I posted this on reddit as a reply but realized this is a pretty good idea in general for the Battle Islands that were revoked from the game, with koltyr being the only one remaining! The idea is a sort of base that once you enter into it, it automatically splits all available players into like 12v12 matches with a sort of cap, like "maximum instances 10". And the best of each of these matches is tallied towards your faction, and adds some kind of point system to capturing the base you qued in. Or if not a base that you qued, this could always be a thing you can enter instead of or in addition to the normal Planetside experience. Because a lot of players really enjoy the Infantry side of Planetside 2, but the base fights can sometimes be so overwhelming that it takes fun away from the idea of a sort of small scale controlled experience that players would find in any other FPS game. So basically at these particularly hubs, or if not on continent (Battle Islands) you don't fight land/air for a base, you go to the hub on the continent and you partake in these sort of Team Deathmatch or other themed instances, Gun Game for example or even CTF! and the victor of these matches contributes points or some kind victory condition to helping your faction take the continent or (Battle Islands) (kind of like the old alerts did with contribution points). This helps during downtime like on Connery server around 3am PST, when there are only a few players online you could do this, alternative to trying to take bases on a continent, since you can't cap a continent when there aren't enough players playing! The Map design would literally be like the containment facility buildings, research labs, vanu/tr/nc themed buildings and outdoor areas - even shattered warpgate levels that are enclosed and instanced, you could even invent entirely new areas based on whatever the theme of an update is for the game. The maps and level designs would have the same kinds of design decisions as other FPS games have for example; You can't just fly up to every building or cloak on any ledge you see at the top of a buidling, it would be closer to the small scale instanced areas you see in games like Call of Duty, or other franchises, andhas dedicated spawn rooms. Additionally there would be obvious limitations on equipment, so that you can't just equip everything you could in the normal Planetside 2 experience for balance reasons, maybe theres a sort of 2 mins prep time and during this time you can finagle your builds, or finagle before you que for that particular mode. Light Assault for example would have everything they currently have but instead of rocket rifle there would be another peice of equipment that makes sense to a 12v12 TDM, where vehicles aren't present and max units may or may not be present. Players have like a set damage resistance like (everyone has nanoweave) for example, so its about player skill!
PS2 is an MMOFPS with a dwindling playerbase. You are suggesting to add ordinary FPS instanced battles which take away from the numbers playing the MMOFPS part of the game. That is highly counterproductive. Letting this create arbitrary capture points for the continents only encourages farming such area's similar to how HIVE's were abused. It would also encourage high skill groups to try and band together and hope they can gang up on average players. They could work as small continents during low population times, but forced 12v12 matches in a game about large-scale conflict? You can pick a small fight if you want that. As for CTF and TDM, there are ways to put that into the main game. For example players might be able to pick up capture points and bring them to a deployed Sunderer before the timer starts. Then defend the Sunderer to hold on to the point and finish the capture. An attrition system for TDM can also be made, but would require some limits to avoid chokepoints and farming reigning supreme. For example if you are outnumbered a system kicks in that adds or removes time from a capture timer if you kill someone or something. The more outnumbered you are the more the numbers are in your favor.
Its not taking away from the game, there would be always and incentive to play the base game and the rewards for doing so, especially during an alert would always outweigh the rewards for this other game mode. What your saying is like arguing the mission system, or saying that the events in-game that by the way "are not MMO" are getting in the way of the core game, like Koltyr, like the Construction System - (which is not a player housing system like other MMO's) and several other systems that are not seen in any MMO or FPS. The "High Skilled player groups" that you mention? that happens all the time in Planetside 2, I experience that daily especially from VS players on Connery, that'll always happen. But in the idea I suggested there could be an MMR, and it could actually work! Or it could very well be what you said, except It would be something you can't just "farm" persay. The way I saw it in my mind was that it goes on for about 2 hours, then it goes into a lockout period for a few hours and its always based on the amount of players online, which could go either way - too many players or too little. If too many it provides fun for groups that can't go to the continent or dont want to. If too little its great because these are small scale battles that can be really fun especially during off-hours outside of primetime when then pop is soo low that the game automatically has decided that the continent can't lock anyways!
If we had a sudoku mini-game added which somehow added capture points to the continent then it would be taking away from the game as those players wouldn't be engaged with the actual game. Just because there is an abritrary "you get points for doing it" does not make it A-OK. The players doing the TDM are effectively not engaged in the MMOFPS, thus taken away from the game. Some of the mission system is taking away from the game as it encourages players to avoid the MMO part in order to accomplish them. At least those missions do take place in the MMO area where they have the option to run into others. Similarly the original construction system took away from the game as it encouraged players to avoid all contact and sit in a hard to reach area while discouraging anyone from interacting with them by making attacking them nigh impossible. From building off the map to making skywalls in pits to make assaulting suicide unless you had overwhelming numbers. As far as I'm aware the average player nowadays has half an hour to an hour to play. Lets say they all have 2 hours instead, that means they are fully taken out of the main game for their entire playsession and if that playsession is a bad matchup they might think their entire playsession was wasted. You have to find a way to make it rewarding for the user wether they win or lose. This is actually something Alerts already struggle with especially since the reward requires you to be present for as long as possible and until the end. If you drop out 1 second before the alert ends you get nothing and if you spend your entire session working for the alert only to fail because even at perfect balance there is only 33% chance you win it is not encouraging you to play more. I also shudder to think how MMR would work in PS2. Most high KD players that I've seen are farmers with just a few tricks in their sleeve. Having them matched into a higher skill game might be a suitable teaching moment for them but not for their team mates. Look I absolutely hate the idea. But if it ever is added at the very least make it 48 vs 48 battles or something. Its much closer to what PS2 is made for and lets you still have big battles.
I would have to agree making a bunch of small fights would likely draw people from participating in the main content and hurt it. The population is already grinding down lowering the pop could mean longer with unstable warp gates. (same reason the admin have been working on reducing farm fights to increase people in the alert.) While I understand what you are suggesting and their are good games like it, I do not think it is right for PS2.
