Fluffyness Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 (edited) My take on how to fix Ilum. The faction imbalance is unfixable, so why not change the way instances work on Ilum. Lock the instances for a particular faction once they outnumber the other by ~5. Secondly, lock the instances at a lower player cap than you would a leveling planet. This will fix the lag. I'm sure you could do some testing and figure out how many players each instance could take before the framerate on a computer with your recommended settings drops too low to play. One tiny fix in how the instance system works fixed two problems. On to map size. Given the numbers you expected per side, the map is probably appropriate. But, because of my previous point I feel it should be reduced and changed slightly. There are no, none, zero choke points except for each base. Because that's the end of the map. I get wanting to have several paths to make it feel open world, but it's not. It's essentially a warzone so treat it as such. Funnel players right to the points with only one or two smaller paths around them. Move the turrets closer to the enterance to the base so they don't just get farmed if we're out numbered/played/geared. Keep the fights on the north/south assault, not right on our base The re-spawn areas are nice, elevated, but stupid to get down. Luckily you put the speeder points there so we can run like *****es instead of fight to get our point back. Throw in some turrets to keep them from farming the re-spawn area and give us a little space to mass and fight back to the point. One more thing, and this is a super opinionated opinion on my part. Who else remembers vanilla Alterac Valley? Specifically gathering armaments for your guards, collecting rams and most importantly summoning The ice lord and big tree dude. How about putting in something similar. My thought was: When a player fires a rocket at an enemy troop transport they get 1 stack of a buff. At 10 stacks they recieve an item in their mission item invetory that lets them call an air strike at a target location. The item is on a timer so it can't be stockpiled and can only be used once. This would do no more damage than a typical aoe, only the area is much larger so it can be used to push the line more than slaughter everyone. Another option is to collect debris after destroying enemy troop transports. After you have enough you can return to base and slap together one of three increasingly powerful vehicle companions based on how many pieces you have. They would work just like companions but be temporary and are destroyed if killed. Anything would work really, just to serve as an achievable secondary goal in what is an endless game. So lets recap this: -Clever player allotment in instances. -Lower player cap. -Better fps. -Reduced map size. -Better map flow (chokepoints, escape routes, side paths) -Less base farming. -Less spawn farming. -A fun side objective. Here's the original and my version of the Ilum map. The swoopy spawn bridge/tunnel bits may be confusing, I could do some close ups of those if needed. Check it out and tell me what you think. PS: The pve and leveling are absolutely golden in this game, that's what Bioware does best. Edited January 29, 2012 by Fluffyness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaqa Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I agree Ilum is a problem area at best, however it isnt an "Instance" it is an open world area, open being the keyword. I would much rather have them add objectives along with defensable postions (player turrets, air strikes or armor you could actually call in) to the entire map. Make it more of a hunt and battle than a camp and farm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FINALBOSS Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I agree Ilum is a problem area at best, however it isnt an "Instance" it is an open world area, open being the keyword. I would much rather have them add objectives along with defensable postions (player turrets, air strikes or armor you could actually call in) to the entire map. Make it more of a hunt and battle than a camp and farm. On my server we fight over a choke point. SW corner of the map under the Republic spawn point is a bridge. We fight there 24/7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffyness Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 On my server we fight over a choke point. SW corner of the map under the Republic spawn point is a bridge. We fight there 24/7. By a spawn point isn't a choke point, that's essentially them farming a spawn. And SW corner is a choke because that's the end of the map. I agree Ilum is a problem area at best, however it isnt an "Instance" it is an open world area, open being the keyword. When you go to any planet, Ilum for example there will be an Ilum1 or Ilum2. Those are the instances I'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffyness Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 This is a seriously good thread on the same topic, but he only talks about problems. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=206135 I want solutions so we can show these disconnected designers what we really want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vorenu Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 needs to be ffa pvp not faction based then there will be (i hope) more friends/guild groups running around instead of one giant zerg farming the other side to death outside their base. if only tatooine pvp area had an incentive to go there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffyness Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 FFA would certainly fix the faction imbalance but I don't think BW would ever go with it. Doesn't jive with their whole lore thing at all. I really thing the instance fix I came up with would be a cheaper/faster/easier solution to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffyness Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 Friend just mentioned another possible side objective. Instead of the turrets being in a fixed position. Players could complete x objective and then receive a personal turret they could deploy where they wanted for a short duration. This would serve to hold the line in close battles, or just help melee get in some kills during standoffs. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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