The goal of this thread is to find ways in which the Planetary Control Meta Game can be improved, enhanced and generally be made to have more of an impact on the players who participate in factional combat.
Please post ways in which YOU would like to see this system improved, below you will find information on the concept and current workings of the Planetary Control Meta Game.
Player feedback on this topic so far has highlighted the following required aspects:
Incentives/Rewards for sucessful planetary control. A percentage increase in GCW point rewards and publishing Planetary Control statistics weekly on the forum for each galaxy so players can see who is winning the war on each server.
Failure to control a planet means no bonuses rather than penalties.Losing control of a planet.
Planetary Control to have a bigger and more noticable impact on players as they move around the game world.
Make factional "crackdown" spawns that patrol NPC cities scan players more often. If a player being scanned should attack the scanning NPC, fail the scan or run away, they will be flagged as a combatant from on leave (never flags you to Special Forces).
Encourage PvP in NPC and Player Cities, planetary control points can currently only be awarded to players who PvE while Special Forces.
New Space zones content as part of the PCMG. Pilots can gain planetary control points in a planets associated space zone through PvE and PvP kills and objectives.Fighting for Planetary Control in space.
PvE Raid content in contested cities determined by levels of planetary control and player participation.Combatants in opposing faction cities will face waves of factional MObs of increasing difficulty as more reinforcements are called in to deal with the disturbance. Participating in this type of Raid content generates Planetary Control points as you attempt to win back the city.
Player placed Galactic Civil War bases to once again add Planetary Control points, generating large amounts of planetary control points the longer that they are placed. Larger bases generate more Planetary Control points, and PvP bases generate more Planetary Control points than PvE bases.Remove or significantly reduce the amount of Galactic Civil War points awarded to eligable players in the area when a base is destroyed. Galactic Civil War points will come from the percentage increase in Galactic Civil War points for controlling a planet instead, incentivise attack and defence of PvP bases by adding Galactic Civil War bonus tick zones to them.Player bases become the largest source of planetary control points.
Use "Heroic Instances" technology to implement factional instances for PvE and PvP where players can gain Planetary Control points and Galactic Civil War points.
Factional POIs can be "controlled" to generate more Planetary Control points, like the Static Galactic Civil War bases on Talus, Correllia and Naboo.
In SW Canon, Rebel forces "liberate" planets rather than control them. Rebel "Control" is displayed as lessened control by imperial forces rather than Rebel occupation.
Profession specific PCMG content/mechanics. Smugglers currently have an innate chance to evade NPC scans that also extends to anyone grouped with the Smuggler, so more things liks this.Smugglers can get you around town without being noticed.
Traders gain planetary control points when combatant if a player equipped with their crafted factional items is awarded a planetary control point.
Entertainers gain planetary control points when combatant if a player with their inspiration buff active is awarded a planetary control point and for inspiring same faction combatants/special forces.
Safeguard against exploiting generation of Planetary Control points by placing limits of number of Planetary Control points that can be generated from killing/buffing the same player in a certain time period.
I want to see PvP taken out of Restuss and into Player Cities and NPC Cities. Anything that does that gets my vote. No instanced PvP.I want incentives for PvP in Cities and for the old City specialisation to come back in to fashion. I want to the mini game to provide that incentive.
News Flash:NO ONE CARES ABOUT PLANETARY CONTROL. It's boring. Its lame. It's worthless. Whatever dev came up with the idea was short sighted and unimaginative... another "reoccurring theme" throughout SWG
Related Resources
Contents:
Info on the concept of the PCMG fromAllakhazam.com: Star Wars Galaxies: News: Compiled GCW Update.
GCW Planetary Control The second part of the system is the GCW Planetary Control Game. Because of the changes to the TEF system we will add a second type of factional base - a PvE GCW base. We will use the two types of bases to create the first of many steps in a GCW Planetary Control Game. A global tracking mechanism for planetary GCW conquest will be implemented. This tracking system works for each individual planet. The score is modified by placement of both PvE and PvP factional bases. The two types of bases work differently and are described below. PvP Bases PvP bases counts significantly higher towards planetary control than a PvE base.
