Conflict Zones Ideas

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

CZs are overdue an overhaul, but I imagine that'd be a fair amount of work.

But I do have a couple of ideas for CZs anyway.

Selecting Sides
The current "drop in, select a side" mechanic is really odd.
I would like to propose that CZ side selection is actually done using the Contacts Menu on the station services.
You get to see the current conflicts between local factions, and select 1, and only 1 to side with. Even if there are two or more wars going on.
This may seem odd, but it's more or less essential to my idea, later on.

Once selected, all relevant ships belonging to the opposing factions are declared as "Enemy" and are red. Allied ships show as, well, Allied, and green.
Ships not involved in the war are normal, and show as either clean or wanted.

It's not advisable to side against the faction that currently owns the station you are docked in. But, that said, it and security will not fire upon you, unless you are scanned.
(Don't get scanned on the way out!)

Once you select a side, the opposing side will no longer offer missions.

This now turns the entire system in to a conflict zone.
Conflict Zones can still exist within the system as normal, the only difference being, when you drop in, you'll already be on the correct side, and they are no longer listed as Lawless.

You can claim Combat Bonds from killing any ship labelled as Enemy, anywhere in the system, it is perfectly legal to kill enemy ships. Attacking friendly ships is still a crime, and punished accordingly.

If you are not part of the war, and attack someone who is, it's still class as Assault.
This is to prevent CMDRs from attacking war ships without punishment.

Dynamic Skirmishes
Using the system above, anywhere in the system is a potential conflict zone.
When attacking an enemy ship, they may call in reinforcements, and when being attacked, reinforcements from your side will come to aid. This means both sides are constantly calling in reinforcements.

Eventually, both sides will end up in a large skirmish, much like a normal CZ.
Once all the enemies are wiped out, allied ships will begin departing and the skirmish will end.
In systems at war, USSs can appear called "Skirmishes" which are basically more CZs, that can come to and end.
Higher ranking NPC's are more likely to receive reinforcements than low ranking, so taking them out quickly is the best way to end a skirmish.

This means, literally anywhere can break out in to a skirmish, planet surfaces, stations, nav beacons, deep space, rings, anywhere. And the best bit, it's entirely dynamic.


Conflict Around Stations and Surface Ports
This is a tough one, due to station guns being extremely OP to deal with crime.
But, fighting around a station would be brilliant!
So, my suggestion is, partially disable the defences, so they will respond to crime, but not the conflict. This includes both sides conflict zone ships damaging the station (because stray shots will happen by all parties).
Any conflict zone ships firing on non-conflict zone ships, and visa versa, will be dealt with by station guns.
Conflict Zone ships can not request docking, or enter the dock or block any landing pads or letterbox.
The lore can state that tracking is too difficult, and the chances of friendly fire are too high in the conflict zones around stations.

Thoughts?

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[DocLooshkin]

... and again.

Sounds good, all round - but especially if we can get these spontaneous Conflict Zones to appear for other players subsequently entering the system's SuperCruise instance. If older CZs can be made to disappear after a time, we could end up with lots of CZs, all at the places where interdictions "naturally" occur, giving a much more plausible and visible war. In some cases, we'd presumably get just one or two giant CZs next to stations, each with multiple instances containing player combatants, raising the challenge for the more skilled PvP players.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

... and again.

Sounds good, all round - but especially if we can get these spontaneous Conflict Zones to appear for other players subsequently entering the system's SuperCruise instance. If older CZs can be made to disappear after a time, we could end up with lots of CZs, all at the places where interdictions "naturally" occur, giving a much more plausible and visible war. In some cases, we'd presumably get just one or two giant CZs next to stations, each with multiple instances containing player combatants, raising the challenge for the more skilled PvP players.

It would be excellent if the dynamic CZs were visible from supercruise. I'm not sure that's within the scope of the game (Instancing and all). But it would be cool.

I just think it would simply be epic, if the following happened dynamically;

I interdict a single enemy warship for my massacre mission, no CZs nearby, just a lone ship.
When I drop down, and attack, he a few calls reinforcements.
They arrive and it's now 4 vs 1.
As soon as I take a few good hits, my ship instead of reporting the crime, reports hostilities, and calls in reinforcements (based on my combat rank and reputation with the faction- can be turned off).
Now it's 4 vs 5, or so.
More pew pew ensues, and the eneny summon more reinforcements.
And then so do we.
And so on.

