That this hasn't been done before is astonishing to me, but it needs to start being done in order for Alerts to matter a damn: When the Alert countdown starts, kick absolutely everyone on that continent back to their warpgate and lock them there for the 2 minute countdown. During that time, reset the continent to 33/33/33 control between the three factions. The easiest way to win a continent alert is to have it pop off on a continent you already have 70% control on; many people on command chat tend to look at a situation like that and go "Well, we are having fun here, nuts to that alert" and stop bothering. I know I do. It seems like it would be a pretty simple thing to add, and it might actually render the alerts somewhat fair. I understand you can't really lock the pops to 33/33/33 either, because globals and stuff, but this one thing could easily be changed.
Easiest way for them to make alerts interesting is to make interesting alerts. It honestly BAFFLES me why they removed all the alert types except for territory control - which was always the dullest of the alert types. There's no goal - no objective to push towards or defend...just "grab as much land as you can!" which gets real old real fast.
This. If you had bothered to give us back specific objectives then people would care more. I recall the "Take the tech plants" alerts and fighting over the only one on Esamir. That was epic.
I don't think forcing people to commit to the an alert is the right way to go about making them care. This is an MMO. PS2 isn't a round based 32vs32 game so forcing players to completely stop what they are doing just to follow an alert would undermined the freedom that an MMO gives a player. From my experience in PS1, trying to force players to abandon a good fight for the good of the faction just doesn't work and after a while this became a toxic issue in command chat. Carry that experience to PS2 and the game forcing an Alert by teleporting players back to warp gate is a terrible idea. Make alerts matter by adding content and meta. Trying to fix what is already broken beyond repair is silly.
Thats interesting... on Miller the easiest way to LOSE an alert is to start off with most of the territory.. the other two factions kind of get into a rut in double teaming you.
You misunderstand me; when I said lock them in that warpgate I meant so that the continent can be reset back to a 33/33/33 control default state, so that one faction doesn't start with say, ownership of every tech plant.
From my experience, unless there is a huge population imbalance, whoever has the most territory at the beginning of the alert, is the one ending up third.
Im curious to what people think about this idea https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/bfr-alerts.213189/ "So i have an idea for an alert, maybe a rare alert that only spawns once or twice a day. So the alert starts like any other alert, and whichever faction wins the alert, a random player (or the best player, or most score, w/e) gets to spawn a BFR (big f***in robot) and start the 2nd stage. The BFR will be flagged on the map and all factions will have to battle the BFR. Players can choose to work together and fight the BFR or continue to fight each other and farm certs. Whenever the BFR finally falls, whichever faction did the most damage before it was destroyed wins the alert."
No I get that. What your saying is that you want everyone to start on an even playing field by resetting the cont. That's fine as long as the alert starts on a locked cont only where no one currently is playing. Think of it this way. Your locked in a great battle with the opposing forces. It's been a back and forth struggle for at least an hour or more. Your about to break in to turn the tide. It's seemingly epic and all of a sudden the alert pops up and everyone gets teleported to warp gate to "wait" for the game to start. Your essentially turning the alert system into a session based game. That isn't a good way to force people to care about alerts.
Hey let's of players do care, I always go for an alert but ever time I try to join it is already full.
I began the game caring about alerts. I still care about winning alerts. But eventually I found that there was a "decay" of caring already in motion. I have to take into account many factors that I have come to learn. So now alerts for me are "ill do what I can but I cant make others do anything, at all." The reasons for the "decay" are manifold. Sure, I would like to see something happen, but I don't know what that is. The best way atm I think is joining an Outfit. That way there is some semblance of cooperation. Then you have the alerts. I can only speak for NC and never in an Outfit and in a Squad less than 10 times in my PS2 Career. PS: I am looking for players that see me daily and want to do some damage. I have nearly maxed all team oriented vehicles and need some help! I don't care what BR. Preferably NC only mindset.
I don't know if I will ever understand PS2 community. First we hated alerts "stupid handholding for casuals", to now we have to balance it, because people apparently can't have fun unless they aren't given the exact same toys as the others. We throw tantrums for anything even resembling the other big shooters (BF and CoD), and yet we see an example here, where it needs to be completely balanced, because we can't handle a game being the least bit asymmetrical... Let's take one of the few unique things of a persistent world, and wipe that away as well, because we are incapable of challenging ourselves.
I had a better idea about a year ago. You don't get exp or certs until your faction wins an alert. What happens instead is all the kills, assists, ect get tallied up in a pool. You even get to see this pool. And what happens is once your empire wins an alert (whether you are logged in or not) you receivethat pool of exp and certs. Exp gains would be heavily modified by population so it would encourage players to even out the pops and not simply play on the one who wins all the time. This was influenced by Table Top RPGs where you get your EXP at the end of the session rather than during. Now players who login and have an alert going will play their hardest to get the best exp they can by the end of the alert. They derp off during non-alert periods.. instead of during.
I can see three major problems with your suggestion: You seem to imply that people who are not there for the end of the alert get nothing It is pointless to play if there is no alert active It is pointless to play if you are not in an alert continent I'd rather we implement stuff that will entice people to play the game, rather than punish them for doing so.
Sounds like you only read a single sentence. Reread the post, the entire post. All three of your points were covered and those are not things that would be an issue.
