Badlands - Build An Empire - Updated! Siege Phase I (Pve) & Phase Ii (Pvp) Added!

[CandyDragon]

could you write a synopses, a general concept?

Tl:DR:

 

Planetside meets global agenda meets GW2 WvW boogaloo, lets use fancy words to mask the inherited failures of said systems. 

[Mavericksfd]

Updated OP.  Working on getting some concept artwork for you guys.

[Mavericksfd]

Working on Tower technology tiers for construction.  Should have some pictures up later today.

[-CdG-Chocolate_Cat]

I do like the concept of this.The only thing I'm scared of is Moon Clans/Giant Alliances forcing huge taxes on the player base, maybe you could think of a way to balance it.

[Mavericksfd]

@Crimson_Plate_Of_Nulgath with this concept taxes will no longer exist.  This is a battle for control of the nodes and their benefits.  With the single spacecraft per clan and flight time between nodes even large clans will not be able to control large amounts of nodes.  This brings it to a balanced level for everyone.  Now with an alliance of mid sized clans they would be pretty effective.

[Mavericksfd]

 

Dojo Progression

[Mavericksfd]

 

Battle Tower Progression

[Mavericksfd]

Siege content added to OP.

[Mavericksfd]

Working with Dropship or Dropod concept for initiating sieges.  In the case of Dropods they will need to be built for each siege and a one use item.  Dropship must be built in the Dojo menu at the shipyard and is destroyed if a siege attempt fails.  Both are stored in the Tenno assault ship.

[TittySergal]

You know what you're neglecting? Advantages attackerscan bring to the battle. You're stacking the deck heavily in favor of the defenders.  If you want to sell the idea, you can't present a heavily lopsided system that entrenches the occupying force.  It makes sense, but it does not make for fun.  Every warframe and weapon the attackers can bring the defenders can use to better effect, especially because of your proposed invulnerability windows after successful defenses.

 

Any PVP with game play affecting rewards/mechanics will require a complete review of warframes and weapons.  To put this into perspective, World of Warcraft was never able to find a sweet spot in their PVP balance. Blizzard found good niches, but there were always imbalances. Blizzard had the benefit of an immensely larger budget, personnel dedicated to PVP and a far smaller scope to work with.

 

Warframe currently has 23 warframes alone, all of which have a mind boggling variety of builds because of modules, auras, formas and potential synergies with particular weapons.  World of Warcraft, which had the benefit of far more resources, only has 11 classes, each of which has 3 talent trees, that offer limited choices.

 

I realize World of Warcraft may not be a game everyone is fond of, but it is a very relevant comparison, especially in regards to PVP. Romanticize player versus player combat all you want, at the end of the day it is a resource intensive nightmare that no single game has found resilient, long term solutions for.

 

There are far more players with more man hours than DE who will find imbalances no matter how finely tuned the system, and when you mix PVP with rewards, this causes a problem for your community.

[CandyDragon]

Basically they will figure out the best places to bunker, maintain a semi aggressive push, and no one wins.

 

This is the flaw in your system. You cannot balance it out.  This is going to be a system that is only used by a few of the high end clans once everyone else realizes how futile it is.

Your one ship system is a band-aid at best, and once someone gets the domination train rolling, due to your own stop gaps, it becomes nearly impossible to overcome.  

Edited March 23, 2014 by Nariala

[TheDamDog]

I don't think Tenno going around conquering things fits very well within the lore of the game.

[Mavericksfd]

@ Enaki This is currently just a concept and is open to anyone's ideas.  I would be more than happy to sit down and discuss options for attackers or come up with some myself in the near future.  Yes once taken a node can be fortified, however this takes quite a while to upgrade everything.  We are talking almost 45 days to have everything maxed and a node would need to be held by the same clan the entire time AND never be under siege which stops all active builds and research.  Most of these only really affect the siege or PvE element.  The final battle takes place within the tower.  Once again this is all still concept.

 

@Nariala You are correct people will find out the best places and methods to use for any scenario.  This is true for any game.  All that can be done is tweak it during testing to try and find the best balance we can.  Once I post up how flight times and siege systems work I think you will have a better idea of how the "dominion" train can never actually roll very far.

 

@TheDamDog Right now I am more interested in a unique player experience which keeps players involved when they reach end game than having this coincide with every piece of lore currently released.  It could be tied in and appropriate reasons could be sought after.  I have read a lot of the current lore, however I would need to really sit down and go over it all to better answer your issue.  It is hard to make everyone happy :P

 

Good feedback guys and keep it coming.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Mavericksfd

[TittySergal]

Mavericksfd, please address the inherent imbalance that the variability of warframes and weapons presents to a small team with limited resources like DE.

