Concerning Mega-Guilds and the Conquest System.

[Infernixx]

As it stands now, the largest of Guilds on each server will dominate the system, week in and week out. If these mega-guilds don't exist now(and they do on many servers), they will shortly.

 

The system, as it stands now, rewards the largest guilds, playing to their strengths of size and numbers. Those in middling guilds or small guilds will have no chance at all of ever placing once these mega-guilds grow to ten or more per server.

 

If they truly want all Guilds to take part in Guild Conquest, then something has to be changed.

 

A Cool-Down for Conquest:

 

If you place on a leader board on the first week of the month, you get the rewards for a month instead of a week and you're not allowed to participate in Conquering a new planet for 3 weeks after your success and cannot place on a Leader Board until next month. The rest of the system remains unchanged. The following week, all guilds except for the ten that placed on the Leader Board are allowed to try and Conquer a planet again. The winners on the second week get removed from the Conquering system for '2' weeks. The winners of the 3rd week are removed and get to wait 1 week. All Guilds are then able to start over at the beginning of the following month and do it all over again.

 

This means that by the end of your month, you have 3 other Guilds that have Conquered that planet alongside your guild. This opens the field by a factor of four, enabling four times as many Guilds to place on the Leader board.

 

The largest guilds will dominate whatever planet that they want, week after week. My suggestion simply eliminates those dominating guilds from the Conquest system, week after week after week, and opens up the field to all Guilds, thus making the case that even small guilds can place on the Leader Boards for at least one week out of the month.

 

Thoughts, ideas? Feel free to tweak this if you think you have something that works better.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Infernixx

[Kremsau]

First off, I love this idea. I'll reiterate, I love this idea.

 

My two cents to stimulate thought: What's to stop guilds from cycling every three weeks? (Now of course every conquest system will be manipulated, and this also assumes guilds will be coercing [though it seems to be agreed upon this will be happening])

 

Edit 1: Perhaps the reward could diminish as a guild holds one planet consecutive week after week, although again...guilds could cycle and switch out with others to maintain a stranglehold on their desired planets.

 

Edit 2: Maybe we could create "divisions" of the planets based upon which region of the galaxy they reside in. Conquering one planet within that particular area means you're locked out of that portion of space for 2 weeks. That would mean at any given time you can access roughly half the planets. This could be explained by resistance forces on the planets preventing you from establishing a hold on the system.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Kremsau

[Infernixx]

First off, I love this idea. I'll reiterate, I love this idea.

 

My two cents to stimulate thought: What's to stop guilds from cycling every three weeks? (Now of course every conquest system will be manipulated, and this also assumes guilds will be coercing [though it seems to be agreed upon this will be happening])

 

Perhaps the reward could diminish as a guild holds one planet consecutive week after week, although again...guilds could cycle and switch out with others to maintain a stranglehold on their desired planets.

 

As it stands, with my idea would not stop the biggest of guilds from winning in that first week of the cycle. What it does and all I intended for it to do, was to remove the winners from the system after winning, allowing those below to get a chance to step up. Unless the population on the servers massively increase, I really don't see more than 10 Mega-Guilds forming even on the largest of servers. With my tweaked system, those 10 guilds would place in the first week and then vanish off the grid.

 

But, let's say that that they wait til Week 2 of the month to Conquer. They'll win the top spot, easily, and then be removed from the system until the next month. In my system, the biggest guilds will only be able to win once per month and there will still be reason to try in the first week because you get less and less of that winning buff if you wait to the following weeks before you try.

 

My system allows those Mega-Guilds to win one time a month and gives them reason to fight over the Leader Board in the first month rather than wait it out. It clears them out of the system and then the normal guilds will be able to compete in the following weeks.

[Kremsau]

Oh so you're system applies to the entire galaxy? I was under the impression they'd be locked out of the planet they captured allowing them to move onto the next. I like it, but I feel like that'd hamper community involvement too much and it wouldn't be as big a hit (leading to an outpouring of complaining on the forums)

 

P.S. I kept spewing forth on my first post with other ideas.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Kremsau

[Kantaso]

One solution could be that instead of a planet the guild can conquer an area on the planet, divide each planet in 50+ areas and that way guilds could have better choices or opportunities.

 

Or have a system where Republic fights against the Empire for the planet, all the Rep fleets against all the Empire fleets and whoever wins the whole Empire or the whole Republic benefits from it,

Edited August 6, 2014 by Kantaso

[Infernixx]

Oh so you're system applies to the entire galaxy? I was under the impression they'd be locked out of the planet they captured allowing them to move onto the next. I like it, but I feel like that'd hamper community involvement too much and it wouldn't be as big a hit (leading to an outpouring of complaining on the forums)

 

P.S. I kept spewing forth on my first post with other ideas.

 

I fully expect the Mega-Guilds to complain about not being able to dominate as they plainly intend on. That said, they'll get over it.