PvE Bases PVE bases allow all players to participate in the GCW. They will count as part of the planetary control game, but not as much as PvP bases.
Planetary Occupation System The players actions in the Galactic Civil War (GCW) will be reflected in the Occupation enhancement. The guards patrolling cities and the symbols of power in the cities will change based on who is winning the GCW on that planet. As the tide of the GCW shifts so too shall the planets! Tracking The system will track the status of the GCW for each individual planet. Players can affect the status of the GCW through placing factional bases, both PVP and PVE. The longer a base remains in the world the more it benefits the faction. PVP bases count far greater than PVE bases. Initially Tatooine, Corellia, and Naboo will be affected by this system. Two cities on each planet will never change faction. These are the stronghold cities. Anchorhead, Coronet, and Moenia will always be Rebel. Bestine, Bela Vistal, and Theed will always be Imperial. Based on who is winning the factional conflict per planet, faction point costs and the faction presence in cities will change. The system will continually check the status of the GCW and determine city allegiance as control shifts. City Patrols & Scans The non-stronghold cities located on Tatooine, Corellia, and Naboo will be patrolled by the faction that controls the planet. Cities will also have patrols of neutral police, regardless of the planetary controller. For example, if the Imperials are winning the GCW on Corellia, Tyrena will be patrolled by Imperial soldiers as well as CorSec. The neutral police forces are loyal to the faction that controls the planet and some will conduct scans of passers by. The police will be searching for contraband such as illegal spices and sliced weapons (regardless of faction) or enemy faction players (Rebel or Imperial) and will fine or attack as appropriate. Running away from a scan will continue to have the same effects (loss of faction). High ranking members of factional armies will be safe from scans if their faction controls that planet. Players who are scanned by the police run the risk of having their faction exposed if they are in the opposing faction of the one that controls the city. This means players who are On Leave may become set to Combatant due to the scan. Faction NPCs will then attack the player on sight. Police may also call in more powerful reinforcements should they expose an enemy faction player (Rebel or Imperial) in opposition to the faction controlling the city. Scans will never set a player to Special Forces (PvP) status. Additionally, if a Jedi is scanned s/he runs the risk of being exposed. Should this happen, the police may panic and call for help, bringing a very powerful force on the Jedi. Note that Imperial allied police will call forces to attack any Jedi, regardless of faction. Rebel aligned police will only call guards to attack Dark Jedi. The strength of the guards will depend on how tightly the planet is controlled. If one side has a significant base count advantage over the other, the guards in the cities will be much more powerful. Cantina Crackdowns Officers from the controlling faction will occasionally check cantina patrons. While the Rebellion stands for personal liberty, they also understand that security is important during a time of war. Scans conducted by agents of the Rebellion will be done with the highest order of respect for the rights of those scanned. It is important to remember, though, that spices & sliced weapons are as illegal in Rebel controlled territory as they are in the Empire. Changing Control When the control of a planet shifts from one side to the other, control over the cities will not immediately change. It?s up to the faction to clear out the enemy guards holding out in the city. As the old guards are removed, they will be replaced by new guards from the faction that controls the city. If you want the city back, you?ll have to take it back by force! City Banners Each city will display banners that allow players to see which faction currently controls the city. These banners will be displayed in various areas of the city and will change according to the controlling faction. Banners check for control updates approximately once every hour. Viewing the Status of the GCW Planetary control status can be read by civilians using a "news net" terminal that will be placed in starports. Factioned players can also find out what's going on in the war by "talking" to a faction recruiter, who will give them updates.
Info on current system workings from DekardJaxx.
How Planetary Control Points are gained.
Planetary score is tallied by the gaining of Planetary Control Points.
These are gained in 1 of 2 ways.
How Planetary Control effects Factional Item Cost
I've never sat down and down the math on it, but it seems to key from how low the other faction's score is on the planet, with your faction score being a secondary modifier. Example: Naboo has a score of Rebel: 10 and Imperial: 0, Corellia has Rebel: 50 and Imperial 10, and Tatooine has a score Rebel:50 Imperial 49. In this situation, I've found that Naboo would be the cheapest for a Rebel even though Corellia has a bigger margin. Again, I haven't set down and crunched the numbers.
