Dear players,

we want to talk about District Timers, in particular, the not-so-much-intended practice of safeguarding Districts into difficult timezones.

There are a few ideas already on the table, not a complete list and I expect Kain Spero to show up pretty much instantly.

Methods to reset, if we go that way

A) Randomize - all Timers will be reset to a random TZ within the allowed Begin and End settings
B) Redistribute - all Timers will be reset and fixed in a ratio that aligns with average PCU
C) Reset and allow +-X timers around the default District Timer
D) Reset and reduce the available option for Timers
E) Reset and allow incremental jumps from the default Timer, rising exponentially in ISK cost per 30 minutes.


I will add more.

Please discuss.

There was a meeting of minds today of pretty much every major leader in Planetary Conquest happened to be there. They agree that PC needs to be addressed, but the opinion was unanimous that region locking timers is a bad idea.

Some of those in attendance:

Arirana, Badgerr Ragerr, dy5t0pia, Evan Gotabor, Ghostt Shadoww, Gilgamesh iBUN, Hawkin Pete, Kalante Schiffer, Kane Spero, Kardia Scorpio, Maylar Snow, Mr Machine Guns, Noktix Luxifer, Poncho Polous, Roman837, saxonmish, Shepherd Grey, Shiyou Hidiyoshi, Silver Strike44, SoTa PoP, TheD1CK, Viktor Hadah, xTheSiLLyRaBBiTx, Zaria MinDeir, Ydubbs81 RND, and others.

Corps big and small, casual and elite, people that combined have 1,000s of hours of experience having to deal with Planetary Conquest and it's faults and would like nothing more than to see it flourish.

These folks currently involved in planetary conquest do want to see new people be brought into the system and many have even been trying to even give districts away but struggle to find interested parties. Some don't have districts right now but would like to have their names on the map. There is excitement about coming changes to planetary conquest but they don't want to see mechanics like fixed timers potentially mess up that recovery. For these folks goals like owning a planet are something to aspire to and for many geography and placement really does matter.

The Godfathers agree that there is no mafia problem

The Godfathers agree that there is no mafia problem

I'm kidding, but you know

The Godfathers agree that there is no mafia problem

I'm kidding, but you know

Yes. Because we sure don't want to pay any attention to the people who not only have extensive experience in planetary conquest in the past, but are still actively involved and are actually interested in its future. Because their opinions are obviously worthless.

The Godfathers agree that there is no mafia problem

I'm kidding, but you know

No-one has seen those opinions, why is there not a collective proposal from that distinguished group of major minds? Except for this little gold nugget:

"Region locking is stupid"

There is a massive conflict of interest, and lots of vested interest as well in that group.

I have yet to see an idea from the current PC lobby, other than Pokeys. There was another group of vested interest players that tried something like this, i.e. refuse to admit there is a problem, refuse to be honest and offer ideas that addressed the problem, but much rather criticize all changes/ideas that were proposed. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

For me its more like, I'm not going to leave my job to do a PC match. If my corp is working and we always get attacked while we're all at work, are we just screwed until the weekend?

Would that not encourage you to recruit players to cover for you? With each District you add, you should be adding coverage /garrisons to your corporation.

Elitist cliques of players stifling competition and using poorly thought game mechanics to control a section of the game that only a small minority even play, while using up a lot of Dev time to correct said problems that only that minority will even know about... that I have a real problem with.

Would that not encourage you to recruit players to cover for you? With each District you add, you should be adding coverage /garrisons to your corporation.

Ok, stepping into the lions den here.....

I don't normally speak about PC as it's not my area of expertise in the game and I'm not the greatest fan of it to be honest as the other CPM will attest to but Rattati has highlighted my main problem with it so what the hell..

Empire building is fine, no problem with that. Organised competitive battles, great, more of them please. Mud slinging between Corps to make the battles a bit more spicy, awesome.

Elitist cliques of players stifling competition and using poorly thought game mechanics to control a section of the game that only a small minority even play, while using up a lot of Dev time to correct said problems that only that minority will even know about... that I have a real problem with.

Don't worry, Rattati is a huge fan of PC and the end game it represents for Dust 514 so it's not going anywhere. But PC's main problem is that the bar is too high for most to enter and once there corps are 'dug in like an Alabama tick' to quote Predetor.

PC should be total war. Enemies attacking you left and right and at times that aren't exclusively convenient to you. You want to defend your territory? Then recruit more players to defend your interests around the clock, not just the top 16 players in your corp EVERY TIME.

