I think it's safe to say that, whether you enjoy the continent or not, Indar is beginning to get a bit stale for anyone that's played since launch. Everyone goes to Indar because everyone goes to Indar. PS2 is about big fights, and that's where the big fights are. Personally I think the continent is nice enough, but even I want to see big fights on the other continents on a regular basis. I keep hearing that continent locking is going to fix all of this, but to be honest, I'm not convinced it's going to help all that much considering how hard it is to capture Indar as it is. I play on Connery and I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that Indar is going to be the last continent to get locked. I'd be willing to bet money Esamir and Amerish get ghost-locked the day the patch goes live, forcing even more players onto Indar. Now my solution is a bit complicated, so bear with me: Provided Hossin goes live in April, pick one continent in March, and at the end of the month, close it down for the entire month of April. Kick everyone out and lock it down for "maintenance." First continent to go on lockdown? You guessed it: Indar. But don't just do this in April when Hossin goes live, do it EVERY month. The faction with the most territory at the end of the month "wins" the continent and gets to keep the continent bonus while it's down. When it comes back into the rotation the next month, the territories and the bonuses reset and players are allowed back onto the continent while another goes into lockdown. Not only does this encourage more variety in gameplay locales, it also provides the player base with a monthly contest that has lasting repercussions. It's almost like a mini-empire showdown once a month, but with a few major difference: the fighting lasts a full month instead of a few hours, ensuring mostly fair engagements even if the continent's been previously ghost-capped. The first week of each month is considered "free-for-all" where players are allowed to fight over the continent of their preference. After the first week, a continent is selected to go on "imminent lockdown." This means that at the end of the month, that continent will be locked and it's bonus made permanent for the duration of the lockdown. This should give players plenty of time to mount a sustained, organized offensive to secure the continent for their faction. Now it's entirely possible on more populated servers, that the continent on "imminent lockdown" that month will reach its player cap the closer it gets to the lockdown date. In order to help give players waiting on other continents some sense of meaning, the faction holding the most territory on non-lockdown continents will be granted a fraction of its continent bonus for the duration of the "free-for-all" week next month. This way players are still encouraged to play on non-lockdown continents without negating the benefit of capturing the lockdown continent bonus completely. So to sum things up nicely, let's go over some of the basic concepts: Once a month, Sony picks a continent to go into lockdown. (First continent lockdown: Indar) Upon entering lockdown, all players are kicked from the locked continent, forcing them to play on others until the lockdown completes. Each month begins with one week of "free-for-all" play between the other open continents in the rotation After the free-for-all week ends, the next continent to go on lockdown at the end of the month is announced and the struggle for dominance begins anew The faction with the most territory at the end of the month receives the continent bonus for the duration of the lockdown. Factions holding the most territory on non-lockdown continents are granted a fraction of those continent bonuses for the duration of the next free-for-all week. This not only keeps the same continent from ultimately becoming stale (I'm looking at you Indar!), it also gives player battles a much needed sense of importance and semi-permanence. I'll be the first person to admit that the first UES was a complete cluster by the end (especially on Connery), but one thing it did VERY right in my opinion was make the battle seem like it mattered. People were logging on hours before the event just to make sure their faction won. It might have only been bragging rights, but everyone had a start/finish line and we all wanted the prize at the end. I think this brings that sense of competition and importance from the UES, while still being relatively fair. So...what do you think? Am I out of my mind? Personally I think this could add a LOT of fun to Planetside, but I'm perfectly capable of being wrong. Tell me what you think!
So you're saying that it is whoever holds the most at final moment of the month that wins? If so it is a bit of a fustercluck on final day of month.
Potentially. Assuming the servers are stable enough it could be fun. Alternatively, if you're dying to make it more fair, you could make the criteria for winning more along the lines of the faction holding the most territory the longest over the course of the month wins the continent. To make something like this more obvious to the player, you could have each territory on the lockdown continent earn your faction "Victory Points" while you own the territory, with the major facilities granting more points than the smaller ones. So say a tech plant earns 5 points every hour, and smaller facilities only grant 1 per hour. And the faction with the most points at the end of the month wins the lockdown bonus. Better?
