Dev Discussion: Directives

We plan on adding an advanced "prestige" directive tree to many of the existing directive trees that unlocks after you complete them. Example: You complete Heavy Assault so then you unlock the Stormtrooper tree that has much harder and less general things to do. That tree could of course have different rewards. In the case of the Heavy Assault it would probably be the ES Heavy Assault guns (Lasher/Jackhammer/MCG). In the case of Medic / Engineer we might look at the Medical applicator or Repair tool variants. We'd definitely get feedback from players on whether they wanted those sort of rewards though.

Not currently - is that something many players would like to see?

Are there any plans for a Directive based on total kills, like the old Empire Defense merit from PS1?

The rewards are not currently account wide. Account wide stuff is tied into the marketplace so it was not as simple as setting a flag on the weapon (I looked into it). It's possible we could add support for that in the future if it becomes a popular request.

We have discussed the next wave of directives, and we definitely want to add some for broad accomplishments, like overall kills, achieving battle ranks, and at least a few trees based on generic ribbon collector, like combat ribbons, support ribbons, objective ribbons, etc.

I know lots of people are achievement crazy, but I've never understood the appeal - I personally think the directive point display on the death screen is too prevalent (too damn big!) already. I am however totally ok with getting unique lumifibre for my flash, so I can deal with some stuff =p

We want more stuff like that, but there is a performance concern with adding a bunch of things of that nature. It's not hard to add them, but we're very careful about tracking all that stuff having a negative effect on server performance. That's why you don't see those currently.

We've thought of some ways around that though, such as having "Finesse" or "Acrobat" style directive trees that encompass similar feats that you don't just do once, but you can progressively get more challenging and fit better with the current style.

We will also have rewards for overall directive score, such as account-wide XP bonus, kill screen cosmetics, etc.

The idea we've had is that when you complete a tree that can unlock new trees. So for example, if you complete the Mosquito tree you might unlock the Mosquito Ace tree which is based on taking out other ace pilots or similar air feats.

Not going to answer questions that aren't directives-related, but you did ask a few of those...

Retroactive - Only Ribbons and Medals are retroactive.
Directive Point Rewards - These are coming in a future update. We want to give you rewards for completing directives in general (and yes, we'll obviously back-grant the rewards to people who qualify after we put them in).

Prestige Role trees and directive score rewards are coming in a future update.

No plan to change how the black camo is awarded.

T

There's lots of stuff for support. The Sunderer and Galaxy are almost exclusively support, and support options are sprinkled into most of the trees.

Watching the Higby first look at directive weapons, a lot of them seem to use an older weapon model with a new camo. Are there plans to change the weapons so they all have a unique model? I know it may be a time/manpower issue, but it takes a lot of grinding for some of the directive weapons. Having a unique model helps them really stand out.

Also, are there plans for Directive Lightning turrets? Maybe empire specific 75mm Viper variants? For example: TR - Larger mag, longer reload. NC - Hits harder, but smaller magazine. VS - Very high velocity or No-drop, but more delay between shots.

I'm just tossing ideas, but I think the Directive rewards are a great step towards retaining players.

well....TBH...i didnt think anyone would...i made a thread about the MCG in the main forums, besides....just getting answers to questions about directives is awesome, im so happy that this thread exists


for the medals and ribbons....will we get awards spam once we log in? or are you going to disable that for a minute or 2? because there are people with tons of ribbons.....and i can see how it would get annoying having the "directive complete" callout playing for a minute straight

the heavy weapons idea....also has a thread that i made.... is that something that you guys would consider as a reward? or would you rather do it with certs?

i think it would be a cool reward, for completing a tree based on the ES heavy weapon....like....get auraxium with it, and then do some other things and you get the new heavy weapon or something

When are directives Actually coming out?

I heard its coming out like early next week..... so I'm assuming monday or tuesday.

Retroactive Ribbons/Medals.

Will they stack? Or will only the highest equivalent count?
For example, I got most of my Auraxiums before ribbons were introduced, but what about people who didn't, whose ribbons were accrued on the way to Auraxium?

I would give away all my ~3k medic tool related ribbons and get them again if it would give me shiny new medic tool. Please.

YES.

Also, we need more blatant and clear language on the directive pages to better understand them and grasp what we are supposed to do, if there is any plans for more directives that aren't get X kills with Y weapon, this will be crucial.

Personally Id like to see more non combat related directives added as well as more weapon specific directives, something like Kilometers Sprinted/ Piloted/ Jet packed/ Driven, Meters jumped, Kills on certain empires, Vehicle kills with rocket launchers and C4, infantry kills with C4 and Rocket launchers, Maybe directives related to aircraft acrobatics, Headshots with Rocket Launchers ECT...

Just more challenge worthy stuff with rewards to go along with them in conjunction with passive things like travel, people love free unlocks with their achievements!