How Planetary Control Points Decay
Decay has been tricky to figure out. The Devs have never posted exactly how it was calculated. There have been different theories since it was put in. Some say it is determined by the activity amount, in other words, if points are continuely being added to it, it decay less then if they weren't. Some say the more points a faction has the faster it decays. At times both theories seem to be missing pieces. So the actual decay remains a mystery for the time being.
How Factional Bases effect Planetary Control Points
Right now, Player Placed Bases don't count at all toward the Planetary Score. I know there are still some instances where some of the pre-CU Bases don't even show up. During the Base Wars of the CU, every once in a while, we would come across an old base that didn't show up on the map. During CU, the bases counted on a scale of 1 to 5 for PvE bases, and double the PCPs for SF bases. The points were assigned according to the size of the base. Foward OPs counting 1 and 2 on up to Detachment HQ's counting 5 and 10 depending on if they were PvE or SF bases.
How Planetary Control Points effect Factional Control of NPC cities.
Right now, I haven't seen any relation between troop spawns and faction. Troop spawns seem to be random right now. Troop spawns in the NPC Cities key on who has the highest Planetary Control score. It does take some time though for it to change from one faction to the other and sometimes before it gets completely changed, it'll change back. So it's a very fluid system keying off the kills alone. In the old system that keyed off the bases, it updated every hour.
Improve Player Bases - Discussion Thread by HonorGuardian FAQ and Guide to the GCW by nebaf Imperial Crackdown, missing? by Sylkie Discussion: I have 2 weeks...tell me what you want by ace426
Report#5: The Empire Strikes Back by BadMisterFrosty
MotorPsycho wrote:News Flash:NO ONE CARES ABOUT PLANETARY CONTROL. It's boring. Its lame. It's worthless. Whatever dev came up with the idea was short sighted and unimaginative... another "reoccurring theme" throughout SWGPlanetary Control was implemented terribly, therefore no one cares about it.
*opens can of worms*Since everyone is on-leave all the time, it doesn't matter what faction controls what. Its only cosmetics and those fail to look cool due to NPCs stuck inside each other, staring at walls etc.
Thanks for taking the time to make this thread
First, planetary control is calculated based on the ratio of the winning faction to the losing faction, so for example if the Imperials had 0 planetary control points it wouldn't make a difference if the Rebels had 1 control point or 1000 control points, the bonus would still be the same.
Planetary control is definitely a unique feature that could provide a lot of dynamic content to the game, if implemented correctly. Currently, it only affects two things: NPC spawns in specific cities and cheaper GCW rewards from the recruiter, neither of which are of any significant concern to the playerbase.
I think the three big questions that need to get answered are the following:
As far as rewards, I would like to see a GCW point bonus for the winning faction depending on how much they are in the lead. Another possible idea are consumable items that become available from a recruiter if your faction controls a planet.
In the case of penalties, a greater risk for being scanned by crackdown troops (if this is put back in the game).
Personally I think the planetary control score should be affected by the player bases which affect the overall score, with PvP kills having a temporary effect on the overall score. However, one issue with player bases is they can get carelessly placed all over a planet to increase the score - so perhaps one way to prevent this is to have only player bases in player cities count torwards the planetary control score.
Just my 2 cents for the time being - I'm sure I'll think of more stuff later
I think the key is there have to be noticable bonuses and penalities for winning or losing a planet. These bonuses/penalities need to also affect almost all parts of the game: missions payouts, crafting bonuses/penalities, loot bonuses/penalities, GCW bonuses/penalites etc. If not, the PCM is worthless.
I also believe the PCM should be controlled by the amount of Player Placed Bases on a given planet. The Base Caps need to be lowered to about 10 a planet. This would make the Player Placed Bases valuable again, and put more PvP back around the bases. Couple that with the GCW redux that's been suggested, and you got yourself a sweet system.
