Planetside 2 Meta Game Design Idea My Goal with this suggestion piece is to provide a means to create a new Meta Game which could be implemented in stages. I realize that I wrote a pretty long post here so if you don’t have the time you can vote on my design idea by simply reading to stage 1 which is the bare bones of the full meta-game package and could be implemented the fastest. (To SOE: When thinking of this meta game idea I kept in mind that SOE must make money to fund further development and therefore I included [$] of where SOE could capitalize without touching the forbidden land of Pay to Win). Essential things that the Meta game should to look improve in PS2: Create reason to defend Boost faction pride/loyalty Boost Outfit pride/loyalty Make small groups/ lone wolfs feel useful outside of the zerg Add new type of content to keep player interest SOE Cash flow generation Provide lore as to why these three factions are battling on auraxus The Meta: Resources Add additional resources which are collected through a variety of means. The first 3 of these implemented are based on large facility control, while the last one is event based/found randomly. Three Primary resources are: Alloys: +1 Resource Gained hourly on tech plant control per tech plant Powercores: +1 resource gained hourly on amp station control Biologics: +1 resource gained hourly on bio dome control Alloys, Powercores, Biologics: are based on large facility retention (tech labs, amp stations, bio domes respectively) which produce resources every hour globally to the faction that retains the facility. A new bar or notification indicating the time required for the next faction wide bonus to be obtained from the facility appears whenever entering a resource producing zone. These resources are globally tallied up at the end of each day and given to every player (provided they have played in the past 24hour period) as well as to the faction pool for that server (faction pool receives ~50-100x the player amount [Population based]). Additionally, Continent control doubles the resource gain of a certain type of resource produced on that continent. Ex: you control Indar now biodomes produce x2 the resources. The above section is Stage 1 of the Meta Game implementation Problems tackled: Create reason to defend, New Content, Lore Creation. Resource Use: These three resources have little use to the individual player (except they can be converted to auraxium; explained later) but rather these three resources are best utilized by the player’s faction/outfit. Faction Pool purpose: When releasing new weapons/vehicle content the new content can only initially be purchased with SC[$] until your faction “unlocks” the new weapons for their side, allowing it to be purchased with certs (and debatably the new resources). The idea here is that factions controlling more big bases <may> have access to content faster. This would now encourage large base defense as well as faction pride when you gain cert access to the new content first. Ex: New quad-pod infantry rocket launcher is released. Once your faction pool acquires 200,000 biologics, 150,000 power cores and 150,000 alloys it now becomes purchasable via certs. (these are hypothetical numbers and would like need to be tweaked) Outfit usage: Outfits may now charge their members a weekly amount of these new resources (based on a per-day basis). These are collected and put into the outfit’s coffers to be spent on the needs of the outfit. Large donations by Outfits to the faction pool results in the Outfit receiving a certain amount of the new content given to their coffers which can be given to members of the outfit as the leaders see fit (say new content is a tank gun and the outfit donated 10% of total resources therefore it receives something like the %given(rounded up) so it gets 10 tank cannons to give to its members after the content is unlocked. Additionally Outfits may now create “tags” for buildings/vehicles under their factions control with their Logo at the cost of the above resources. These have standard placement spots on vehicles or are placed on facility walls by the outfit leaders at their discretion (placed like placing turret on a flat vertical wall surface). These may also be bought with SC[$] and outfits have a SC coffer you may donate to. Base Defense Use: Since defending large bases will be of much greater importance factions will now be able to purchase permanent upgrades to base defenses via these three resources at a new terminal found within large