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Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
570
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Posted - 2013.05.23 00:29:00 -
[1] - Quote
TL:DR - PC turns a fun game into a high pressure chore. What can be done to alleviate this?
For those bothered to read on, please allow me to tell you the story of RIFT in Planetary Conquest...
For weeks, if not months before Uprising we at RIFT were extremely excited to play PC. We knew we had enough good enough players and the wallets to back ourselves up. We joined a sizable alliance and grabbed a handful of districts on day 1.
Initially, we did very well and held our ground (with some help from our allies and other friends). The excitement lasted roughly 5 days - we even had decent numbers getting up or staying up until 5am to play the horrible timers we had picked up. Up to Monday we had gone 7 - 2 in all our battles (with one of those losses being due to Grief Uni and we still almost won that one).
Then, we managed to change all our RTs to sensible times when we generally had the most players on and things started to go downhill rather quickly. Suddenly, we realised that less and less people were coming online for the battles. Most of our alliance districts were failing and everyone seemed to have lost interest.
What I put it down to? Player burnout. The initial excitement of something new and fun wore off and suddenly everyone realised that they would have to be on at the same time every single day to defend our districts. The game we all loved playing so much had become a daily mandatory event - almost like a job! People don't like that kind of pressure. At least not for days and days on end. People lost interest.
Now, I fully understand that PC is not meant for casual players and small - medium sized corps are always going to struggle but my point with this post is far more fundamental than that: how can we make Planetary Conquest more fun and less chore-like? |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
570
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 00:30:00 -
[2] - Quote
My initial thought was that the 24 hour timer is somehow a factor here but I really have no ideas for an alternative set up that would actually work.
Any thoughts anyone? |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
570
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 00:45:00 -
[3] - Quote
The point here is that this really fun part of the game is actually a giant chore. A game shouldn't feel like a chore - that's why so many people got up in arms over the daily cap last build. |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
570
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 00:55:00 -
[4] - Quote
Himiko Kuronaga wrote:Of course, you could also be having fewer members log on due to a sharp morale drop. You ARE kind of getting your asses kicked, no offense.
But we weren't getting our asses kicked first. People lost interest and then we got our asses kicked. I can't speak for what happened to the rest of Orion but our guys were easily holding our own before the chore bore in. |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
577
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 08:30:00 -
[5] - Quote
I think many of the comments on this thread reflect a loss of perspective on the OP. I'm not complaining that PC isn't for us. I'm not QQing about anything at all, let alone the fact that we are on a bit of a losing streak.
I'm simply pointing out that the structure of this game mode makes it inherently chore-like. Now a small minority of Dust's playerbase may enjoy a rigid job-like structure but when PC is the only thing we really have to aim for in this game, it needs to be more fun and less chore or a huge majority of the playerbase will never even try it.
I think one good solution will be to include an actual raiding mechanic that doesn't require 80M isk just to send an attack. Many corps have neither the will nor ability to hold land but still would love to be part of PC and play the awesomely fun battles. You could have a system whereby a district can be attacked at any time and attacks cost 500k isk per player to launch but can never result in the district being lost - perhaps a successful raid destroys a small percentage of clones (rather than the current 150 minimum) and/or reduces production. To make this not too unbalanced for defenders a mechanic could be included that prevents raids when less than a certain number of corp members are online. |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
583
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 11:53:00 -
[6] - Quote
I have a feeling the massive over-abundance of isk from the salvage refunds means that many corps even now have enough to throw clone pack after clone pack around all over the place, meaning that it was always going to be a case of almost every district being attacked almost every day.
When the isk starts to run a bit drier from all the early fighting, it might be more viable for the mid-sized corps to be able to hold districts without the same feeling of the daily chore. Like I said elsewhere - we won't be disappearing, that's for sure. |
Django Quik
R.I.f.t
Orion Empire
583
|
Posted - 2013.05.23 11:54:00 -
[7] - Quote
Daedric Lothar wrote:I'm sorry but this thread is dumb.
If you can't field a decent # of squads of people to defend your districts, then don't try to capture any.
I haven't fought any PC battles and my corp owns districts. We have enough people that I don't even have to show up or even care.
See, no burnout here, because I don't care.
Good for you. FYI we beat your corp off our districts twice, so were perfectly capable of defending our land before people got fed up of the daily chore it had become. |
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