Eventually, with it being around 15vs15 (or whatever the limit is).
The enemy side has had enough and summons a Majestic Class Interdictor.

Then our faction summon a Farragut.



I'd die of happiness if that was in the game. Lol

(I do love a good pew pew!)

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[kingbankai]

I would like to have a more accurate telling of low and high intensity. I am sick of dropping into lows and finding Gunships, Clippers, and Cutters everywhere.

 

[SushiCW]

Yes please! This all sounds excellent. Good 3.0 material right here!

 

[SSG HALO]

would love to see the conflict zones moved into the asteroid belts and rings. an ice ring battle would be epic to say the least. plus it provides a bit of tactics to the battle.

 

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

I could definitely see something like this being more entertaining than the 'arenas' full of never-ending enemies that keep popping up left and right.

It's actually one of the worst battle mechanics in this game, and something I avoid because it's just NOT feasible to stay in a conflict zone as an active combatant for very long.


In a system at war, I think it would be more common to see interdictions going on left and right by both factions. Not just against players, but something you can spot going on around you. With 'engagements' being essentially like a USS. Something that has a few fighting ships, maybe reinforcements on the way, maybe not.

But War is more than just killing the enemy. Wars are fought over objectives.

Perhaps what is needed is objective points in the system, and convoys.


Essentially, when a war starts, the aggressor faction looks to take control of something. Such as a station or surface installation. An attack on this location would be known for the rest of my post as a 'flashpoint'.

A flashpoint is triggered when the aggressor faction makes their move on a facility. If that facility is a station, you can 'in fluff', say that an agent sabotaged the station, causing its weapons to fail. When that happens, the aggressor faction begins sending 'assault ships' and 'troop transports' to try and take the station. At the same time, the defending faction calls in reinforcements to guard the station.

In the system as a whole, ships from each faction show up around the system and make runs on the location of the flash point. As they do this, ships with an AI 'job' called 'interceptor' start interdicting as much as possible, with additional 'reinforcement' ripples coming off those skirmishes.

Back at the Flashpoint, ships that successfully made the run enter the instance around the station and begin trying to support their side. 'Assault ships' attack any defenders they see, while 'troop transports' try to make a run on the station without being damaged too much or destroyed.


In order to prevent this from turning into just a modified battle arena like CZs are now, the assaults occur in 'waves', and there are 'points' assigned to both the supercruise instance of the system, and the flashpoint instance. Points are assigned into 'agressor' and 'defender' categories, and trickle down towards the flash point.

It would be organized as such.

Every hour or two, or four, or six... whatever --

Supercruise instance gets say 1000 aggressor and defender points. The amount of points may later be determined by some kind of value taken from faction and system stats to determine who starts with what. AKA: Total Supplies. Mind you, players CANNOT see these values.

When a faction spawns a ship, a point goes into 'play'. These points only go into play while there is a player active in the instance. If a ship with a point reaches the Flashpoint, the point (and ship) are transferred to the flash point. If a player is not active in the instance, the LAST KNOWN RATE of point flow is used. More on this in a moment.

At the flashpoint, the points translate down to active available ships that come out of jump. Scoring is a little like a soccer/football match. Run the troop transport into the docking area of the destination, the point the ship was worth is added to a victory counter. If the transport is destroyed, no point for the counter, and the point used on the ship is lost. If the transport decides to bug out, the point remains in play, but does not score. If destroy an assault ship, a point is lost.

Victory for the aggressor comes if enough victory points are accrued to the attack wave. That is to say: 'Troops overrun the station'. However, it's not a simple counter, it's ratio-based. Essentially, every time a 'wave' is spawned and points are reset, an assessment is made. If the number of victory points exceeds a ratio with the defender's total points, the attack is 'successful'. If is not, then the attack is 'repelled'. As a note, if the defender's points are depleted, their fleet is effectively destroyed for that wave. Outside of player interference, that means the aggressors should have a free run to board the station. Instantly getting enough points to take the station.

The defender can thus defend by one of two methods.
1: kill all the transports only or repel them from boarding the station. Such that the aggressors score no points.
2: Deplete the aggressor's point pool (Kill everything/destroy their fleet).

