Politician Archive

I personally dislike the idea of requiring a base to become a factional town and requiring the base be destroyed to be "liberated." Primarilly from an attacker's standpoint but think about it, the mayor could plan things out and have multiple bases (many PvP cities on my server have this) with very large gaps in their vulnerability window. If this is the case then it could potentially be impossible to retake a city. By the time 1 base goes down there is a huge downtime before you can attack the other base and during this downtime nothing is preventing another base from being dropped to keep the city rebel (outside of the huge FP sink) and turningthe battleinto a waiting game of who has work in the morning/lives in the wierdest time zone.

As for being able to place factional recruiters, well if the base is required then I don't see the harm in having the recruiter placeable. It means that you still have a base, but you can also keep with your design theme. I'm just about to finish up on a "Rebel Intelligence Office" in a friend's large house. Now it is still a few ranks from getting incorporated but I would prefer to have the recruiter sitting inside this house or on the stoop just for an RP feel. Nothing wrong with keeping the base and I'd likely have it in a well defendable area of town in plain view and again with some role play looking homes around it but I don't see why limiting the recruiter to that building is that big of a plus for bases nor a minus since they are still needed within the city to be able to have a recruiter in the city.

As for extra ideas...well they would involve new code. I would want to see walls and bridges and stairs (choke points) introduced to help make a town defendable. A 2 front war is hard, a 360 front war is impossible. Now every city deserves and can use walls (and use a couple different type ones, a few more decorative while others have barbed wire) but factional city walls should be destroyable. Thiswill require them to place FP walls (made by architects to give them a role in the war) and all other types of walls will be destroyed and unable to be replaced. The FP walls would look militaristic and would be like the walls in battlefields, take a few dozen shots and you have a breach. This would make urban planning a useful means since balconies could be sniper nests in order to get to the wall's attackers and be a means for tactics to come into play for large enough forces.

I would also like to see a new ability but it is pie in the sky but doesn't hurt to mention it. A city that is declared can have its civic structures attacked (city hall, shuttle port, and cloner) and damaged, never destroyed. All damage is repairable by master architects of the same faction, and will just require ore. Or maybe wall units and structural modules? If you damage a city hall the maintenance rate goes up a bit for the town. Not by much but enough to make it a good target if you want to do some economic warfare. If you attack a shuttleport then the shuttle has a chance to not appear at the next designated time making the wait at most double, never a triple or quadruple dissappearance thanks to unlucky dice rolls. If you attack a cloner it will sporatically give wounds to the people that clone there in any of the bars and up to any number from 0-100. This would make the city a true imperial stronghold/rebel fortress since everything is deemed enemy, however it won't put much of a hinderance on anyone's gameplay and will give architects yet another role to fill.

Nothing wrong with making it a vulnerability window for the civic structures, I just figured it would give a factional city a bit more of a flair and a tangible con, which is lacking in many aspects of the game,beyond loosing rebel business to the merchant district.

As for vehicle attacks, the AT-ST is a factional pet for a reason and that reason is to destroy. They should be able to attack a wall easilysince I doubt a wall can stand up to them (an AT-AT 1 shotted the power generator) even though this makes battle a bit unfair to rebels...it's not like they are anything new. I do agree however that we should be given something that can equal the AT-ST in combat if we are using it (and then buff the AT-ST's back up, I mean honestly right now you'd think it was aluminum instead of amor on them) and there is an obvious choice too..."snow"speeders. It's what was used in the fight scene against the chicken heads so why not give it to us now that vehicles are out. I'm not sure how the mechanics of in flight attacks would work but I can't see it as being impossible.

This is completely off topic, but if you want an AT-ST, become an Imp.. They're supposed to have the advanced technology.

The death star was grossly overpowered and the Rebels figured out a way to blow it up.. Learn to adapt or don't participate in the GCW.

Anyhow.. This is a good thread so far, lets keep the ideas rollin.

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ThorsAnvil wrote:

One point I would like to post about the CGW and city's is simply this.

Some people MINE the fronts of Shops and what not, I want to be rebel, (or imp if I was so inclined) and I like to shop,

I need to be able to know if the vendor is in a IMP / REB town.

Maybe color code the Starport Reb or imp, and flag the vendor as Reb or IMB.

I rather give the money to Reb's

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My PCity Got Rebel Banners In City Hall, not sure he the mayor got em though

No faction recruiters because that is the only reason for players to have bases? That's total BS. There is one good reason for players not to get bases - THEY ARE BROKEN. They don't work. The turrets don't fire back, you can still burst-run into one, heck, the word is you can target it and blast it into dust! And even if you are lucky and your base works 100%, there is still no reason to have it! Absolutetly none!
Now that I vented, let's do some logical thinking here ...

