Fighting in Conflict Zones: Imbalance?

[MusTheBunneh]

It seems that fighting in Conflict Zones, especially Medium and High Intensity, became a whole lot harder with the 3.3 update. The Capital Ships are pretty much the same as they were before, but the enemy Captains and the Spec Ops wings are downright brutal. Even with a fully outfitted and engineered Federal Corvette, it takes quite a bit of effort to deal with them.

Unfortunately, the Combat Bond payouts don't seem to reflect that. I'm lucky if I get more than 50k for destroying an enemy ship, and that includes the enemy Captains and the Spec Ops wings. I get the feeling that fighting in Conflict Zones is now the least attractive activity in the game. Exploring, bounty hunting, mining and trading all give better payouts.

Is there really such a big imbalance here, or is it just my perception?

 

[CMDR Nuria]

Maybe?

Honestly, in the hour I spent in CZ's after the update (I quit after the CZ bug got me, I was awarded a bounty and lost my ship), the behavior of AI felt a little... off.
Namely: A Master rank Anaconda was relatively successfully outmaneuvering and brutally punishing both a Fer De Lance and a Vulture. Both of these were fully fit for combat. During this time, the Anaconda was utterly spamming Shield Cell Banks (Unlimited ammo... Can AI's synth SCB's?) & laser-based weapons without so much as popping a heatsink, and it took roughly 15 minutes for us to take it down. We nearly lost the Vulture around 5-7 minutes in; Fer De Lance had ~30% hull left at the end when I was suddenly awarded bounty for killing a lawless war target.

Granted, I'm fairly new to CZ's and spend most of my time in RES sites, but given the recent update, I'm on the line of thinking that we're starting to see engineered modules at Master rank and higher. If that's the case, I'm sure you'll see more heavily engineered AI the higher you go in rank.

 

[Ziljan]

On the contrary, CZs have become alive. The coms chatter is engaging, the zones are now mapped to actual strategically significant locations, and the NPCs are aren't floating piñatas anymore. The NPCs are still guaranteed CRs but at least they put up a fight and give a mild sense of accomplishment.

The only issue I have is that it remains unclear whether completing CZ scenarios has any impact on the BGS. It did not in Beta, and it's difficult to test in Live.

 

[Frank]

How does the new conflict zone mechanic work? We've been battling away since the update and we managed to get the progress bar up to "victory". Do we need to keep battling until the progress bar is completely filled, or does the game just take the position into account after a certain number of days?

 

[MusTheBunneh]

On the contrary, CZs have become alive. The coms chatter is engaging, the zones are now mapped to actual strategically significant locations, and the NPCs are aren't floating piñatas anymore. The NPCs are still guaranteed CRs but at least they put up a fight and give a mild sense of accomplishment.

True that, but for those who like to see their accomplishments reflected in their bank balance, Conflict Zones are going to be disappointing.

How does the new conflict zone mechanic work? We've been battling away since the update and we managed to get the progress bar up to "victory". Do we need to keep battling until the progress bar is completely filled, or does the game just take the position into account after a certain number of days?

As far as I've been able to work out, the progress bar is only updated once a day. In the war I've been fighting in, the progress bar was two thirds full ("Victory") yesterday, and today it shows as entirely full ("Total victory").

 

[Ziljan]

True that, but for those who like to see their accomplishments reflected in their bank balance, Conflict Zones are going to be disappointing.

The main reason money for CZs has always been low is because the kill counts required to win are so small. 16 kills over 4 days can win a war. Netting about half a million CRs. It doesn't line up with objectives, massacre missions, etc. So the whole design for war, CZ scenarios, and war related missions is a bit cattywampus.

If the mission kill counts were as small or the CZ victory had a significant BGS impact compared to combat bond micro-transactions then the kill counts would line up with massacre missions and then you could make decent money in concert with meaningful BGS actions.

 

[Jmanis]

I get the feeling that fighting in Conflict Zones is now the least attractive activity in the game. Exploring, bounty hunting, mining and trading all give better payouts.

Is there really such a big imbalance here, or is it just my perception?

True that, but for those who like to see their accomplishments reflected in their bank balance, Conflict Zones are going to be disappointing.

Thing is, winning in CZs isn't about credits, it's about influencing the outcome of the war. The reward is getting the station or system control flipped.

Take a look how a typical mission functions... an assassination would do 1-2m on a credit reward, but only 100-200k for an influence reward... same for any mission. That drop goes up to=~ 4m max, noticable only on very high payout missions like wing missions.

Likewise, if you are trying to achieve influence effects, you don't necessarily trade at a high profit station due to it's ownership, or you might not trade at all, or you might forego those bounty vouchers because they'd support the wrong faction.

It's a fairly consistent design model that achieving BGS effects is always at the expense of profit. As I said in another thread, I'd personally run CZs for free if that were the case, because there's plenty of other ways to make money if I need it... CZ bonds just pay the repair bill, which is fine, because we're winning the war.

 

[glojo]

How does the new conflict zone mechanic work? We've been battling away since the update and we managed to get the progress bar up to "victory". Do we need to keep battling until the progress bar is completely filled, or does the game just take the position into account after a certain number of days?

