Ghost capping is lame.

spot on. I'm not for eliminating ghost capping, I just want to require someone to actively stand on the actual cap for it to move. Right now ghost capers just flip the cap and let an automated broken game mechanic do the base taking for them, stand on the cap and take it yourself and pray no one notices, have backup nearby or be a billybadass and rambo it. Your letting the computer do your job, at least in a linear COD you haver to actually kill stuff, are you ghost capers really that scared of facing resistance. I just dont understand why anyone would be for this, this is a shooter, if I wanted to run around like an idiot and look for ghost I'd play Amnesia.

Its a valid strategy because otherwise large force A would steamroller smaller force B ad naseum. This way small force B can, at least in some way disperse large force A, thereby allowing small force B to compete. You dont like it. I get that, but it is part of the game. We have a counter for it in our outfit, why dont you develop a counter instead of trying to get game mechanics changed?

Because I don't believe the current mechanics are good for the game.

So in other words your just exploiting a broken game mechanic, because I'm sure your aware that if just one person from a platoon is ghost capping it shows on the map as enemy platoons detected and the platoon leader has no way of knowing how many troops to disperse, so what usually ends up happening is they send a whole squad to take it back when just one infil could keep spawning infinitely playing ring around the rosie until they kill the ghost caper.

Also if SOE ever gets around to implementing the lattice system all of the PS1 vets are clamoring for, you can most likely kiss this goodbye as this will force a more linear front line and bases will have to be taken by either brute force or highly organized outfits, no more ez mode caps. So sorry, but I just don't see this being a permanent game mechanic if this game ever plans to have the life span SOE is banking on.

Ghost capping is a way to engage in asymmetrical warfare. It allows a small number of people to delay and distract a numerically superior, but less individually organised/capable, opponent.

A single ghost capper can be shut down by another single ghost capper with equal skill, resolve and attention. If you are having to allocate a entire squad to stop a ghost cap then you are the quintessential zerg outfit and the intended target of this tactic. Learn to send scouts before you allocate a squad and try to get your people used to thinking instead of acting like FPS junkies. Then you might be able to counter ghost capping on a 1:1 effort ratio.

It's just a part of the cheese in this game that has to go away, things that make no sense and does not interest real FPS players. It's like deconstructing vehicles to prevent kill exp, a "valid tactic" according to some in the past, I'm glad SOE wised up and put that cheese away. Ghost capping is stupid and I've never seen it in other FPS games. We're here to fight people, to kill and be killed. A base should not flip when nobody is there, the influence bar should not move when nobody's there. It's cheese, plain and simple.

In fact I do see SOE removing ghost cap in the near future because even I think they're smarter than that. Sometimes SOE miss things and they need us playerbase to help them understand why something isn't good for the game. Especially now that they've given us this wonderful alert event system, which many people have enjoyed. Ghost capping is even more of an issue now than before.

Its a difficult concept for your average brain-dead FPS player, I know, but ghost capping is something you counter at a strategic level, not at a gunpoint level.

If you find yourself in the position of having 10 people chasing around after a ghost capper, then you need to blame the dumb mook leading your squad, not game mechanics.

But hey, lets just remove all tactics and shrink the game down to 100 of you and 100 of the enemy at opposite sides of a field. Then you can run towards each other shooting.There, are all the COD kiddies happy now?

Platoons are quickly realizing that these new alerts are nothing but one big ghost capping competition, it used to just be an annoyance for the platoons, but now it's actually affecting entire factions since the xp awarded is based on a land grab. If it was only a platoon problem like before, then I probably wouldn't be this stubbornly persistent to make the case to get rid of it.

There will always be a place for Ghosts in this game as long as gens exist, no Platoon worth a damn attacks a big base without first sending an infil or two to hack and overload as much as they can before the main force arrives.

Love when people throw COD into the discussion, its like the equivalent of Godwin's Law for fps forum debates.

If there were no ghost capping, I'd have no reason to scout.
If there was no ghost capping, I'd have no reason to defend.
If there was no ghost capping, I'd always have to fight the Zerg and lose.
If there was no ghost capping, there would be no mini battles.

If there was no ghost capping, VS would be permanently warp gated on Esamir/Amerish (Connery).

Stop trying to lobby developers to make changes to suit you and help you win.

I dislike Ghostcapping simply because it's the complete opposite of my preferred playstyle. If it succeeds too well it hinders my enjoyment in the game, simply because I have to go around chasing ghosts instead of having lasting big fights. I'd rather quit and play some other time than go around recapping empty bases.

Is it really or are can you not make a counter argument to Nicholai's post so instead attempt to cheapen his point?

He did a good enough job of that on his own, COD doesnt even have vehicles, 3 factions, cloaking, etc, so how he made a COD connection when discussing an element thats not even in that game is pretty silly. He said himself that it can easily be countered on a 1:1 level, so if 'the dumb nooks' that lead platoons take his wise strategic advise, the strategic element to ghost capping would be lost and then it just becomes nothing but one big boring circle jerk for 2 really bored and lonely people.

