11-19-2018, 03:07 PM
Oh look here boys and girls, it's that same thread that comes up several times a year!
This time though, we have more things to discuss thanks to the recent change made to PoBs. In case you're not familiar with the new changes, let me give you a basic summary. Base's have been given a vastly higher health value, at the cost of reducing their regen rate to 10% of the original value - aka, 6000 per 20 seconds, rather than 60000. On the surface this looks like a good change, as it makes sieges more tactical, and battles are no longer decided by who has the most players on at a single time. But as many people who attended the Tau-29 event would attest, it's not that simple.
The main problem, in my eyes, is how this hasn't really innovated player base sieges but rather reinforced the old system (of which, in my experience, almost everyone will unanimously agree is terrible and flawed to no end). Instead of get 8 people to log and sit there in battleships for an hour, it's now get three people to sit there for three days shooting this static brick in space. In many ways, it is worse the PoB death timer now means pretty much nothing as in the grand scheme of things one hour isn't going to really affect the PoB.
The old system was flawed as can be, and this new system only makes it worse. Another issue is new PoBs. When a PoB is deployed it has 5% of it's total health. If it is regening all day, it still wont get close to it's maximum, leaving it very easy to siege by even one or two battleships. That, combined with that fact it wouldn't take very long, allows the base to be dead while the defenders are a sleep (which, lest I'm mistaken, was one of the things meant to be changed by this new mechanic - stop sieges happening while the defenders are asleep).
Using the example of the the Kepler base from yesterday. From what I can see from my various chats, people were supplying that base for over 14 hours, and yet the attackers killed it while everyone was asleep within the space of two hours with three battleships.
I am greatly of the opinion these mechanics need to change, but I'll be honest and say that I have no idea what I think should replace them. They are bad and there is room for improvement, but I could not tell you what improvement that is. That's why I would like everyone else to tell me what they think would work - and have a good-natured and completely calm discussion about this.
The PoB rework that I have been working on for months and months is in it's last stages of work, and that is why I am asking this question. The devs that have collaborated with me on this were not informed prior because I am asking this as a member. We are in a position to integrate a wide range of different ideas so I am looking for something a good portion of the community can unanimously agree on for a new mechanic. If we can get that, and the devs approve, we can integrate it into the new plugin.
tl;dr - The PoB Siege mechanics need to change in my opinion and I would like people to suggest new ideas / new systems for handling it.
This time though, we have more things to discuss thanks to the recent change made to PoBs. In case you're not familiar with the new changes, let me give you a basic summary. Base's have been given a vastly higher health value, at the cost of reducing their regen rate to 10% of the original value - aka, 6000 per 20 seconds, rather than 60000. On the surface this looks like a good change, as it makes sieges more tactical, and battles are no longer decided by who has the most players on at a single time. But as many people who attended the Tau-29 event would attest, it's not that simple.
The main problem, in my eyes, is how this hasn't really innovated player base sieges but rather reinforced the old system (of which, in my experience, almost everyone will unanimously agree is terrible and flawed to no end). Instead of get 8 people to log and sit there in battleships for an hour, it's now get three people to sit there for three days shooting this static brick in space. In many ways, it is worse the PoB death timer now means pretty much nothing as in the grand scheme of things one hour isn't going to really affect the PoB.
The old system was flawed as can be, and this new system only makes it worse. Another issue is new PoBs. When a PoB is deployed it has 5% of it's total health. If it is regening all day, it still wont get close to it's maximum, leaving it very easy to siege by even one or two battleships. That, combined with that fact it wouldn't take very long, allows the base to be dead while the defenders are a sleep (which, lest I'm mistaken, was one of the things meant to be changed by this new mechanic - stop sieges happening while the defenders are asleep).
Using the example of the the Kepler base from yesterday. From what I can see from my various chats, people were supplying that base for over 14 hours, and yet the attackers killed it while everyone was asleep within the space of two hours with three battleships.
I am greatly of the opinion these mechanics need to change, but I'll be honest and say that I have no idea what I think should replace them. They are bad and there is room for improvement, but I could not tell you what improvement that is. That's why I would like everyone else to tell me what they think would work - and have a good-natured and completely calm discussion about this.
The PoB rework that I have been working on for months and months is in it's last stages of work, and that is why I am asking this question. The devs that have collaborated with me on this were not informed prior because I am asking this as a member. We are in a position to integrate a wide range of different ideas so I am looking for something a good portion of the community can unanimously agree on for a new mechanic. If we can get that, and the devs approve, we can integrate it into the new plugin.
tl;dr - The PoB Siege mechanics need to change in my opinion and I would like people to suggest new ideas / new systems for handling it.