[Suggestion] Balance the amount of time each continent is open

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RabidIBM, Dec 16, 2020.

  1. RabidIBM

    Today for example:

    15 minutes to trigger the alert on Esamir
    40ish minutes to trigger the alert on Indar
    2 hours and counting on Hossin
  2. JustGotSuspended

    It's up to the playerbase to trigger alerts. Esamir usually triggers quickly, because a good portion of the continent is gone thanks to the revamp, which means territory counts as more, and it's easy to quickly trigger an alert.

    Hossin and amerish are pretty lame continents, so everyone either leaves or stays at the center fight. Ironically, this means these continents are open the longest.

    But it the end, alert triggers depend on how fast a faction is able to reach the requirements to trigger it, which is in the hands of the players, not the devs.
  3. RabidIBM

    This is not entirely accurate. Yes, it is up to the players, however I can tell you that as a PL who is trying to trigger the alert on Hossin to get off that continent, it has far more "give" before it will finally trigger. "Oh ****, I wasn't trying to start the alert yet" is something I have said on the other 3 continents. For whatever reason, the formula is biased to keep Hossin open longer. I'm not saying the bias is intentional, but it is present.
  4. DataGhost

    You can see the "formula" for triggering an alert if you hover over the territory control numbers at the top of the map screen. Since the last big update, it's based only on territory control and warpgating other factions. Nothing else. There is nothing in the formula that is biased towards or against Hossin or Esamir. The map design is 100% the cause of this. A quick query on the API reveals the following number of hexes per continent: Indar 88, Hossin 87, Amerish 80 and Esamir has only 46. So, for territory control, a hex on Esamir will contribute a much higher percentage towards starting an alert than on Indar. Looking purely at the "formula", Hossin should be about equal to Indar, but very slightly easier. For Esamir, it is clear why the alerts are triggered almost instantly, just capturing a few bases already gives you enough territory to get 100 points. Because of this, I think it's borderline impossible to warpgate any faction before the alert is triggered

    Anyway, back to other continents. A lot of this has to do with where the battles usually take place, base design and lattice design. What you're seeing on Indar is a fluke imo, but that could be due to a server population difference (I'm on Cobalt). My experience with Indar is that it takes the longest to to trigger an alert (Hossin 2nd, Amerish 3rd). Everyone gravitates towards Ti Alloys, The Crown, Ceres, and then there's the other cluster****s on or close to the starting borders in the form of Quartz Ridge, Regent Rock and Howling Pass. In general, it's pretty hard to get any territory to move on Indar, so it takes very long to trigger an alert.

    Amerish has some gravity at The Ascent, plus the biolabs aren't too far from the borders so once a fight starts there, it tends to stay there. Not a lot of movement either, but not as bad as Indar. The biolab fights can be killed by capturing the surrounding bases.

    Hossin has Nason's which could make for a pretty good fight, but somehow many people fight elsewhere so it doesn't turn into the same mess as Indar. The lattice is pretty okay in terms of offering alternative options to get around a base so it doesn't turn into a stalemate that easily. But Hossin tends to be pretty quiet, many people seem to avoid it if it's not the only open continent. Naturally, this translates into smaller fights and that makes people go to Nason's more, since there's usually some good three-way fighting going on there. That could contribute to longer times before an alert triggers.

    This same last argument for Hossin goes for other continents as well. In my experience, Indar most often has a max population queue, so most people go there, into the big fights that don't move. Esamir and Amerish are about 50/50 I'd say.

    In any case, n=1 is a bit tough for this. Try keeping track of continent opening durations over a period of a week or longer. Maybe there are some sites that track this info already. Then you can see if one continent is consistently open longer than others, and if it's Hossin.