Contested Faction Area Control/Faction Beacons

[Sha3es]

Good point, contesting claims should only be possible if the parties are hostile towards each other. A possibly interesting edge case would be a unilateral declaration of war. However, some mechanism might be required in general to ensure consensual PvP, either as a server setting or moderation guideline, or between players themselves in some form of opt-in or -out.
A neutral or allied faction should have no negative effect on existing claims or influences, maybe even contribute to the influence of the established party (through trade and general traffic, tourism, what have you).


Please don't feel offended if much of the following may seem obvious or repetitive, and please voice concerns if you feel it doesn't make sense ; )

Generally, any individual ship would only exert influence over a limited volume of space, like the n^3 sectors that were discussed earlier, possibly depending on its mass or some other statistic. Influence in that volume would increase over time if uncontested, and once a certain threshold is crossed, the whole (16^3) system might count towards faction space. This threshold could be reached immediately if a station claims the system as it is now, or even a station might need some time to build enough influence.

Likewise a contestant would have to maintain a certain presence in order to build enough influence, and once that reaches a certain threshold, the region/system would count as contested.
If a system is claimed and controlled by a faction, it should be in their own interest, and fall in their own responsibility, to limit hostile presence there.
Of course, if neither peace nor victory is an option, both parties might settle for reduced, diminishing boni, and contest along happily ever after until the region is exhausted.

During the time the system itself is not claimed, maybe only the directly "influenced" space might count as faction space, or it might give no benefits at all until faction points are spent to make it "valuable", as an abstract development of infrastructure.

Every time period (could be the same as faction turns), in any influenced region without sufficient presence to renew the influence, a flat value is subtracted from the influence total, such that a region will return first to a claimed, and later a pristine state after continued absence. Game play considerations may or may not require this to follow a logarithmic function (higher influence=higher decay), to cap possible gains with asymptotically diminishing returns.

If a region (n^3, or entire system) is contested, the contestant's influences might be subtracted from each other, with the difference given to the highest contributor, until all but one party leaves. Being contested might result in a periodic subtraction of an additional flat value, such that if a region is contested long enough, all parties would incur a net loss of influence in that region despite their presence there (again, mirroring the destructive effects of a prolonged conflict), down to no influence at all. If and when the contestants' influences fall below a certain value, the contested status is lifted. After the conflict ends, it might even take some time before any party could begin building influence again.

I very much agree with your detailed suggestions regarding player actions that should definitely be the most instrumental part of influence gain or loss, above and beyond any mere physical presence - after all, what's the point in the server playing against itself ; )

I could totally see some of this working and being an interesting add on to our idea. It certainly makes a clear end game for the conflict we are out to create with these faction control zones.

 

[kiraen]

Just some thoughts that occurred to me while reading this.

Would pirate stations be the equivalent of a Pirate faction beacon?

Leaving an unmanned ship to claim space is a great way to lose a ship. Opposing forces just put together a boarding party. ( Who's claiming the space now, sucker? :p )

Since beacon stations are going to be of limited mass/size, I see no reason to prevent weapons. Allocating space/mass for weapons would eat into any other station resources and could be outgunned by ship weapons. aka, pirate beacons.

The 'control zone' of the beacon could be upgraded thru FP cost. Start at 3^3, spend points to increase coverage to the entire system. Larger areas make it harder to gain influence (you have to be in every sector at least some of the time), but if you can wipe out competing claims your beacon station can be converted into a full fledged station with no restrictions.

I would really like to see a system with 3 or more competing factions. All after that one blue-roid sector...

 

[Parameter]

Just some thoughts that occurred to me while reading this.

Would pirate stations be the equivalent of a Pirate faction beacon?

Leaving an unmanned ship to claim space is a great way to lose a ship. Opposing forces just put together a boarding party. ( Who's claiming the space now, sucker? :p )

Since beacon stations are going to be of limited mass/size, I see no reason to prevent weapons. Allocating space/mass for weapons would eat into any other station resources and could be outgunned by ship weapons. aka, pirate beacons.

The 'control zone' of the beacon could be upgraded thru FP cost. Start at 3^3, spend points to increase coverage to the entire system. Larger areas make it harder to gain influence (you have to be in every sector at least some of the time), but if you can wipe out competing claims your beacon station can be converted into a full fledged station with no restrictions.

I would really like to see a system with 3 or more competing factions. All after that one blue-roid sector...

I really like the idea of spending FP to increase the size of a claim. That could allow contested regions to grow over time as factions invest more resources into the conflict.

My hope is that a system like this would encourage multi-faction conflict. Imagine three factions fighting after the blue-roids in your example. They're all trying to build their influence by destroying their enemies and establishing a player presence, not to mention mining those asteroids. What if two factions collude to eliminate the third claim? Perhaps the more contesting parties, the lower the mining bonus, so it's in their best interest to cut out as many opponents as possible. They're still enemies, but if they have a cease-fire and only attack the third faction, it's influence goes down faster while their influences in the region stabilize. Of course they'll turn on each once the third faction is out of the way, but at least they're fighting over a bigger slice of the pie...

What they don't know is that the third faction has been setting up a deal with an outside group. If the outsiders help drive out the other two factions, but don't lay claim to the system, the third faction will negotiate favorable trading terms for all the blue-roid materials it mines with its high mining bonus. The possibilities for politics are pretty good with this system, methinks.

Pirates should definitely have beacons (hideouts or blockades) in regions they terrorize. If we allow weapons on beacons, I would imagine pirate beacons would have jump inhibitors and turrets on theirs, or hollow asteroids hiding their stash.

 

[Valck]

Leaving an unmanned ship to claim space is a great way to lose a ship. Opposing forces just put together a boarding party.

Would that be any different than leaving a station unattended?

 

[kiraen]

A station isn't going to fly away, and beacon invulnerability has already been talked about.

 

[Sha3es]

A station isn't going to fly away, and beacon invulnerability has already been talked about.

yeah this is true, we have said something about making beacons invulnerable. However, their trade off should be that there will be no offensive emplacements on it.

This was to get the factions to either invest time and players into offense defense roles, or for their to be automated defenses placed into the sector with the beacon station in it. Where in the damage dealt the the station itself would result in the loss of influence.

Or something of the like although the idea of a ship being used as a capture zone for determining where and how a zone is being contested might not be such a bad idea.