[Suggestion] [Warning: Long-ish Post Incoming] Resource Harvesting System

When I saw this:

(A part of Smedley post on Reddit)

I thought of a system that would be both rewarding and fun for the players. The part I'm focusing on is "you'll be able to harvest resources directly (in fact, that's how you're going to get them)", so let's rock:

- A new type of a vehicle would be added. I don't have a name for it since it's not the time for specific names yet, so let's just call it "Harvester" for now. Its role would be harvesting (duh...) veins of precious minerals, metals and such, scattered through Auraxis.

- Those harvested resources would be "raw" and unusable until you get them back to the Warpgate (and possibly a new base type such as Refinery?) where it would be refined and added to your Empire resource pool that would flow down the lattice (and ANTs, which should also be added).

- Resource veins should spawn only on hexes that are next to (by which I mean connected by the lattice) at least one enemy controlled hex. It's not natural and "immersive", I know, but it would be key to the gameplay, so empires harvesters wouldn't just sit deep into their own territory, harvesting in safety. More veins (or just richer versions) could spawn at heavily contested hexes for more fun!

- The harvesting process itself would compose of a Harvester deploying (just like Sundy, but not offering a spawn point) next to the vein. Multiple harvesters CAN harvest the same vein. The harvest would just take time (the more certed your Harvester is, the faster the harvest + engies could get a deployable [in place of turret] that speeds nearby harvester up a little bit) in which you and your allies would have to protect the Harvester.

- To successfully harvest you would have to either cap nearby base so it would act like a medieval castle (spawning and sending reinforcements) or bring a sundy and an ANT (since that whole harvesting system of mine forces resource flow via the lattice)... and quite a lot of folks to protect all that operation. Harvesting would give some exp to the Harvey driver and for people around (like sitting on a point, defending it). Additional exp bonuses when you kill an enemy while you're close to your Harvey - for defending it.

- It should be possible to steal resources from both Harvester and ANT. Just drive up your own corresponding vehicle and have an Infiltrator hack the enemy one. This kind of hacking wouldn't be "hack'n'forget" but rather you'd have to KEEP hacking as long as you want to and each second the resources would flow from ANT to ANT or "raw" resources from Harvey to Harvey. Exp should flow along with it and feed the all the Infils who are hacking (multiple Infils mean more resources flowing at a time).

- Finally taking the resources to Warpgate/Refinery would mean exp boost for everyone involved and resource boost for the Empire.

- Possible diversity to bases is also very welcome. Like all those "mining/excavation sites" (we have a few already) and AMP Stations would be the bases with unique mechanics of getting their own resources, so they will be precious and of tactical importance. Tech Plants would have a bonus to stats (resistances, firepower etc. etc.) for all vehicles spawned directly at those bases (along with that "spawn MBT wherever" trait) and so on...

Something like this would add some depth to the war. Some bases would be truly important and some would be "just" castles, providing a supplied spawnpoint to protect harvesting sites and the harvesting itself would make those "open field" battles that many payers crave so much. There would still be heavy base-cap-fights like now but we'd also have something else and yet equally important.

At last: I know it's more than likely just my dreams but I was somewhat inspired by Smedley post. And hey - maybe a little part of it would inspire the Devs back?

Make the harvester more active where you'd have to press shoot to initiate harvesting because no one will want to sit and wait.

I think it should be very tanky and have one secondary turret slot for a gunner to protect it.

duh, that's too much. When Smedley said they were going to allow you to harvest resources directly he probably meant ANTs from PS1, which is IMHO enough. Your suggestion however requires a huge,complete revamp of every map and adding new vehicles... That just ain't gonnah happen

Actually the ore could spawn just like the Halloween event stuff so the means to do it is already there.

If you think creating new vehicles is some unobtainable magic then you must be new, really new.

You're not new though so bad day?.

I am pretty sure this was already announced some time ago

And btw this would bring a **** load of issues for example it must be ground vehicle and you must be able to stop ot somehow because if somebody drives it in planetside you can only kill it so unless they add a way to stop it or kill the vehicle drivers this wont work at all

well, yeah, creating new vehicles is kind of "unobtainable magic" in an MMO. Notice how long it took to prepare the Valkyrie for release... It was a major feature of the update and yet it is rather bad in most situations.

Also OP suggested adding refineries and other specialised facilities so that would require a revamp of all the continents.

Finaly I think that the idea of randomly spawning Auraxium ores is rather bad because it will take some people away from the fights in order to seek out and mine those resources... PS2 playerbase is too small for that. During the halloween event I saw many players searching almost exclusively for pumpkins. It was balanced by the fact that the event itself probably attracted more players... but if it was on a daily basis then it may impact the game in a bad way.

They're adding battle islands soonish so how would adding bits to existing continents be very difficult?.

The harvesting would add to the meta which would probably bring back a lot of players and make the game more interesting to newcomers. Its already stated that well be able to harvest resources as well.

