Cass Barr
Red Star.
EoN.
18
   |
Posted - 2013.05.20 18:15:00 -
[1] - Quote
Institute Corp roles, and only allow people with the right permissions to join a squad to a PC battle. It looks like most people agree on this part.
However a kick function is touchy, and for good reason. Most people, myself included, think that espionage and sabotage should still remain viable tactics, once implementing those tactics actually requires some work and planning. If a kick function is implemented, it shouldn't actually come in the form of kicking the offenders from the battle, not immediately. It should only disconnect them from the clone reanimation system, after which they still have to be killed before they are removed from the battle. They should remain on the TechNet as a blue, an always visible red, or a new color entirely. They cannot be replaced with loyal personnel until they are killed. For reasons I'll explain shortly, I would also create a one minute thirty second spawn timer where all players have to spawn into the game before it runs out, or be automatically spawned in the MCC with whichever fitting they have selected at the end of the timer.
This would allow things to play out in multiple ways.
1. A rogue director brings in a hostile squad. They're cut off from the clones while everyone's in the MCC because hey, it's obvious these guys are hostile. They immediately spawn in, and cause some TK'ing havoc. They eventually die themselves, and are replaced with friendlies. This confusion and the time it takes to get a replacement squad in gives the other team a not insignificant head start.
2. A rogue director brings in a hostile squad. They're cut off from the clones while everyone's in the MCC because hey, it's obvious these guys are hostile. They don't immediately spawn in, opting instead to wait on the 1:30 spawn timer. Now the team has to make several choices. Do they post guards at the base spawns to kill them if they spawn there? Do they hack objectives and give the rogues additional places at which to spawn? This again gives the other team a good headstart on taking objectives and setting up defenses.
3. A rogue director has either several other spies in his squad with him or has several other members of the Corp/Alliance he's "helped" decide they want to switch allegiances. As such his squad is all wearing the right Corp tags. This may or may not go unnoticed beforehand depending on how stringent his Corp is about specifying individual squad members, and how good he is at allaying suspicion should questions be asked. It will probably be increasingly less likely to be noticed as battles grow larger in size. This squad could have the added benefit of having surprise on their side. As such they are not disconnected from the reanimation system beforehand and could potentially waste a LOT of clones before the subterfuge is discovered.
4. In any of these instances, if the rogues can escape being killed after they are disconnected from the clones, they have to be hunted down if the team wants to replace them with friendlies. The hostile team would also need to make sure they don't kill their own agents. If the rogues decide to call in vehicles or run around in the hills, this could end up being a significant time drain on the team, to the point that it might be preferable to simply fight a few men down rather than devote resources to chasing a scout around the mountains or trying to actually kill a LogiLAV that never stops.
So in this system you have varying degrees of work for varying levels of payoff, and if played smartly all have significant ways to influence a battle. Meanwhile corporations are provided with controls to prevent unauthorized access to PC battles and a way to mitigate damage should kicking be introduced, without kicking being a "get out of paying for your mistakes" free card. |
Cass Barr
Red Star.
EoN.
19
|
Posted - 2013.05.20 22:36:00 -
[2] - Quote
Arthur Uthyrsson wrote:Lance 2ballzStrong wrote:Arthur Uthyrsson wrote:I'm not a CEO or director, and have never been (heck, I'm not even in a real corp at the moment), but I think CEOs and directors are not helpless to stop spies while we wait for finer control over individual battles. If an order of battle is drawn up ahead of time, with all participants knowing their squads and squad leaders, any deviation from the plan can be immediately spotted and the spy's squad filled by corp members before he or she can bring in more saboteurs. The squad leaders can be selected from among trusted individuals; and if a spy is appointed, then that's just good tradecraft--you can't win every battle (except, apparently, for STB and a few other corps who have been kicking it, I suppose).
Just my own 2 ISK. don't think you understand how it works. CEO's and directors have no power in who gets into matches. I don't know how assigning squad leaders would magically stop people from joining a PC game and inviting outsiders. The problem is this whole sabotage thing is WAY too easy. Join corp > join PC game > invite friends That's it. People call that spy work? lol I guess I fail at explaining. If everybody in the corp knows what's supposed to happen (who's supposed to be squad lead, who's in which squad), then they'll all be able to keep an eye out for people who deviate from the plan. So if everybody in the corp is on board, then the sabotage thing should go Join corp -> join PC game -> create a squad -> have squad filled by loyal corp members It does take some communication and coordination. It's not perfect, but it's not nothing.
Sorry man but you really don't understand what's going on |