I've tried to map out different options starting with the existing tug of war, looking at a 'group progression' option and also the open war concept. Each time I look at the different possibilities there is also a raft of road blocks or limitations when we still use stages. I thought initially it could be done and have some more depth, but I just keep running into problems which I simply don't see when looking at an open war concept.
To go through the process a bit (because it's good to discuss the ins and outs of these things).
Tug of war
Because this is managed at a faction level with the two sides competing against each other we force the whole population into the one mode that is currently being contested.
Because the dominance may shift back and forth based on players coming and going over the 8 hour attack phase, the tug of war will move back and forth over the earlier stages meaning the later stages rarely see action.
On the odd occasion that the bar does make it all the way to the end, all of the effort from all of the players for that faction can be lost in the last few minutes.
It's a real all or nothing setup compounded by the problem of player populations over the course of the attack phase and differences in the group capabilities.
While it uses stages and this has provided a bit of a feel of progression, it is somewhat abstract to actual player involvement at different times meaning we don't have that personal buy in of making our way through the stages to victory.
Let me quickly say that having the different modes is nice, has added some variety and depth and I am enjoying FP more than I have previously. But it is still severely limited and unfortunately does not address many old concerns.
There have been several ideas about adding more map rotations into each stage... a sort of subset of battles if you will. While this should mean getting more variety on the maps it still uses stages and still uses the tug of war meaning other problems are not addressed and it may compound some of the other issues.
A tournament style progression
This hasn't been brought up as an idea before so I'll go into some detail. Think of it like a tournament with pool stages... a bit of a pyramid sort of look.
This concept is more about bringing the level of success down to a player/group level instead of the faction as a whole.
That is, your group wins and advances to the next stage.
You gradually work your way through the stages until you hit siege and can win that mode.
A win on siege adds a tally to your faction.
The faction with the most tallies at the end, wins that conflict and the planet.
Because this would allow successful groups to progress and we look at it from a player/group perspective it allows us a few benefits.
Individual success is not affected by other groups as it doesn't use the faction level tug of war and means a player group can get through the phases provided they keep winning.
At the end of an attack phase, a last ditch concerted effort to undo player work is nullified if they do not have the tallies anyway. This encourages greater participation over the whole attack phase.
The progression would also mean that at the far end, the elite groups should end up facing each other and get through the lower stages a bit faster while the rest of us continue to battle it out and push up the stages a bit slower.
It also opens up some opportunity to have a level of benefits attached to each stage that can carry over into the next which will provide us with some continuation of the story we write each time we drop. That would be nice.
However.... there are still old problems to deal with and a bunch of new ones.
A tournament style progression means that to get matches as we get through the stages we also need players on the other side also doing the same thing. This can be partially solved using an attacker/defender setup so an advancing team is always on the attack and can be matched up against a 'militia' group should there be no opposition after a certain time.
while it does open up some other possibilities to add more depth, it still doesn't fix any of the population or match maker issues as it is really just a restructure of what we have now.
Open warfare.
Way too much to write about it here but feel free to look over the idea outlined here:
Moving to an open system
The concept of this proposal is to move away from stages, bring the tug of war into the single battle and allow players to rotate through the conflict for as long as they are able or willing.
Think of it as all the modes combined into one map.
Change the behaviour of the objectives so we have some dynamics and variety.
Alter the actual 'win the planet' condition but also allow the mode to mean more than just 'win the planet'. (Ie if we just want to raid or scout... then let us)
But most importantly, enable us to play the game regardless of player participation levels.
The biggest problems with this is that it does require a significant change to the mode with not only how the mode is structured, but how we also participate. That may be a little scary or seen as pure fantasy, but if we don't ask we won't know.