Developer Blog from February 4th: Evolution of ‘Sector Conquest’

[Akaurl 233]

Almost a year ago we launched the new ‘Sector Conquest’ system. We also introduced dreadnoughts and epic battles they can participate in. Star sectors were divided between the powerful corporations and alliances. It's time to take the next step in the battle for control of inhabited worlds. Very soon, ‘Sector Conquest’ is going to evolve. Today for the first time we want to tell you what the new system of global corporation wars is going to look like in our game.

Corporations will continue to fight for systems and zones, available to players on the global star map. Battles involving corporate dreadnoughts will become a rare yet even more important event. Corporations will be able to demonstrate well-coordinated work of their wings, influence location defence strength and receive awards in daily tournaments and PvP battles.

Changes to ‘Sector Conquest’ will take place gradually. The new rules will be phased in. Below we are going to look into the main stages of the new SecCon launch.

 

Stage One. Defence strength and SecCon rewards.

 

Each location has a certain ‘Defense strength’. This option is affected by dreadnoughts nearby and results of daily battles in pilot tournaments (and even results of personal battles of corporation pilots). Each victory or defeat in a tournament or PvP battle will affect ‘Defence strength’. Both increase and decrease it. Max strength remains the same.

• Upon capturing the location the zone receives a few strength points.
• Dreadnought in a location recovers its strength.
• Corporation pilots can recover strength of the selected location by winning in normal PvP-battles.
• If the defending team loses, location strength is reduced.

System ownership rewards will also be procured in battles. The reward will directly depend on ‘Defence strength’ and, later, from special corporate buildings in the star system.

Each corporation pilot will receive a certain amount of tokens that can be used to obtain the desired reward. The number of tokens depends on the level of the corporation and the held location. To receive a reward from a territory, the player has to fly into battle in exactly this location and win to get the reward.

 

Stage Two. Dreadnoughts and daily tournaments.

 

 

Corporations will still be able to attack or defend locations only with the help of dreadnoughts. But the ship will have to fly directly to the location of the future battle. It will take time, resources and expensive fuel. One Dreadnought can protect all the locations within a single star system. But attacking or defending multiple star systems at the same time will not be possible. Corporations need to build additional dreadnoughts if they want to attack multiple star systems at the same time.

Only corporation pilots will be able to fight in dreadnought battles. Involving mercenaries or casual pilots will no longer be possible. In general, attacks on star systems involving corporate dreadnoughts seem to us a very important event. All pilots need to make an effort to collect resources and fleet strength. Moreover, all active actions of corporation pilots will fill corporation storage with necessary resources. Anything a pilot does in the game adds to the general treasury of the corporation in one form or another.

Daily tournaments will now become the main tool of increasing corporation levels and the level of their pilots. Corporate wings will be able to join tournaments as well.

• Tournaments will be scheduled daily.
• Solo players or whole wings will be able to participate.
• Every corporation as a result of these games, determines its special place in the league table of corporations.

 

Stage Three. New star systems and corporation structures.

 

The number of star systems available to pilots in fringe sectors is constantly growing. We also plan to expand the number of star systems available for control in SecCon mode.

Along with new star systems, corporations will get the ability to build special structures affecting ‘Defense strength’ in locations and rewards for control over them. More information about the structures will be uncovered in future editions of the developer blog.

 

 

Stage Four. New corporate structure.
Level system for corporations as well as their pilots will change significantly. Each pilot will grow in their corporation’s respective ranks. Synergy gained in battle will directly affect the reputation of the pilot and the reputation of the entire corporation as a whole. The higher the rank of a pilot — the higher rewards he gets from occupied locations. Player reputation will influence the level of the corporation.

 

 

Stage Five. Age of empires.
The updated SecCon version implies that corporations will not be able to constantly control occupied sectors. Capturing and holding sectors will take a certain amount of time. Long enough that corporations would be able to divide the available stellar systems. We are calling this SecCon seasons. At the end of the season the best corporations and pilots will receive special rewards — titles, medals, resources, honour and respect, their own place in the game’s Hall of Fame. And then everything will start from the beginning...
 
 
Of course, that’s not all the information about the future of the new ‘Sector Conquest’ system. We shall return to this topic in our future developer blogs. Stay with us. Follow the news, play Star Conflict!

[millanbel 997]

Finally a rework. It was long due.

 

You make no mention of alliances, which I find is a shame. There have been many suggestions concerning this, to make it balanced. Also will we finally get t5 dreadnought matches?

 

What about League? Will the two systems be mixed up in future? Will League be reworked so it's fun and not just boring recon/cruise tackler spam?

 

This dev blog has brought up more questions than it answered XD

[Firely 3]

> Involving mercenaries or casual pilots will no longer be possible.
 

This system is similar to another space game where new players and corporations are completely excluded from high-level activities for months - if not years - till their experience and assets grow to the point where they become useful for bigger corporations and alliances. Result: most players play solo PvE and quit the game thinking it's neither fun nor engaging.

 

Lately developer of that game has realized this mistake and re-focused on small corp activities and "forced employment" for new players because they play much longer if involved into group activities. Also I've seen another game where players may enter corporate/guild battles via casual PvP group finder - that game is more valuable to me than one where I have to wait for few months till I'll be eligible to join a monopolistic mega-corp (if I won't quit long before that out of my solo boredom).

[JasanQuinn 1,680]

I like the idea of being able to contribute without having to take part in timed events. For me, these events are often really badly out of sync - they either happen really early in the morning, really late and night, or when I'm in work. As such, I've felt like all I can do for my corp is deposit iridium. Being able to boost our corp's defense, or maybe even help in an attack in my own time would be a really nice feature.

