It is time to rework Odyssey settlement battles.

[Gyfiawn Gryfudd]

With the introduction of the Scorpion and it being basically useless in an Odyssey settlement battle, it is time they rethink settlement battles.

The faction that "owns" the settlement should be the defender and the other faction the attacker.

The Defender should start inside the settlement which means the anti-air would only shoot at the Attacker. Since the Attacker can't drop off inside the settlement due to anti-air, the Attacker should be dropped off outside the settlement and have to fight their way in. You can even add additional defenses around the settlements like trenches, sandbags, pillboxes, etc.

If you sneak in and disable anti-air (or bomb the power station) then the Attacker starts dropping reinforcements closer and raining missiles (but of course would have to deal with Defender ships). Then tank and infantry fighting can happen out in the open on the edge of the settlement. Then when the Attacker gets into the settlement they win by depleting the other side or capturing AND holding all capture points. Defender wins by exhausting the Attacker reinforcements while still holding at least one capture point.

Settlements should change hands each day based on the greater number of victories at that location.

Only thing to work out is how to deploy resources and adjust your team's NPC priorities. Would need a diversified team to make sure you can take the settlement. Would need to be able to command the NPCs to focus on objectives in an order. Could even make the NPC loadout priorities and skills different based on government and allegiance type.

 

[[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_]

Settlement Conflict Zones are Quake-style arena shooter mini games at the moment aren't they?

Why aren't Conflict Zones front and centre of the Elite Dangerous community content, do we think?

Most of the streamer content I see seems to focus on the in-station on foot elements, or the exploratory/"look at this view" elements. Even the official streams seldom focus on CZ's.

 

[Ian Skippy]

The difference between being a game designer and being a dreamer.

 

[ebbrell]

I don't think the new scorpion is for shooting npcs, its for something else we haven't seen yet.

 

[Florenus]

Settlement Conflict Zones are Quake-style arena shooter mini games at the moment aren't they?

Exactly. Very disappointing really.

The Defender should start inside the settlement which means the anti-air would only shoot at the Attacker. Since the Attacker can't drop off inside the settlement due to anti-air, the Attacker should be dropped off outside the settlement and have to fight their way in. You can even add additional defenses around the settlements like trenches, sandbags, pillboxes, etc.

I think this would make a mess of things, actually. Everybody would end up running around everywhere, just like now.
I think defender reinforcements should be dropped off to inside the settlement, to the main capture point. Actually, I don't understand why every reinforcement starts in a dropship. Defenders could just respawn inside the main building. Maybe when you arrive, you arrive in a ship, but after you're killed it makes no difference. It would be actually more "realistic", as we might assume you were taken there and revived, instead of taking over some other body in the orbit.

It would be nice to have something that actually resembles a battle, not just simple chaotic arena shooter. It's just so meh.

 

[[Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_]

Exactly. Very disappointing really.


I think this would make a mess of things, actually. Everybody would end up running around everywhere, just like now.
I think defender reinforcements should be dropped off to inside the settlement, to the main capture point. Actually, I don't understand why every reinforcement starts in a dropship. Defenders could just respawn inside the main building. Maybe when you arrive, you arrive in a ship, but after you're killed it makes no difference. It would be actually more "realistic", as we might assume you were taken there and revived, instead of taking over some other body in the orbit.

It would be nice to have something that actually resembles a battle, not just simple chaotic arena shooter. It's just so meh.

Should we assume there's no appetite for arena shooter mini games then? Or is it the quality of the current implementation?

My take is the current mechanics just don't offer gameplay that's interesting enough ; the AI is clunky ; they gun play feels off ; the use of the ship shield functionality doesn't make sense and takes the fun out of the experience ; there's little to no integration with the rest of the game; opportunities for multiplayer are extremely limited (no cross play, multi crew is glitchy, the galaxy is huge).

It's a shame because this is what's I assume Frontier intended to be the main focus of the on foot DLC. Maybe they have just been squirrelling too long without properly understanding what players would enjoy, i.e. sat in a room smelling thier own farts for 2 years

Hopefully the experience and gameplay will improve dramatically in future.

 

[VR Golgot]

The faction that "owns" the settlement should be the defender and the other faction the attacker.

Seems like they’re working on something in that area:

the development team are hard at work on new features and mission types, such as settlement defence that I cannot wait to share more on.

 

[Gyfiawn Gryfudd]

Should we assume there's no appetite for arena shooter mini games then? Or is it the quality of the current implementation?

My take is the current mechanics just don't offer gameplay that's interesting enough ; the AI is clunky ; they gun play feels off ; the use of the ship shield functionality doesn't make sense and takes the fun out of the experience ; there's little to no integration with the rest of the game; opportunities for multiplayer are extremely limited (no cross play, multi crew is glitchy, the galaxy is huge).

It's a shame because this is what's I assume Frontier intended to be the main focus of the on foot DLC. Maybe they have just been squirrelling too long without properly understanding what players would enjoy, i.e. sat in a room smelling thier own farts for 2 years

Hopefully the experience and gameplay will improve dramatically in future.

