OK. First I would like to thank EVERYONE who gave constructive comments and feedback, proposed alternative ideas or supported our changes. Your positive energy into the further development of the game is very welcome, needed and appreciated.
After reading tons of player comments, looking at map models, discussing outcomes and much deliberation we have decided to make the following changes to yesterday's proposal, as well as add some new changes. THERE IS CURRENTLY NO TIMETABLE FOR THESE CHANGES!! This is a proposal only, made so that we can all discuss their ramifications and be prepared.
Sphere of Influence: The SOI will go into effect, however it will ONLY be used to calculate your ability to defend your zones (more on this below). The concept of Subversion has been completely scrapped because it did not meet our goals and did not aid us in meeting them.
Zone Garrison Limits: The SOI from a city will branch out up to 4 zones in every direction creating at a 9X9 box in which that city is considered to be influencing. If there are enemy cities or friendly cities also influencing any those 81 zones, the size and proximity of those cities will determine which zones are influenced by who. You will only be able to keep 4 units in the city at the center of that 9x9 box per zone that you OWN inside that city's SOI, or 216 whichever is less.
Example: Joe has a city by itself in the middle of nowhere. He owns all the zones in the 9x9 box that is that city's SOI. He can keep 216 units in that city.
Example 2: Sarah builds 2 large cities nearby Joe's city and cuts into his SOI. While Joe still OWNS the zones near Sarah, he no longer has influence over some of the zones closest to Sarah and so instead of 81 zones counting towards his unit garrison, he now has, say 30 zones and can only keep 120 units in that city. Sarah can't count those zones towards her total either, since she doesn't own them.
Example 3: Sarah decides that Joe's time has come and attacks him. Joe repels the attack but Sarah manages to maintain OWNERSHIP of some of the zones inside Joe's SOI. Sarah owns the zones, but Joe has influence over them, and thus they aren't counted toward anybody's garrison totals. If Joe attacks them then they will count for him, or if Sarah is able to build more/larger/closer cities then she will encroach further onto Joe's SOI and thus have influence over the zones that she owns.
Exception: MOBILIZED UNITS ARE EXEMPT FROM THIS RULE!! Mobilized units can be anywhere
and will NOT count against the total units garrisoned in that zone.
Penalties: Exceeding the garrison caps will simply prevent you from creating new units in that zone and from moving units to that zone.
Result: The result will be to encourage players to keep signficant buffers around their cities, and if they don't they will not be able to defend these cities well at all. This should effectively eliminate the "One Zone Defense" that has cropped up over the past two years. A single city surrounded by zones that your empire doesn't own will be able to garrison a whopping 4 unmobilized units. You could keep 1,000 units there if you wanted, but 996 of them would need to be mobilized. Also, it lays the very important groundwork for the following change:
Attacks Based on Empire Level: After many player comments and much discussion here in the office we are sticking with the idea that you can only make attacks on those who you DOW, and only DOW those your level or 1 level above you. As always, you will still be able to attack zones that you owned in the past 30 Nevdays. We believe that this simply makes for a much more 'fair' game and one that will appeal more broadly to players. Some players have said that you can't make something 'completely fair' and we agree and we are't trying to. This change is not 'splitting hairs,' we are going from a system in which a level 12 can attack a level 6 with battalions of uber-mechs for a relatively small cost to one in which you need to fight at around your own level. That is a HUGE step towards protecting smaller empires and making this a game about skill between players, not who has the biggest friends. You still have MANY ways that you can assist your factionmates, the most important of which is PILOTING for them.
Very Important:
Optional Mini-Surrender: We have been batting this idea around for a long time and we believe it's time has come. Everyone will have the OPTION to set a Mini-Surrender so long as you have not fought in the past Nevday. This Mini-Surrender will go off up to 3 times before you hit whatever your chosen Surrender rate is. It's effect will be to stop new attacks from being made for between 12-36 hours (defender's choice). Current battles WILL FINISH, however zones will NOT CHANGE HANDS after the mini-surrender is hit. Plunder code WILL BE RUN and cash will be awarded to the attacker. The defender can then not attack or be attacked until the Mini-Surrender has lapsed, which will be a specific time that the defender has chosen, between 12-36 hours away.
Example: At 12 noon on Day 1 Joe attacks Sarah while she is offline. Joe declares war, buys a drop-zone and begins his attacks. Sarah has her surrender rate set for 20% and Joe makes quick work of her units, captures 1 city and is working on a second when he brings her down 5% and sets off a Mini-Surrender. He is able to continue his attack and finish the city, though the zone will not change hands. He gets cash and morale for winning the city, and holds onto all the other zones he took plus the first city captured. Joe flies his units home and calls it a day. It is 3 pm.