bases. These upgrades are base and faction specific and existing defenses would not remain upon base capture (but would return upon re-capture). This would lead to factions upgrading the bases near their warpgates to create strongholds that may be better able to hold off enemy attacks to ensure constant resource generation. Additionally Base defenses purchased by outfits now have their logo tagged on them or they inform the user who upgraded it (above an upgraded turret’s hp indicator it states: Upgraded by:___) To this point would be Stage 2 of implementation Problems Tackled: Faction Pride, Outfit Pride, SOE Cash Flow, Base defense, New Content Auraxium: Small nodes/meteors of this precious metal dot the landscape and are harvestable a limited number of times (~5 times) with a cooldown between each possible harvest (1-5min). Additionally large nodes/meteors occur less often as an event and the faction controlling auraxium detection station (Crown, Eisa tech plant, the Ascent) can learn the location of next meteor/node event at a terminal there. Large Meteors/nodes can appear anywhere on the map (~once every 1-3hours) Large node/meteor and can only be harvested once every ~5min by an individual and is depleted after a greater number of harvests than a small node(50-250 depending on the site) Auraxium is different from the other 3 resources and allows for smaller outfits and groups be effective and feel fulfilled as they can take part in the node event or scour the terrain for small nodes. Large Auraxium nodes can create interesting conflicts as the node may appear in the oppositions territory (without their knowledge since they don’t control the detection station) creating battles where you least expect it (WTF WHY ARE THERE 5 TR GALS AT ARC BIOENGINEERING). Auraxium is not part of faction-wide bonuses or base upgrades, but instead is more for individual upgrades/Guns/a means to purchase skins without SC (your call on this one). Auraxium may be converted into certs(Thinking 1-1). Auraxium may be bought with SC[$$]. Auraxium is tradable with 3-2 conversion of the other 3 resources (1 of each ó 2 Auraxium) Team killing near Auraxium node adds 2 mins to harvest timer (prevent greifers). Auraxium Resource is going to be the most complicated to implement/balance and what I’ve put above would likely need some tweaking after testing. This point would be the fully implemented Meta-game Problems Tackled: Small group/lone wolf game play, New Content, Additional Lore, SOE Cash Flow. Synopsis of implementation: Create reason to defend large bases: To ensure a steady gain of resources Faction Pride: Generated over being the first one to obtain weapons/new upgrades/ Outfit Pride: Over defending/assaulting large bases. Vanity tags on buildings. Base defenses upgraded. Small group missions: for Auraxium harvesting / reason to capture crown then leave it. Creation of a more diverse resource system other than certs and money. SOE Money [$] generation from: early weapon sales, outfit vanity, auraxium sales. Conflict Lore: Reason we’re battling is for the Auraxium rich territory and the technological facilities This is just a potential means to create a meta-game in PS2 that I feel could be quickly implemented via starting with stage one which would put PS2 down a path to a more comprehensive Meta game feel that PS2 needs without trying to re-make PS1. I have tons of ideas for how these resources could be spent but I’ll leave it at this as this post is already really long. Cheers, Whet P.S. Don’t forget you need to have an E-sports scene, but I’m sure that’s in the works!
interesting ideas, the best way to improve defense is to incentivise it like you mentioned with the cert conversion. would be even better if you could convert the spoils of defense to 1 SC each, something you couldn't get by ghost-capping all day.
Not sure how I feel about outfits spending resources to buy upgrades for members, since there is a potential fro the outfit to exploit the majority of outfit members for the benefit of a select few favorite outfit members. Otherwise I think allot of this stuff is good. I particularly like the Auraxium stuff, seems like a good way to get people fighting over interesting terrain that would otherwise be worthless. Overall some great meta game Ideas.
Yes I feel that having more resources and the ability to manipulate them could really add some depth to this game. I'd love to be able to convert to SC as I'm a broke fresh outta college kid, but realistically SOE gotta make dat money!
