Forums » Suggestions
So-called 'escort-doubling' was an important mechanic in CtC because it required teams to protect the entirety of the convoy route.
Now that it is gone, the most effective strategy is to use a character with KOS home faction to kill your own convoy, and deliver it to a floating bot to be ferried to the score point later on in a Trident Type M.
From the perspective of RED, we only started playing CtC when this mechanic became apparent to us.
At the time there was no point competing with Itan in CtC when they pay for a full time AFK bot to utilize this tactic. We didn't think that on principle we should have to pay for an additional account and a VPS just to compete on an equal playing field.
We now have a VPS and so this is no longer a problem, but it destroys the incentive for us to even bother to keep the bot transport alive by the time it reaches latos or ukari, we would have killed it long before it arrives there ourselves and added it to our stockpile.
The solution is to have the bot carry x amount of xith, and have the amount dropped from the transport reduced (so detonated in the explosion or something else). A 25%-50% (as opposed to the previous 100%) reduction in potential score would even be sufficient enough to make it worthwhile to escort the convoys and protect them all the way.
The alternative solution is to add a 30minute timeout on purified xithricite (i.e. it deteriorates without the properly designed storage containers that it was originally shipped in) so that it forces players to transport the xith at that stage rather than incentivising them to completely avoid any player-to-player interaction which is what the current system does.
Now that it is gone, the most effective strategy is to use a character with KOS home faction to kill your own convoy, and deliver it to a floating bot to be ferried to the score point later on in a Trident Type M.
From the perspective of RED, we only started playing CtC when this mechanic became apparent to us.
At the time there was no point competing with Itan in CtC when they pay for a full time AFK bot to utilize this tactic. We didn't think that on principle we should have to pay for an additional account and a VPS just to compete on an equal playing field.
We now have a VPS and so this is no longer a problem, but it destroys the incentive for us to even bother to keep the bot transport alive by the time it reaches latos or ukari, we would have killed it long before it arrives there ourselves and added it to our stockpile.
The solution is to have the bot carry x amount of xith, and have the amount dropped from the transport reduced (so detonated in the explosion or something else). A 25%-50% (as opposed to the previous 100%) reduction in potential score would even be sufficient enough to make it worthwhile to escort the convoys and protect them all the way.
The alternative solution is to add a 30minute timeout on purified xithricite (i.e. it deteriorates without the properly designed storage containers that it was originally shipped in) so that it forces players to transport the xith at that stage rather than incentivising them to completely avoid any player-to-player interaction which is what the current system does.
Er, you don't need a VPS to run a bot. Any old piece of crap computer you don't mind leaving running in a corner somewhere will do.
Yawn. If a bug is all that gives you incentive, do something else. Once CtC is well and truly dead, the devs might fix it.
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Yawn. If a bug is all that gives you incentive, do something else. Once CtC is well and truly dead, the devs might fix it.
Objective-based combat is what gives us the incentive. It may have been a bug but it also caused said combat to occur. Nobody is going to want to defend a convoy transport that you're better off destroying.
We want to play 'defend the convoy' not 'collect the most xith into your stockpile'. It's boring.
CrazySpence and Samwise post only '-1' because they don't have a good reason for the changes not to occur, they just don't want them.
Objective-based combat is what gives us the incentive. It may have been a bug but it also caused said combat to occur. Nobody is going to want to defend a convoy transport that you're better off destroying.
We want to play 'defend the convoy' not 'collect the most xith into your stockpile'. It's boring.
CrazySpence and Samwise post only '-1' because they don't have a good reason for the changes not to occur, they just don't want them.
If the developers were to make a change to CTC, I would like a complete re-imagining rather than this.
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1+ to complete re-imaginings - except we know that they don't occur and there are no plans for them to occur any time soon.
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Give payouts and standing increases for guarding the convoys and killing aggressors in-sector. Doubling the amount of cargo is dumb and doesn't make any sense.
