Close, it's called bad mechanics. The goal is to get players invested in fighting an alert, this does the exact opposite.
Not sure I support removing cortium from the equation - I've seen factions swamp a new continent and get massive lead in territory very quickly. It has only been the need to mine cortium that has given other factions the time to build their numbers and start pushing back. I've now seen three of ten alerts cancelled so triggering the alert have not guaranteed the win (although odds of a win are still in the initiators favour). One of those alerts was cancelled when the lead factions cortium supply was reduced rather than because it lost territory.
I admit I am guessing a bit but the faction that triggered the alert still had well over 41% (something like 46% IIRC) and the only thing that changed was that their consortium stock had fallen from 25k to 20k when the alert ended before the timer expired with no awards to any faction. So to be fair, that was an assumption on my part.
Sounds like a bug, currently the cortium only goes up until the alert is lost, then it gets completely reset for that faction. I wish it slowly went down though, that would mean that hives were not disposable once 25k is reached. Even better though, I'd prefer hives not be directly involved in alerts, and instead be used for the basis of nanite resource rate for a faction
it is pretty freaking r3tarded... rigged alerts combined with 4th faction hell... alerts are so much fun right now.
Maybe it would help if taking out a HIVE removes 50-75% of its progress towards the alert. This way you can prevent a faction from padding their victory, and the builders themselves remain relevant throughout the alert since they need to protect their investment. Both problems solved? There are some details to consider (such as what happens when the triggering faction falls below 25k during the alert), but perhaps this is something to explore.
You know people always farm cortium way before the alert starts anyways like usual. There are base builders out there so don't think there isn't any.
yup, i was on the NC, this was during primetime too, i just thought what is the point? even if i ignore the alert, fighting the VS was pretty much ghost capping, fighting the TR was like smashing my face against a wall, a bunkered down zerg at every base we could hit. all the alert did was made gameplay stale and made 4th factioners relog to TR for a free reward... (which is what i should have done tbh, i'm a member so i'd have jumped the queue and got my free reward.)
Definitely not ideal - the team is currently working on a solution to keep these sort of off-continent situations from happening.
Part of the game balance equation is :: What was going on on the other continent(s) while this was going on? Was this the only continent unlocked? I'm kind of doubting it. I've seen this kind of scenario happen most often on the lowest population continent while the largest battles are happening on more population balanced continents. The time of day that this happened is very relevant as well. Total player population changes drastically on servers over the course of a day.
It's simple, the continent with the lower pop of the other continent. Where one side is pooling a small group that is a major % of that near inactive continent. They quickly cap bases near ghost-cap style, then once they have the majority, they trigger the alert Which then finally alerts everyone to the fact they quietly capped half if not most of the continent. Other times, the Overpop or whatever side isn't being focus-fired during that time period, swarms a few dozen bases as quickly as possible. Some times they hold all the hives they can, and then once they've capped 10-30% more than needed, they Hive during further captures or defenses. Often enough sending aircraft or vehicles into the battles not near their hexes to delay battles or encourage forces to remain there. That help?
This is only a problem on off-pop continents. A way to handle it might be to have some slight passive cortium generation in addition to HIVES that scales with continent population (none when at max pop).
the thing is if you recognize that they are going to do this, why don't you prepare to strike their bases when they are starting to get a lead and building them up? you don't have to wait for them to put a hive down, use aircraft and vehicles to scout behind enemy lines and attack the bases in the process of being built, they'll have to redeploy some force if they want to bring those bases up while under fire, giving your allies a chance to push them back territory wise in the mean time. i forgot outside of super organized outfits teamwork is a myth.
