Road Map: Fixing the issues?

[darktengu]

Reading the road map and playing the game with little left to unlock in the game, where will the game be in the six months? Honestly, I don't know since the road map is not a great leap forward. They will fix some main issues like account unlocks, which should have been a main feature instead of the predator pricing unit locked strategy, but nothing will address the failing metagame. I'm tired of trying to save or capture a base will people just sitting instead the spawn room, like it'll help. So, here are 12 issues and fixes for them. I don't think the devs will listen, but hopefully someone finds them interesting.

Issue 1: Meaningless Combat
Fix: Combat is meaningless because there is little penalty to it, thus having little rewards. To make it meaningful, the player must feel as if something is moving into a "win" state. All great FPS have a win state, and we might as well take a useful one for this game, un-named tag system. Each base should have a max spawn counter that refreshes as a new battle begins. This number limits the amount of spawn on a point, thereby making death without a revive a penalty. To balance this out, all mobile spawn points (AMS, becons) also have a max spawn amount that have to be recharged at ammo stations. This allows more AMS to be deployed as the radius should decrease. This also forces the defenses to bring in AMS to help support them, instead of sitting in their tower, as they can and may run out of spawns points as the attackers keep bring in new fresh AMS.

Issue 2: Meaningless Defense
Fix: Defending gets the player little. This is because the useless % bonus is not worth the trouble. Based should reward the defending player based on a percentage of how low the base has capped. For example, the maximum base defense experience can be 80% of the full amount of the base. This means an main base will be worth 800 exp. This is gain only if a base is capped to 75% away from the faction. Because defense has a natural bonus, they need the exp cap, instead of the full amount. As the timer ticks away from the base, every 25% is worth 25% amount. Therefore, when goes to neutral, the exp gain for defending will be 50% of 800 exp.

Issue 3: Meat grinding/Battle for the Crown/Ascent
Fix: First, with the issue 1 fixed, only a limited number of spawns can be spawned at any given point. That's a plus. Second, please thumbs up the AMS no base spawn in the road map. Defending is worthless if a AMS is right in the base. Using distances as a natural gap will help the defends hold. Third, when a base starts, prevent any and all vehicle spawns within that base. The controlling team of the vehicle terminals should not be able to spawn in an active battle. This will force players to pull vehicles from adjacent areas, which will improve the metagame.

Issue 4: Lack luster fights
Fix: The issue to this is two folds. Declining population and bad map design. For proof, check here http://store.steampowered.com/stats/. This is only Steam, but it does prove a point. Steam users barely peak to 10k for PS2. SoE must merge servers. Then, they have to do two other things. One, remove a continent. This can be used with Cont locking, as when one cont is locked, another continent enters the rotation. And two, remove 1 AMP station, Bio lab and Tech station. Why these? Simple, force fighting. You must force players to fight, otherwise they will do nothing. Forcing players to fight will help bring back players and perhaps we may one day rival Dota2 population. With one less chair in musical chairs, three players must fight for two chairs.

Issue 5: Zerging
Fix: In RL, real life, zerging will make you lose a war. Why, because the weapons of today will destroy an easy massive army. That is why the US military uses platoons for large military and small squads for special forces. But in PS2, battles are more World War 1.5. It isn't as advance as WW2 in many respects, but more advance than WW1; it's more trench warfare than urban warfare. Because no weapon is able to destroy a massive moving zerg, it is promoted rather than the smart organized outfits the game was looking for. Add in weapons that is built to destroy or punish the zerg and you will find players playing differently. Perhaps the Orbital strike will fix this, but time will tell.

Issue 6: OP Maxes
Fix: Maxes seem un-killable sometimes because the game allows them to. Why so, is it their weapons, their increased health, their charge? Its none of these. Maxes are strong because the game has no unit collision. Because a Max can easily run away or stack, they increase their firepower. If units had collision, Maxes would take skills to use as they take the same space as two units. The only time units should have no collision is at safe spawn points, to prevent scared noobs from blocking the entrance. In the short run, trolls will troll by blocking doors and stairs, but in the long run the metagame will improve as the skill ceiling will increase because you must learn how to move better within indoor environments.

