what, eventually you will attack it to get it back and when attacking a base you will probably get more xp than defending which will drive a lot of people especially early in the game.
My only ideas to make the bases more significant are to implement some kind of winning condition or large scale objective type situations which are discussed in another thread.