PVP and Battlestations
How will the battlestations actually work gameplay wise, what will we be fighting over?
The battlestations allow players to fight for control over them in battles until one side meets the victory conditions. The battlestation is composed of a central hub area with three wings leading off from that central area. The hub and each of these wings each contain a control point. Holding these control points adds a number of victory points to your sides total until a pre-defined victory total is reached.
These points tick up every few minutes (we will balance the speed of these ticks during beta testing). The first side to reach the victory total win the battle and receive their reward.
How big is the Battlestation?
The battlestation is very big! It’s a very large space with lots of scope for different tactics and movement. There are teleport points as well though that will make sure you can jump to the action rather then spending too much time just running around!
Will you be able to re-spawn on the battlestations or will it be like the alien playfields where if you die you have to wait till next time?
Yes you will be able to re-spawn on the Battlestation. When you enter your save point will temporarily be set to re-spawn you on the battlestation. You will be able to stay aboard until the current battle you are taking part in is over.
Will we be able to use the new vehicles in the Battlestation?
Yes! There will be a vehicle hanger type area where players can summon the new vehicles to use on the battlestation if they want to.
What is the reward for winning the battlestation encounters?
You will receive special victory points that can then be used to buy new armor and weapons from special vendors.
How many players will be able to participate and how long a battle should be expected to last?
The battle stations are large areas with four control points, players will have to fight for control of these control points whilst battling the enemy on the battlestations. The areas are quite large and we expect that they will be able to support relatively large numbers of players, possibly over a hundred as we expect combat to get quite spread out across the various control points.
The encounters will be ‘timed’ so players have to work against a clock, with the side who has the highest ‘score’ (points are awarded at intervals based on how many control points your side controls) at the end of the time winning that encounter.
This is something that we will for sure tune in beta based on feedback and how exactly things start to play out when we let the testers lose on the battlestations, so nothing is set in stone for now.
How do we capture a point?
Each control point has a console that must be hacked for your side to gain control of it. A player who wishes to try and capture the point must click on it to start the hacking process. This takes a short period of time during which the hacker is stunned and cannot perform any other actions. Opposing players in melee range can attempt to interrupt the person hacking the console.
Once the hack is complete the hackers has five seconds to click the console again and then it is owned by their side and will start to contribute points to their score.
How players will be able to join a station battle? Will we be able to join after the battle started? Will we be able to rejoin a battle if we died?
You sign up for the Battlestation by visiting a sign-up terminal at the Unicorn landing pad in Andromeda.
Players will be able to sign up for the battlestations, either alone or as a team, and will then be teleported to the stations when a slot is available, the system will balance the sides somewhat and have minimum and maximum caps, so again this is something that we will fine tune during the beta process, but the intention is to ensure that players don’t have to wait for too long to access the battlestations!
Player who die in the Battlestations will go to a re-spawn area within the battlestation so they can rejoin the fight until they decide to leave the station.
How am I supposed to be able to survive against PVP built “twinks” in the Battlestation?
A player who has built their character specifically for PVP will always have some kind of an edge over a PVP newcomer, however the battlestations do ensure that the playfield is levelled a little.
For starters all buffs are stripped when you enter a battlestation and while you are in the spawn-in safe zone you have a period of time to buff up, so no outside buffs can imbalance the battlestation sessions.
Also if your character really isn’t built for PVP you can always jump into a mech or other vehicle and be useful in that way. Mechs are not dependant on player stats so two people of the same level in the same mech have identical abilities while in the mech regardless of their character build.
What about my buffs when I die? Rebuffing normally takes some time!
Whilst in the safe zone area where you re-spawn you get unlimited nano and a big nano init boost so that buffing can be done quicker
What about neutrals, who do we fight for?
Neutral players get to choose which side they join when they sign up and temporarily act as if they were a member of that side when on the battlestation.
If neutrals get to choose a side in battlestation fights won’t we still have a problem with tabbing players who are now allies?
No, when on the battlestation the tabbing target selection accounts for the fact that you have joined a side and will behave as if you were clan or omni as appropriate.
PVP and Battlestations
Two more pictures
Two more pictures
View from a spacestation
Omni light mech
View from a spacestation
Omni light mech
-
Doom_Eater
- Giant Leet
- Posts: 992
- Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 6:13 pm
- Location: The Netherlands (Dutch taking AP!)
-
Graytrader
- Big Leet
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:46 pm