 

There 'has' to be something to balance these super-sized guilds and keep them from destroying the system or most Guilds will either not bother trying/playing, or they'll merge and merge and merge until there's only a handful of Mega-Guilds on the server. At which point, the price tags for Guild stuff will have to explode through the roof to make them worth noticing by those super-rich, super-sized Guilds.

[Kantaso]

It is sad that the devs have not thought of this problem. Maybe if guildships had other perks, like special crafting recipes, or special materials to create special items, special forges or special weapons, armor only sold in the guild ships. I dont know, been myself in small guilds right now, I dont think that this guildship is of any benefit to us.

[Kremsau]

New Mini-Game: GALACTIC SENATE

 

Where representatives from each guild must gather for daily sessions to resolve trade routes and extra-guild disputes.

*joke - not intended to derail this topic*

Edited August 6, 2014 by Kremsau

[LanceCorporalDan]

At least 8 planets at being able to be conquered at once. Top 10 on each. That's 80 guilds across the server, while not including in inclusion of the extra planets on top of it (mentioned in stream) I like giving support to smaller guilds, this just seems somewhat excessive.

[Infernixx]

At least 8 planets at being able to be conquered at once. Top 10 on each. That's 80 guilds across the server, while not including in inclusion of the extra planets on top of it (mentioned in stream) I like giving support to smaller guilds, this just seems somewhat excessive.

 

The number of planets up for Conquest changes depending on the week, I believe.

 

Personally, I'd love to know how many Guilds we have on the servers. That would tell me whether or not my idea is excessive. On my own server, we have too many guilds to count. What's wrong with giving those Guilds a chance to place on the board, even if it's only on Week 3 or 4 instead of Week 1?

[RDX-TWO]

One thing everyone is missing out, you can only have a MAX of 12 person at a time conquering a planet and once you go on that planet you are locked in for 3 days. All of you small guild if you can't get 12 person in your guild then it's not a guild you have so stop complaining.

[Infernixx]

One thing everyone is missing out, you can only have a MAX of 12 person at a time conquering a planet and once you go on that planet you are locked in for 3 days. All of you small guild if you can't get 12 person in your guild then it's not a guild you have so stop complaining.

 

Really? You can only dedicate 12 people to a planet?

 

Not calling you a liar, but do you have a source for that? That would completely alleviate my concerns about Mega-Guilds.

[RDX-TWO]

Check last nights twitch stream they mention it at one point. You can only have 12 person on the planet conquering it's the max and it was made that way for performance purposes.

http://www.twitch.tv/swtor?sf29420138=1

 

edit: Actually the more I think about it, it's actually more advantageous to be in a small dedicated guild then being in a large guild since not everyone will be able to get in the group to go planet side to conquer. So mega guild or not I don't think it will matter that much.

Edited August 6, 2014 by RDX-TWO

[Infernixx]

check last nights twitch stream they mention it at one point. you can only have 12 person on the planet conquering it's the max and it was made that way for performance purposes.

http://www.twitch.tv/swtor?sf29420138=1

 

'On' the planet. There's far more to Conquest than simply doing stuff on the planet. As you said, that appears to simply be an effort to control over-sized guilds 'on' the planet.

 

Conquest Events consist of many many many different kinds of ways to earn points toward Conquest, such as doing Operations, FPs, Warzones, Crafting and GSF and none of that is done on-planet.

 

Unless they limit the number of people who can contribute to Guild Conquest goals, then Mega-Guilds will still dominate, even if they only have 12 people 'on' the planet.

[RDX-TWO]

Well you can't get everything that's just life. If you conquer the planet you will get the associated planetary buff ie crafting bonus and so on. If you want to compete on the leader board against other guilds for top server ranking then yes a large guild will be advantageous, like I said you are in a small guild if you want to be server first then start recruiting.

 

edit: I actually like Bioware's approach since everyone can contribute as long as players play the game in any form they like they will contribute to the guild's ranking.

Edited August 6, 2014 by RDX-TWO

[Infernixx]

Well you can't get everything that's just life. If you conquer the planet you will get the associated planetary buff ie crafting bonus and so on. If you want to compete on the leader board against other guilds for top server ranking then yes a large guild will be advantageous, like I said you are in a small guild if you want to be server first then start recruiting.

 

Small guilds don't work like that.

 

That sort of thinking, though, is what destroys the small-guild/middling guild scene and results in a handful of Mega-Guilds. Impersonal, uncaring guilds full of people that won't help you and may well deliberately antagonize you unless you're a Guild Officer.

 

Guilds stop being about friends and family and people you like running with and turn into 'what do I get out of it? Mercenary thinking and behavior.

 

Which is funny because small/middling Guilds are the ones who are asking the most of their active players in the way of donations to get the Guild Ship in the first place.

 

Simply saying 'RECRUIT LOL' isn't a suitable answer to those many guilds who don't like inviting random strangers into the family just because they want to have a fair chance of hitting the Leader Board.

