Why Continent Locking is Badly Implimented

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by BrokenMirror, Nov 14, 2014.

  1. BrokenMirror

    As the Title says, I personally believe the way SOE implemented continent locking is bad. It does not really HELP The game at all.

    1. It creates an Objective for players to work and fight toward on a continent, a goal.

    -Issue, there is no regulating factor, basically, 99/100 times, if a continent is capped, it is because 1 side had a "crushing" force. I define a Crushing Force as a population advantage of at least 10% greater than the other 2 factions ON THE CONTINENT, NOT In server. This is very important because it causes a "Zerg" Effect. It is more effective to cap a continent to redeploy away from the active fights, and deploy an unstoppable zerg on a different continent. What stops a zerg? A counterzerg. However, the counterzergs are all busy zerging a different continent.

    - Or they are ghost capped in the Morning and Night before Primetime. Which creates issues, because, during primetime, you are less likely to cap a continent (assuming no alerts) because of more even population spread. Due to these captured continents being before primetime, once they are taken, very rarely are they let go. And the reason being is, owning a continent is a direct increase in your factions ability to fight.

    2. Owning a continent is a force multiplier.

    - It is a reward, however, its to great of a reward. 50% off resources for having a higher population, as stated above. It makes no sense, If you own a continent, it means your winning, Therefore, the buff means your more likely to win. This is because, now you own a continent, you can pull MORE. And the fact that you won a continent, means most likely you were winning before the lock. This equates to the winning side having 2x more Maxes, Tanks, Air. Not only do they now how more people, they are more pullables, Exponentially more than you, Higher pop multiplied by cheaper pulling = MUCH to high.

    3. Loss of Maps.

    - I will make this very clear. I like Esamir, more then EVERYWHERE else. I HATE Hossin, I think Hossin is too dense, and the water is bad for vehicles, to easy to hide tankmines. If I had to count how many times I've logged into Emerald to see "Esamir is Locked, checks Indar, locked, Amerish? Locked. Hossin... Unlocked. Log." What if I want to fight somewhere that's locked? Come back tomorrow? I've seen days where Esamir is locked 6-7 days IN A ROW.
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  2. ronjahn

    1. Continents actually get locked outside of alerts???? I know it's possible, but I haven't seen it since the first week after the system was released. Mostly because on Emerald, most continents are territory locked because of zergs smashing against one another. I can't remember the last time a force pushed past Quartz ridge on Indar, let alone got anywhere close to enough territory to lock the continent. (My play time is usually during prime time)
    - IMO the act of winning an alert to lock a continent is VERY shallow. A 1% difference =\= a domination and definitely shouldn't be enough to lock everyone out of a continent. I propose the winning faction must be required to win by at least 10% to actually lock the continent.

    2. This reward system is pretty bad. In the past the losing empires would be starved of resources, making a comeback extremely difficult. Now the winning team is being given resource bonuses. I can't figure out which is worse, but neither are good.

    3. We need more maps for continent locking to work. SOE should stop releasing these "phase 1" projects, if phase 2 is another year away. It just makes players jaded.
  3. BrokenMirror

    ronjahn, My schedule has changed since I picked a server, I play around 2am-4am emerald time, Ill see 3 locked continents and the 4th being ghost capped.
  4. Degenatron


    1A. The problem then lies in the effectiveness of using a crushing force. There needs to be a check to the power of that many players. The most widely accepted answer would be a spawn delay penalty based on over-pop. "If you have X more players then you wait X more seconds to spawn."

    1B. Ghost capping is the primary reason Continent Locking was put in place. If people are still ghost capping, then the threshold for locking more continents on off-peak hours needs to be lowered so that the remaining population is forced onto one continent sooner.

    2. This problem is generally referred to as "The Slippery Slope". It existed when territory was the source of resources, and this is just a different face of the same problem. Going back to 1A, a penalty on over-popping an area (or continent) would go a long way to counter-balancing the slippery slope. Additionally, the resource system is not complete yet. I suspect that when the second pass is completed, you'll see a system that chokes resources the farther you get from your warp gate.

    3. Frankly, you can't please everyone all of the time. You complain about ghost capping, yet that's exactly what you'd end up doing of Esamir if all four continents were open at once. You have much thinner populations spread across the continents, making for very small fights, or no fights at all.

    The idea of logging off because my least favorite continent (Indar) is the only available one is ridiculous to me. To me, Planetside is like pizza - even bad pizza is still pretty good. I'll jump onto the "least favorite" continent and give it a go. Before I know it, four hours have passed. And I think that is one of the best things about Planetside, that it's not just a list of servers running the same 3 maps over and over again, but a world where you may not get your ideal conditions, and your favorite map (base in PS2) isn't being played right now, and you have to make the best of it. You have to adapt to the battlefield to be a winner.
  5. tahn1000

    don't know where your are but on briggs i find the opposite. esamir is usually the one i end up logging into, or the place the alert that just started ends me up on no matter who wins.

    and i hate esamir. hate it so much that on occasion i've gone out in my black camo just to protest how much i hate esamir. do you know how easy it is to die dressed in black on an everything white background? that's how much i hate it.

    theres this stupid 'help' message that comes up sometimes on the loading screen, something like if you don't like the continent you are fighting on go to the warp gate and choose another. i grind my teeth every time i see it.
  6. BrokenMirror


    1a. I agree
    1b. Doesn't matter off hours doesn't have enough people, or is enough 1 sided. One of the issues I stated however, was also, in off hours yes 3 continents are locked. For vanu. Vanu will own 3 continents for the next 13 hours until peak. The slippery Slope takes over and wrecks, the faction who Ghosted the 3 continents originally to lock everyone on 1 content has SUCH a powerful force. That is unlikely to be stopped. Due to your point 2.

