How to take a Hard Drive Hostage: POW System

[Earlydawn]

Based on popular conversation on the Idealab IRC channel. Earlydawn's draft for a Prisoner of War System.

First off, a few initial changes to get the ball rolling:

• Dying now costs around 250 BEP, increasing in cost per death as your respawn timer gets longer.
• You can never losea level from this system.
• Additionally, once your timer hits 25 seconds, you are sent back to Sanctuary.
• You can avoid this by using medics for revives / medivacs, and your respawn timer will decrease over time.

How does capturing work?
Don't worry. No matter how careless you are, you'll never spend a night in a cell. That'd be no fun. The Prisoner of War System works off two concepts: Battle Experience Points, and your Matrix.

Unfortunately, brainstorming how to actually *pull off* the capture system was the hardest part for the discussion. The consensus was some kind of Ancient-Tech device that will allow you to Buffer an Enemy's Matrix. When focused on an enemy and left uninterupted for long enough, that user is considered "captured".

What happens when I'm Captured?
Don't worry. You're free to play as usual when you are captured. No fear of being transported to some arbitrary prision cell.

What actually happens to you is determined by one factor: The Presense of a Pattern Buffer emplacement.

A pattern buffer emplacement is another one of those nifty structures buildable by the Combat Engineer. Classifed as a support structure, the Pattern Buffer is an emplacement made to hold the matrixes (respawn program) of an enemy.

Pattern buffer or not, the captive-taker always has to option of disarming you. This essentially takes all your stuff, deconstructs it into your backpack, and leaves you naked. The backpack is locked, but you can retrieve your stuff with the hack of a basic certed Technician (see Hayoo's new cert ideas; equivelent to a basic certed hacker).

So what's all this "matrix" and "pattern" garbage?

In the event that a Matrix buffer is within range of you when you're captured, the captive-taker has the oppertunity to capture your matrix.

In layman's terms, how does this affect you? When your matrix is captured, you still gain XP in all the standard ways. However, these BEPs are "buffered" in the Matrix buffer emplacement. You can always see the location of the pattern buffer your matrix is stored in.

As you begin to build BEPs, they are drained at an extremely slow rate, to the Matrix Buffer owner. In the event that the captive taker and buffer owner and two seperate people, these BEPs that are siphoned are split 50/50 between the two players.

Note that approximately 100 BEPs are siphoned from each buffered player's matrix per three minutes. However, factor in that each buffer can store six matrixes, and the owner can create quite a BEP fountain if the respective players keep bringing in BEPs. Also, BEPs are siphoned at an even faster rate the longer the camp stays operational. After you run out of cached BEPs (Accumulated post-capture), you'll start to lose BEPs pre-capture towards your next level.

That seems unfair, I'm giving my BEPs away. What can I do!?

Not get captured.



Just kidding. Of course, you have options. You can always see the exact location of a buffer that is holding your matrix on the map. You have two options: You can destroy the offending buffer, or resecure your matrix.

By destroying your buffer, you are no longer caching BEPs for the Buffer owner and the player who took you hostage. However, any built up BEPs in the buffer from kills / hacks you made that has yet to be siphoned to the owner / hostagetaker is gone. Nobody gets it.

By resecuring your matrix, you retrieve any cached BEPs left, and remove the red stain of "Matrixes Destroyed" from your stats. To do so, you must secure the perimeter and let an advanced hacker begin a hack sequence of approximately 60 seconds complete.

At that time, the emplacement deconstructs, all matrixes are released (any players with their matrixes held there can make BEPs towards themselves again), and any buffered BEPs left in the emplacement go back to their proper owner. You hero, you. :D

What's the Matrix Buffer like?

