I agree. I think War Barges should eventually become an asset that EVE players can interact with in various (and sometimes splodey) ways. However there is a need for a workable system in Dust to properly fix PC, and it is more important that we worry about making that work before linking it to EVE directly. The key of course is to make sure that the system is actually capable of being worked into EVE integration, even if the actual implementation is later down the road.

And doing it separate is the wrong way to do it. If you make it a separate system from the start and then later try to cobble it together with something else later on down the road, you will only doom yourself to failure or lots of hardships. This is the reason that sooo many things in both EVE and DUST are full of bugs and problems. They never had the foresight to look at how things would be implemented later and just kicked that can further down the road for someone else to deal with. That is WRONG! Make the ties ins now, or at least make placeholders for the ties ins now. If not, then you are doing it wrong.

But that is all besides the point. The real point is that DUST is slowing migrating AWAY from EVE to make room for Legion which will be the "real" FPS for the EVE universe going forward unfortunately.

I'll use an example from my work. I work in Civil Engineering and we do a lot of residential design work, so designing water supply lines is pretty common. It's also common to build residential developments in phases, rather than all at once. So what happens is that you'll build the water pipe running into Phase 1, and you'll build Phase 1. However we know where Phase 2 is and where the water line for Phase 2 will be. So we'll construct what is commondly reffered to as a "stub" coming off of the Phase 1 water line. It's short, maybe 2-4 feet, and it just has a cap on the end. It doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't connect to anything. However, what that allows us to do when we construct Phase 2, is we can then easily connect to that stub, rather than trying to tap into the existing line after the fact, tearing up roads, ect.

It's much easier, faster, and less expensive to do it this way because 1. Its better to build in phases due to resource allocation and profitability, and 2. By planning ahead and knowing *where* you're going to connect Phase 2 to Phase 1, you can install this stub which can very easily be tapped into rather that making a mess trying to connect to the existing pipe after the fact.

The tl;dr of what I'm getting at is, it's fine to build the game in phases, as long you plan ahead and know how later phases will connect to earlier phases. That way you can just latch the EVE part onto whatever "stub" you've designed and the whole process is very smooth and efficient. So it's fine if there isn't a War Barge EVE connection right away, as long as they have a pretty solid idea of how to impliment it at a later time.

To be fair though, I dislike the existence of the Warbarge Strikes in FacWar. I think they should be a Pub Only mechanic.

This. I was under the impression that the ability to drop orbitals without an Eve pilot was an unintended glitch. Regardless of whether it was truly a mistake or not, it should go back to the way it was.

The more reasons for dust bunnies to interact with capsuleers the better.

I just want to confirm the sentinment in these last few pages. The Warbarge is not just a "PC" gameplay feature. It is meant to be the foundation, or hub of operations. The first foundation is the infrastructure to build on further. We have talked about warbarges existing in space, for eve to kill, and installations that exist in 3d on planets, that could be connected to PI as well. These have fallen through because of the intense complexity of such a feature.

I will post a Warbarge feedback thread imminently where we can discuss that outside of the general Roadmap 2015.

mainly cloud hosting of battleservers

I just want to confirm the sentinment in these last few pages. The Warbarge is not just a "PC" gameplay feature. It is meant to be the foundation, or hub of operations. The first foundation is the infrastructure to build on further. We have talked about warbarges existing in space, for eve to kill, and installations that exist in 3d on planets, that could be connected to PI as well. These have fallen through because of the intense complexity of such a feature.

I will post a Warbarge feedback thread imminently where we can discuss that outside of the general Roadmap 2015.

very curious - what it means?

very curious - what it means?

very curious - what it means?

I'm curious about how that works as well.

....and preparation of increased salvage, and salvage based rewards in all ToW (theatres of war, PC, FW and Pub).

A little update on the roadmap.

We have been arranging some features, as gameplay was deprioritized for the sake of infrastructure development, mainly cloud hosting of battleservers and preparation of increased salvage, and salvage based rewards in all ToW (theatres of war, PC, FW and Pub).

We have not sat idly, however, and have created a boatload of content, but as that is not "development", it is not demonstrated on the roadmap.

We have been arranging some features, as gameplay was deprioritized for the sake of infrastructure development

I would like to propose a Planetary Conquest winning condition revamp to make Clones a secondary wining condition rather than the primary winning condition as they are in PC now. This is based on Aero Yassavi's well known proposal for Multi Stage Faction Warfare Battles.