The bases and cities should be 2 separate systems. In the perfect set up, Imperials will control cities, with rebels hiding in the wilderness bases. In game-play turns -- if my PA wants to run a big city, it should get ability to make that city faction specific, along with defenses and faction perks. In a way, a city should be a big base, a safe haven for the faction that runs it. Players should be able to do everything they need to survive in the war -- heal, entertain, shop -- all the while under defenses of local militia, NPCs, and defense structures

Now, if I have a small PA, that doesn't have large amount of cash for a City, we mgiht opt for a PA Hall and a faction base, which brings some of the city perks under one roof (medcenter, cantina, bank, mission term, recruiter, and defenses). It also creates a military outpost for faction aligned palyers to stop by on their way to battle.

To me, this 2 systems are totally separate. I can see why some people might be opposed to cities having recruiters - it is indeed the last reason for palyers to get the bases. But the problem with this is not the city, but the bases themselves and GCW -- there needs to be a reason to have a base in the first place. The recruiter isn't enough - I have an Imperial aligned metropolis and we can easily afford several detachment bases. But we have zero. Why? It's not worth the expenses and there is no reason for it. NOBODY WILL GET A BROKEN BASE JUST TO GET A RECRUITER. It's cheaper and less hassle to take a shuttle to Bestine or Theed. Bases need a true reason to be useful. Recruiter isn't it. And cities have everything else. (Except turrets, but those are broken anyhow).

Some of the reason for bases could be factional zones of control -- give bases that are outside the cities zone a some sort of sphere of influence, a factional zone of control. And make it possible to take over a base (not just destroy it) taking over the territorry in the process. Same set up can be done with cities, both player and NPC -- taking over a city will change the cities faction affiliation, increasing faction's control. While a faction is in control over a territory, perks can be given to members of that faction - PvP'er will get a defense bonus, PvE'ers -- higher mission payout, crafers -- get a bonus on resource mining and experimentation, etc.

To summarize -- don't punish cities because GCW bases don't have a purpose anymore. There are 2 types of terminals that absoluetly need to have NPCs spawn right next to them - BH mission terminals and faction mission terminals. Getting a base just because of recrutier is ludicrous. Might be an interesting idea, but not cost effective. At least not until bases are fixed and have a true prurpose.

I am a member of a rebel city on Farstar. We do not have a base, although some of us would like one, and some of use would not.

The main arguement is not about any of the bugs, or the fact that it could get destoyed, but the fact that it feels unrebel like to have a base. We are supposed to be hiding from the Empire, with one or two secret places dotted around the galaxy (very well hidden, please check your points of interest tabs on Dantooine, Yavin and Corellia... why the Sith did Moff Tarkin and Vader have tocapture Leia to find this information?).

I think that making rebel bases more basement and hidden like would stop our town from being so divided about the subject. I posted a few ideas on the subject in this thread: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=145153&page=5 and reproduced below for easy reading.

FACTION BASES

The Imperial Bases as they stand are fine. However, the Rebel bases need completely new artwork. Quite simply, the only real Rebel base is currently under construction on Hoth, and there is a temperory on on Corellia. Therefore, the Rebel's should instead have hideouts, which include hidden defences such as turrets and act in pretty much the same way as they do now. There should be 32 possible designs, with4 base types with2 different styles (one for player cities, one for wilderness), in each of the four different planetery styles (Generic, Tatooine, Naboo and Corellia):

Forward Headquarters should become an abandoned mine or a vehicle garage with recruiter mechanic.

Field Hospital should become a small farmhouse or a medical centre with a network of Rebel tunnels and rooms below.

Tactical Centre should become a homestead or a cantina style building with a basement containing a hidden rebel operation.

Detachment Headquarters should become a county estate or a guild hall with a huge basement containing a huge hidden Rebel base of operations.

While this would make little difference in terms of actual gameplay, it would make a HUGE difference in terms of roleplay.

Basically it means redesigning the rebel bases so that they look like civilian buildings. These are just ideas, and I would welcome any comments

I must say I like the idea in thefirst replyof being able to 'check out' factional soldiers assigned to a base, perhaps based on rank, so you can patrol your city with a squad of troops behind you. Militia being able to run a background check also sounds cool, much better than the current scanners.

Liberation of Rebel cities, turning it neutral until the next cycle? Yes please

I am persuing a possible set of skill lines based off of a Factional skill point system.... Ie, at the rank of Col, I have 20 FSP available to grab some small skill lines which basically are the same thing as factionally earned SEAs, set up in a skill tree of single 4 box tiers kind of setups.

that in mind if we can win that idea over toi the devs, perhaps provide a Master Politician who is also a Col in thier faction and MAYOR of a decaled city wither additional Faction Skill points or even a few regular Skill points while in such a position of commanding a declared city. (a few meaning like 10 FSP or possibly SP?)

just random thoughts which mean exactly that, we have no dev feedback on any thoughts just yet.

JEST3R