The matrix buffer is a fairly simple emplacement. It has two terminals. One dispenses the Ancient-Tech capture tool, and one displays a dirth of information:

• Who's Matrixes are there.
• How much BEPs total they've made since being "captured".
• How much BEPs have been distributed from that person's collection so far, broken down by how much went to the owner and how much to the one who actually took the hostage Matrix
• How much BEPs you'll get from each person's matrix next "payout" cycle, based on an increasing maximum for how long the emplacement has been alive and how much BEPs the player has cached.
• How many BEPs the buffered player are from starting to lose pre-capture BEP

The owner can limit access to the vend terminal for the capture devices (Costs NTUs to produce them, emplacement must be charged as per Hayoo's revised NTUs concept with an ANT or powercells.) He can also limit access to the information terminal.

Also, one more thing. If you log off for more then 30 minutes and the emplacement is still up, your recert timer gets set back 6 hours to account for your cost to the empire to rematrix. However, as long as you're logged in, You will get the regular effects of destruction / resecure of the emplacement regardless of where you are.

But if this all relates to the Deployable Emplacements concept, can't they build a firebase to guard the Matrix Buffer?

Absolutely. Being captured should take a great deal of carelessness on a player's part. Expect to fight hard to reclaim your soul. :D

[Redford Blade]

Would you (used collectively to denote the people who collaborated on this idea) mind if I did a bit of fan-fiction using this idea? This would open up a great story that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

Also, I would think that 250 per death is a little steep, especially when you consider new players who are still getting used to the game's mechanics. I'd lower it a bit, similar to in Ryzom, where you can complete one major action (easy kill, harvesting, crafting) and pay off the debt incurred by respawn. Or perhaps give them the option of waiting out the respawn, at no BEP cost.

[Hayoo]

BEP lost per death could scale with rank, probably, so that it doesn't bite so much for newbies.

That or make it an XP debt since the capture system is already leeching XP from you.

For the capture device it should probably be available at most equipment terminals like the Laze pointer is, even if it can't be used at that point. Or, it can only be acquired at an equip terminal if the special emplacement is deployed nearby. Just trying to encourage more players to carry the capture device without having to run around and find the emplacement that provides it.

Should this detention emplacement/capture equipment require Core Combat as a pre-req, I wonder?

[Earlydawn]

Originally posted by Redford Blade@Sep 24 2004, 03:57 PM
Would you (used collectively to denote the people who collaborated on this idea) mind if I did a bit of fan-fiction using this idea? This would open up a great story that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

Also, I would think that 250 per death is a little steep, especially when you consider new players who are still getting used to the game's mechanics. I'd lower it a bit, similar to in Ryzom, where you can complete one major action (easy kill, harvesting, crafting) and pay off the debt incurred by respawn. Or perhaps give them the option of waiting out the respawn, at no BEP cost.

Absolutely. If you'd like to modify the concept so characters with captured matrixes can't respawn, that's cool as well.

I agree that there needs to be a wider array of places to get the device, but I don't want it to be so prevalent that people are getting captured all the time.

I really don't care wether it's BEP debt or a deduction. Either way is fine with me. You could make arguments for either pont. However, apon consideration, a debt does seem more reasonable. The only time you should ever lose XP is if your matrix is captured and you don't take steps to rectify the situation.

Hayoo, would you be willing to do some flowchart design for this, similar to the NTU flowchart?

[Edit: Missed the CC part. Make it regular. More POW shenanagins will occur that way.]

[Hayoo]

Originally posted by CDL-Earlydawn@Sep 24 2004, 06:12 PM
Hayoo, would you be willing to do some flowchart design for this, similar to the NTU flowchart?

Gah, I missed this post somehow.

Yeah, I could create something like that. Don't know when, of course. :P But a flow chart or timeline diagram would definately help people understand the concept better.

[Earlydawn]

Thanks. Further discussion on IRc, I suppose.

[Hayoo]

Originally posted by CDL-Earlydawn@Sep 30 2004, 02:38 AM
Thanks. Further discussion on IRc, I suppose.

I think I can pop in and say hi, but I can't have my beloved Trillian installed here at my parents' house (visiting for a couple days). I'd have to use the local PSU applet, which always gives me grief. But when I get back home, definately more discussion would be welcome.

[PaintBallR]

POW is a good idea if you can hold someone for 10 or 5 mins with xp for the capture. It will help the newbs get xp faster. That's great if your trying to take a base. But if your considering making Planetside like the the other games (there's a compound loss when you die) you will loose alot of players. This is best pvp game on the market as far as I'm concerend. You start making players loose xp + time invested = loss of accounts. This is the best game to grab a gun and go and kill someone and there's no with no reprecussions. It's hard enough to kill some of the players as it is, factor in lag,and just plain skill. I see tells in the game and some guys are soo mad that they have killed 20 times and died 80 and other who have killed 100 and die 18 times. This idea would have no affect on the good players and serious piss off the the not so good players. It's bad enough getting sniped from a mile away or getting lit up by a reaver, now you guys are proposing that we loose even more when we die....not a good idea. Keep the game with no consequences, it's more enjoyable and less frustrating. No one wants to pay a monthly fee and log of for the night pissed right off.
Have you guys not learned from SWG? Had to revamp the game huh?

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by PaintBallR

POW is a good idea if you can hold someone for 10 or 5 mins with xp for the capture.

According to the idea, no player's avatar is being held captive. Only their residual matrix. Having to sit around for 10 min would kinda suck.

It's bad enough getting sniped from a mile away or getting lit up by a reaver, now you guys are proposing that we loose even more when we die....not a good idea. Keep the game with no consequences, it's more enjoyable and less frustrating. No one wants to pay a monthly fee and log of for the night pissed right off.
Have you guys not learned from SWG? Had to revamp the game huh?

I believe the idea became an xp debt rather than just a loss, with the debt being erased if you recapture your pattern or destroy the emplacement holding it. This concept was designed to make people avoid death more but also pair it with potentially fun 'jail break' missions.

However, remember that you are commenting on an idea that was proposed back in September 2004. Quite a lot has changed, and elements of this concept may have become outdated over those six months.

[firestormrct]

If your matrix is 'captured' that means it no longer resides in your facilities correct? Sooo, an interesting idea would be that as long as your matrix is captured, you cna ONLY respawn at the Sanc, OR another place that you have stored your matrix. (So, players will be limited to at Max 3 spawn points, and at min.1) This seems a much better idea, because it would be the ultimate anti-zerg, and would force players to actually USE Those Matrix-panels. (If you don't know what a matrix panel is, this is the exac reason why i think this is a good idea.
Capturing a person's matrix prevents them from auto-spawning (at nearest location), therefore making them either go to Sanc, or spawn at a Already-Matrixed point. Also great for towers, b/c you Can't matrix with towers, so anyone who is captured CAN'T spawn at towers.
There are three ways to be Un-Captured (similar to Jail in Monopoly);
*You can pay a fee of BEP (about 2% of total next level req.) IF you have the BEP
*You can wait 1 hour than pay a smaller fee of BEP (1%)
*You can wait 2 hours and pay a VERY small fee of BEP (1/2%)
*You can kill the place/thing that is storing your matrix
When someone Captures you they will blink visibly to everyone, unless they are an infil, when the blink can only be seen by you. If you are killed you can be looted and the matrix stolen by someone else (if your Empire loots a Matrix of the same Empire, it is automatically destroyed, un-capturing you) If you DECONSTRUCT the captured matrix will ALSO DECONSTRUCT, either if your remains decon, or if you use a spawn tube to decon.
They get a 3x3 item in their backpack which they can either keep OR
*Bring to a battlefield emplacement (whatever its called), this allows the player to leech about 1/10% of captured players BEP every minute, emplacement must be destroyed or hacked by techie to get un-captured (Note; if someone hacks one of these structures; then THEY will get any of the capturee's capturers automatically captured; eg if peep A captures peep B, then Peep C hacks peep A's faculity; Peep B will be uncaptured AND Peep C will 'capture' peep A!)
*Bring to Sanctuary; This Makes it impossible for player to be un-captured until he pays the BEP penalty
*Keep in inventory; the captured person WILL NOT see his matrix on map, but can still see you flashing and on radar

[Earlydawn]

Just so everyone knows, I'm reading all this feedback and I'll be doing some revisions sometime before monday, time allowing. Got a fencing meet on Sunday.