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The Win
Every now and then I resub to Vendetta. It never fails though, that after a week or two I get bored and unsub again. It finally hit me why this is.
We've always said that we need content. What we really need is a way to "win" the game, which has been suggested before if I'm not mistaken. The reason I bring it up again is I've been playing another game recently, Pirates Of The Burning Sea. For all its flaws, the game does one thing very well, which is RvR. It's setup something like this:
Each nation has conquerable ports. Each port is worth a certain amount of "conquest points". A nation wins the map when their total conquest points reaches a certain level. The winning side gets a unique reward, the runners up get unique rewards as well although less of them. Then the map resets so as to prevent one side from dominating the other over and over again.
In Vendetta, we now have station conquest, but other than producing some mediocre items and having the ability to say "MY STATION!", there's not much reward yet. Now the devs have stated they're working on rewards. But the other problem we run into is there's no way to maintain a 24/7 defense on a station and it can be taken at any time. What's the point of taking a station if someone's just going to take it back once you and your friends log off? POTBS solved this too.
In order to conquer a port, you have to generate a certain amount of contention. This is done by dropping economic bundles at the port (produced by crafters), sinking NPCs near the port, simply sitting near the port while PvP flagged (generates contention slowly), and sinking players of the faction of the port you're trying to flip (generates contention quickly). Likewise, the players of the opposing faction have the same options available to them to lower contention at one of their ports. Once contention reaches a certain level, the port is considered to be "flipped". This creates a PvP zone (irrelevant to VO) and automatically schedules a "Port Battle".
The port battles are scheduled usually 48 hours from the time the port was flipped. A port battle consists of a large scale conflict (24 v 24) for control of the port. This is similar to Vendetta's Border Skirmish except there's no coming back once you die. The winner gains the port, which is then immune to flipping for the next 3 days.
Vendetta could very easily set up a conquest system very similar to this. Where each station controlled generates points for your faction. Once a faction reaches a certain amount of these points, they could receive a reward and the stations would reset. This could be implemented universe wide or even just in Deneb to start. What it amounts to is a way to make winning more than just killing endless waves of players for bragging rights. It also increases the scale, requiring teamwork from an entire faction as opposed to just one or two players.
Thoughts? Go!
We've always said that we need content. What we really need is a way to "win" the game, which has been suggested before if I'm not mistaken. The reason I bring it up again is I've been playing another game recently, Pirates Of The Burning Sea. For all its flaws, the game does one thing very well, which is RvR. It's setup something like this:
Each nation has conquerable ports. Each port is worth a certain amount of "conquest points". A nation wins the map when their total conquest points reaches a certain level. The winning side gets a unique reward, the runners up get unique rewards as well although less of them. Then the map resets so as to prevent one side from dominating the other over and over again.
In Vendetta, we now have station conquest, but other than producing some mediocre items and having the ability to say "MY STATION!", there's not much reward yet. Now the devs have stated they're working on rewards. But the other problem we run into is there's no way to maintain a 24/7 defense on a station and it can be taken at any time. What's the point of taking a station if someone's just going to take it back once you and your friends log off? POTBS solved this too.
In order to conquer a port, you have to generate a certain amount of contention. This is done by dropping economic bundles at the port (produced by crafters), sinking NPCs near the port, simply sitting near the port while PvP flagged (generates contention slowly), and sinking players of the faction of the port you're trying to flip (generates contention quickly). Likewise, the players of the opposing faction have the same options available to them to lower contention at one of their ports. Once contention reaches a certain level, the port is considered to be "flipped". This creates a PvP zone (irrelevant to VO) and automatically schedules a "Port Battle".
The port battles are scheduled usually 48 hours from the time the port was flipped. A port battle consists of a large scale conflict (24 v 24) for control of the port. This is similar to Vendetta's Border Skirmish except there's no coming back once you die. The winner gains the port, which is then immune to flipping for the next 3 days.
Vendetta could very easily set up a conquest system very similar to this. Where each station controlled generates points for your faction. Once a faction reaches a certain amount of these points, they could receive a reward and the stations would reset. This could be implemented universe wide or even just in Deneb to start. What it amounts to is a way to make winning more than just killing endless waves of players for bragging rights. It also increases the scale, requiring teamwork from an entire faction as opposed to just one or two players.