I dislike the focus on the big Plants. People already fight at them, no need to encourage them to do so. What we need is reasons to keep fighting for the smaller bases and not just ghost capping parties going around in circles around the big bases. I even more dislike the fact that one faction gets a huge bonus for holding a specific facility as soon as this Auraxium is introduced. We already have people fighting at those locations, there is no incentive to fight there and knowing the location while the other factions get to guess where it is. It just sounds like its giving one faction a huge boost. Even more so if we would assume TR are holding the crown as they are currently always seem to do. Doing for prolonged periods of time would give their faction a substantial boost over time, as they would be able to be at the Auraxium in force, probably be done harvesting it before any worthwhile opposition has found the meteor and then formed a large enough offensive force. I dislike the idea of the "faction" unlocking new content. However i have always been saying there should be some sort of faction unlocks. A joint system, akin to Spirall Knights handling of world generation, where players can invest ressources they have into something they want, and if those ressources hit the threshold it gets unlocked for the faction. Stuff like Autorepairing turrets, would be something nice. Or a 10% speed or agility boost for aircraft. 10% additional Front Armor for the Faction Tanks, stuff like that. You could even stick to the current ressource system, making you chose if you rather want to use Air ressources for planes or to pump them into a science/research project. You could get research points to people, cap it at 750 and make it a ressource given by some of the smaller bases in addition to their usual ressources. People can only spend as many points into research as they have research points. Then add in caps only starting (and then you need at least 50% filled to go on) once you have all the caps filled. This way you need at least 6 people for every base, promoting squad play. People could be sure to find at least half a squad at each and every capping attempt, making it more attractive to defend those places. Right now many people don't bother to wait around for the 3 guys that show up at a small base, but if you can be sure there will be at least 6-10 people showing up, it makes it more attractive to stay around. Most of all however, to get back to the OP suggestion... i very, very much dislike the idea of Outfits taxing their people and unlocking stuff for their members. Not only does this mean you will have people run off to bigger outfits, killing smaller and more specialized ones, but also you will have people abuse them even more than they already do. Outfit leaders taxing their members to unlock guns for themselves and their buddies? No thanks. The whole suggestion does only promote Outfit rivalry, and people abusing their fellow players. Bad idea. Even if the unlocks would be for the whole outfit, you still would promote people leaving their outfits because a certain outfit has unlocked XY. Or even worse, two outfits trading members to unlock stuff for themselves. Bigshot Outfit 1 unlocks Supergun X... Bigshot Outfit 2 unlocks Supergun Y. Their members unlock x and then swap to Bigshot 2 to unlock Y, effectively getting both unlocks.
Let me respond to the overall disliking of my thread with my personal logic to the problems that you see in my idea. (Sorry we definitely would play way differently) "I dislike the focus on the big Plants. People already fight at them, no need to encourage them to do so. What we need is reasons to keep fighting for the smaller bases and not just ghost capping parties going around in circles around the big bases." people already fight at them? really? all I see its a massive zerg taking a large base then leaving immediately to capture the next large base because why hold it? -Smaller bases will be contested due to people searching for small auraxium nodes everywhere, small fights sure, but logic i follow is small base -> smaller fights. this obviously wont hold true on coordinated pushes to capture large bases/coordinated defense to stop a push because no one wants their large base to fall now and small territories are a "buffer zone" "I even more dislike the fact that one faction gets a huge bonus for holding a specific facility as soon as this Auraxium is introduced. We already have people fighting at those locations, there is no incentive to fight there and knowing the location while the other factions get to guess where it is. It just sounds like its giving one faction a huge boost. Even more so if we would assume TR are holding the crown as they are currently always seem to do. Doing for prolonged periods of time would give their faction a substantial boost over time, as they would be able to be at the Auraxium in force, probably be done harvesting it before any worthwhile opposition has found the meteor and then formed a large enough offensive force." maybe I wasn't clear, but in order to get the location of the large node you must physically go to the terminal to see its location. Then you must travel to the spot to harvest it so good luck having a substantial force willing to stay at crown to defend when everyone who was there wants to hustle to the meteor. also if you don't control the station but you see galaxies flying deep into your territory are you gonna be like oh that's not weird ill just let that be? Next, do you think