Do you think keeping the game the way it is will help the player base, or slowly see it dwindle?. Nerfs and buff aren't going to expand the player base and problematic thinking doesn't help either.

well, I didn't say that. I am one of those who upvote pretty much any thread suggesting a resource revamp.

I said I'd rather have the PS1 resource system with ANTs and stuff because it is safer and works while this suggestion IMHO requires too much work and carries some hazardous unknowns as to how the game would react to such a system.

Correct which is why the devs probably do. Its not really our prerogative to know how this would affect the game and we don't have the slightest shred of knowledge of how it would either.

Do you know how the game would react to such a system?. Do you know what is and isn't possible?.

If so, evidence please.

If not, stop with the problematic salty nothings.

You do put forward an interesting and well put together post and while this sort of content would play to some people it will however not for the majority of players. Resource mamagement works great for some games but trying to fit it into a strategy fps such as PS2 might well cause a divide with some people staying and others leaving. It seems to me by the sounds of things the feature would be instead of a delivery of resources every once and while, you spend some moments to get enough for what you want and go. I.e. picking them up from base. I could very well be wrong there Or maybe the resources will be through outfit bases encouraging people to join an outfit.

With the overhaul of the capture system Its to be expected that the resource system would be reworked to. At the end of the day while your idea is well done it would pull away too much from the main gameplay so all we can really do is wait to see exactly what the devs have in mind the system.

^-^

Smed said that we will be going and harvesting resources.

I think your suggestion is too complex. Sorry :/

Ah well that would be interesting to see. It all really depends on the approach the devs take on this because the idea is sound however it could drive out some vet players who do not want to go, leave a fight to fetch resources to go back with a vech just to die >.< they will have to think this through. But saying that they did say it was going to be the fun part so maybe fights will move to harvesting grounds which could be interesting

I will be keeping an eye out to see how things are working out ^-^

More people tend to be interested in deeper meta than not. I think it will be very good and give people more reason to fight and win over just farming kills which is a major complaint about the game that i keep seeing.

Fixed.

Yeah I cannot argue with that and it would be a nice break than just dying, capping, spawning and dying >.< hehe. As I said though it has to be done right to keep it from being too robotic or annoying to players.

Yeah true.

This would make the game much closer to an RTS where the units are played by humans, which is cool. The real trick to all this, though, is balancing the resource gain, determining how much of this could be done passively, determining what a faction's base income is, etc. Resource harvesting needs to be worth doing, but not so labor-intensive that it gets in the way of actually taking bases. The underpopped faction needs to get a free pass on resources, to a large extent, since they don't have the manpower to defend their resource sites. Conversely, the overpopped faction should have to put a lot of effort into resource harvesting, in order to soak up some of the excess manpower.

Right, so apparently fish face wants to a full explanation.

Here is why I am very skeptical about this suggestion:

- This involves a massive amount of coding, which would lead to massive glitches as we know from past history as well as a huge investment towards something which only the competitive and strategic playerbase would enjoy. Most are actually just in it for the FPS part of the game. So by complex, I mean that it would be very time consuming for the developers and not appeal to the majority of the fanbase.

- Then there's the implementation of "Havesters". Putting in NPC's and more objects to the game would rule out even more machines as they would not be able to run it. Not to mention the stress of the server itself. As well is as all these new mechanics.

- Speaking of mechanics, Planetside 2 already has a immensely steep learning curve. The majority or "hive mind" of players don't know how to work together or push a point, cap a Amp Station or Tech Plant effectively. They follow each other like sheep and stack on the same spot. Most don't even know that there are several multiple ways of getting to a cap point, either through teleporters or boosters depending on the base. You wish to add more depth to a game which is already complicated enough and takes at least a full year to master, learn all the shortcuts, sundy park spots, tactics etc? Again, most players that play FPS games wish to shoot guns. In fact, rumour on reddit is that new game modes are about to be introduced. Small areas designed mostly for infantry with team deathmatch and capture the flag in mind.

- Then there's the hit on those that do not wish to have the game get tactical and like it for what it is right now. A MMO OPEN WORLD FPS DOMINATION based type of game. They don't wish to add a RPG element to it.

Do you see where I am going with this?

I'm NOT saying that your idea is bad. In fact, for a game mode, I would LOVE to see this. A place for Outfits, open for all or BR100's to try this out.

Example: Koltyr with 3 warpgates and no latice, harvester in the middle of a refinery base. Objective: Bring/kite the harvester back to your warpgate to score points (XP). After which it resets.

That way, your idea is brilliant and I support it. Because it runs in a different instance, so the server can handle it and the world is smaller. You can queue for this only if you want to and are in no way forced to stray away from your regular gameplay. This is a new objective, perhaps much like capture the flag but with your additions it can become truly tactical and perhaps even a thriving endgame content that I would personally like to try out.

Unfortunately, I simply just don't believe that the average player would be ready for this if this was put on the live servers ( continents)

Mainly because of zergs. And the crazy f*cking lag if everyone was to go for it. 600+ player battles are just silly.

So I meant no disrespect, mainly sharing my personal opinion which of course may differ from the rest of forumside as entitled.