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Hey all -
One of the issues that's been consistently brought up by our beta players is "where's the metagame!?". Good question!
We've been looking very closely at what Planetside 2 needs to have a solid metagame that we can continue to grow from and enhance for years. A lot of your feedback as well as our own observations of how the gameplay of Planetside 2 has evolved is directly shaping where were going with the metagame systems, and a lot of these decisions have required us understanding how the game will play with thousands of players actively fighting, what will motivate them? what will encourage better fights? It's hard to design these types of systems without knowing what gameplay 'needs' must be filled, so a lot of these systems simply weren't possible for us to fully design until we had a few months of beta testing to learn the answers. The improvements we're working towards are across several systems and different scales, but they're all designed to provide a more meaningful, rich, and understandable metagame experience. These changes are going to be coming over the next few weeks, they won't all come at once, but they're all on the way.
Spawning Mechanics and Squad Cohesion
Planetside 2 is a team game, it is simply more fun to play when you're in a cohesive group, communicating and working together with your allies. We want to make sticking with your squad the 'path of least resistance' for respawning into the game. To do that we're adding some mechanics and modifying others.
Spawn beacons will no longer cost resources or use up a tool slot
Squad leaders who are actively leading a squad and have unlocked the beacon cert will be able to place a beacon on a timer
The nearest "hard spawn point" to your squad leader will be available to all squad mates to spawn at regardless of their location on the map
Squad vehicles like Sunderers will be available to be spawned at regardless of distance
Players will be able to "Instant Action" to their squad leader as long as the instant action timer is available.
We're also going to make Sunderers available at more outposts so that a push isn't halted by lack of spawn logistics if your sunderer gets destroyed during the course of capturing an outpost. Along with this we will be putting in radius checks for deploying Sunderers in proximity to others. We want players to be able to get access to spawning logistics when they need them, but not have those spawning logistics be so spamable that bringing 20 Sundys to each fight is the guaranteed path to success.
Base Capture mechanics and communication
Since the start of beta we've been continually iterating and refining on base capture mechanics. Our next round of iterations is going to simplify some of the base capture routine by removing the ticket system. Currently to capture a base you 'flip' a point and then wait for your capture tickets to count up, this is a passive process which currently allows people to flip a point and then move to another base, or flip a point and camp somewhere in the base. We're going to make it so that the time to flip the point is the time to capture the base, that way you know if a base is being captured there are players actively there converting the point. As part of this change we'll also be increasing the radius for capture by quite a bit so you don't have to just stand within a 5 foot radius of the point, but can move around within the outpost of facility to a greater degree. This will convert the current 'race to the finish' system into more of a 'tug-o-war', controlling the point will pull the facility towards your empire. Influence will still impact the time it takes to convert the point, and be really important to successfully capture the base. For multi-control point outposts a similar system will be in place with the control nodes each pulling on the rope. Up to 12 players will be able to influence a single control point, increasing the strength that it converts from 1x to 3x. This should encourage attackers to actively defend control points and the rooms they're in, and remove some of the feeling of 'wack-a-mole' that currently exists in the multi-control point bases.
This change should make the result of the base capture be closer tied to the action of capturing. No longer will base capture event end even when you have the upper hand in the fight due to a ticket flipping over for the defenders. You will win if you have the leverage to win, period.
In addition to the conversion from a race to the finish to a tug-o-war we will be changing how some of the rewards work for facilities.
Defenders will earn bonus experience for actions taken during the base capture, repairs, heals, revives, kills, etc.
Attackers will earn a large XP bonus upon successful capture.
These competing reward goals should give everyone a strong incentive to both attack and defend bases. We're going to make the reward dynamic so the longer the base remains owned by an empire the larger the bounty is for attackers and the more the bonus for defenders grows, this should help to give some real motivations to hold and assault key territories and also to move around the map a bit and not just fight over the same stale base. Large facilities will have a higher cap for both rewards, and they'll scale down with the facility size.
Another key addition will be tactical base benefits. You've been asking for them, and we're going to add them. Empires who maintain an unbroken line of territory control will be able to receive these benefits at any connected facility, outpost or towers. Here's what we're thinking for the facility benefits, you guys who played the original should be familiar with these ideas, but we want to hear your feedback on if you think these will work or ideas for cooler or better benefits if not:
Biolab: Reduced respawn timers at connected facilities / outposts
Amp Station: Overcharged base turrets, longer overload times on facility generators
Tech Plant: Access to MBTs - yes, facilities will be unable to spawn MBTs without a connected tech plant
Another piece of the puzzle will be better communication of the tactical situation on your continent. We are going to be making some enhancements to the map to show the capture status of the region, and better convey security ratings of areas. This is an area we need to make a lot of improvements on so that can easily know where to go to find the fight.
Finally, we need to make Instant Action / Hotspots work better. We're working on the heuristics for instant action to ensure that it's not only taking you where it says it will, but so that the options available are more relevant, with real "action" that you can instantaneously access. This is another tool to help newer players more easily find and participate in big battles.
Intercontinental Warfare
As we continue to add continents to the game, our goal is to make intercontinental conquest a central aspect of the metagame. The back and fourth of campaigning across a network of massive scale continents in enormous empire vs empire clashes is one of the cornerstones of what makes Planetside such a unique game. With our initial three continents we will be laying the foundation for this global conquest gameplay by adding things like continent locks for total continental domination, continent benefits from locking continents that carry over globally, and mechanics to support retaking locked continents.
With the release of Amerish in the next couple weeks (fingers crossed!) we will be adding specific and unique continent benefits to the game, things like reduced vehicle timers or resource costs, increased ammo capacity, faster respawn times, etc. We want these benefits to provide strategic incentives to holding a continent, and as we expand out form the backbone for empire wide prioritization and targeting. This is another area where we're really interested in your input. What type of benefits would you like to see on continents? What would you NOT like to see there? Let us know.
In closing
Finally I want to thank you guys for your support, ideas, angry rants, bug reports and everything inbetween. This game is very unique (in the MMO world and elsewhere) in that making it great is simply not possible without a dedicated and passionate beta community that can not only provide insights into what is missing, test our assumptions, break our game systems and, perhaps most importantly, hold out feet to the fire about issues we're not paying enough attention to. You guys have been fantastic with all your feedback and we heartily appreciate it, and we hope you continue to be our partners in making this the best MMOFPS game in the world for years to come.
Thanks!
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mh
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2012-10-16, 11:52 PM
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