Multi Stage Approach:

- Phase 1 (Beachhead):
Modified Ambush match to take a beachhead. 15 minute notification to the defenders (No timer). 8 v 8 battle, with 50 clones available to the attackers and 70 available to the defenders. The attacking Warbarge drops a CRU from orbit which provides 50 clones for the attackers to take a Beachhead in the district. After 5 minutes the Warbarge drops a Field Command Center (FCC) (Supply Depot art asset). The Attackers must hack the FCC to activate it, and protect it for 3 minutes until it comes fully online. When the FCC comes fully online it activates a powerful shield (attackers red line), begins to jam the Districts defense radar and broadcasting a homing signal, so that the attackers can safely bring in their MCC. This starts the timer for the next phase. The defenders can win by destroying the FCC, cloning the attackers, or by hacking/destroying the CRU and destroying all Uplinks to deny the attackers access to the District (drive them off the beach).


- Phase 2 (Take down the Defense Network):
If the Attackers win the Beachhead, then after a timer there will be a Domination style match, where the attackers are trying to take out the defender's District Defense Network. 16 v 16 with 180 clones. Only the Attackers have an MCC. The defenders hold the point at the start of the match, and the Null cannons fire at the attacker's MCC as long as the Defenders control the point. When the Attackers hack the objective the Null cannons stop firing and after 5 minutes the virus will take out the District Defense Network. So attackers need to hold the point for 5 minutes to win. Defenders need to destroy the attacker's MCC to win. If the attackers win, a timer for Phase 3 begins. If the defenders win the match is followed by a 16 v 16 Ambush match 5 minutes later where the defenders have to drive out the last holdouts from the attacking force. If the attackers win the Ambush match, then it spawns a new Domination match after 5 minutes.

- Phase 3 (Final Push):
Once the District Defense Network is down, control of the Null cannons revert to the local terminals, and the Defenders have to stage from an MCC. So you have a standard Skirmish match. If the attackers win they get the District. If the Defenders win, they can reboot their District Defense Network, and 5 minutes later a Phase 2 Domination match begins.

- Summery:
To take a district you must win an Ambush, timer, Domination, timer, Skirmish.
To defend a district you must drive them back in revers order and win the final Ambush.
Battle progression happens over 3 days. First Ambush is immediate, then Dom after a timber, then Skirm after a timber.
There is only 5 minutes between battles when the Defenders win and the progression goes back a step. The timer only comes into play when the attackers have pushed the attack into the next phase.

- Narrative:
To take a district you have to win a Beachhead, Take down the District Defense Computer, and Push the defenders out of the District.


MCC Attrition:

The Attackers need an MCC for Phase 2 and Phase 3. If the Attackers lose Phase 2 or Phase 3 they lose a Warbarge, but as long as they have a replacement Warbarge, and have not been pushed off the Beachhead, they can continue to press the attack. However, if they run out of MCC's the attack is over.

Defenders only need 1 MCC to defend a district as it is only used in Phase 3, and if they lose Phase 3 they lose the district. If the Defenders do not have an MCC the Attackers capture the District when they win Phase 2.

A player owned MCC carries up to 180 clones (as apposed to 150 for the MCC used in Public matches) as participants in Planetary Conquest are generally more efficient at killing clones, and we don't want cloning to be the primary strategy for wining Phase 2 and Phase 3 matches.

If there are less than 180 clones remaining on the Warbarge, or in the District, then the MCC will hold all remaining clones.

When an MCC blows up all remaining clones are destroyed, but biomass may be salvageable.


Clone Attrition:

While clone attrition would not be the primary wining condition of PC matches anymore, if the attackers or defenders do run out of clones, they lose.

Clone Attrition will become a factor if a district is not adequately stocked with clones, or if both the attackers and defenders are winning battles and it goes back and forth a few time, resulting in more than the minimum 3 matches required to take a district.

Each match uses a limited amount of clones, but those clones come out of the total clone count for the District. Surviving clones are returned to the District or Warbarge at the end of the match, with the exception of a successful raid where the surviving defender clones go to the Raiders.


Edit: Rewrote this in my PC proposal thread, so I copied the new version here as well.