[Doomb0t 277]

Finally a rework. It was long due.

 

You make no mention of alliances, which I find is a shame. There have been many suggestions concerning this, to make it balanced. Also will we finally get t5 dreadnought matches?

 

Yep, finally :-) Alliances are still in project, now we are working on stage 1

 

Will League be reworked so it's fun and not just boring recon/cruise tackler spam?

 

I heard about at least 2 counter-strategies for recon/cruise spam.

 

 

This dev blog has brought up more questions than it answered XD

 

 

Of course it is, as always xD

[xKostyan 1,075]

NASA is recruiting more pilots!

Apply here:

http://www.fgjmusic.net/nasa/phpbb3/index.php

[Doomb0t 277]

NASA is recruiting more pilots!

Apply here:

http://www.fgjmusic.net/nasa/phpbb3/index.php

hmmm

[xKostyan 1,075]

hmmm

Your hmmm and then signature NO! don't really go together :)

[Mecronmancer 280]

• Corporation pilots can recover strength of the selected location by winning in normal PvP-battles.

This has the potential to be a nice mechanic but until squads are reintroduced into the higher tiers, I do not believe this is a good decision.

 

Corporations need to build additional dreadnoughts if they want to attack multiple star systems at the same time.

Good thing NASA has enough iridium to build 3 more fully equipped dreads.

 

Only corporation pilots will be able to fight in dreadnought battles. Involving mercenaries or casual pilots will no longer be possible.

Good. While it may be useful to "flesh out" a wing with pugs, IMHO if a corporate wing does not have enough people to participate they must go with what they have. Remove the bots too and we'll be pretty happy about this.

This will also help with corporation recruitment!

 

• Tournaments will be scheduled daily.
• Every corporation as a result of these games, determines its special place in the league table of corporations.

YAY! More squad-based activities! This is a right move and a step in the right direction.

 

Along with new star systems, corporations will get the ability to build special structures affecting ‘Defense strength’ in locations and rewards for control over them.

Will the Laboratory have a role in this? Also this idea is pretty cool - kind of like EvE's Player-Owned Stations.

 

We also plan to expand the number of star systems available for control in SecCon mode.

Check out Halffast's poll on an earlier dreadnought time for NA players if you guys need a little inspiration: http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/29579-extra-dread-battle-time-poll/

 

The higher the rank of a pilot — the higher rewards he gets from occupied locations.

Excellent! This will promote activity as a whole.

 

At the end of the season the best corporations and pilots will receive special rewards — titles, medals, resources, honour and respect, their own place in the game’s Hall of Fame.

Now this I can get behind. Hopefully more information will be released about this in future DevBlogs.

 

Overall, I like the direction in which SecCon is headed. If these new ideas are implemented correctly, I believe this will increase activity on the NA side significantly. Which is desperately needed.

I've always liked the idea of a a fluid SecCon space. This will help - I hope.

[Mecronmancer 280]

hmmm

You know what I have to say on this matter, doom ;)

[millanbel 997]

 

I heard about at least 2 counter-strategies for recon/cruise spam.

 

Yes, easily counterable, but still boring as f***

[xKostyan 1,075]

Yes, easily counterable, but still boring as f***

remove these ones, and new boring ones will emerge, there is no way around it

[_OMAR_ 33]

YYYYOOOOOOLLLOOOOOOOOOO

[Astraal 148]

ETA?

[Guest]

So, this is why there is still no lesson video of SecCon. Well, then excused.

 

I don't know how far SQ development progressed but I've got an idea some time ago about battle times. After reading this blog, however, I can't decide whether or not it's outdated. I put it here anyway:

So, I thought it would be useful if each location had an option to choose from multiple battle times. Defending corporations could decide when the daily one battle over their sector(s) would be taking place. These optional times should be predetermined by developers. Lets say, three for each sector with one or two hours apart from each other. After a SQ battle session was over at a location, the owner corporation should be required to choose from the times that their location offered. So, until the end of the next battle for that sector, that selected time would be in effect. In case the location owner wouldn't select a time, the system would pick one randomly or a general set time for that location. 

[ArcTic 158]

Good thing NASA has enough iridium to build 3 more fully equipped dreads.

Dem rich white boys. 

[xKostyan 1,075]

Dem rich white boys. 

It is not a matter of having it, it is a matter of knowing whom to take it from

:006j:

[millanbel 997]

It is not a matter of having it, it is a matter of knowing whom to take it from

:006j:

 

DESU?

[xKostyan 1,075]

DESU?

i can see why would you think that, but in reality those guys are even cheaper than Tillowaty :D

[millanbel 997]

i can see why would you think that, but in reality those guys are even cheaper than Tillowaty :D

 

By the way, is tillo settling well into his new corp? Is he learning to speak Russian yet?

[xKostyan 1,075]

By the way, is tillo settling well into his new corp? Is he learning to speak Russian yet?

Since when am I a Tillowaties secretary? :004j:

[Mecronmancer 280]

Dem rich white boys. 

 

By the way, is tillo settling well into his new corp? Is he learning to speak Russian yet?

Tillo learning a new language? Man he barely even knows English.

[xKostyan 1,075]

Paint master race!

[_OMAR_ 33]

Tillo .. New corp??? and Russian??? WTF man he still asking for Syria passports from me what are u talking about...?

[g4borg 1,866]

i like the ideas at least in dev blog form.

 

well, obviously.

 

it sounds round robin.