Sarah had set her Mini-Surrender to begin at 4 pm since she knows that she will get of work at 3 and if she were attacked she could easily begin fighting at 4. She gets home at 4 pm to find that she has been attacked and her Mini-Surrender went off. Since she set her Mini-Surrender for 4 pm, but it has not yet been 12 hours, she can not attack or be attacked. She surveys the damage, contacts her friends and gets ready for retaliation the next day at 4. Joe, who was notified of exactly when the Mini-Surrender would lapse, also is getting pilots and supplies ready. Unfortunately, Joe will not be able to be online at that time and so is putting his faith in a factionmate to defend his empire with permissions he set for him.
Day 2, 4 pm: Sarah gets home from work and is unsurrendered. She mobilizes her units and heads out to take her city back and then flies units to Joe's area to begin a counterattack. Joe's factionmate isn't worth a whole lot in the pilot's seat, and Sarah is able to dispatch her enemy with only a few losses. Joe, who is a frequent warrior, has his surrender set at 50% meaning that Sarah would need to take him down to about 13% below what he started at to set off his mini-surrender. She does this by 6.30 pm and goes home, sure that she made her point and that Joe won't be back. Joe's surrender time was set for 10 am, which is more than 12 hours away, so the next morning Joe and sarah will have the option to be back at it.
Day 3, 10 am: With Sarah at work Joe is back with a vengeance. This time he has 2 other empires with him and they are determined to take Sarah down. Sarah, up about 10% from the time the war started, will need to drop to 10% BELOW where she was when the war started to set off her next mini-surrender. Joe begins taking back his zones from Sarah while Joe's two friends declare war and begin attacking Sarah's main zones. The two of them run into some serious trouble, because Sarah's factionmates are pioting for her, and one even declares war himself and comes to her aid. Still, they are able to bring her down to her next mini-surrender point, earn some cash for themselves and call it a day. Sarah's mini-surrender is still set at 4pm, so she'll again have to wait until 4 pm on the FOLLOWING day to attack.
You get the idea....they can keep going back and forth even while one another is offline making progress towards a REAL surrender, but both protected from harsh losses and both fully aware when the next time that fighting will be able to take place. Please note that all surrender levels will be based off of when the first DOW was declared, as is done with faction war.
Result: This increases the likelyhood of you being able to protect your empire, but also increases the chances of having what everyone wants: real player vs player battles. It also decreases the effectiveness of gangbanging, since there is only so much that you can get from an empire in a certain period of time. Since you also have to get like-leveled empires with the previously discussed DOW/Attack rules, this reduces the chances of gangbanging even further. MOST IMPORTANTLY it reduces the need for tedious things like 'speedbumps' and 'sensor towers' as tools of delay to help draw out war until a defender can get help or get online.
This brings us too......
Forced ABR: If you have 20 times your opponent's BV you may FORCE ABR to run in any non-city zone even if the unit is piloted! This effectively reduces the time it takes to move through a zone with a gecko or sensor tower from 30 minutes to 1-2 minutes. As an attacker you will easily be able move through poorly defended zones and get real battles. If the opposing units total 500 BV or is a mech, Forced ABR will NOT be an option.
Free War Costs: All attack costs will now be $0 for ALL zones. You will still need to pay for and declare war.
Reduced Transit Costs: With the new Mini-Surrender rules, attackers will be doing a whole lot more flying around and so we will slash LC costs by at least 50% and perhaps no LC costs at all. Combined with free attack costs the profits from war will be greatly increased due to this.
Total Units Cap: With a reduced need for 'speedbump' units and a constantly growing number of units the time has long since passed when unit caps are needed. We are setting the initial unit cap at 20,000 units, a rediculously high number that we expect the largest empires to easily be able to comply with. If you exceed this cap you will not be able to make or produce new units until you are back under it. This number will drop at a rate of 1,000 units per month every month after it is put into place, which will of course be announced. This will effectively limit the size that empires can grow to be that at which the players who play them have time, energy and skill to maintain. Large empires need to be actively defended instead of making thousands of units that attackers would need to wade through. Active and successful players will easily be able to use a relatively small number of units to defend a large amount of infrastructure. There is no good reason that the largest empire in the game should have the same number of units as the smallest 4,000 empires in the game.
Empires affected by the unit caps will be given tools and time to easily scrap/decommission excess units.
------------------------------------------
We feel strongly that these changes in unison go a very long way towards reconsiling the feedback that we have gotten from players in recent months. There is something in these changes for everyone, attackers, defenders, people who hate lag, people who hate gangbangs and people who think war should be more profitable while other want more of a fighting chance to defend themselves. AS ALWAYS FEEDBACK IS WELCOME. We make ourselves incredibly available to our players but it is very draining when people do not read the information that is put out, or are simply reading it looking for ways to make us wrong. If you are one of these people, you feedback is NOT welcome and we will NOT respond to you. To everyone else: fire away! We know there is a lot to read here, but in practice these changes close a lot of loopholes and level a lot of playing fields.
Thank you all and happy gaming!
WS
|
Previous
Index
Next
Flat
SOI: Update Part II with MANY CHANGES
Edit
Reply
Quote
