I read this in the Developer Q&A 2:
Will planetary control come down to one/a few games, or will taking over a planet require much more time...like 20 games? –Cyttorak
[MATT C] At launch planetary control will consist of single matches though over time we intend to add support for sequenced matches.
I didn't see anything else out here in searching... if I missed it, I apologize. I would like to make a suggestion that planetary control take more than 1 match to achieve at launch. Maybe best out of 3? 5?
Otherwise I'm seeing a scenario where planetary ownership and the shape of the star system will change quickly and dramatically.
I have an old BT planet list which has 2,122 planets on it. (I think it may have been corrupted though... there are more, no?)
So if you have a base of 5,000 players at launch (being totally conservative), using a value of 16 players per match (8 per side) and an average of 20 minutes per match along with 1 battle to determine planetary ownership...
312.5 matches every 20 minutes * 3 = (round up)
939 matches per hour - that means 939 planets exchange hands each hour
Divide that number by 5, and you've got 187 planets exchanging hands each hour. It's still alot of planets... but otherwise, won't the starmap shift drastically every hour?
EDIT: I'm including 30% to this calculation to show the times where a planet was taken by one unit and then taken back by the original owner. So take 30% off of 187... we get 130; So there could be 130 planets actually exchanging hands each hour.
Edited by SI The Joker, 24 February 2012 - 01:19 PM.