Is it possible to combine GSF, PvP, and Flagships into one giant PvP match? Imagine a Battlefront-esque scenario where each team commands Flagship with the options of manning the turbolasers or launching an assault on the enemy Flagship in a star fighter. Players could land in the enemy vessel and switch to PvP on foot, battling the defenders inside the enemy Flagship. Is this type of gameplay even possible, and if so, is it something you would consider?

 

That's one of those 'Wow, great idea type messages", but on this one, I'll have to consult with Charles to see what it would take. Sounds like organized Open World (well, Starship world) PvP and we'd need to figure out how to provide the proper incentives so everyone would want to participate.

 

---Keith

Thought the community could provide some help to Charles, both for incentives to have players delve into this and also suggestions of how it could be designed.

 

Hence a dedicated topic!

 

Note: While we all want a fully fledged PvP giant match, think more reusable assets and tweaking as development time is scarce.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Deewe

I also was thinking about it for a long time. It could be realized like this:this activity is needed to be queued (as warzones or gsf), everything is happening in the space: two teams appear on their huge flagships - one team is an attacking team another is an defensive ship, some of the players who are in an attacking team sits in little starships (freighters) (which can shoot and fly of course),fly's out from their flagship and tries to destroy enemies' flagship, another part of the players in an attacking teams takes a big transporting ship which fly's to enemies flagship, gets inside it and lets them out, these players from attacking team are fighting with players from defensive team inside their flagship. MEANWHILE some of the players in defensive team are using turrets to destroy attacking team's little starships (freighters) and attacking teams transporting ships, while other players from defensive team fighting attacking teams players which got inside their flagship.

However one problem here - Those who are from attacking team and died on enemies' flagship should resurrect somewhere but i have no idea where on their defensive flagship and take transporting ship again? Or,already on enemies flagship somewhere? - i don't know.

So with it we can combine both gsf and face-to-face pvp

Just my 2 cents. Maybe during the "board the capital ship" portions it should be treated like an OP or FP where you have npc trash mobs attacking as you (4-8 man player strike teams) make your way through the ship. At points in each lvl instead of the "gold bosses" you'll encounter other PvP player 4-8 man teams who are tasked with stopping you from completing objectives (like defend turrets, defend shield generators, etc.) and continuing to the next lvl with (respawns being the next "gold mob" location & finally the bridge). As the strike team progresses towards the final goal of capturing the bridge, the PvP "defend the bridge" team gets 1-2 players who get to use some type of mech suits for the final battle.

Quick brainstorming here...

 

The issue with PvP in a massive battle is coordinating the opposite teams so they encounter each other in time frame and location that makes sense.

 

To mitigate the issue you can indeed add NPCs. So the scenario could totally be played without opponent players.

The players would be in fact the leaders and iconic characters of the fight bending the outcome to their side.

 

You can have either the assault started automatically or by players.

NPC would counter fight and an alert would be sent throughout the galaxy allowing players to hop in.

 

Once in the hot zone players would receive alerts/reports of where are the opponent characters. Think about Vader leading an assault, most certainly it would be reported and the best troops would be either send there or asked to retreat.

 

Also players should be able to heal, buff and so support the NPCs, eventually giving basic orders follow, stand ground, retreat.

 

Could be most fun though will need quite some development time for sure!

Edited June 23, 2017 by Deewe

GSF Portion = Two guild ships face off but start not being in range to use their main guns. The objective for both guilds is to knock out the enemy guild ship's shields with their fighters while simultaneously preventing the same from happening to their ship. Both guilds would have their members split between attacking and defending teams, with the attackers manning GSF fighters and the defenders split between manning stationary anti-air cannons on the guild ship and fighters that can be scrambled for defense from an on board hangar.

 

The first phase would have a time limit where before hitting that limit players both manning the fighters and the turrets could respawn if killed, but if neither side manages to drop the other's shield in time, respawns eventually cease until one side achieves victory in the first phase. Give greater rewards for beating the timer.

 

GSF phase two: During the second phase the guild ships are now in range of each other and are trading turbolaser blasts. The guild that lost the first phase is now taking visible damage on their guild ship since their shields were lowered. The loser from the first phase must now attempt to board the victor's guild ship and sabotage some of their turbolasers from the inside, to prevent their ship from being destroyed. The attackers (first phase losers) will be split between a ground team riding in an armored transport and fighters that must safely escort it to the opponent's guild ship's hangar. The defenders will be split between their own ground defense team and fighters whose aim it is to destroy the transport before it reaches their hangar. Before the transport reaches the hangar the ground teams would be manning turrets, the losers from phase one manning defensive turrets in the transport and the phase one winner ground team manning turrets on the guild ship targeting the transport or escort fighters. The advantage should be weighted slightly in the transport's favor so that isn't so easy to end a match prematurely, but successfully destroying the transport would end the match in a flawless victory. Damaging the transport beyond a certain threshold short of destroying it could inflict damage however that applies a temporary debuff on the attacker in phase 3.

