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Basically, FP right now is just another game mode with no significance. In fact, ever since the merging of factions, the whole planet taking seems more irrelevant than ever.
But it doesn't have to be.
What are some existing assets? Game board? Check. Individual Unit? Check.
I say, let's implement the following changes:
The entire Star Map is now a giant game board with each of those planets claimable by various units. There's basically 3 tier of planets.
Tier 1: Hub Planets: These are un-claimable, but is a major transportation conduit for your unit's action.
Tier 2: Planets in Play: These are planets that can be contested over.
Tier 3: Fringe Planets: These are basically tier 2, except they are the grayed out planets in the outer-rim that are basically freebies.
At the start of the FP phase, each unit will claim 1 planet as the base of operation. Any tier 2 planets will give both MC (like they do now) and a bonus attribute. A tier 3 planet does not give MC, but does give bonus attribute, albeit in much weaker capacity (since they will most likely not be contested, ever).
Now, what are attributes? Attributes are bonuses that can be applied to your entire unit. Each unit can have up to 3 attributes active at once. These attributes are tied into a specific Tier 2 or 3 planet that your unit controls.
For example,
Tier 2: Alpha 5 -> Azure Mirror - highest quality mirror lens that increase optimal range by 5%
Tier 2: Beta 29 -> Unobtainium Deposit - Increase armor value by 5%
Tier 2: Sierra Z -> Titanium Casing - Increase crit change by 5%
Tier 2: Centaur -> Production Hub - Mass Produce Ammo - Increase per/ton ammo by 5
Tier 3: Zulu Omega -> Chrome Mirror - high quality mirror lens that increase optimal range by 2%
From the above chart, we can see that while Zulu Omega is located in the fringe world, and most likely will never be contested (unless your rival unit hate you so much), you will always have the option to use Chrome Mirror as one of your combat attribute.
Now, say EMP controls all 5 planets. While they can only active 3 attributes... maybe mirror, unobtainium, and production, they have the OPTION to switch to Titanium casing in place of any attributes so they choose. So it's advisable to units to take as many planets as possible to maximize the choice that they might have.
If you are defending, you automatically get the attribute of THAT planet ON TOP of your unit's 3 chosen attributes. (they do not stack if from the same planet. So if you own Centaur, don't choose Centaur's production as one of your attribute, as it will not double stack your defense and give you +8 ammo. However, if you choose Production from... say... Dorito, then yes, it will stack to +8)
Now, that's the incentive.
The actual action:
An action phase will last 8 hours. Like before. During which, offense and defense will commence like CW 1, 2, and 3. Planet will switch owner if Offense score more victories than Defense. At which point, the unit with the most contribution for offense will become the planet owner. Top 5 contributing unit AFTER the owner will be designated as vassal. Those 5 vassals do not own the planet, so they will not receive MC bonus. However, they have free rights to use the attribute.
Units will no longer require invite ticket to recruit new players. HOWEVER, the game board will create a self sustaining economy. But to get to that, let's go back to action phase.
You unit must launch from a hub planet to have the ability to attack or defense. These Tier 1 hub planets are like a gather spot, or think of them as Halo Rings. Say you launch from your home planet inside Clan Bear to attach Steiner. However, you can't launch from your planet to Steiner planet Puteen directly. You need to got o a Clan hub first that has Puteen within the "Sphere of Influence"
A Sphere of Influence is a range drawn from the hub that allows you to defend and attack all planets within the sphere of influence. So the nearest Clan Hub might be Chop Suy. Your unit will pay an upkeep cost upfront to transport from your home planet to Chop Suy. This transport cost will be higher with larger unit.
Thus, if you are a unit similar to the old MS, it's advisable that you try to horde all action within the sphere of influence from a particular hub.
You may jump from hub to hub depending on your action during any moment in the game. You just have to afford the transport cost.
(transport cost is calculated from hub to hub, obviously the longer the distance and the larger the unit, the most cost it will be. however, it's not the cost of going home then out. your action will always depend on your current location)
Now, rather than individual donations, which... you still can do, Units will now be self sustaining because every battle you enter, 5% of your earning is counted toward Unit Bank. This will help pay for the transport cost, especially if you are a big unit. Now, this is per individual, so if everyone earned 1 million on a 12-man drop, your bank will get 50,000x12. Like how it is now, these cbills cannot be given out.
so you can't have the unit try to get a mech for you, sorry, not a thing.
Obviously, eventually your unit may get so large, that your transport cost is so great that it outweighs the amount of actions possible for a hub's sphere of influence. So, be smart and vigilant on recruitment and upkeep.
Now, aside from combat taxation, you may also "lease" your planetary right. Say, a unit like your +5% laser range, but cannot get one. A unit may lease a spot on your planet for the right to use that attribute.
A lease may be infinite. While there are only 5 spots for vassals, you can lease your rights to as many planets as possible. The lease is calculated per 8 hours cycle. So, if you own a lot of desirable planets, your unit can get lots of money depending on interest. A loyalist will always get the cheapest lease right. (these are going to be set values to prevent a unit from being an douchaynozzle), merc unit second, and freelancer the most.