I say well done for getting it up to 'Victory' and my experience is that this is a daily state. In my experience the daily states range from:

1. Defeat
2. Draw
3. Close Victory
4. Victory

The frustrating thing is that the last day leaves a lot to be desired? But YES to your question, after the set period the war ends and that bar is the result But when I logged on I was in my home system, I simply read the news report and read how we won the war. The other war we were in we deliberately left and that message simply said the war has ended. No signs of the bar and no signs of the end position of that bar.

Influence levels are something i do not now understand. In a low population system we were regularly putting in combat bonds to the value of 1 million or more. we were not just fighting the war, we were doing missions to help. Our influence only went up by 4%. In a system with a population of just 5000, the bonds we put in would have seen a significant increase in the 'good old days' The missions we did, the assassination missions we did would most definitely have seen a significant rise in influence in those good old days'

Fighting in Conflict Zones is very much a hit or miss joke. It is unfair that they should be allowed to influence the BGS when they are still quite clearly, quite undeniably broke for some of us dedicated players. Beta testing should iron out most issue, going mainstream should see fine-tuning. The Cz's are not for our faction, fit for purpose. This is NOT sour grapes. We won our war and gained a station. It would be nice to chat with a developer but is that possible?

 

[ebbrell]

On the contrary, CZs have become alive. The coms chatter is engaging, the zones are now mapped to actual strategically significant locations, and the NPCs are aren't floating piñatas anymore. The NPCs are still guaranteed CRs but at least they put up a fight and give a mild sense of accomplishment.

The only issue I have is that it remains unclear whether completing CZ scenarios has any impact on the BGS. It did not in Beta, and it's difficult to test in Live.

Yeah, totally. Now they are fun and difficult.... nice
Payouts for killing Corvette looks a little love than before, but hay your not in there for money. You have a war to win

 

[CMDR Terrorfirma]

My experience is that the CZs are still BROKEN... you get kills on the emeby captain or the wing of Spec ops... and ... then.... nothing.. no more targets EVER show up to continue the batttle that you have not won nor lost. It is stupid. you have to abandon the CZ without finishing it

 

[glojo]

Yeah, totally. Now they are fun and difficult.... nice
Payouts for killing Corvette looks a little love than before, but hay your not in there for money. You have a war to win

Interesting as I have yet to meet up with a Corvette in a CONFLICT Zone (not resource site)

It might be possible that I did but in the heat of battle, I did not notice. OR... More likely, could it be that when fighting in an area owned by the Empire, we are more likely to see cutters?? Just me thinking aloud and YES.. I am sometimes fighting capital ships.

 

[Jmanis]

My experience is that the CZs are still BROKEN... you get kills on the emeby captain or the wing of Spec ops... and ... then.... nothing.. no more targets EVER show up to continue the batttle that you have not won nor lost. It is stupid. you have to abandon the CZ without finishing it

Do you mean no targets as in literally no other ships? Or just no mini objectives?

There is a bug where CZs don't have any ships spawn in them. I find logging out/in again while in the CZ fixes it, but haven't had a chance to test in anger.

 

[Factabulous]

My experience is that the CZs are still BROKEN... you get kills on the emeby captain or the wing of Spec ops... and ... then.... nothing.. no more targets EVER show up to continue the batttle that you have not won nor lost. It is stupid. you have to abandon the CZ without finishing it

Ever? Bold statement! How long did you wait? Low CZ in beta were over 20 minutes before they would refill - did you wait that long?

 

[glojo]

Ever? Bold statement! How long did you wait? Low CZ in beta were over 20 minutes before they would refill - did you wait that long?

I think the author might be guilty of possibly 'over exaggerating this issue' I would TOTALLY, 100% agree with that person if they had said "in my experience some......."

I doubt if they got anywhere near testing just a couple of Conflict Zones and once again, more information is needed. How many days into the war did this happen?

How many 'victories', 'close victories' did they experience before this issue arose?

For us, this got far more prolific on the last day of the conflict but again, I must repeat that in my own personal experience and with pictures to prove it, this part of the game is not anywhere near fit for purpose and to simply rectify just one issue is NOT good enough.

I gave up Beta testing years ago but what I cannot understand is did these issues show their ugly head during beta testing? If not then WHY NOT? If they did then why go with this update?

My concern about logging out of a CZ is it might have a detrimental effect on the balance of power. We all have opinions but I doubt many folks have factual information regarding this update?? (There's a challenge) Ooops just thought of something... Fire on a friendly ship and you will have problems.

On a serious note
Handing in bounties is now way easier than before this update and I am finding I am cashing in more and more of the things, so......... If ANY player, anywhere in the game hands in bounties for the small faction I am fighting, will it benefit them?

 

[Star Raider]

Hello all,

My experience in one new medium CZ with Spec Ops. That after destroying several Federal Corvettes then 1 of 4 Spec Ops ships resulted in all friendly and enemy ship displaying red in the Contact console.

 

[RaptorJesusss]

Spec ops are quite difficult but other than that he new CZs are fantastic.

 

[Mangal Oemie]

I agree. I think the only imbalance I have seen is:

• Your opponent gets spec ops, you get correspondents to protect --- this one is tough as the opponents spec ops will kill your guys quick, so you can actually lose if you're doing it solo and can't beat the pace of the spec ops
• Sometimes RNG can give Feds multiple Corvettes without giving your side something equivalent, so it helps to destroy them as quickly as possible

But they're great (as long as results count for the correct faction). My absolutely favorite is destroying the opponent's captain