Development Cycle Archive

When I first read this, I thought that declaring overt anywhere would be a good idea, and it would hold true to the continuity of the game. If you have a covert imperial tracking a declared rebel, when they get close enough, they can declare overt as a suprise - this would be good, and it would be more realistic.

But the problem with this is, like Holo said, you would have full armies of covert players moving in on a city and then suddenly going overt and having the element of suprise. I, myself am an Imperial, but I know how a rebel would feel if three people they thought were neutral suddenly became overt Imperals and took out AT STs and Dark Troopers...this goes either way. I think this idea is a good one, and most declared rebels wouldnt hang within 100m of an Imperial Recruiter from the risk, and vice versa.

Holo, question: When you say"within aHQ" do you mean the offworld outposts? Or player HQ and Factional Bases? Because if you do, thats an even better idea.

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Holocron wrote:

We're considering adding a command that lets you /declareOvert if you are within 50m of a recruiter or within an HQ.

Reason: spawn camping in the HQ battles is rather annoying.

Alternate solutions? Loopholes with the proposed solution?

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I think this could be taken even further. Give everyone a use anywhere declare overt and a declare covert command but setthem on random timers. So if someone used the /delcareovert command they would have to wait something like 10sec to 3min. The same would happen with /declarecovert but the timer would be longer say 5 -10 minutes. The timer should start ticking only AFTER any combat has ended of course.

This way you can still avoid the ambushs that would happen with instant overtness since there would be no way to coordinate whenthe players would goovert so the first guy would be all alone in the middle of the enemyall alone for at least a short while. Declaring covert anywhere just removes a little of the tedium and stops people from "dying"(literally)to be covert. With a 5-10min delay I serious doubt you could possibly still fighting.

I think this system would have several benfits a few of which would be:

1. Many more overt rebels and imperial wandering around "out in the field"


2. Possibly remove the messy TEF system. Though I know the Devs are very partial to the TEF system.


3. Generally more convient.


4. Takes a little of the heat Rebels on the advanced worlds. Now they can declare on the advanced worlds if they like without worring about get blown up while shuttling in.


5. Battles CAN now be waged out of the cities in the field since there is no need to be in a city to keep going overt.

I am sure there are some disadvantages with this method only a few small ones come to mind

1. Rather than having cross country hikes to assualt a city palyers could shuttle in run outside and declare then storm back in and attack. I'm not sure how annoying or how big of an impact that would have on the GCW. I think players just shuttle in die and revenge TEF right now don't they?


2. Without TEFs some players may whine they can't just leap into the fight and start blasting.

My sugesstion not withstanding I think that what you are suggesting is good thing but may be far to little. I think the GCW is in pretty hurting shape right now, and gettingit outside of cities is going to be a very daunting task.

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Holocron wrote:

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Larathorn wrote:

My opinion, make it so you can declare Overt anywhere, anytime. To become Covert you have to go back to the recruiter and wait an hour. There is no reason that I should have to be within 50m to put on my uniform or flash my military ID and fight for my ideals.

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That would let you move in armies of safe people to the location of a fight, and have them all go overt at once and ambush...

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And thus began the battle...

Really, is this so wrong?

News flash Bestine: "A bunch of suspicious people begin converging on in an imperial stronghold, tensions rise as the citizens and imperialsbegin to wonder what's about to happen... and then all hell breaks loose as those suspicisious people pull out there weapons and everyone relizes this is a rebel attack."

--Drox (Intrepid)

Holo, that wouldn't be an issue if covert scanners are used properly

I'm glad this is being addressed. I rarely go over to take part in the GCW, but find it very aggrevating to be standing in the middle of a fire fight and be unable to take part because i'm covert. It is unintuitive. I should be able to blow my cover if I want and suffer the consequences. There is (or was) a way to enter the fray by healing an overt if you are able to. I've seen several scenarios where this occurs but the fire fights (often outside spaceports or similar places) would have been much larger if other coverts who clearly wanted to get in were able to /declare.

I understand that there is a concern that a large number of coverts could ambush people by going overt. I think a better solution, if possible, would be to allow any covert to /declare when within 50m of an overt who is in combat with another overt. This would minimize the ambush problem because an ambush party would need at least one overt to get things started and thereby give the other side a warning. The range may be reduced to 10m if necessary to prevent prepositioning or some similar possible exploit of this system.

I hope some system can be worked out. The high ranking officer idea, i think would be acceptible, but i suggest that the officer should have to be overt himself to prevent the same ambush problems.

oapia tora

In my opinion, this is opening the door to ambushes and never ending fights again.

Requireing a player to actually declare at a recruiter is a necessary restriction in my opinion.

I would like to through out the idea of wandering covert recruiters in EVERY city. They should walk around town and appear as normal NPCs to the opposite faction and neutrals. Maybe limited in the faction items they can offer, but all would have the ability to declare. Only those like factioned people looking for them could spot them on radar easily.I would think it would be easy to code as well and would not force you to a 50m range which is still in too close if you are doing more than just declaring.

What do you think?

Migi Ligi <RAID>

Radiant Server

Cooler idea:

If factional combat starts up within 50m of a factional recruiter, the factional recruiter will "call for reinforcements". This will actually spawn 12 faction NPC's (stormtroopers or rebel marines) at either the starport or a random shuttleport in the city, and they will run to the faction recruiter and attack any TEF'd or overt enemy they encounter.

The recruiter won't call for reinforcements again until the current contingent is dead.

This will help stop, for example, a classic imperial city from mysteriously being owned by the rebellion, and will give a sense that there really is an Empire and there really is a Rebellion and they really do have troops and not just a bunch of random civilians, and it will stop the impression that the recruiter, despite looking like an officer, is really just a powerless manequin.

At some point you guys are going to have to stop taking easy-outs and actually give us something that makes the Galactic Civil War feel real. You know. "Star Warsy".

I like this idea because once revenge TEF is gone peoplewill start be camping the recruiter. If you raid a city and sucessfully take over wipe out any Overt Players then your best move to keep control of city is to camp the recruiter terminal. I don't agree with the strategy but it wil happen.

I also like the idea that a High Level Faction PC can grant Overt status if they are Overt maybe Colonel or above. I don't think you should be able to go Overt at will as it will lead to ganking as has been pointed out. Why would 40 covert rebels be allowed to walkinto Bestine and declare at will.

He would have to click on each member like teaching a skill so it would take time if the player wanted to grant Overt to a large group and he could be attacked before he was able to get the whole group Overt.

50m may not be large enough with a big enough group you could still camp the recruiter maybe 64m. But I would suggest that this is a right direction as once Revenge TEF is gone you will need to be able to declare to get back in fight.

Although this may lessen the problem of recruiter camping, it will not do anything to provide any point to combat. Faction combat will remain as it is now, a seemingly endless cycle with the only resolution being when one side collectively gets bored and goes back to the grind.

This sounds like a great idea, I am all for it. Can we please get a recruiter by our imperial mission termials in Kaadara (or anywhere in the city for that matter)? He seems to be MIA. It is really hard to defend the city from from rebel attacks when you have to shuttle to somewhere else and back to go overt... usually they will just camp our shuttle port and try tokill us while we load.

I would also like to see a system where you could declare at a player that is of a high faction rank.

I do like the 50m radius, though I personally would make it at least 65m

Better idea allow rebels to attack an overt imp without being overt. In the movies when ddi you see a rebel with a big sign saying hi im a rebel.