Issue 7: Waiting
Fix: Capping points means waiting. Fully defending a point means waiting. Waiting for an AMS means waiting. Waiting is a cancer of the game. When a fight has been decided, there should be no waiting. Waiting stops players and reduces the amount of potential battles. Why waiting? Simple, a bad capping system. I always wanted a capping system that relays on class. Instead of waiting on a cap point, why not do this: Small bases have a base generator. Now, instead of the tug-o-war system, when this base gen is destroyed and repaired, the base switches to the other side. Bases can be built around this idea, as smaller gens can be hacked or destroyed. Instead of overloading the gens, these gens must be attacked and destroyed. When new players play and shoot at gens, finding it does nothing, do they know to overload it? Instead add a system in place to use the class based abilities and always make them do something. Shooting the generator, repairing the generator, etc. instead of waiting on a point labeled A, B or C. There are many ideas on better base capping and it'll make this even longer to post them.

Issue 8: No important territory except for the Crown/Ascent
Fix: Check issue 3 and 4, and add tactics into the game. With issue 7 fixed, changing capping bases, it should remove ghost capping, as it should force at least a team of 6 to take a base. The problem with no territory being important is because they do nothing. Another problem is the plague that is Sunderers. The way I see it, Bio labs should allow players to spawn Maxes, Amp stations Sunderers and Tech Stations main battle tanks. By making Amp stations allowing spawning of Sunderers outside Warpgates, removing them from all small bases, more care is given to them. By taking a main base, any main base (Bio, Amp, Tech) can be able to spawn that effect. To balance this out for non-owning factions, as there will only be two of each main bases, smaller bases can be combined to trigger the effects of a main base. So, three smaller bases with weapons sign will trigger the small effect of a main base, in this case Maxes. This will help losing factions still stay in the fight, but force them to defend harder as the bases are less defensible.

Issue 9: Ghost Capping
Fix: Besides all the other fixes addressing this, when a territory has 100% influence, it is invulnerable. Nothing can be hacked or damaged until a rival faction has influence. This helps because, again, it forces fighting as nothing can be done to this base. And the game needs better fighting, instead of baby sitting.

Issue 10: Spawn Map design
Fix: I don't know what they mean when they say they are going to fix the Map screen, but I would like two things added. Defend and Attack. It will help new players and allow veteran players better control. Any base being captured should have a defend on it and allow players to warp to it. Any AMS in rival territory should have an Attack on it. This will help player flow.

Issue 11: Resource
Fix: Man did they break the resource system. Losing factions will lose faster. Let's avoid the fact that resources right now are strangely priced, like the cost of a grenade vs other types. The problem with territory equaling resource means the bigger zerg bully will always control the flow of resources. Resources should be meaningful but fair. Instead of just having individual territory giving resource over time, give resources as a bonus for capping and defending bases. It doesn't have to be a big bonus, but enough to be the cherry on top of the bonus exp.

Issue 12: Russian Roulette/Random Cone of Fire
Fix: You cannot have a tournament game of a game based on skills if they are random factors in the game that cannot be adjusted meaningfully enough. This comes in the form of random CoF, Cone of Fire. This is a game from the future right, and they do have the ability to create jump jets. So why can't they create a gun that hits the center of the scope? Instead of random CoF, increase the recoil of the gun, making it take more skill, like firing a Tommy gun or AK47 in RL, but always hit the center of the scope. This will increase the skill ceiling as players can now accurately shoot, but force them to control their fire.

I hope these 12 issues and fixes has helped you think of how much better a game PS2 can be. I want the game to be around in a few years, if at least just one more.

[maradine]

Originally Posted by darktengu

This is a game from the future right, and they do have the ability to create jump jets. So why can't they create a gun that hits the center of the scope?

Cone of Fire doesn't simulate a weapon's accuracy; Cone of Fire simulates its operator's inability to precisely predict the weapon's target point when the sights aren't engaged. The weapon does hit the center of the scope. You just aren't positive where that center is, because you're not looking down the indicator that would tell you.