Gameplay: Outposts

[Malorn]

I like the idea of different types of smaller structures, like the ewar tower, the vehicle pad, etc. I think bunkers will need to be built into the terrain to really look and operate good, but the idea of a large pillbox with some guns on it as a static defensive structure is good.

A few key things I think that must be present for oufit-owned structures to function.

1) Upkeep
Outfits have resources and these things should have a periodic maintenance cost. First this helps keep them from littering the continents. It needs to be a high enough cost to warrant that an outfit wouldn't want to keep more than 1 up 24/7, and even then they'd want to tear down ones not in immediate or near-future use. I'd also recommend that upkeep costs scale non-linearly to prevent one large outfit from putting down tons of these things indefinitely.

Another way to do upkeep is to have an intial purchase cost, and then have upkeep gradually increase over time the longer the structure is in existence. At some point the structure will not be worth its cost and it will be abandoned. This keeps the landscape from becoming too stale.

The sweet spot here is that you want to have a structure that enhances or secures a resource such that the cost of placing the structure is worthwhile and you reap the rewards before the upkeep cost gets too high.



2) Ownership
Ownership is important such that every one of these structures must always have an owner. I would propose that any structure that does not have an owner automatically de-constructs after a certain period of time (1-2 minutes, could vary by structure). During that time another outfit on that empire could opt to take control of the abandoned structure.

Capturing one of these structures requires the capturer to make a choice - they either take ownership on behalf of their outfit or their empire owns it and it will be automatically de-construct in a short time. would want some basic precautions here to prevent abuse by juggling ownership between a few outfits and avoiding the cost.

The-deconstruct time is the time which another outfit has the opportunity to take ownership or an opposing empire has to secure it before it is destroyed.


This is a good way to put a nice steady resource sink into the game that can also enhance gameplay. The important parts are doing it in such a way that it is limited and not literring the landscape, and in such a way that the mechanical transitions of ownership between empires and outfits is smooth and resistant to abuse.


I haven't thought too much about this but I'll think more on it. Good discussion.