(Of course, freelancer gets to lease from everybody... but since they can't take planets, they might want to consider how many lease they take on before they are broke)
Also, your faction alignment matters a lot too. Make sure you pay attention to Merc Star news. For example, even though Ghost Bear and Wolf are both fighting on behalf of Davion. Maybe for the week of July 4th, Clan Wolf is not cool with Ghost Bear, so both sides up the lease right on one another. Thus, be smart on choosing a particular faction, as you won't be guarantee the bonus of inter-faction, even if fighting for the same side.
(unlike the banner don't matter BS we have now)
OOOO, almost forgot...
Every once in a while, there is a special event going on. This... is the taking of Hub Planet. A hub planet is not up for play unless it's cut off from all sides. You may drop against a hub planet BEFORE it's cut off, but..
1: There is no bonus, as no unit can take hub.
2: You will face insane adversity. Basically, a 2 unit vs 1 unit type thing (There's an AI 12-man drop with 75% accuracy buffer) with full scouting bonus for the other side AND additional turrets.
3: But if you still manage to win, everyone on your team that participated in the win gets a "I have a huge E-peen" trophy (I'm not kidding)
However, say the Hub planet is enveloped, and IS cut off from all sides, then it becomes a special "raid event."
A raid event increase the reward with dwindling and gradually harsher conditions for the defense. For example, turrets offline and scouting bonus against you. If a hub survived insane amount of phases, then maybe Long Tom will be in play. However, a raid defender will get... for example, twice the reward for 1 phase win. Triple the reward for 2 phases win. So on, and so forth.
A raid event will end in 2 conditions:
1: The defender fell, and the hub is now under control, and usable by the opposing side.
2: The offense rescue the hub by reopening a route to the hub.
Defenders on the hub that lost the hub are automatically transferred for free to the next friendly hub. If there are multiple, this is chosen at random.
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Who keeps the planet? For any planet that you control that you don't designate as "home," an the ownership may shift if you do not score the equivalent of a 12-man win in 3 attack cyle (meaning, 12 of your pilots just have to win 1 a piece... even if it's 12 separate games) then the owner may shift to the next top contributor on defense. The previous owner is then drop to vassal status.
A vassal may lose the vassal right if they don't contribute in the top 5% for 3 consecutive attack phase (so, 1 day)
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Farm prevention:
The hotter the contest, the redder the hub will show on the Star Map. A team may choose to intentionally ignore the "hot" spot in hope of farming planets.
Any planet won without contest (through ghosties) is handed over to the owner for attribute usage. However, a planet with no recorded combat is not given MC. Also, ghost drops have terrible pay. So it will not be worth to farm cold zones as you may not get the transport cbill cost back.
Also, you cannot "claim" friendly planets. So you can jump to a spot in friendly territory completely isolated from everything and pick up 10 planets in the vicinity by defensive ghost drop. Since... like before, defensive ghost drop is not a thing.
The only exception is the Tier 3 planets. You can claim as much as possible without fighting. As those are technically "neutral" planets. Just make sure you have the cbill to get there and get back.
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Potential Game Over Situation:
What if your unit got stranded in a dead zone with no action to earn cbill and have no cbill to pay for transport cost to next transport to hot zone?
At that point, any unit that doesn't have sufficient cbill to pay for transport cost to the next closest hub is given the option to re-designate as freelancer.
During freelancer status, you do not have the ability to own planets. Even if you contribute in the top 5, you are skipped in contribution to determine vassal. However, you are given free transport right to any combat zone.
Obviously, if you anticipate your zone to become hot soon, then you don't have to re-designate. But then, you just have to wait and hope some other units come fight you to bail you out.
You are given 5 cycles to keep your possessions as a freelancer. For example, if you are merc unit with 10 planets possessions turned freelancer because you got stuck, you will lose 20% of your planets when you first re-designate. Those are chosen at random. So it may be the 2 most lucrative planets that you are leasing out. Within 5 attack cycles (slightly less than 2 days), you will lose all of your planets.
So while freelancers get free transports, they don't keep possessions. That's the trade-off.
You may re-designate back to merc anytime you wish (round up) so if you only have 3 planets, you are losing 1 planet for re-designation. This may be worth while if you have a huge unit that just need to get somewhere and have no worldly possessions.
Freelancers also do not earn contract bonuses. So you are also earning a lot less than everyone else.
Loyalist contract bonus is upped. None of this loyalist and merc pay the same stuff.
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Bottom line:
There is a lot more risk, more management, more upkeep, but I think it's the end game content we all want. It's a real competitions with meaningful challenges. Most of all, this doesn't take a lot of change for implementation. PGI also gets another avenue to interact with fans by setting bi-weekly Merc Star News that determine some of the game board conditions.
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Yes, I came up with most of these on the car ride home. I finalized a lot of details within the past hours, but the bulk of the idea was from the 15 min car ride.
Edited by razenWing, 01 July 2017 - 07:46 PM.
