Faraelle Brightman
Gallente
Moira.
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Posted - 2009.12.22 08:36:00 -
[1]
This isn't just about what to fix about Faction Warfare, it's about when. Not Soon(tm), not three years from now.
I was watching the Fanfest videos a day or so ago, and in watching the one talking about Dominion (although it's already out) I heard something interesting: The reason that CCP decided to roll with the sovereignty overhaul was because the coming of Dust 514 and the interaction with Eve made it necessary.
Granted, not even CCP knows how or if Dust will affect faction war yet - but let's presume that there's a high likelihood they will. So my argument is that the same principle ought to apply to FW as did to 0.0 sovereignty.
Apocrypha 1.1 brought in some changes that were an attempt to address some of the issues but also brought in unintended consequences that have been considered detrimental to the FW environment. But perhaps the biggest problem in my mind is the timing: The patch should have been done for Empyrian Age 1.x, not Apocrypha almost a year later. Even if they were smaller, incremental changes, they would have combated the nagging worry that CCP had "abandoned FW" that existed before the patch. And because the shape of the battlefield can change in a week or a day, CCP needs to be watching FW closely and be responsive to changes. It took at least a couple weeks before the storyline team noticed Intaki had fallen to the Caldari and longer for them to move ahead with the storyline appropriately.
tldr:
- Be more attentive to the state of FW and make sure the players know it's getting attention.
- Push more numerous, more frequent and if need be smaller incremental updates to handle issues that can be handled in this manner.
- Commit to the release of a larger FW overhaul before the Dust 514 release, preferably within a year.
The priorities (in my opinion) for said overhaul are these. (However, you don't have to agree with them to vote up the proposal.)
- A complete revamp of the plexing mechanic so that it is more fun, interactive and can't be gamed by single speed tank interceptors and the like.
- The addition of gameplay consequences for captured systems.
- PVP kills have a reward and affect the outcome of system occupancy.
The specifics are best left to other proposals of course.
(Disclaimer: I'm back on a 5 day promotion pass, too poor to subscribe, so I may not be around to update this much. I've jumped back to FW for the duration and it was good to see the current action, but it doesn't change my evaluation of the flaws.)
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