    2. Difference between THIS Slippery Slope, and Last Slippery Slope is this. You cant fight back. The old slippery slope you could fight and push them off of your warpgate, even if it was hard. In this slope? No, once your out your out, and you have to go fight on a losing front, and DOMINATE on this front, Before you gradually regained power and lowered the slope, this Slope is static and will not move.

    3. To each his own. I can play on the Original 3, Hossin just makes me mad, direct counter to my playstyle. And I wont refuse to play on it, somedays however, I'm in the mood for a certain continent. Also I did not say unlock all the continents, I despise when 3 are locked. And 1 is open. I wouldn't mind the maps being made smaller, however, Unlike some people, I like fights that aren't 98+v98+ My favorite fights are 1-2squad v 1-2squad. <-- This however is personal preference. (Also this is possible to do, make "Locked" continents near primetime, allow access to a platoon each, allows small fights to be happening, AND Big fights. Also, I did adapt to the battlefield, however, If I don't care about winning, and I wanna have fun, my go to is driving a harasser, most fun with harassers is Esamir.

    And I do agree with the earlier post, Alerts probably get under my skin the most, Winning by 1% is NOT a domination.

    You talk about the second pass too, They implemented an Unfinished feature, that's what really matters. I don't want them to release critical gameplay elements which work together, separately.
  7. Tuco

    Too bad we don't have the PS1 AMS, PS1 mines, PS1 spitfires, PS1 motion detectors. Then the minority of us who like to play defense can slow down the zerg, or sometimes completely stop the zerg at certain terrain chokepoints like canyon roads or bridges.


    ah well, what can you do

    [IMG]
  8. CNR4806

    If 3 continents are locked and the last one is being ghostcapped, it's not the right time to play at all since ghostcapping is all that's happening on the server. My personal advice would be to log off immediately and possibly play on another server.

    It also sounds horribly like off-prime Briggs.
  9. BrokenMirror

    It's off time Emerald, Doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally, I see Vanu zergs taking 70% pop on the remaining map. MAYBE if there were 2 maps open it would be spread out more. This is only sometimes the case, never the less it happens
  10. BrokenMirror

    [IMG]

    Leads To...

    [IMG]
    Totally a Domination.
  11. johnway

    The locking mechanism hasn't been working all that well on miller for sometime now. i'm not sure if its my imagination or whether its intentional. Continents don't lock after one side wins, sometimes other contininents (recently indar) doesn't unlock, sometimes when a side wins, the warp gates change instead of locking (yesterday i fell dead seconds after the alert finished).

    So yeah somethings up or i don't know how the Continent locking works.
  12. TheShrapnelKing

    What ever happened to those new-fangled alerts that triggered because a faction was in fat trying to conquer a continent?

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: **** the alerts, **** the rotating warpgates, just let me lock all the continents and "win" the server. Post each victory on a wall of fame or something. That's all I want, I want to be able to win the war.
  13. Krinsee

    Cont locking is bad right now because Warp gates are being used as staging Bases instead of as insertion points.

    PS1 had the formula down pat with WG being your off cont link to the first base in line, with no facilities or rearming available in them. Also Locked Conts just meant that the empire had locked the benefit of the cont until another empire could control it and take the benny. (rare occasions a cont would be locked, but this was only due to special events and expired after 12 hours.)

    Using the Warp gates as mini sanctuaries are what is really Killing the ability for SOE to implement a true cont capture lattic link system. (The Metagame) Cutting lattic links as they stand now is pretty pointless, you don't lose much if anything. And a cut of link can stand assault just as well as a linked one.

    I argue that the PS1 Meta game was much more in depth and could be implemented simply in PS2 if they would just bring back sanctuaries and the ability to transfer vehicles and troops through the warpgates.

    Some of the most spectacular sites you would see in PS1 is when 2-3 large outfits would be staging in a Sanc getting ready to launch a foothold assault on a cont. You remember that last part of the Promo Video Blur studios Did for PS2? Yeah it was those types of assaults with 1-2 hundred people entering all at once and making that desperate first assault to take a foothold on the cont.
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  14. p10k56

    Bonus too big that is for sure something around 20% will be better.
    Locking INDAR is some sort of a crime against humanity:(
    Only not corridor shooter map excluding SE Warp gate area (this is probably reason of its "popularity").
    And when INDAR is unlocked soon great Feeling Heat comes and frustration is renewed.

    Also big thanks to infantry players to spoil Esamir and making it Wallamir really great QQ:mad:
    Without trees Esamir feels as Alien world now it is some sort fairy winter wonderland..
    ..we need more Unicorns.. pink ones:rolleyes:
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