5 replies to this topic

[SpiralFace]

I don’t know why, but I recently received a few PM’s asking about my take on the ongoing time zone change and what I feel about it. (Guess it’s a popular topic right now.) Since explaining the “why” about these ideas sometimes takes a bit, I figured it would just roll over into another one of my proposals.

Feel free to tear into it. I haven’t milled on this issue as much as I have things like the Assault change proposal I posted a bit ago and as a result, this won’t be as fully thought through as one of those ones.

But anyways:

Current issues with CW attack windows:

• Planet turnovers is more dependent on the East coast North American time zone over every other regional group.
  
• Ghost drops are a frustrating but necessary element to ensure “lockouts” do not happen.
  
• Proposed 3 time zone system with 1 planet each zone is feared to compound already existing issues of larger factions being able to steam roll through large swaths of land.

Proposal:

Here is how I feel you can address the major concerns everyone brings to the table in regards to this mode:

• Each system goes under a 3 cycle window for conquering the system. (Fitting with the currently proposed 3 cease fire cycles)
  
• At the end of each cycle, the total attacker and defender territories are tallied and become “locked.”
  
• The faction with the majority of the territory at the end of the 3^rd cycle takes over the system.
  
• Allow for a “win out” mechanic in which if one side “locks” enough territory to become the majority leader after the 2^nd cycle with no chance of the other side able to overtake them in the 3^rd cycle, the planet automatically flips to the victor and a new avenue of attack / defense is created.
  
• Scale the ghost drops on the systems based on how much territory is conquered per window.

This should allow every time zone to feel like they are contributing to the fight while halting the sheer amount of territory that could flip in a 3 cycle window if not held in check. (Davion could hypothetically grow 15 systems daily if they won out on every front in every time zone.) Not to mention that “every win in every time zone counts” towards the greater victory for their side.

The “Win out” Mechanic

Naturally, with 3 time zones competing for the same system, at some point, there is no chance for that 3^rd time zone to ever be able to come back if the other two time zones have essentially “won out” on the system in their respective time zones.

To address this issue for the 3^rd time zone, I propose a “win out” mechanic in which if 2 time zones collectively take enough territory to where the 3^rd time zone has no chance of overtaking the system, then the system would reset, allowing the 3^rd time zone to effectively be the first zone on the next system.

This does two things.

First, it incentivizes factions to not just “give up” on a fight. Even if they might lose in their time zone, they can still make it a close fight and allow the system to go into a 3^rd cycle. Or an offensive party could redouble their efforts to conquer a planet hard and fast to allow the faction as a whole to push territory faster than their opposition.

The other thing this does is staggers the invasion cycles. If a system rolls over early or has no attackers against it, you have suddenly staggered the whole invasion cycle by a time zone. After a few weeks of separation and randomization, this should leave it to where each time zone becomes the “deciding factor” of at least a handful of systems.

As long as you keep it to where each front has a single attack / defense system that don’t overlap, this shouldn't upset the greater map as a whole, It will not make it where one large group from multiple time zones can gobble up territory like mad, and after the systems begin to be staggered through the “win out” mechanic, it should leave it to where the deciding factor of every system will shift with every cycle. Allowing every time zone to play a decisive role in the greater CW conflicts.

Ghost Drop Scaling.

Ghost dropping is a necessary evil given the mechanics of this game. But it’s one that I think can be improved on through territory scaling.

Basically, initially allow a ghost drop to happen within 3-5 minutes of dropping on a “fresh” planet (expediting it to something more manageable for those participating.) From there, scale the frequency the ghost drops can happen based on how much territory the attacker / defender controls. (Up to the 10 minutes it currently is now.)

Then, only allow ghost drops to happen up to the 53% mark. Do not allow any further ghost drops to happen past that point. This should alleviate the “wait fatigue” that even 12 man’s get waiting for an opponent by scaling it based on how many wins the other has, while at the same time, not allowing large units to spam drop and gobble up territory to a point where you max out your wins on the system.

I feel like that would probably be the most ideal solution to solve the time zone and ghost dropping issues given the tools that everyone already has.

Let me know what you think, as admittedly, this is more of a raw idea I have regarding this issue then something that I’ve put much thought into.

[Kamikaze Viking]

SpiralFace, on 14 January 2015 - 08:14 PM, said:

• Scale the ghost drops on the systems based on how much territory is conquered per window.

I like this! When its balanced (eg 40-60%) make ghost drops 5 min. When its way out of balance (10-90%) push it out to 15 or 20.
Also possibly scale the ghost drop time based on the balance of attackers to defenders.

[Aluminumfoiled]

Good points. Have seen an attack rate of 94% drop to defender up 53% in about 3 hrs when primetime kicked in. It seemed a numbers result and invalidated a lot of hard work and good fights. Not saying stop the possibility but 1 ceasefire a day leads to 3 NA hours deciding the planet.

Like turrets as part of the objectives.

[SpiralFace]

For this proposal, the turrets are exactly has they are now. This is to specifically address the 3 invasion windows and the ghost dropping.

Turret changes where specifically for the assault proposal, nothing to do with CW at this time unless the devs want to take and run with that idea.

[CyclonerM]

I like your idea, as it is a better thought version of my own suggestion.

However, i have some doubts about the ghost drops scaling mechanic..

A planet gets to 53%. Then, maybe, the players fighting on it go back to public queques or attack/defend another planet.. And the defenders retake it in their primetime. As Microvent said, there have been instances of defenders quickly retaking their zones. I have no issue with Ghost Drops, they make a lot of sense; if they become an issue it is because certain factions do not have enough players, usual stuff. This is why i would like to see more players taking arms and playing in CW, joining an unit or getting back into it after a pause.

[SpiralFace]

CyclonerM, on 15 January 2015 - 06:06 AM, said:

I like your idea, as it is a better thought version of my own suggestion.

However, i have some doubts about the ghost drops scaling mechanic..

A planet gets to 53%. Then, maybe, the players fighting on it go back to public queues or attack/defend another planet.. And the defenders retake it in their primetime. As Microvent said, there have been instances of defenders quickly retaking their zones. I have no issue with Ghost Drops, they make a lot of sense; if they become an issue it is because certain factions do not have enough players, usual stuff. This is why i would like to see more players taking arms and playing in CW, joining an unit or getting back into it after a pause.

If your allowed to "max out" through ghost dropping though, then it becomes just as bad of an issue in prime time when opposing factions can end up swarming the queue and rely on their superior numbers to allow them to get uncontested wins through the ghost dropping all the way up on the other side.

Yeah it makes it easier to flip if you ONLY got wins through ghost dropping on non-peak hours, but I think that's a separate issue unto itself that you could even get that high up there off of uncontested games. In the end, the victor should go to who actually wins more GAMES not who can spam the most ghost dropped wins in a day.