We are winning, the tide has turned HIP 23716

Weps

Weps
shevek said:
The problem I see with just having a progess bar that doesn’t reset is that after 6 weeks we are going to have dozens maybe a 100 systems which show progress and the average player is going to look at the map and not know which is the big effort and which have very little support and a waste of time.

With it resetting each week it should be clearer where the action is that week to help out.
Click to expand...
I don't really see why that would be a bigger problem than it currently is...

Do you mean from a UI perspective? Then it would be the same as now. Players currently have to go through each system to check the progress, or go out-of-game to forums, Reddit, Discord etc. and see which system is advertised the most (currently HIP 23716). With effort spread over several systems, they would still have to check each one, or go out-of-game to read about whichever currently needs support the most. Practically the same.

Do you mean from a player choice perspective? Yes, the decision is in the hands of the player, but I don't think it's that cryptic... The players are fairly smart - let's give them some credit here... You look at a system, it's at 50% and has one more week to go, you know it's a goner. You look at another one and it's at 80% with 2 more weeks to go - that's the one to push and prevent the effort from being lost.
 

Mr Lindsay

M
shevek said:
The problem I see with just having a progess bar that doesn’t reset is that after 6 weeks we are going to have dozens maybe a 100 systems which show progress and the average player is going to look at the map and not know which is the big effort and which have very little support and a waste of time.

With it resetting each week it should be clearer where the action is that week to help out.
Click to expand...
With resetting each week:
Thursday - Don't bother. No-one has any idea where to go.
Friday - The bars will have noticeably moved in the one or two systems targeted by big player groups. Join in there or don't bother.
Saturday and Sunday - Fun.
Monday to Wednesday - Don't bother. Maybe one of the systems is near completion and you can do a bit there, but it's probably not worth it unless it's really close, and there's definitely no point going anywhere else.

Spreading it out over multiple-weeks mean players that play less frequently or during weekdays can feel like they are contributing. There will be the same issues at the start and the end of each cycle, but there will be a much bigger lump of contiguous time where players are able to meaningfully contribute.

(EDIT: Or, at least, to FEEL as if they are meaningfully contributing. Which as far as player engagement is concerned is far more important than whether we actually are or not.)
 
Last edited:

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
Cmdr Kanonfoddar said:
Why have anything like a "progress bar" at all?
aren't the burning stations full of people begging to be rescued enough to know how we're going there?
Click to expand...
No, last week we pushed the Thargoids away from Wakata station and a few other places which gave the impression that the battle for the system was going in our favour. the progress bar said otherwise however and we all know the result.
 

Nuts0

N
Felix DiCestria said:
No, last week we pushed the Thargoids away from Wakata station and a few other places which gave the impression that the battle for the system was going in our favour. the progress bar said otherwise however and we all know the result.
Click to expand...
Wolf and Farkas going from "under attack" to "critically damaged" is not a progress, it is a downgrade. Next state is abandonned, which Wakata is now due by the end of next cycle if we don't win this week or the next, then it's game over in hip 23176.
 

shevek

S
Weps said:
I don't really see why that would be a bigger problem than it currently is...

Do you mean from a UI perspective? Then it would be the same as now. Players currently have to go through each system to check the progress, or go out-of-game to forums, Reddit, Discord etc. and see which system is advertised the most (currently HIP 23716). With effort spread over several systems, they would still have to check each one, or go out-of-game to read about whichever currently needs support the most. Practically the same.

Do you mean from a player choice perspective? Yes, the decision is in the hands of the player, but I don't think it's that cryptic... The players are fairly smart - let's give them some credit here... You look at a system, it's at 50% and has one more week to go, you know it's a goner. You look at another one and it's at 80% with 2 more weeks to go - that's the one to push and prevent the effort from being lost.
Click to expand...
It’s mostly a UI thing, it’ll get messy real soon.

With either type of bar, if we have to fix the stations afterwards there may be little point to saving the system after first week anyway.
 

Rainbro

Rainbro
Cmdr Kanonfoddar said:
Why have anything like a "progress bar" at all?
aren't the burning stations full of people begging to be rescued enough to know how we're going there?
Click to expand...
I mean, we've evacuated some systems many times over with no sign of them stopping. It'd be cool to have it more in-game, but I'll take a progress bar over nothing.
 

terasz

terasz
hydra_join.png
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
Bigmaec said:
The Thargs are no players tho, you can't grind down their morale. Against players in BGS you very much can.
Click to expand...
You also can't have a guy hit another system to distract them while their main forces are elsewhere, or try another system solo where there's less traffic. Fighting literally anywhere other than the system of interest is pointless in the thargoid war since it just gets deleted, but can be highly effective in a BGS war or powerplay undermining.
 

Episparh

Episparh
Just do not forget that current FDev cooking is that coordinated effort of multiple specialized groups will be able to defend one of few dozens invaded systems.
I simply do not see how the current effort will last long especially when it requires community level focus and slow progression from smaller groups is discouraged from the reset mechanics.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
Episparh said:
Just do not forget that current FDev cooking is that coordinated effort of multiple specialized groups will be able to defend one of few dozens invaded systems.
I simply do not see how the current effort will last long especially when it requires community level focus and slow progression from smaller groups is discouraged from the reset mechanics.
Click to expand...
This.
 

Moirai

M
GloatingSwine said:
Peak interest was always going to be when it was the New Shiny.

Which is why it would be better to make the requirement too easy at first and then tune it up, rather than make it too hard and tune it down, because all the people who think "might as well not bother" will drive engagement down faster than natural drop off.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Start low, get players involved and establish a level of engagement with the scenario, and then start raising the challenge based on the response to draw people into the conflict.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Rainbro said:
Eh, if this fails then Frontier will just lower the requirements again and we'll get it for sure next week. A nice little race to the bottom they've got here with these resets, if only there was a better way...
Click to expand...
Well you already have one in the BGS IIRC- influence decay and rep 'bounce' (from not blowing them up and you slowly go from hostile to a bit angry with you).

So rather than a hard reset, its a tug of war that if you leave alone will pull back to the Goids, but if you keep at it will force Goids to retreat. You could even weight each system like Powerplay, and the difficulty of winning being based on local system factors (population, distance etc).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom