HQ is under attack! (SG/VG bases)

This is an SG based mission (because "event" is a problem word apparently). A randomly chosen enemy group will assault the base, and it is the job of the SG or VG and whomever they invite to defend the base. There will be several modes in which your base is assaulted. While inside, enemies will try their best to basically wreck whatever is around as they wander through the base, making a beeline toward offensive towers, inspiration sellers, the hospital, generators, control, teleporters, and all of that interesting stuff, until they are distracted by players, decorations, and all of that stuff.

For the list of rules:

• The minimum team requirement for an attack is 4 members.
• The maximum team requirement for an attack is a league of 24.
• All players are sidekicked to 50 at the start of the attack. Incarnate shifts still apply.
• The enemy is chosen from a list of all applicable enemies that are available at level 50. You could face Malta, Rularuu, CoT, ect.
• No damage is permanent. At the end of the mission, all base items and functions are restored.
• There are no set rewards for these missions... currently. Only killing enemies and bragging rights.
• Enemy waves will always scale to the team's size.
• Waves of enemies will enter every 30 seconds for respective game modes.
• Victory is achieved by meeting the conditions of each of the game modes.
• Defeat is achieved once every energy and control system is destroyed, along with the mission computer / oracle and base energy hits zero. Or, the enemy obtains enough "destruction points" from other systems.
• Destroyed energy and control systems become a glowie and can be repaired by clicking on them. Assembly time is 15 seconds, and any destruction points gained for destroying these systems is removed once they are repaired.
• Base defenses are still auto-repairing.
• There are two entry points for enemies by default: the SG regular entrance, and a randomly chosen hallway. The hallway will be shown on the map.

• Extermination. A finite number of enemies is attacking the base, and you must outlast this number of enemies, at a ratio of 20 enemy mobs for every player, but it is adjustable to up to 100 mobs for every player. Victory is obtained when all of these enemies are killed. Enemies will be level shifted by +1 once 1/2 of all enemies are killed, and +2 once 3/4ths of all enemies are killed.
• Siege. There is a set time limit that you must endure an assault of enemies. Times are adjustable, from 10 minutes to an hour in 10 minute increments. At 1/2 time enemies will be shifted +1, and at 1/4th time enemies will be shifted +2. Success is achieved once time runs out, regardless of how many enemies are standing.
• Endurance. This is a nonstop match where enemies will continually spawn until you call it quits or failure is achieved. Every 5 minutes the enemies gain 1 level shift, growing indefinitely in power.

• Destruction Points. These were invented to make sure that an SG can't just put crap in the way of the control and energy buildings. To be honest, I have no idea how to quantify destruction of everything, but I figure there would be a 100 point threshold, and non-decoration items would be worth 5 points each while decoration items are 1-2 points each.

1. Base raids were already a feature in the game and disabled because it was so borked, and wasn't popular.

2. Base raids cannot be reactivated because the base pathing was disabled which prevented players from building "illegal" (from a base raiding perspective) base designs.

3. All those "illegal" bases would have to be rebuilt from scratch which will piss off far more players (the base building community) than is worth the effort.

What Forbin said...

Although I do like the idea of an 'Endurance' challenge for a team (/solo), where the idea is to basically see how far you can go before you're defeated (say it's using AE tech and it'll be all okay ).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

1. These aren't base raids. At least not in the sense of being PVP based combat focusing on stealing items from other bases.

2. This is not an issue since decorations become destructible and anything obscuring a hallway can be destroyed.

3. No longer a problem with the above two.

I like the idea. It would take a complete one hundred and eighty degree change in dev mindset to implement (bases are classified as "legacy code" and they want to only "tread very carefully"). But I can see the fun in it.

Indeed. The frailty of the current SG base code is the biggest issue with this suggestion. It's hard to live in a house of cards, which is what this suggestion needs.

However... if something like this does get implemented, it would be extremely fun and also open the doors to other ideas. It never quite sat right with me that SG/VG bases were essentially decoration, especially when an important part of those bases is how they provide a support beam for upholding justice/villainy that is readily available to attack.

Eh, just give us a combat practice room type already. ;-)

If the devs were ever going to consider something like this the only way they could do it would be by completely tearing out the current base feature and building a new one from scratch with this designed into it from the get go.

They would also have to find a way to insure the players with current bases don't lose anything they currently have in their bases along with compensating them for anything earned/lost under the current base feature.

The OP's idea doesn't even take into consideration the fact that thousands of the existing bases are Solo SG's. Nor does the idea take into account how unpopular zone events are with the player base and how unhappy players will be when they can't use their bases because a raid is going on.

So in addition to the raids the devs would have to also add an option that allowed SG Leaders to opt out of the raids.

To be fair, I imagine most of the reason base raids were largely ignored were precisely because they were PVP, while the OP's idea sounds strictly PvE. I, for one, would love for there to be another reason than the CoP trial (and decoration) to have a mission computer in my base (assuming this is a planned thing, and not random annoyance like certain obnoxious mini-games shoveled into otherwise decent games).

That said, there are numerous issues to account for, most of which have been named already. And fixing those issues is likely too much work for what would be a small number of people that would take advantage of it.

Why not just make it a new instance/trial for all levels?

Since this is a PVE event and not PVP and no permanent results to the base occur, it could be fun. Just have a base option for SG/VG that don't want to participate to not be attacked. Have it happen only on certain days and times or just have it be an event started by the SG/VG leaders. Also have a minimum number of members currently online to trigger it. I think it would be neat to have bases be more than homemade eye candy. Those that don't want to be in it, wouldn't.

I know there are all kinds of reasons for this not to happen, but it sounds fun to me, so make it so. Also, some of the most fun I've had on games was defending the SG base against raids. Fun stuff so I wish that could make a comeback as well.

"Some people get their kicks stompin on a dream" - The Chairman of the Board

"I learned long ago, never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it" - George Bernard Shaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project ROFL! What next? Are you going to argue that redside has more players than Blueside?

No but it's a good point. Last I heard, the split was like 80% to 20% blue over red. But that was before Praetoria. What do you figure Praetoria is.. not incarnate trials... Praetoria... (and... wait a minute... where is the next new zone)? Where are the cries that people are "avoiding the redside and Praetoria like the plague" and it's past time to stomp them out? How about AE? How about hardcore marketeers? How about any other niche? Your strategy appears to be to find reasons on how bad something is so you can pretty much reject good ideas out of hand. Ok if that makes you feel better.

It's pretty simple... if you want the business you grow the business. People are going to do what they perceive as fun (and to a lesser extent for rewards). Base raids were an absolute mess in terms of both logistics and mechanics. But you know what? They were still an absolute hoot to do for me and to others. Best times in my seven year CoH gameplay. There are lots of lair raid based games out there that do just fine (pvp and pve). This one could too. It's a flat out shame that the devs could not grow the business with base raids. If a PvE attack/defend system can somehow provide half the fun value long term as base raids did for a very short time it would be a success... at least as much of a success as what some of the other niche communities have enjoyed with what we have received lately.