Planetary Control Edition

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:14 pm

Per some requests, I decided to post this concept here for discussion. I orginally worked on this concept from a series of answers to a post by Reachwind in MMORPG.com

Planetary Control

Planetary Control will be based on various factors. Each factor will be awarded a set amount of points and every week during a server maintenance downtime, those points will be calculated and one of three outcomes will be provided.

Population: Recruitment is always a high priority to any military faction. On each individual contested planet, one point will be awarded to a faction for every resident that is a member of their faction. The population points will be gathered and the faction with the most points will receive (X) amount of points to the planetary control system.

Repeatable quests: Each contested planet should have several faction bases (Points of Interest) and each base will have certain repeatable quests. The quests can be determined later, I see a PvP system like Restuss with players attacking and defending vulnerable parts of the base. Perhaps some crafting or resource requirement quests as well. Each base will tally up how many times each faction has completed their quests and award the faction with the most completions (X) amount of points to the planetary control system.

Space quests: Much like the repeatable ground quests. Need to complete quests from the space station. In other words, do not neglect this aspect as content for players that prefer space to ground.

Skirmishes: To encourage PvP, it might be possible to have each planet record the number of PvP deaths (1 point goes to the winner for each kill) and then to award the side with the most points (X) amount of points to the planetary control. Now, this is from someone that has no idea what it would take to code this, so if this is too difficult it can be eliminated.

Event quests: Player created content is fine, but I think any MMORPG needs some directed content as well. Player created content provides a sustaining influence to the game, but directed content adds elements of excitement and fun; in particular events. Some events that I enjoyed in SWG was having Tuskens raid Bestine, stinkin' Rebs attacking a city somewhere and having a call go out to imperials to join the fun, etc. While having an event once a week might be too much, I definitely think that there should be at least one major event once a month.

Here are some ideas for such events:

Quote:

An announcement is sent to Faction A players, "We have received valuable intel from our spies that a VIP from Faction B will be organizing a recruitment drive at (location). We must not let this happen, all able bodied personnel are required to report for duty and eliminate the VIP." At the same time an announcement is sent to Faction B players stating that the VIP needs to be defended.

If using static locations, many types of quests can be set up along these ideas; retrieve the stolen documents, destroy the biological weapon, escort the VIP through dangerous land (thinking of smuggler/ranger content here) etc.

Outcomes of the Planetary Control Calculations

Outcomes 1 and 2 - Faction A/B is awarded control of the planet. All benefits of having control is given to the winner. Benefits include being able to destroy opposite faction harvesters, instantaneous access to planet, reduced housing maintenance, etc.

Outcome 3 - No clear winner achieved: Faction harvesters are destroyable by opposite faction, housing maintenance is increased to an amount greater than neutral players receive, all travel to and from restricted as if the control of the planet was from the opposite faction. In essence this is the most desirable outcome for neutral players and will encourage them to actually be neutral and support both sides of the conflict.

How would the point system work?

The points awarded for Population, Repeatable quests, Space quests, and skirmishes would be set equal amounts. In other words, if your faction wins the Population and Space quests you receive 2 points. If the other side wins the ground and skirmishes systems, they receive 2 points. This would result in a tie and outcome 3 would then be the result.

Obviously, any planet that receives an Event quest would not likely result in a tie, and that would provide even more of a reason for the opposing faction players to become involved in the event. Possibly the only way to tie if there was an event quest is if the losing side of the event managed to win every other factor.

I also think that there should be some rewards given to any faction that is able to control all of the contested planets. Maybe some one time artwork, special weapon/armor, recognition on official website, etc. Rewards can also be considered for a faction that has lost all control but is able to win back a couple planets. The idea behind this is that it will hopefully keep people from becoming complacent/bored with the game after a few months.

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:08 pm

Kenshu Ani wrote:

Here are some ideas for such events:

Quote:

An announcement is sent to Faction A players, "We have received valuable intel from our spies that a VIP from Faction B will be organizing a recruitment drive at (location). We must not let this happen, all able bodied personnel are required to report for duty and eliminate the VIP." At the same time an announcement is sent to Faction B players stating that the VIP needs to be defended.

If using static locations, many types of quests can be set up along these ideas; retrieve the stolen documents, destroy the biological weapon, escort the VIP through dangerous land (thinking of smuggler/ranger content here) etc.

Love this idea. It's similar to my PVP Missions idea but fleshes it out with more variety.