 

My suggested tweak to the system wouldn't hurt the Mega Guilds and would allow the smaller Guilds to compete.

[Ryvirath]

Is small guilds synonymous with 6 friends and a pack of beer? Are you asking why you can't conquer planets with that? I'm confused. A guild of 24 well coordinated people could do just about anything. Work on it. Or Don't.

[Infernixx]

Is small guilds synonymous with 6 friends and a pack of beer? Are you asking why you can't conquer planets with that? I'm confused. A guild of 24 well coordinated people could do just about anything. Work on it. Or Don't.

 

Is there something inherently wrong with six people working as a group on Guild Conquest and competing with the large number of other 6-man Guild groups that are doing the same thing?

 

Is there something terrible with clearing the Mega-sized guilds out of the way early in the month so that the rest of the guilds can compete, too?

[uaintjak]

I don't really see anything in Bioware's system that needs fixing, considering it isn't even live yet.

[Kantaso]

Is small guilds synonymous with 6 friends and a pack of beer? Are you asking why you can't conquer planets with that? I'm confused. A guild of 24 well coordinated people could do just about anything. Work on it. Or Don't.

 

Sorry Bubba, according with this guy your six pack, you, me, uncle Bob, aunty Ruth and the twins dont count as a guild.

[wagetz]

I posted the following to a response in a another thread but it fit better here. I do agree until we see it work for a few weeks we maybe jumping the gun with better ideas, I am hoping this conquest turns out to be a success and a lot of people can have fun doing it. When i look at the current reward system I feel the flaw is you are ask to but int time but have a small chance at any kind of rewards. So why not but a layer in there were once you reach a certain goal you get something and if you finish in the top x you get something on top of that.

 

For Example:

The current personal conquest goal is 35,000 points and the guild rewards for the top 10 guilds are 10 Jawa Junk,1 Gathering Lockbox, 50K credit certificate, and 1 encryption plan

 

So set the guild goal to 350,000 points (that is 10 people at 35,000). Then if the guild earn that many points give them the above rewards. If they finish in the top x (say 10 for this example) , then they get an addition 5 Jawa junk, another 50K Credit Certificate and additional encryption plan. (this can be modified if many ways).

 

By doing this all guilds have a chance of getting some kind of rewards for investing their time into the game (regardless of their size) and for others there are some bragging rights to shoot for.

[LanceCorporalDan]

The number of planets up for Conquest changes depending on the week, I believe.

 

Personally, I'd love to know how many Guilds we have on the servers. That would tell me whether or not my idea is excessive. On my own server, we have too many guilds to count. What's wrong with giving those Guilds a chance to place on the board, even if it's only on Week 3 or 4 instead of Week 1?

 

Giving them a fighting chance is one thing but excluding a guild because they are successful seems counterproductive.

[Zoom_VI]

Giving them a fighting chance is one thing but excluding a guild because they are successful seems counterproductive.

 

Yeah, and honestly the system resets, and looking at what is required for points makes me believe that the guild dominating will be the hardworking guilds that are working their butts off on conquest. Size will be just a minor advantage.

 

This thread just has too many tinfoil hats.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Zoom_VI

[Infernixx]

Giving them a fighting chance is one thing but excluding a guild because they are successful seems counterproductive.

 

I don't see it as excluding them. The members of those Mega Guilds would not be inconvenienced in any way. But, instead of working on accomplishing a Conquest every week, they'd only do it once per month. The other three weeks(at most), they'd still be able to grind Personal Conquest and work on gathering Encryption items and Frameworks as well as other stuff. They'd even be able to enjoy their Conquest buffs even longer, with using Walkers for 3 weeks instead of just one.

 

Nothing of what I suggest would be a downgrade or nerf for Mega Guilds or their members. It would just clear them out of the system to make way for more Guilds that aren't as big.

[Levram]

I believe that locking certain players out of content for three weeks at a time is only going to damage player's interest in the game. Some people are already annoyed that Bounty Week, the Gree event, and the Rakghoul event don't return frequently for their personal tastes.

 

Your suggestion would essentially result in people from large and active guilds locking themselves out from Conquests for three weeks while everyone from the "non-winning" guilds get to keep playing that content all month. That is the opposite of a motivating factor as the message being delivered is "Congratulations on doing so well! Please go sit on the sidelines for the next 22 days."

 

As was specified in the Twitch stream, there are several mitigating factors already incorporated into Guild Conquests that will permit smaller guilds to compete:

• All guilds that place in the Top 10 for a specific planet are rewarded.
  
• There are multiple and rotating planets available for conquest each week. Some weeks will be very focused with only a few planets eligible and some weeks will be much broader.
  
• For the last three days of the conquest period each week, guilds cannot switch planets. Therefore during a week where there are many planets available for conquest, a small guild can analyze the leaderboards right before the lock-in and switch to a planet that looks vulnerable.
  

Edited August 6, 2014 by Levram