Maybe the focus on combat is driven by numbers of what players do or maybe it was required and it is something that sucked up a ton of development time. Who knows.

It seems a lot of the community content is exploration and BGS which seems to get the least attention.

Hopefully exploration and mining get some combined Odyssey love at some point by adding in subsurface mining on planets that rewards you for finding a new planet out in the black full of metal/minerals.

I think it will overtime just like everything in the game has before.

 

[Scaletho]

With the introduction of the Scorpion and it being basically useless in an Odyssey settlement battle, it is time they rethink settlement battles.

The faction that "owns" the settlement should be the defender and the other faction the attacker.

The Defender should start inside the settlement which means the anti-air would only shoot at the Attacker. Since the Attacker can't drop off inside the settlement due to anti-air, the Attacker should be dropped off outside the settlement and have to fight their way in. You can even add additional defenses around the settlements like trenches, sandbags, pillboxes, etc.

If you sneak in and disable anti-air (or bomb the power station) then the Attacker starts dropping reinforcements closer and raining missiles (but of course would have to deal with Defender ships). Then tank and infantry fighting can happen out in the open on the edge of the settlement. Then when the Attacker gets into the settlement they win by depleting the other side or capturing AND holding all capture points. Defender wins by exhausting the Attacker reinforcements while still holding at least one capture point.

Settlements should change hands each day based on the greater number of victories at that location.

Only thing to work out is how to deploy resources and adjust your team's NPC priorities. Would need a diversified team to make sure you can take the settlement. Would need to be able to command the NPCs to focus on objectives in an order. Could even make the NPC loadout priorities and skills different based on government and allegiance type.

Frontier will do no rework. No change of course. They will sail the broken Odyssey ship until the end.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Frontier will do no rework. No change of course. They will sail the broken Odyssey ship until the end.

Update 9 was just released

 

[Frop]

Frontier will do no rework. No change of course. They will sail the broken Odyssey ship until the end.

And we will have you to moan incessantly about it.

 

[Danieros]

I do hope someday they work like this as it makes a lot more sense than having a third-party (Frontline solutions) owning all the AA and shooting at both sides that break the gentlemen's agreement of no ship firing on dropships/troops

 

[Krieger]

Frontier will do no rework. No change of course. They will sail the broken Odyssey ship until the end.

They will only do minimal rework and mostly bug fixing to get a new feature working at a minimally acceptable level. If players don't play the new content enough they will not develop it any further. Years ago a lead designer said so literally. It makes sense from a commercial point of view. In the long run it destroys the players' respect for the company though.

 

[the100thmonkey]

The difference between being a game designer and being a dreamer.

Sure, but game design has moved on since Unreal Tournament 2004!

I find the ground CZs to be fun, but I do think they could be more elaborate. What the OP describes sounds very similar to the rush or breakthrough gamemodes from the Battlefield series. If areas could be recaptured by the defending team, you're talking about conquest (and conquest assault). This is just from one game series.

 

[Mogen Teras]

I don't think wishing for CZs to be better is unreasonable, considering what most first person shooters have offered for the last decade. The current model for Odyssey is literally just a battle of attrition and nothing else; just whoever kills the others reinforcement faster. There's no real nuance to it besides capping points, and even then you don't need to cap more than 2 points as a player since it's so easy to massacre the enemy numbers.

the design of Odyssey ground CZs are straight out of the early 2000's imho.

 

[lysan]

Settlement battles are CQC on foot, and should be labeled as such, we need a real combat design for the background simulation, all the "flags" need to be removed and a better more realistic mechanics where you win by getting the upper hand by taking the Power station/ control center/ landing pads/ maybe place a commander somewhere that is heavily defended you need to take down.

 

[Alpha087]

Can we also rework weapon balance while we're at it? Seriously, who thought it made sense for a weapons manufacturer to design an assault rifle or SMG that requires the paired use of a competitor manufacturer's weapon before you're actually able to kill anything? Or how about a "sniper rifle" with a projectile speed of a tennis ball launcher?

 

[Vedmo]

I would like it if both sides formed facing lines at 100 meters then exchanged volleys until out of ammo, then those remaining charge each other and finish it with sidearms and melee combat.

 

[TScal12]

Settlement battles are CQC on foot, and should be labeled as such, we need a real combat design for the background simulation, all the "flags" need to be removed and a better more realistic mechanics where you win by getting the upper hand by taking the Power station/ control center/ landing pads/ maybe place a commander somewhere that is heavily defended you need to take down.

YES YES! Check out my suggestion thread a few months back, I couldn't agree more! https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/conflict-zones-revamp-idea.580511/

 

[TScal12]

Can we also rework weapon balance while we're at it? Seriously, who thought it made sense for a weapons manufacturer to design an assault rifle or SMG that requires the paired use of a competitor manufacturer's weapon before you're actually able to kill anything? Or how about a "sniper rifle" with a projectile speed of a tennis ball launcher?

How dare you speak common sense! Haha absolutely right, couldn't agree more, its not difficult at all, but tedious design for no reason. Fighting people should not be like fighting ships. Haha they plagiarized from their own game xD