Thoughts? Go!
This would be great. ONE and ITAN would have actual value to their conflict (and the actual conflict would be more than the occasional furball).
I would suggest that capitol systems remain as is. This way the Newbs will always have a safe-ish area and conquered nations will always have a place to launch a counter strike from.
Conquering a nation should have profound ramifications though. For example if the Serco conquered Arta, then prices for Serco doing business in UIT space would increase, faction points gained from trade or missions would be awarded at 1/100 of the normal amount. Certain ships be made unavailable, anyone who took part in the conquest would not be able to attain PoS with the conquered nation... etc... etc... et al.
Also, once a nation or area of a nation were conquered... there would have to be large amounts of convoys and other missions going to the area to maintain rule.
To make this more realistic/fun... (unless there is a massive influx of new blood)... there would have to be a vast increase in NPCs both militarily, trade, miner and other.
[EDIT]
Another thing that would make this great is the ability to destroy stations... (or at the very least parts of stations)... which might actually be the easiest bit to implement. Certain parts of stations are targetable, so it stands to reason that making them subject to destruction was something that the devs had intended.
Come to think on it, given the things which can be targeted on stations... habitat areas, maintenance ports... etc... etc... it seems like the destruction of these areas could be a great technique for conquest. Destruction of key parts of the station in addition to guards, SF and military responders would make this require groups, time and money... as it should.
I would suggest that capitol systems remain as is. This way the Newbs will always have a safe-ish area and conquered nations will always have a place to launch a counter strike from.
Conquering a nation should have profound ramifications though. For example if the Serco conquered Arta, then prices for Serco doing business in UIT space would increase, faction points gained from trade or missions would be awarded at 1/100 of the normal amount. Certain ships be made unavailable, anyone who took part in the conquest would not be able to attain PoS with the conquered nation... etc... etc... et al.
Also, once a nation or area of a nation were conquered... there would have to be large amounts of convoys and other missions going to the area to maintain rule.
To make this more realistic/fun... (unless there is a massive influx of new blood)... there would have to be a vast increase in NPCs both militarily, trade, miner and other.
[EDIT]
Another thing that would make this great is the ability to destroy stations... (or at the very least parts of stations)... which might actually be the easiest bit to implement. Certain parts of stations are targetable, so it stands to reason that making them subject to destruction was something that the devs had intended.
Come to think on it, given the things which can be targeted on stations... habitat areas, maintenance ports... etc... etc... it seems like the destruction of these areas could be a great technique for conquest. Destruction of key parts of the station in addition to guards, SF and military responders would make this require groups, time and money... as it should.
The bits you wreck should persist after the conquest as well, and only be regenerated slowly, so that people consider carefully which parts to assault. Also, that would allow groups who are not capable of outright capture to at least damage "production" (whatever that winds up meaning) for a while, to hamper the defenders. For example, if you damage the factory module it would increase the price for buying whatever it was manufacturing from that station, due to a more limited supply. A large enough amount of damage should have large scale effects, since the station would no longer be able to supply other stations (even if it is not captured), causing a shortage. The price would rise everywhere, but should rise less at the stations that can produce the item themselves and more at stations that cannot. It should also be impacted somewhat by proximity to those other stations - the stations ones near the damaged station would see the most effect. This way the combat would have logical impacts on trade routes, even when the defense prevents a takeover.
I think that Deneb is intended to have structure somewhat like this. So, here's hoping that the devs get a chance to give us nationalist something more concrete to do then win a few skirmishes that go unnoticed and to run around pissing off the carebears (but OH SO much fun).
I like it. Surely some of that could be incorporated into VO. Not sure how UIT would fair since they are intended to be neutral.
I'm good with a periodic reset, however, what about making it more difficult for the invading force to hold systems the further they get from their established territories instead? This way, the defenders could more easily begin to push back and reclaim lost ground without the invaders losing everything in a pre-programmed and uncontested manner.
I'm good with a periodic reset, however, what about making it more difficult for the invading force to hold systems the further they get from their established territories instead? This way, the defenders could more easily begin to push back and reclaim lost ground without the invaders losing everything in a pre-programmed and uncontested manner.
+1 to OP