(Suggestion) Meta-game Mechanic- Bases deteriorate to neutral when not linked to Warpgate.

I'm suggesting a meta-game mechanic to make cutting off supply lines to the faction warp gate affect the game a bit more.

If bases deteriorated to neutral if someone isn't standing near the console when not linked to the warp gate. Of course it would have to be a slow enough deterioration to make back-hacking still viable, but fast enough to effect the direction of the battle.

comments?

Guess I put too much in the title. Oh well. Looking for a discussion on how this would affect the game in a positive or negative way. I just kinda came up with it out of the blue, and posted it without much thought. --seemed so simple, I'm not sure why it wasn't already brought up by someone smarter than me during beta.

Anyway, thanks to those who viewed it.

I think this would be good but it would also create some issues with how poorly most bases are designed

I'm not really sure how poorly designed bases would be related to an influence degradation, but ok. I suppose anyone running rapid ops might need change tactics and leave someone behind if they happen to get cut off and want to take a large base (tech, amp, bio). I'm hoping that won't be necessary for the small one CC bases.

I can't get behind this idea. It's no fun for the poor sap who has to stand around scratching his *** next to the point just so his faction doesn't lose all their advancements when another faction makes a push against his warpgate.

It might add a new dynamic to the metagame but it would kill the fun for a lot of players, imo.

Guess I forgot, people don't really like to defend or fortify anymore. Can't even get engineers to repair all the base turrets before moving on to the next point. --Wait, isn't that what is missing?

I love defending, but most territories are not generally under attack by any substantial force. There's really no logical point to neutralizing territories that don't have babysitters. If a faction wants to keep a territory that's under threat then they defend it, but there's no point in babysitting a territory that no one is attacking just so it doesn't go neutral.

This would only be the case when you are completely cut off from your warp-gate. The more effective solution would be to divert your resources to getting your supply lines back. They simply do not mean enough in the game.

I'll use the crown as an example. This is a highly fortified base that is constantly cut off from it's supply lines, yet the people fighting there have no current reason to leave the crown. They still get resources unless their warp gate is completely cut off and the game really doesn't make the base any harder to defend when cut off from your supply lines.

The same can be said for the TR warpgate on Esamir. (I don't know why, it just seems easier to cut through and cut off that warpgate and hold it for longer, same could be said for the NC gate on Esamir). The TR main force has really no incentive to leave the current fight (especially a biolab) and defend their supply lines to the warp gate. It isn't really until 45 min have passed that TR resources dry up to the point that taking that back becomes a necessity.

IMO this isn't the correct solution, but not a bad one. I suggested something similar previously to regarding 0% influence sectors only.

I agree that cutting sectors from the warpgate should be more important though. I think instead my change would be to increase respawn timers for those bases cut from the warp gate.