Give payouts and standing increases for guarding the convoys and killing aggressors in-sector. Doubling the amount of cargo is dumb and doesn't make any sense.
I just offered two ways to explain it.
1) it partially detonates in the explosion
2) it deteriorates over time
1) it partially detonates in the explosion
2) it deteriorates over time
-1 you have lost your power and you are grasping for whatever straws are left of it.
Ctc surely can (and needs to be) be modified, but giving a double bonus is retarded and makes no sense, as others have pointed out.
And furthermore, taking advantage of this exploit requires you keep an account logged in all the time anyway, which is more or less the same function as this supposed AFK bot you speak of.
Ctc surely can (and needs to be) be modified, but giving a double bonus is retarded and makes no sense, as others have pointed out.
And furthermore, taking advantage of this exploit requires you keep an account logged in all the time anyway, which is more or less the same function as this supposed AFK bot you speak of.
Our success in CtC was derived from:
A) We played much more than all of Itan
B) We practised proper group combat (i.e. we didn't run away in our valkryies) and we used a clear chain of command
C) We carefully studied our opponents strategies and adopted successful counter strategies again with complete co-operation
Doubling occurred just as often for the Itani team during our time playing CtC, we just killed the convoys to prevent it as often as possible. The only person I have ever seen show up on a regular basis to defend convoys is CrazySpence. The rest of you are minority players, especially slime who I have seen online only 10 times in my entire VO career.
Before we handled it, CtC was an activity that ONE would allocate a single person to hit convoys for. There was no PvP interaction to it in the metagame whatsoever due to stockpiling. It was completely unused gameplay.
This is how things will resume without some sort of incentive for people to ensure those convoys survive. There will be no escorting, just 1 sector kill of the bots and then escaping to find the stockpile.
For once we had a bug that actually did some good to the meta-game and mixed things up. Now the members of Itan come in like an organised lobby to ensure they win by default by destroying the only viable counter-tactic to stockpiling so they don't have to adapt. Stockpiling may not *technically* be a bug, but the viability of it as a tactic destroys PvP gameplay and destroys the need for any real PvP activity to occur.
Enjoy your botting Itan.
EDIT: Another alternative solution would be for the 201/202 channel to keep track of the location of the pure xith even after it has left the original convoy. This could be justified as ships being outfitted to detect the specific signature that it emits.
A) We played much more than all of Itan
B) We practised proper group combat (i.e. we didn't run away in our valkryies) and we used a clear chain of command
C) We carefully studied our opponents strategies and adopted successful counter strategies again with complete co-operation
Doubling occurred just as often for the Itani team during our time playing CtC, we just killed the convoys to prevent it as often as possible. The only person I have ever seen show up on a regular basis to defend convoys is CrazySpence. The rest of you are minority players, especially slime who I have seen online only 10 times in my entire VO career.
Before we handled it, CtC was an activity that ONE would allocate a single person to hit convoys for. There was no PvP interaction to it in the metagame whatsoever due to stockpiling. It was completely unused gameplay.
This is how things will resume without some sort of incentive for people to ensure those convoys survive. There will be no escorting, just 1 sector kill of the bots and then escaping to find the stockpile.
For once we had a bug that actually did some good to the meta-game and mixed things up. Now the members of Itan come in like an organised lobby to ensure they win by default by destroying the only viable counter-tactic to stockpiling so they don't have to adapt. Stockpiling may not *technically* be a bug, but the viability of it as a tactic destroys PvP gameplay and destroys the need for any real PvP activity to occur.
Enjoy your botting Itan.
EDIT: Another alternative solution would be for the 201/202 channel to keep track of the location of the pure xith even after it has left the original convoy. This could be justified as ships being outfitted to detect the specific signature that it emits.
