Systems: Achievable goals with tangible rewards in losing battles.

[ITOS]

I have some concern about how fun PlanetSide 2 will be to play when you are loosing badly. I made a thread (link) about the issue and this is an idea that came from it.

The point is to give defenders of a territory, that have no hope of success, a common achievable goal that motivates them to fight rather than to give up and go elsewhere (or perhaps even log out).

When the defenders are seriously outnumbered but there is still fighting going on the game designates the battle a "Last Stand". Each soldier of the losing faction in that battle gets a countdown timer on their HUD. Successfully holding the territory till the timer reach zero while being outmatched gives all defenders a reward (e.g. resources, temporary unlocks or free uses of certain equipment).

The length of the timer would depend on how outnumbered the defenders are and the capture time for the attackers. The level of the reward would be individual and depend on how long time you've participated in the defense.

The idea can be expanded on, for example with awards for successfully participating in X number of "Last Stands" (the "Alamo" award) and outfit specializations (shorter timer, higher rewards, notifications of "Last Stands").

[moosepoop]

that sounds pretty cool. gives some organization and cohesion even when you are about to lose.

[Purple]

i like the idea. however i think it would be cooler if while you were holding a mission went out to a platoon to go reinforce the base. then you would get a mission to hold the base until a % of the reinforcements arrive.

[captainkapautz]

Instead of a countdowntimer that says "05:00 Minutes till Rewards" wouldn't it be better if the timer actually counted up?

Like for example if you hold for 5 minutes you get the baseline-rewards, 10 minutes and you get baseline x2 and so on.

And if you actually manage to hold until your empire turns it around you get the superspecialbonusreward and preferably some kind of merit (the "Alamo" like mention).

Would make for some awesome almost cinematic moments when some FNG sits in the last base and is like "GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER! The Vanu/NC/TR are coming and they'll fuck us up!", when suddenly a squad shows up where some guys have the "Alamo"-merit on display and the leader who has got platinum "Alamo" is like "Jack that. Bring the noise!".

*cue epic music and manly battle of win and awesome*

[ITOS]

Originally Posted by captainkapautz

Instead of a countdowntimer that says "05:00 Minutes till Rewards" wouldn't it be better if the timer actually counted up?

Like for example if you hold for 5 minutes you get the baseline-rewards, 10 minutes and you get baseline x2 and so on.

A count down timer is easier to understand, especially if the time is variable. Having several layers of rewards would still be possible by setting a new timer after the old one has reached zero.

As for turning things around, the idea is that the battle will no longer be a "Last Stand" if the defenders are capable of pushing back the attackers. Awards for that would be a different system, probably based on player generated missions.

[captainkapautz]

Originally Posted by ITOS

A count down timer is easier to understand, especially if the time is variable. Having several layers of rewards would still be possible by setting a new timer after the old one has reached zero.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that a countdown would be easier to understand, what I had in mind was something akin to a survivalmode-like timer and those aren't to uncommon, so I'd say that it'd be pretty easy to understand as well.

Originally Posted by ITOS

As for turning things around, the idea is that the battle will no longer be a "Last Stand" if the defenders are capable of pushing back the attackers. Awards for that would be a different system, probably based on player generated missions.

Yeah, but how are you going to measure a "Last Stand", I mean a battle can and will be pretty unpredictable.

What if for some freak reason the last 15 TR manage to actually push the attacking 100 Vanu back, before the Last Stand-timer runs out, are you just gonna tell the TR "Well no reward for you guys, that's what you get for being awesome."?

[ITOS]

Originally Posted by captainkapautz

Yeah, but how are you going to measure a "Last Stand", I mean a battle can and will be pretty unpredictable.

What if for some freak reason the last 15 TR manage to actually push the attacking 100 Vanu back, before the Last Stand-timer runs out, are you just gonna tell the TR "Well no reward for you guys, that's what you get for being awesome."?

Conditioning the generation of a "Last Stand" is tricky, especially when you don't know what type of stats that can easily be accessed. Number of players in each team in a given hex is something I assume would be easy to get. Kill distribution and resource flow would be other interesting points of data but they might be more difficult to get.

Regarding your final question; yes, pretty much. This system is for losing battles only. I'm not opposed to having other systems that reward successful defense but those are for another thread.