 

GSF/PVP warzone phase three: If the transport makes it safely aboard the attackers would need to fight their way to engineering, to sabotage power to the turbolasers. If the transport took severe damage the attackers would start with a one minute morale debuff to damage and healing. There would be a time limit just like phase one with respawns until that time is reached, at which point deaths become permanent until one side or the other wins. Rewards should be greater for beating the timer. Simultaneously there would be a GSF portion where the fighters from phase two, still "airborne" would return to attacking and defending the guild ships. Surpassing a certain threshold of damage to enemy's guild ship would apply apply a morale debuff to the opponents ground team that lowers the effectiveness of both damage and healing. If the attackers got debuffed on the way over and that ininitial debuff is still in place, the second debuff stacks. The second however is permanent while the first is timed. The first ground team to lose every member at least once applies a permanent morale debuff to their fighters making them more vulnerable to damage. If the attacking team successfully sabotages the turbolasers in time, the match would end in a stalemate. If the defenders successfully prevent the attacking team from sabotaging the turbolasers, but the attackers made it aboard the guild ship, the team defending the guild ship achieves a minor victory.

 

In a flawless victory the loser's flagship is destroyed in the cutscene but the loser doesn't actually lose their guild ship. Instead the loser forfeits their conquest invasion bonuses and cannot use their guild ship to invade another planet for 48 hours, and cannot reselect the same planet for the duration of the conquest event. The loser also gets a debuff applied to all conquest points earned at a guild level (personal tallies are unaffected) for one week. If the battle occurs at the end of a conquest event or between events, it carries over into the next. The winner gets a large buff to conquest points earned in the planet it invaded for the week, and it likewise carries over if the battle takes place near the end of or between events. In a minor victory the loser's ship doesn't get destroyed but is severely damage and flees into hyperspace. The loser in a minor defeat forfeits conquest invasion bonuses at a guild level (personal tallies unaffected) for 24 hours but otherwise doesn't get debuffed. The winner gains a smaller buff than the flawless victory for a 24 hour duration. The buffs to Conquest for flawless victories would be large enough that even small guilds that are successful at guild ship PVP could potentially dominate Conquest leaderboards. Minor buffs would be a bonus but not game-changing. In a stalemate neither side loses or gains anything towards Conquest other than any points earned for the match itself, but there would be some individual rewards for the guild that staved off defeat by sabotaging the enemy's turbolasers.

 

Individual rewards for PVP guild ship battles would be in tiers, and dependent upon whether it was a flawless or minor victory, a stalemate, and whether or not you beat the timers.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Aeneas_Falco

All I want from something like that is the ability to be just a turret gunner. I want someone else to pilot the ship. I am simply not coordinated enough to do both

Sounds way too ambitious TBH, I'd rather they get basic objective-based OWPvP working instead.

All these ideas, from huge multi-battles via ship to ground and co-Op pilot/gunner combat are HUGE ideas and would be a gigantic game changer. It would make headlines!

 

buuuttt,...I won't hold my breath.

Sounds fun, I'm just worried about the performance due to the memories of Ilum. But it sure seems like an awesome idea.

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Sounds fun, I'm just worried about the performance due to the memories of Ilum. But it sure seems like an awesome idea.

 

With all of the server and client upgrades since then, I wish they would give Ilum a go again.

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With all of the server and client upgrades since then, I wish they would give Ilum a go again.

I know a lot has changed, though we haven't really had an example of large scale owpvp! I wonder how things would pan out. I did like the days of ilum, the only sad part was the lag.

Sounds fun, I'm just worried about the performance due to the memories of Ilum

Got a top of the end computer and when there are too many characters the game takes a hit.

 

The engine is simply not optimized especially the network sync hence why we can't have pod racing, multiplayer mounts and such.

 

Ex: when a my kid an I play together I can see that too often her character is not where my client sees her.

Other example, you can get a wipe in an OP thinking you were out of an AOE when you are in fact in it. A common trick is to jump regularly to refresh your character position. Maybe it's Voodoo thinking but many players do this.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Deewe