 

You think it will be hard to reach that 45 day point for your upgrades. The clans that are willing to use the most overpowered setups of the week and grey area exploits are not likely to have any trouble. Especially since they could just co-ordinate attacks with multiple puppet clans to keep the invulnerability window active.

 

Let's not even worry about a Trinity, Loki, Nova, Banshee team on defense or any of the other myriad of possible combinations.

[Morec0]

I don't think Tenno going around conquering things fits very well within the lore of the game.

 

I don't see why not. They were warriors before they murdered the Orokin, they could be again. Warrior have a tendency to fight and conquer.

[Mavericksfd]

@Enakai Keep in mind in my OP and thereafter I have mentioned in order for this to even be plausible DE would need to work heavily on balancing warframes for PvP.  I agree "currently" there are some SEVERE imbalances out there and most of us are very aware of them.  One option we could do is enter in warframe elimination by both competing teams.  After the PvE portion is complete both sides may choose 3 warframes to ban from combat before the tower destruction phase.  With this mechanic in place even when DE introduce new warframe which may be OP in PvP players could just ban it from combat in that zone.  This would create ever changing combat and players would need to learn a variety of frames in order to be effective.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Mavericksfd

[Mavericksfd]

Almost done with detailed siege concept from initiating a conflict to either tower destruction or siege being lifted.  Will add it all to OP by end of tomorrow.  Appreciate the messages and constructive input thus far.

[Mavericksfd]

Still working out some details on the full siege concept.  Thanks for your continued support.

[Mavericksfd]

Will also be adding items for attacking clans.  I have added an example in this post which is currently in concept.

 

EMP Missile - Max Upgrade level is 5.  25% chance to disable orbital bombardment at level 1, 50% at level 2, 75% at level 3, 90% at level 4, 100% at level 5.  Upgrade timers for each level are 24 hours for level 1, 48 hours for level 2, 72 hours for level 3, 72 hours for level 4, 72 hours for level 5.  May be rushed using platinum OR renown.  Item is single use and must be researched again after use.

 

Added Fuel Rods research, requirements, and build timers.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Mavericksfd

[Corvid]

This sounds like an interesting idea to me. You have my support.

[Corvid]

Will also be adding items for attacking clans.  I have added an example in this post which is currently in concept.

 

EMP Missile - Max Upgrade level is 5.  25% chance to disable orbital bombardment at level 1, 50% at level 2, 75% at level 3, 90% at level 4, 100% at level 5.

 

Perhaps the percentage chance should go up in 20s? Eg: 20% Level 1, 40% Level 2, 60% Level 3, and so on.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Corvid

[(PSN)Fbeast2]

What you are describing is a version of EVE online and Dust 514 without the economic implications. What you are proposing is a nice concept and could work with a decade of development and a player base of 250,000 and massive resources.

 

I would love to see something like this happen, but allow me to play devils advocate for a minute.

 

More grinding

 

This is mainly a PvE and game what you are proposing will alienate 25% of the player base with just the complexity. Some people just want a mindless shooter.

 

DE would be better served by devoting their resources to improving the game they have now. There are frame rate issues, server and connection problems Long loading screens, buggy chat modes difficult squad mechanics etc.

 

You have suggested some great ideas and you should be proud of the effort you have made and the thought you have put into this. Right now or anytime in the near future, it is just not possible. I think their current approach to the badlands is a good start to limited PvP.

 

Lets build a bridge and go from there.

[Mavericksfd]

@Corvid I scaled the % based on the time to upgrade and cost involved.  I may revisit this at a later time.

 

@Fbeast2 This is not something I would see implemented in the near future.  I am more looking long term after PvP has been rehashed.  This is what I would like to see teh Bqadlands eventually become.  I agree we need to build a bridge now and go from there.  This is strickly concept I am continuing to develop as an option for end game activities down the road.  Who know the devs may read through this and go "Holy crap now that is a good idea!"  You never know.  The first part of the siege is strictly PvE so this system allows for both PvE and PvP minded players working together to achieve a common goal.

[Mavericksfd]

 

First Combat zone with flight times and fuel rod costs.

[Mavericksfd]

Updated OP to include all images.  Continuing development of attacker's options and siege mechanics.