The winner of the fight each 'wave' interval accrues a campaign point for one faction or the other. At the end of the 'war' state period, however long that is, the campaign points are tallied, and the winner is awarded what they were attacking.

When a player is involved, there are only two differences. First: A player is ALWAYS considered an 'assault ship' if they join the attackers, and are just a 'defender' if they join the defense. They are NEVER a troop transport unless they have passenger cabins (economy class) and specifically pick up 'troops' from the 'crew lounge' of an aggressor owned station. To 'score', the player-owned ship must enter the mail slot of a full station and be inside for thirty seconds. Or if the station is an outpost or surface location, must survive in close proximity long enough for the 'troops' to disembark.

Second, if the player activities deplete BOTH faction's point counts to zero, without a score (IE, the players both open and limited play make the location VERY contested), then the victory points are added to attacking player kills, and tallied against defending player kills.

To help balance things, player scored points are weighted. Open play is worth a full point for player-earned victory points, and player-earned kills. Solo and limited group are worth far less, maybe 1/10th to make up for not having to risk PVP.


Next, concerning players taking sides. A player is considered unsided until one of two actions occurs. No menu selections. Just actual actions.
1: The player picks up aggressor troops.
The moment the player picks up troops, their intent is clear. And they will be hunted like any other troop transport and show up as 'HOSTILE' in the system for the other faction and those allied with it.
2: The player both targets AND fires on a faction craft. Accidental shots happen, and a shot is only considered hostile in this case if the ship is targeted.

Until this occurs, a player is considered a neutral party by both factions. They may be interdicted and scanned, but will not be fired upon.
However, once the player picks a side, the choice STICKS. It can be made to either stick until the 'wave' is over, or for more consequential action, for the duration of the system being in a WAR state.


Also, to help facilitate players participating in WARS more, once a player joins a side, combat expenses are paid by the faction you joined. Examples: If you rearm at your faction station, you pay nothing for fuel, repairs, and ammo. If you are destroyed, the faction reimburses your ship. (But as a caveat, your ship is ONLY reimbursed if you are killed by a member of the enemy faction.)


Turncoat: Additionally, just as you can join a side, you can also betray them. If you target and attack a ship from the side you 'joined', you will be warned and penalized based on the severity of your action. If you destroy the ship, you won't just be marked as an enemy, you'll be marked TRAITOR. And you will ALWAYS be number one priority of every attacking ship. (People hate traitors, go figure. Imagine how the security services treat you now when you accidentally zap a friendly in an extraction zone. Now amp that up to a swarm of heavy warships and wet yourself right properly.) However, if the opposing faction has a ship IN the instance and close enough to see you do this, you'll swap friendly factions, earning 'defector' status with them. However, you may only flipflop ONCE. If you betray both sides, you'll not only be marked traitor with both sides, you'll tank your faction status with both of them instantly. Your status will remain until the end of the war.

War Criminal: If you pick a side, and choose to go attack neutrals as a pirate in-system, you will earn a SPECIAL kind of bounty called 'War Criminal'. This nifty little universal bounty is sought after by EVERYONE. Essentially, the Elite version of the Payday II difficulty DEATHWISH. Not only does every bounty hunter in the galaxy want to boil you up, but regular ships who spot you in the instance won't even wait for you to open hostilities to scream for reinforcements. Stations will reject or your docking request unless they have a black market, and generally, you will have a very, VERY Bad Time. Don't do it. It's not just not nice, it's mean. =p

Anyway...

To keep point systems flowing when players aren't in instances. The supercruise instance and the flashpoint instance each track the rate points were moving when a player was active. If 10 points an hour were making it to the flashpoint when the last player leaves the system, logs out, or is otherwise not holding an instance open. Then BGS will take over and assume that 10 points continue to move per hour into the flashpoint. In the flashpoint, the last active rate of success and kills are tracked and compared to how many points entered. So, if the rate was 3 'victory points' per 10 aggressor points entering the flash point. Then without further player intervention, the rate will stick to 3 points per hour. Tweaks to how this works can be thought of for balance and fairness. But essentially, the universe is allowed to 'evolve' with only minimum player input. The player doesn't even need to open fire. They just need to stick around long enough for the AI to establish a rate. (Which with AI, should probably end up being a stalemate).


These are my thoughts.

Mind you, this was cobbled together in an hour. But it's ideas for the idea pile.