It's all just too agreeable right now, too many interests are best served by not actually fighting. It should be total carnage, smaller corps able to mount raids with no notice, testing the big boys ability to rustle up a defence at the drop of a hat. Larger corps planning a massive offensive in secret ABLE to attack at a time when their resources can be used to best effect. You want to defend against such an onslaught? Then use spies to find out when it's coming and be prepared and not cowardly hide behind a 'timer' as your main defence.

That was the original hope for PC. It can still be all that but frankly an easier course and self interest will always trump uncertainty and risk.

And that's why I find PC boring. Nothing happens that hasn't already been agreed on, either explicitly by one to one agreement or implicitly with the use of timers.

Dull, dull, dull.

No-one has seen those opinions, why is there not a collective proposal from that distinguished group of major minds? Except for this little gold nugget:

"Region locking is stupid"

There is a massive conflict of interest, and lots of vested interest as well in that group.

I have yet to see an idea from the current PC lobby, other than Pokeys. There was another group of vested interest players that tried something like this, i.e. refuse to admit there is a problem, refuse to be honest and offer ideas that addressed the problem, but much rather criticize all changes/ideas that were proposed. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

No I'm saying that I've explained it to you multiple times and you clearly don't understand it. If you really think I think 500 people should be playing at all times, then you've missed the point completely. And to be honest I have better things to do with my time than try to explain this to you.

timers in any form in PC are only hindering game play
people that have few hours of play time and want to log in for some PC action are denied that form of fun only because any form of timers
if those so called "skilled vets" worry about not being able to hold a district only because there is no timer mechanic, they should just organize better within the game for alliance assistance

no one ever said that small corp or even a medium sized corp should be able to hold whole planet for them self, only with timers mechanic it is possible thus making the game stale and PC action on hold for everyone else, this is wrong direction then does more harm because bigger number of people wanting to get into PC is denied with this for the sake of smaller tight knit "skilled vets" that are and will abuse any form of timers and locks mechanic everytime (alts, district hopping, manipulation with attack windows etc.)

timers and locking mechanic is wrong at its core and will always make PC stale in any form and any time within multi time zoned game

The funny thing is there is a contingent of PC vets that would like nothing more than to go to a completely timerless system. I think the key is to strike a balance between the two extremes of restrictive timers and timerless gameplay.

what we have now is stale isk farm elite club and it will always be like that with timers and what we should have is 90% or 100% of SP eligible people to play PC all the time thus leaving PUBs for newbies and FW for medium advanced SP wise people

that it is why people are begging for corp battles back

why is it so hard for those elitists vets abusing mechanics of timers to open the game mode for all?!?!

If you really think that most players in planetary conquest wouldn't like to see and end to the stagnation and more people in the game mode so folks can choose to be PCing most of the time I have a bridge to sell you.

man seriously i've read most of your comments about the matter, you do not need to double post this kind of stuff rather advocate for leaving the timers behind us that is what you can do

inventing a more complex "walls" as this this Pokey's forum user will only make things worse with every iteration

this needs to be an easy and straight forward mechanic, no timers at all, if you can't be online your alliance needs to have the tools to be aware that a district is in danger of attack and respond to that, nothing more nothing less

making more complex solutions will always destroy the dynamic , make this mode stale, leave most SP wise people out of it thus staying in status quo of the elite club

Your vision is that all organizations need to be global, have massive numbers, and be available 24/7. How is that balance towards the wide variety of groups that attempt to play this game and want to participate in planetary conquest?

How does having land being taken while the owner sleeps give the system a sense of permanence?

Your vision is that all organizations need to be global, have massive numbers, and be available 24/7. How is that balance towards the wide variety of groups that attempt to play this game and want to participate in planetary conquest?

How does having land being taken while the owner sleeps give the system a sense of permanence?

Your vision is that all organizations need to be global, have massive numbers, and be available 24/7. How is that balance towards the wide variety of groups that attempt to play this game and want to participate in planetary conquest?

How does having land being taken while the owner sleeps give the system a sense of permanence?

Well we have a ready gang of players who know the game intimately and are well connected on top of that in that channel and it seems ignoring their knowledge about Planetary Conquest, the problems they've had to go through, and discounting their experience doesn't seem to make much sense.

They DO think there are problems with PC and no they don't think timers are perfect. Option (E) was the most popular by far, but region locking was universally thought of as a stupid idea.