News: Roadmap Resource Revamp & Continental Lattice Updated

[Hamma]

They have posted some initial plans with the Resource Revamp coming up in September:

Our primary goal for re-addressing the resource system is to make sure it does a better job making resources drive the combat taking place, make sure they have real strategic value, and generally have more meaning than they have currently.

This is a relatively complicated system - you know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. I've done my best to try and distill the essence of a 25 page design document down into something more easily digestible, so these are just the broad strokes of the plan we're currently mulling over.

• Resources are reduced to a single currency and acquisition timers are removed.
• Inventory for infantry items is removed - changed to pay on use
• Individual Bases/Facilities supply Resources for local players
• Bases/Facilities have a power level that is drained by providing resources to local players
  • There is a passive power regen to offset the cost of small skirmishes and to restore full power when no combat is taking place.
  • Full powered bases provide more resources than low powered ones
  • The more players being given resources, the faster the power drain
• Addition of Auraxium Crystals/Mines as a power source
  • These are resource nodes added in between facilities
  • Vehicles fitted with appropriate equipment can load up auraxium at these nodes
  • This auraxium can be transported to a base to manually refill it’s power reserves
• When a base is totally out of power, no resources are provided to the friendly troops in the area. This allows the attacker cut off entrenched defenders from using resources if they can keep supply vehicles from breaking their blockade

There's still a lot of other little nuances and details but I think that gives a decent overall picture. It's a pretty significant departure from the current system - do you think this plan would make resources a more interesting component of the game? Does it go too far? Let us know.

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...-revamp.83018/

Also an update to the Continental Locking Roadmap:

Continent Locking (or the "Continental Lattice" in the post-lattice era) is on the horizon and will hopefully enhance the feel and depth of PlanetSide 2's overall metagame significantly. Check Australia Post Catalogue and Jaycar Catalogue. Here's what the basic plan looks like so far:

• Each of our current continents (Indar, Esamir, Amerish) becomes a home continent for an Empire
• Each empire has a single “Home Warpgate” on their home continent that can never be taken from them
• All other warpgates can now change hands like regular territory (details here still being worked out, so let us know if you have ideas)
• By taking control of a warpgate, your empire can now advance along any continental lattice connected to it
• Hossin is given three warpgates, one connected to Indar, one to Esamir, and one to Amerish. There is no home warpgate on Hossin.
• Battle Islands fall between continents on all the links not leading to Hossin

What do you guys think?

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...locking.82996/

[Hamma]

I have to say on paper I really like this. Going to have to spend some more time digesting it but overall it looks awesome. I've been waiting for some kind of resource system to be added because it adds an entirely new source of gameplay.

Inventory for infantry items is removed - changed to pay on use

This one confuses me though.. do they mean equipping items?

[DirtyBird]

omg two discussions going on

[Necroe]

i think that means that you have infinite amount of grenades/c4 etc. everytime you use one, it deducts x amount of resources.

the auraxium mines make me think of ANT runs

[fierce deity]

I like it a lot. It seems like a very good system on paper. I never played PS1 but this system seems very similar to what I've heard about NTUs and Silos.

Originally Posted by Hamma

I have to say on paper I really like this. Going to have to spend some more time digesting it but overall it looks awesome. I've been waiting for some kind of resource system to be added because it adds an entirely new source of gameplay.



This one confuses me though.. do they mean equipping items?

I think that means consumables like grenades and C4 will be payed for on spawn/resupply, assuming it always refills you to the max equippable amount, and that you can no longer stockpile 40 of them.

Continent Locking (or the "Continental Lattice" in the post-lattice era) is on the horizon and will hopefully enhance the feel and depth of PlanetSide 2's overall metagame significantly. Here's what the basic plan looks like so far:

• Each of our current continents (Indar, Esamir, Amerish) becomes a home continent for an Empire
• Each empire has a single “Home Warpgate” on their home continent that can never be taken from them
• All other warpgates can now change hands like regular territory (details here still being worked out, so let us know if you have ideas)
• By taking control of a warpgate, your empire can now advance along any continental lattice connected to it
• Hossin is given three warpgates, one connected to Indar, one to Esamir, and one to Amerish. There is no home warpgate on Hossin.
• Battle Islands fall between continents on all the links not leading to Hossin

What do you guys think?

Good, very good. Continental lattice wise.

In terms of actually capturing a warpgate
* The warpgate needs to be the last territory that can be taken from a faction on a continent.
* Vehicles need to be able to be transported between warpgates, preferrably by driving onto/landing on the center platform.
* Warpgates need to be hard to take and have exciting buildings/structures to fight in. The current layout is not good enough for this. An underground facility would be best, as it allows for an interesting base to be created while leaving the parade grounds for forming up large amounts of troops and vehicles.

