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Dark Sector Conflict - Defense Redesign


Chromosis
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After running a several conflicts and doing both sides, I noticed a small imbalance with a big consequence.

 

The defending team has, at best, a net zero gain from a dark sector conflict.  If you are able to defeat the enemy, disposing of the 20 lives as it were, you get nothing.  You have simply delayed the attacker.  If you are able to win consistently, then you defend your rail, and you keep it.  The issue here is that, since in every case I have been a part of, the attacker is the host, so they can go in without a defender present (just specters) and get an easier win.

 

Now, the attacker must be allowed to continue attacking if there are no defenders.  If there was no one defending and that made it so no one could attack, it would be an auto win for the defender, that is not good.  The idea is to give the defender a way to off set attackers that have no defenders impeding them.  My idea is to reimplement the previous mobile defense missions for the defense as a second option, regaining health for the rail as a result of a victory there.

 

Now, you could theme it to be that you are a repair team rushing in to maintain your team core, keeping the rail running while under assault.  The attacker could deploy specters if wanted, trying to stop the defender.

 

TL:DR version - allow defenders a mission to "repair" the rail during conflicts to offset the attackers being able to attack zero-human defender rail in the current PVP system.

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The way I'd do it is that anyone who joins the defenders when there's no attackers creates a 'Repair' mission, where the defenders host. In this mission, they have to destroy enemy forces, including players, while activating and defending consoles, with each console's percentage carrying over to increase the rail's health (much in the same that even partial core damage carries over to the rail health).

 

Also, unlike Attacker missions, you can immediately start activating the repair consoles at the beginning of the mission. Attackers are expected to be more aggressive when a rail's in conflict, and as such have to breach the two layers of consoles before they're able to start damaging a rail. Allowing Repair missions to effectively benefit the rail much faster is tied in with their core philosophy - the give defenders a way to benefit from superior numbers and dedication, and to give a downside to attackers who slack off on their attacks. Repair missions would only be available if there were no attackers, so they'd only be an option in downtimes, or with superior numbers (just like how attackers can outnumber defenders - the defense being unable to put forth more effort than their aggressors is silly from a game standpoint).

 

Of course, if the rails' at full health, it doesn't make a difference if you do this - otherwise you'd get silly things like 110% or higher rail healths. There'd still be a small attacker advantage, given how attack missions work, but it wouldn't be broken like it is now.

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I understand why attackers get priority on rail attacks; prepared or not, someone is attacking you. But there should be some kind of wait timer in the start for defenders to respond to the attack, since attackers host. Additionally, attackers are hosting because only if attackers win, is there some kind of progress made.

 

That being said, Defenders have the funding advantage from owning the rail itself for a period of time. They can solicit help from other people to retain their rail. The con? You don't know if you're getting expert help, or someone who has no clue what PvP even is, or how the DS PvP system works.

 

In real life, a mercenary is hired (what we're doing here) and based on his expertise, he demands better pay. Normally, he has a reputation to back it up. Here, we're just throwing out a blanket payment offer to every farmhand that shows up, regardless of how well they can hold out, and putting them in charge of defending the treasury that is under heavy attack. See the problem here?

 

There is definitely a problem with the way Dark Sector conflicts are run, it does feel way too much in favor of attackers at this point in time, and needs something to help defenders do their job better.

 

I do like BMKing's idea, allow defenders with additional manpower actually do something. However, it needs to be limited to an extent. Defenders CAN still win a DSC map. I would suggest start allowing repairs to occur at 50%, but not surge past 50%. This way, (lore/logicwise) there's plenty of space for repair crews to sneak around the attackers and fix areas that they've already destroyed. By limiting it to 50%, it also keeps defensive power in check, so that it doesn't get to the point where there's no possible way for attackers to win. It should also require allocation of resources/credits to be used on repairs, similar to how the controlling faction needs to allocate credit battlepay. I'm not sure what that requires as my clan has never owned a rail, but I assume there's some cost involved in repairing the rails.

 

Additionally, since defenders now have excess members, and have started a mission, if attackers wind up with extra units, there's a chance they might discover the repair effort, and can intercept the squad moving to repair. It might make DSC less stale, and could provide some extra excitement. (Oh man! It's not the normal mission!) It would also provide attackers with a signal that they might need to redouble their efforts since the defenders clearly have more manpower, and are resisting their efforts; possibly warranting an increase in battlepay to persuade others to their side.

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