Ok, so with Dust514, all Game Modes were your typical Lobby Shooter battles. I am sincerely hoping that this dies with Dust (so to speak, not saying that Dust is dead/dying). I am not saying that Legion should have no Lobby Shooter style battles, just that they shouldn't be the sole source of FPS gameplay.
IMHO, when a player logs into Legion, they should "wake up" in a Barracks somewhere where they can outfit themselves before heading out to explore New Eden. The only truly Lobby Shooter style battles that should exist in Legion should be what we would recognize as pubs, though I believe there should be a twist on how they are.
Alaika Arbosa wrote:This is what the pubs are. We are the gladiators in some perverse Gallente Cable TV Show. Add Camera Drones to the battlefield and let combatants destroy them (no benefit in any way aside from a pretty explosion) only to have them be replaced by more. Let the viewers of the TV show select one of 6-8 feeds (each represented in game by Camera Drones).
Throw in some cheesy advertising from the New Eden sponsors and give the beginning and end of each match some overdone parody of ESPN theme music.
I'd probably die laughing every time I watched a match.
Original Post^^That is what pubs should be, precisely that.
FW and PC should both be Open World options where you can actually scout out the territory, plan an assault and then enact your plan. Defenders would be able to have their own defenses set up and attackers could bring as large (or small) of a force as they wanted to.
Setting up pubs in this way allows for you to give concrete penalties for leaving matches and a clear "You're the winning team on this game show, your team wins the prize! The losing team gets the consolation prize behind door #2 (which is drastically less than the winning teams prize)". In addition to this, it also allows limits to be placed on the gear that can be used in said pubs that make sense within context. Players would sign up for the Arena Battles and then would be recruited by either NPC or PC Corporate sponsors. They would make Isk from their endorsements as well as from the prize money that would come from victory in the FTL Broadcast bloodsport.
This would also provide for a way to create competitive tournament leagues to sate the e-sports crowd.
Let's face it, FW and PC aren't good places for a structured bracket style tournament, especially if they are to have a connected effect with New Eden at large. It makes no sense to utilize extremist militia battlegrounds or the unending struggle to control this continent or that planet for what boils down to an arena competition. This isn't to say that those who participate in the "Gallente Gladiators" TV Show cannot participate in FW or PC, just that they shouldn't be the realm dedicated to the e-sports aspect of Legion.
This is also assuming that Legion will be attempting to be the same sort of competitive e-sport that Dust was allegedly trying to be.