[kubacheski]

Originally Posted by Necroe

i think that means that you have infinite amount of grenades/c4 etc. everytime you use one, it deducts x amount of resources.

Exactly what I think, you expend resources when you use them, so that you can't hoard them and still have resources to buy some.

[Rahabib]

So I guess some cert refunds are coming for those who certed into aquisition timers?

Its not my first choice for resource changes as it doesn't change the fact that base choice doesn't make a difference. It helps battle flow, but it doesn't make bases themselves unique.

Anyway, I guess it's better than the status quo.

[Lonehunter]

I think you'd always have a grenade on you, but throwing it removes resources, instead of spending, inventory, and using.

HELL YES on the physical resources, loving the base power ideas

[ComerEste]

Wow, I love all of this. Introduces new kinds of combat and strategies. I wish I could give more feedback then that, but it just all sounds great. This coupled with the new base designs on Esamir give me hope for the game once again.

[bpostal]

ANT races are back baby!
Also, love me some continental lattice

[KodanBlack]

No acquisition timers? Nice, but are they going to refund everyone's certs? I've put a LOT of points into various acquisition timers.

(I'm sure they'll have it worked out by the time it gets implemented.)

[kubacheski]

Originally Posted by KodanBlack

No acquisition timers? Nice, but are they going to refund everyone's certs? I've put a LOT of points into various acquisition timers.

(I'm sure they'll have it worked out by the time it gets implemented.)

I'd almost bet they have annual "recert token" as much as some of these changes affect the certifications. Or you can purchase it at anytime for $9.99 from the store. Look at how different your cert purchase would be now from a year ago.

[DirtyBird]

I liked the current method of banking your resources for infantry use and cant say that like the idea of this new proposal.

Does it mean I have unlimited access to infantry resource items until the reserve is drained.
Could a group/zerg stand there lobbing nades at nothing chewing up resources and manipulate the power levels.

Does the power level affect the capture of the base/facility, as in its the new capture method or it works in conjunction with current capture/SCU timers.

If the new bases we see on the likes of Esamir are completely walled in with extrememy limited vehicle access (if any), how do we get the auraxium supply vehicles into the base.
I dont think Esamir was redesigned with this change in mind and thats taken months to get where it is.

How the resource bonus will work on the Boosts/Membership.

[Sledgecrushr]

Thank goodness the official conversation has finally moved to meta game. I like hats just fine but intercontinental lattice and making resources countin a dynamic way will make this game much more interesting.

[Malorn]

I posted some clarifications in the resource roadmap thread. Reposting here for your convenience:

Few clarifications to some questions here and on other feedback channels:

There are two resources: Facility resource (power), and Personal Resource (nanites). Personal resource income is affected by power level. So a facility at 50% power will have half the resource income to players being supplied by that facility.

Power is drained based on players being supplied, not their actions. So one player pulling a vehicle is not going to be harmful. The more players being supplied the more power is drained (it's a stepwise function, not linear). Idea is that small groups will have little or no effect on power drain but it is a much more significant factor in larger battles. The 'steps' closely map to the activity levels - squad, 2 squads, platoon, 2 platoons, etc.

Warpgates provide a small amount of power inflow to connected facilities. This is enough to offset any drain for small groups, and empty facilities will slowly recharge over time on their own (so no running around fueling up bases). Severing lattice where possible can be very impactful to the facilities that are cut off.

How players spend their resulting resources does not affect other players. That part of the system works the same as it does today - players have resources and they spend them on vehicles and consumables. Instead of having 3 separate resources there will be one resource.

Roughly speaking you should be able to go from empty to full resources in about 10 minutes in ideal conditions. That may change but that's the ballpark. The goal is that if you want to do one thing like drive tanks or fly aircraft, you can do that if you save your resources for those things. We also don't want to have too much save-up power so you are affected when resource income is reduced. Deep pockets insulates that so we don't want pockets to be too deep.

Acquisition timer certs will likely be refunded. This seems like the most fair way to handle it.

The power-fetching aspect is intended to be focused around large battles to spread them out. Power-carrying vehicles would show up on the continent map so they would be mobile objectives, primarily for vehicle combat. This isn't intended to be a boring tedious thing so much as a sort of capture-the-flag style gameplay where the power carrier is highly likely to see action.

Warpgates are facilities that do not suffer power drain, so they are always available as a recharge point.


Of course everything above is subject to change, and that's one reason we want your feedback!