its gonna be worth it to hold the auraxium station and let your large bases fall? Lastly I stated there should be a cooldown timer on auraxium harvesting(~5min per 1 harvest) to prevent quick harvests aka an ESF is gonna fly by and report whats going on before it's gone and its gonna kill your sunderer. (ill admit though the harvest cooldown time may need to be adjusted) THE ONLY CASE WHEN YOU ARE CORRECT with the above statement is when a meteor lands deep in your own territory and you control the station because the enemy wont see suspicious activities so you'll likely mostly get the majority of harvests (unless there are small node farmin ESF pilots cruising by that call it out). I dislike the idea of the "faction" unlocking new content. However i have always been saying there should be some sort of faction unlocks. A joint system, akin to Spirall Knights handling of world generation, where players can invest ressources they have into something they want, and if those ressources hit the threshold it gets unlocked for the faction. Stuff like Autorepairing turrets, would be something nice. Or a 10% speed or agility boost for aircraft. 10% additional Front Armor for the Faction Tanks, stuff like that. OK, well my main purpose behind the faction unlocks was to help SOE generate cash by early weapon sales because they need money to make this an awesome game. Next, your suggestions are all pure upgrades so those aren't going to work except auto repairing turrets which sounds great for the base defense section. You could even stick to the current ressource system, making you chose if you rather want to use Air ressources for planes or to pump them into a science/research project. This sounds good and you could do this with the above system, donate a cut of your resources to this and that depending on how much content SOE can create at a time You could get research points to people, cap it at 750 and make it a ressource given by some of the smaller bases in addition to their usual ressources. People can only spend as many points into research as they have research points. Then add in caps only starting (and then you need at least 50% filled to go on) once you have all the caps filled. This way you need at least 6 people for every base, promoting squad play. People could be sure to find at least half a squad at each and every capping attempt, making it more attractive to defend those places. Right now many people don't bother to wait around for the 3 guys that show up at a small base, but if you can be sure there will be at least 6-10 people showing up, it makes it more attractive to stay around. you might want to articulate this better no clue what your getting at Most of all however, to get back to the OP suggestion... i very, very much dislike the idea of Outfits taxing their people and unlocking stuff for their members. Not only does this mean you will have people run off to bigger outfits, killing smaller and more specialized ones, but also you will have people abuse them even more than they already do. Outfit leaders taxing their members to unlock guns for themselves and their buddies? No thanks. The whole suggestion does only promote Outfit rivalry, and people abusing their fellow players. Bad idea. Even if the unlocks would be for the whole outfit, you still would promote people leaving their outfits because a certain outfit has unlocked XY. Or even worse, two outfits trading members to unlock stuff for themselves. Bigshot Outfit 1 unlocks Supergun X... Bigshot Outfit 2 unlocks Supergun Y. Their members unlock x and then swap to Bigshot 2 to unlock Y, effectively getting both unlocks. First of all, if there's an outfit that's abusive and constantly giving just a few people guns good luck keeping members to get more Next, the outfits trading members would only work if you had two huge outfits in which everyone just allows the leaders to take their resources and don't care. honestly if someone joined my outfit that day and is given a gun GL keeping the rest of the outfit to pay the "taxes" for more guns. moreover prepared to be blacklisted on your servers guild recruitment forum and then GL being a large guild leader after that or even getting into a guild. you would really let a guild leader take your hard farmed resources consistently and just not care? Lastly large guilds have subsections within them for specialized roles(air, armor, medics, etc..). logic would dictate that upgrades would be given to guild members who have seniority within the section of the guild or want to take up the role that the side-grade belongs to. say the gun is for tanks, tank leader gets to dole out the sidegrade to the members of the guild in the armor section who need/deserve it since they have donated to the guild pool or to help fulfill a new sub-role that the new sidegrade has created Ex: creation of a anti-air MBT gun, not everyone is going to want one, but skyguard drivers would love to switch to some heavier armor) Clearly we have different mindsets when we play PS2, I love large battles and want to see more at the large facilities with epic defenses occurring, or daring missions deep into enemy territory, and I truly hate ghost town capping which seems to be your enjoyment as your only suggestive piece is that you want to have small groups holding small bases (you might want to explain that better because that's what I got). Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and despite how different we feel about this game/suggestion I appreciate the feedback Cheers, Whet
