It is rather a collection of various small suggestions than a whole cohesive thing.
But IMO, militia/patrol need a bit of tweaking to become more relevant.
Currently, it seems more like flavor, with little to no effect, outside the gates.
It might be intended, of course.
But if not, allow me to highlight some possibilities.
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Overall number of NPC by patrol.
3-9 not matter which zone.
Patrols chances to appear
There could be 3 patrol at most in every zone, although those would have lower chance to appear in central zones.
Within the chances of the patrol to appear, we can have different factions that those patrol could come from. (each patrol only has one faction)
- In the gate, 100% of the patrols would be from the faction of the gate.
- In the zone linked to that gate, 20% of the patrols would be from the same faction as the gate.
- In the zones linked to the zone mentioned above, 10% of the patrols would be from the same faction as the gate.
- In each zone, 20% of the patrols would be members to the faction that own the zones that are linked with it. 5% from the faction that own the northern zone, for instance. If there is no link on one side (north of Gunnrunner for instance), those related 5% will be members of the faction that own the zone itself.
- The rest of the patrols would be from the faction that own the zone.
For instance :
- Adams schools is owned by lawyers, Junk Canyon is owned by V-TEC, Gamma Gulp is owned by Family, and Police is owned by Lawyers
The patrol that would appear in adams would have 5% to be family (Gamma), 5% to be V-TEC (from Junk), 5% to be lawyers from Police, another 5% from the lawyer owned lawyer gate (as always), 20% lawyers for the gate proximity and 60% again (the rest) to be lawyers, for a total of 90%.
- Eastern Square, Whorehouse, Verde Water Treatment Plant are all owned by the Family
100% of the Eastern Square patrols would be Family.
- Now V-TEC takes Eastern
20% (the 4 linked zones) + 20% (the link to the gate) of the Eastern Square patrols would be Family, while the remaining 60% patrols would be V-TEC.
- PV Bio Lab is owned by the V-TEC, Central City Village is owned by the family and Paradise Valley is owned by the lawyers.
In PV Bio Lab, there would be 10% of BBoys patrols, due to the gate proximity, 5% Lawyers, 5% Family, and the remaining 80% will be V-TEC.
- The V-TEC own All the north half of the map, including the zone between Adams and Eastern Square, while the south map are owned by other factions.
All the zones north of Hospital will have 100% V-TEC, except Junk Canyon, that will have 10% lawyers, and Verde, that will have 10% family.
All the zones south of Robco will have 5% from another faction, and the 10% to 20% of gate related patrols for those that are close enough.
If two patrols from different faction meet each other in a zone, they would fight each other.
The idea is too enforce the concept of frontiers and overall territory, not only immersion-wise, but also tactically-wise.
If you have secured the surrounding a zone, that zone will be safer for your scavengers as most, or even all, the patrol would be from your faction.
On the other hand, as you move forward the frontiers of your own overall territory, the zones become less safe, as you are your neighbours makes you feel they would want to claim those territories, if given the opportunity.
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The patrol strenght
Currently, patrol might be usefull to chase off lone intruders (if they are around) but they usually die VERY quick agains't group of players, which tends to nullify their usefullness.
Sure, they doesn't have to be OP, like in some 2238 cessions, but they could use a little buff.
As a whole, i wouldn't mind if they all get an health/resistance buff. Their offensive capacity shouldn't be too high, as they should allow those who want to escape, but they shouldn't die so quickly agains't those who fight them. It usually doesn't leave enough time to their player allies to support them.
Also, it might be interesting to make them similar to player squad in a few things.
- Those patrol could be led by a squad leader, able to beat a lvl24 players 1 vs 1 and randomly provide their buddies with 1-2 leadership bonus. A bonus they wont be able to keep if that leader dies. There could also be 10% for a squad lieutenant to also appear, who could beat a player 1 vs 1, but without leadership bonus to provide.
- Killing them could also give score during ZC. After all, they are supporting a side.
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Rules of engagement
They are fine as defending the members of their own factions agains't enemies. But without their players counterpart, they could also take a few initiative toward members of other factions.
- If they have between 0 and -10 000 reputation, they would just inform them to not cause trouble in faction X territory.
- If they have between -10 000 and - 25 000 reputation, they could ask them to holster their weapon, and shoot them if they don't complie during the next 30 sec.
- If they have between - 25 000 and - 50 000 reputation, they could ask them to leave the zone, and shoot them if they don't complie during the next 30 sec.
- If they have less than - 50 000 reputation, they could just shoot them on sight.
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Control of the patrol
Without providing direct control of those patrols, it might be interesting to provide a partial one, by pointing them some areas of interest.
It could be nice to allow players with 50 000 reputation within their faction to buy some colored flares to from an HQ merchant. (definitely not cheap, but not too expensive)
Each faction member could only buy flares in the color of their faction.
If someone in the core, activate then throw/drop that colored flags, all of the patrol of the same color within that zone, will be attracted to the radius of that flare, will run to it (after they dealt with their current fight), and patrol around the radius of that flare for around 1 minute.
They will stay here unless there is a fight, and will come back here, until the end of the minute. After that minute, they will resume their activities, unless another flare of the same color is activated. If two are active at the same time, only the older one will be taken into account by the patrols.
If the flare of each color could only be bought in each HQ, by high reputation members (to avoid alt-abuse), those flares could still be lost in battle and looted by the enemies.
Those enemies could use them agains't you in the next battle, by tricking your patrol to look somewhere else, or fight them at the beginning of the battle, so they won't help you afterward.
So there would be some kind of control, without being too much reliable.
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Defense of the zone
This might be abusable, as they would pinpoint the location of the attackers, but it would be neat to have one patrol attack them at 50% of the timer.
After all, you are treatening a faction territory. An automatic reaction doesn't seem far stretched.
But, on the other hand, it might be better if that patrol appearenc would be more random, like at some point between 20% and 80%, and not necessary only arriving from the side grids.
So the player that would come to defend wouldn't necessary know when and where to follow them.
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Topic: Militia Revamp (Read 4628 times)