3 continents at start, or... 9-12-15?

Figment · 2012-05-31, 06:09 AM

Why have three continents at launch, if you can intercontinental lattice the same three continents five times and replace those continents over time? >.>

All but three of these would be placeholder continents.

Later on they can just replace continents in such a lattice by newly released continents.

This would solve a lot of issues of players being on a different server and later on having to merge servers when new continents are added and pops per continent drop-off a bit due to further spreading of pop, would allow for capturing continents, would allow for different sanc footholds for each empire on a different continent, etc. and would allow to relocate to another fight that's a bit different but still the same continent if they so desire to fight on a specific continent, at least for a while.

Thoughts?

EVILoHOMER · 2012-05-31, 06:14 AM

Planetside had the problem of too many islands which spread the population out too thin, so I doubt SOE want to make the same mistake again. When you look back at Planetside how many of them Islands did we actually need? You only need one of each type....

SKYeXile · 2012-05-31, 06:25 AM

i like the plan. good idea to bring back the diversity of battles in planetside while been easy to implement. every contient a 3 way fight is gonna get old, this would be a good way to add 2 way fights back into PS2 while adding more tactics to the command metagame.

the problem as i see it now, if you get pushed back to your foothold, while in planetside you jsut goto another cont whatever, in PS2 its gonna turn into one of those gay warpgate camp sessions.

In summery, this needs to be seen again:
(tell me if img broken)

DOUBLEXBAUGH · 2012-05-31, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

(tell me if img broken)

It's so beautiful /tear

Oh, and I <3 this idea! I'd go with 3 sets of 3.

ringring · 2012-05-31, 06:45 AM

You're singing my song Figgy, althought placeholder doesn't sound good, I much rather there be additional properly made conts.

Completely disagree with evilhomer about too more continents are bad. It#s as if he thinks the population will spread out like butter on a slice of bread, and it won't.

When I started PS in mid 2004 there was one poplocked fight, one nearly poplocked fight and a couple of small skirmishes. Everyone got the battle they were looking for, and, importantly, there was empty space for grand strategy to operate in. CR5's could decide the poplocked fight wasn't going anywhere and switch the primary target elsewhere.

It was much better.

Mechzz · 2012-05-31, 08:04 AM

Good bit of lateral thinking.

Copy/paste
Copy/paste
Copy/paste

now we have 6 continents.

+2

Xyntech · 2012-05-31, 08:19 AM

If they did this, I wouldn't do any more than 6 continents total. These continents have a lot more captureable land than PS1 continents, so 6 PS2 continents worth of space would be more than enough to match and exceed the PS1 equivalent.

Interesting and outside the box solution. I'm liking it. Sort of like having vehicle start up delays as placeholders for vehicle entry animations, although I would make replacing the duplicate continents with new continents as a top priority, compared with vehicle entry animations which I'd just get done whenever it was possible.

Snipefrag · 2012-05-31, 08:26 AM

I do think that only having three continents will really affect the meta game, and the meta game is why a lot of us play PS. But i'm not sure that copy pasting the continents is the best way to go about solving it, i would say they should put a lot of their development efforts into producing new continents as fast as possible after release. Focusing on building on the meta game, lattice links, different base capture mechanics, strategy to make the game more varied. With three continents we will probably see a lot of repetition in the first few months, but hopefully we wont care as the excitement for the game will still be at its peak.

kaffis · 2012-05-31, 09:16 AM

I really like this idea.

Why do I like this idea?

1. Because I want more continents in the future.

2. Because I don't want server populations to get spread out when those continents are added.

3. And because I don't want to start with lots of servers and then merge them to combat #2.

Note, however, that I don't care if the lattice returns between continents. If the developers wanted to work it in because it can fit, that's fine. Perhaps you could have captureable warpgates away from the footholds, that could be used to come in from an unexpected angle on a different continent without backhacking penalties/difficulties.

But I'm 100% fine with footholds on each continent and calling it a day.

Figment · 2012-05-31, 11:07 AM

Another benefit is that you can test if empires get just terrain advantages if they start from specific footholds, or if this is down to balance between empire units, outfits, etc. Maybe some empires are simply better with certain weapons in certain terrain.

So if you have different starting points within the same patch release, you get a better feel for how it affects continental flows of resources and battles.

kaffis · 2012-05-31, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Figment

Another benefit is that you can test if empires get just terrain advantages if they start from specific footholds, or if this is down to balance between empire units, outfits, etc. Maybe some empires are simply better with certain weapons in certain terrain.

So if you have different starting points within the same patch release, you get a better feel for how it affects continental flows of resources and battles.

This is definitely a good idea for beta, at least.

Xyntech · 2012-05-31, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by kaffis

This is definitely a good idea for beta, at least.

Agreed. If nothing else, this is a must for beta.

It could end up being a little too wonky seeming for full release to have duplicates, but maybe it would just create impetus for them to make a few more continents for release than they were originally planning, assuming playtesting proves it to be valuable.

shadowsfm · 2012-05-31, 11:33 AM

i get the feeling the forth continent is that starship in the consent art

Figment · 2012-05-31, 11:39 AM

What if we would have different servers in beta where some servers have Lockes continents and some have linked continents?

That should give devs a lot of feedback on different systems.

Warborn · 2012-05-31, 11:49 AM

Having fewer continents means big fights constantly. No more people being spread over many separate continents. I imagine they will be very sparing in adding new continents, maybe even resorting to a sort of cycle, where as one continent becomes active, another closes. Either way, spreading people over wider and wider areas doesn't seem like it will do much to encourage big battles.