If you really want to make a difference I suggest you join a platoon and scout for sunderers, tank formations, swarms of air and then report back to platoon lead with numbers and the direction they are headed to alert the troops on what to gear for based on the threat. Scouts are very valuable in this game and will continue being so with or without ghost capping. If a base requires you to stand on cap, the scout can still inform lead of how many sundys, armor support and estimated size of the force to expect.

And it would be adressed by outfits willing to cap continents.

If this isn't enough a simple XP bonus for reverting a cap back would suffice. And nothing prevents SOE from implementing a 2+ player requirement for flipping points. Finally, there is no reasons points should stay captured with no one around.

But I guess it's faster and easier to remake the game into a Lattice, for all those who consider a big, laggy fight is preferable to multiple medium engagements.

The number one complaint I hear from critics of this game and outfit members alike is that whats the point of putting so much effort into taking a continent or base, if it's just going to be ghost cap'd back the second you leave. The ability to ghost cap is hurting this game more than SOE realizes and goes against the epic battles they are trying to promote and encourage with the new alert system.

Small teams with sundys, spawn beacons and medics actually promote these smaller skirmishes we all love to be in from time to time when we want a break from the frontlines, not lone wolf ghost cappers that take advantage of a broken cap mechanic that doesnt require you to actively sit on a cap. How can 0/6 be valued more then 51% influence, why should the bar continue to move, broken is broken. It's not even about defending most of the time, people just stop caring after a while and realize theres no point in saving useless bases anymore.

Honestly, it's simple to understand that:

-Flipping a point takes 1 person
-Points do not flip back by themselves
-Redeployment system is broken since day 1

Fix the 3 above and ghost capping goes away provided a single outfit deals with it.
Ideally, small caps turn into medium engagements which turn into massive battles over time.
If you give defenders the ability to defend properly by HOLDING and not just blowing up trucks...

But I digress

I share the view that you should have to stand on point to cap, else it should reverse the cap. This would stop people from flipping a base and running off to the next and get more people on point to cap faster.

Big assumptions there. Assuming people will react to out of the way situations is flawed thinking in game design. There's a reason games keep things rather linear and condensed. From the good ol' days of DOOM to now, battlefields in games have been designed to keep people fighting other people in maps appropriately sized so that it never should feel like a deserted island in the middle of an urban sprawl. No one enjoys playing a game of CTF by themselves, except here apparently.

People are here to have fun. SOE is providing it via something no other FPS offers: massive cluster-**** battles. Ghost cappers are NOT the target audience, and never will be. People want to care about land, but there's too much freedom in taking it. It's inconvenient and not-so-fun to hold territory when the offense brings one or two guys. That's the size of a very small UT match. That isn't the size PS2 is catering towards, nor would profit from. Because the map is WTFHUGE, SOE needs to come up with a way to keep opposing players clashing against each other. Ghost capping doesn't help realize this necessity, it only hurts the sense of victory and ownership an empire has over land. Ghost capping, for the most part, must go...

...Get over it.

Maybe there is a better way, but most ideas really aren't addressing the core issue: too many movement options.

I think it was perfectly clear what was meant, however, at the risk of wasting my (and everyone else's time explaining things further) Reference to COD was more figurative than literal. That is, PS2 is an open world which leaves options in playstyle, tactics and strategy including ghost/ ninja capping, however you feel about it - Take away the options/ strategic elements and you will be left with COD style battles where each base is another 'map' - no room for anything other than force A meets force B. Sounds pretty **** to me if I'm honest.

Hold onto your knickers there princess, I dont like ghost caps so telling me what I should do is like telling your Dad how to make babies. I do, however, see that the importance of being able to play that way if you wish to do so and that it has a place in the game. You dont like it because you want massive battles (cool, me too) but rather than find a way to counter them with your outfit (heres a thought, have your Delta squad designated to deal with ghosts - Yes, its not sexy, cert whoring work but its a team game after all, right?) you would rather reduce the entire scope of the game to suit your play-style. A style, as Nicholai perceptively points out, is more akin to COD.

That would be my preferred approach.

#1 - You must have at least one person on the point, or it reverts to the owner. None of this "flip point, fly away or hide 100m away".

#2 - Spawn point totals (total # of people that you can stack on capture points) needs to be adjusted across the board. Small facilities should have a single 3/3 or 4/4 point, or possibly a pair of 2/2 points. Mediums should have 10-15 total points (such as a trio of 4/4 points, or a pair of 6/6), large facilities should have 20-25 total points (five points, each worth 4/4, 5/5, or 6/6).

#3 - Attackers have at least 20% of the points (rounded down) in players on the points in order to move the bar. For a 25 point facility, this means they would need 5 more people sitting on the points then the defenders have on the points. If the defenders stack 5 people on the points, attackers will need to put 10 people on the point, etc. So in order to move the bar towards capture in a heavily defended major facility, you'd need at least 15 people on the points to counter-balance the defender's 10 people on the points.

(This also means that you cannot capture a large facility unless you bring at least 5 people to the party, and sit them on the points.)

#4 - If the facility is under contention, hand out 4k XP/hr (spread across 6 second intervals) for everyone within range of the capture point. Contention status would need to calculated in a manner that you only get the bonus if the enemy is actively trying
to attack/defend (to avoid opposing sides sitting AFK at the capture points).