Here's a 9 year old idea
-Make it announce when and where it is dropped/picked up
-kill turbo abilities of ship carrying xith (trust me, it'll be excellent)
-Make it announce when and where it is dropped/picked up
-kill turbo abilities of ship carrying xith (trust me, it'll be excellent)
The doubling mechanic is a broken one that only encourages placing a bot at the destination stations to keep the sector awake.
Having CtC convoys drop only a fraction of the cargo when destroyed seems reasonable, but the percentage should be greater than 50% so that attacking the enemy convoy and delivering the ore to the opposite faction is still a viable tactic.
Announcing xith locations on CtC chat when carried by players also seems reasonable.
Having CtC convoys drop only a fraction of the cargo when destroyed seems reasonable, but the percentage should be greater than 50% so that attacking the enemy convoy and delivering the ore to the opposite faction is still a viable tactic.
Announcing xith locations on CtC chat when carried by players also seems reasonable.
Thank you for an impartial perspective, meridian. As broken as the doubling mechanic was, the entire system of CtC is completely broken, but I maintain that providing an incentive to attack your own convoys with a Serco KOS greyspace alt is more broken than the doubling mechanic which solved that problem. We have swapped one broken mechanic for an even more broken and retarded one and there is virtually no chance that this will receive any developer attention in the near future. Which is why removal of the mechanic continues to perplex us and is the least favourable decision.
I would favour a doubling of the base weight of Purified Xith as an alternative to crazyspence's second point. Battles for CtC should last a while, but not that long.
I would favour a doubling of the base weight of Purified Xith as an alternative to crazyspence's second point. Battles for CtC should last a while, but not that long.
Look, I'm all for rewards for escorting the voys to their destination, but as far as gameplay mechanics go, it shouldn't be as huge as doubling the escort amount delivered.
It is incredibly boring to escort a convoy to its destination for nothing more than knowing it's safe.
As it stands there is a reward for killing and delivering, but not for escorting. Perhaps there should be others that want to attack the ctc voy. Maybe NPC unrats! That could be a cool new game mechanic, defending from the unrats, and that way your reward will rise, if you escort the convoy to its destination.
I don't know, but all I want to see is something that makes it worthwhile.
It is incredibly boring to escort a convoy to its destination for nothing more than knowing it's safe.
As it stands there is a reward for killing and delivering, but not for escorting. Perhaps there should be others that want to attack the ctc voy. Maybe NPC unrats! That could be a cool new game mechanic, defending from the unrats, and that way your reward will rise, if you escort the convoy to its destination.
I don't know, but all I want to see is something that makes it worthwhile.
So make ctc voys missions. You'd get a ch 201/202 notice that the voy will be ready for departure in 5 minutes, but the voy would not leave until a player took the mission. Bonus to delivery amount would be based on % flying-along time, killing any players hated or KOS by the voy's nation or any storm bots in the same sector as the transport. The mission could have a chance per jump to be attacked by NPCs of the enemy nation.
As for the reward, This is the cutting edge of military production: it needs to be the best f*cking energy weapon in the damned game, or even a different weapon depending on who wins: an uber gat for serco, an uber gauss for Itani, for example. However, it can't be available in unlimited quantities for the winner. Make victory unlock an easy-recipe manufacturing mission at research stations in the home nation, available only to Nationalists in good standing, and limit it to 10/day or even 10/week, available ONLY to ctc participants.
As for the reward, This is the cutting edge of military production: it needs to be the best f*cking energy weapon in the damned game, or even a different weapon depending on who wins: an uber gat for serco, an uber gauss for Itani, for example. However, it can't be available in unlimited quantities for the winner. Make victory unlock an easy-recipe manufacturing mission at research stations in the home nation, available only to Nationalists in good standing, and limit it to 10/day or even 10/week, available ONLY to ctc participants.
A gauss mkIV might actually get me interested.
The doubling part is just dumb, but there are some good ideas in this thread. Let's all cross our fingers and hope that the Devs do something about this side game that has a ton of potential.
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