In recent months we have been focusing on a lot of the non-combat aspects or PvE oriented aspects of gameplay and providing details of how they were designed. Beyond the PvE elements available we do offer a lot in the way of PvP gameplay. PvP can range from enjoying combat in the contested regions, doing battle with your faction allies against the other main faction, or enemies as decided on by alliances with other nations in the game.The nation system is one of the core elements of The Repopulation. It can lead to numerous PvP opportunities such as the sieging or defending of cities, or battling for control of vital resources. Independent nations that we refer to as “Rogue Nations” can form their own alliances and become a bastions of peace, or a chaotic group of mercenaries attacking anything on sight.
Players begin the game as Reserve members of the military, which means that they may not attack or be attacked in Protected regions. Each of the two main factions has roughly a third of the world marked as owned and protected by their faction. Reserve military members may not attack or be attacked by rival factions while in these protected regions. There is a full complement of tiers in these protected regions, so players who wish to avoid PvP entirely, may do so on Normal servers.
You may switch to Active military at any time, but if you do so you will be unable to switch back to Reserve for a period of time. Active Military members can attack or be attacked by other Active Military members of hostile nations. Once you step outside of the protected regions and into the contested regions you are under the same rules of active military. Enemies of your faction or nation are able to attack you at will.
Contested Regions - Rewards and Perils
Our primary goal for PvP was to avoid the “capture the fort” style of PvP gameplay where it was more of a minigame or time sink and had no repercussions for your actions. We still offer some common available options such as military ranks and perks that come with extended PvP experience as a reward, but we want the rewards to go far beyond that in something more tangible and persistent. The Contested regions exist between the OWON and FPR faction controlled areas. Once a player enters a contested region they are open to PvP, but don't expect a never-ending you-versus-the-server gankfest. If you are OWON or FPR, your entire faction is friendly to you, while the opposing faction is hostile. Rogue nations can be friendly, neutral, or hostile based on their alliance setting. The contested regions are fairly large and include missions, engagements, resources, creatures and plots of land that can be used to build nation cities.
Contested Regions - Outposts and Resources
PvP engagements are another key aspect to PvP in The Repopulation. These goal oriented events occur in contested regions, and can significantly alter local content and spread into nearby areas. Outposts are a common type of PvP engagement and begin as small camps that offer engagement goals such as espionage operations. If players are able to complete goals, the outposts can grow in size and become more dangerous to nearby cities.
Outposts can provide a number of strategic advantages. They spawn soldiers of your faction type, providing you with some protection and can serve as a base of operations to contest resources or launch sieges. They can spawn new NPC vendors, or mission opportunities that are only available when they attain certain sizes. Having an enemy outpost sprout up near one of your cities can also benefit your faction, as you will now have the alternate goals to destroy that outpost.
Harvestable areas and clusters in contested regions have higher yield rates than in faction protected regions, which acts as a reward for stepping out of the controlled areas. While you can obtain the full complement of resources in the protected regions, it will be easier to obtain higher quality results in contested regions. Control of these resources is expected to be a vital point of conflict providing opportunities for PvP. Control of resources is important to both building the city, and in providing additional resources for player crafting. City-specific resources function similarly to other harvested nodes, and will spawn in both static and random locations. This provides opportunities for both discovery and to hold key resources for longer periods of time.
Contested Regions - Building Nations
Nations can take control of plots of land in contested regions to build cities. Once a plot of land is taken, the nation and those in charge of the city can increase the size of the city by providing resources for the city and structures to help the city prosper and grow. As the city grows, it will be better suited to defend itself.
Cities can also be used to launch sieges on rival nations. We'll cover sieges in detail in a future article, but suffice to say that the sieging process will require careful planning, and will be window based so you won’t wake up to find your hard work completely lost. The risk of losing a city is very real though. Nations would be wise to form alliances, and not alienate themselves from the rest of the server. Cities provide defense to friendly players, as well as being hubs for shopping, entertainment and missions.
PVP Combat Options - Action or RPG Mode
During combat players have the choice of fighting in Action Mode or RPG Mode. Action mode is a simulated FPS style combat setup where the mouse controls the camera and character’s rotation making it easier to move and aim at something. The system is also designed to handle some basic ability logic and stacking, so you can use your mouse/keyboard to perform stacks of abilities. It can also keep track of multitarget selections to intelligently perform AOE abilities. Abilities can be assigned to mouse and keyboard commands and performed when they are available making ability usage slightly easier and faster. The traditional hotbar 1-0 can optionally be used as well, or completely hidden, based on user preference. Action Mode is available in both 1st person and 3rd person camera views.
RPG Mode is the more traditional “tab targeting” mode that is available in most MMORPGs, and uses traditional camera controls and ability bars. Both systems function almost identically on the server, leaving you to choose the mode that works best for your play style rather than which one gives you an advantage over the other.
Combat Options - Roles and Techniques
Many of the combat options in PvE, carry over to PvP. There are no levels or classes in The Repopulation. Instead, we offer a variety of skills that progress naturally. For example, firing a rifle will increase your Rifle Tactics skill. Equipment is upgraded through the use of the fitting system. Fittings are socket like objects that increase the stats of your base equipment. Our base equipment, which we refer to as shells, contains baseline stats that can be tweaked with the addition of fittings.
A common question is whether or not The Repopulation will use a Holy Trinity (tank/healer/dps) approach to combat. The answer to that question is quite complicated, however. Players will be playing roles which are defined by the weapon or held device (such as a Medical Scanner) they choose to use in combat. Your effectiveness in that role is determined by your skill level. Each weapon is well-suited to a specific role. For example, a Sniper Rifle is good for long-range single target DPS, where an Aerosol weapon is best for short-range Area of Effect attacks, and a Blunt Weapon is ideal for melee range crowd control. You may switch weapons during battle to alter your role, but you will be unable to perform any actions for a short period of time each time you swap weapons or armor. This ensures that it is most effective to play in defined roles, but allows you to change roles if the need arises.
A dedicated healer would want to equip a Medical Scanner in place of a weapon. These scanners allow for longer range healing but you will be unable to wield a weapon while it is equipped, though you can defend yourself with some Martial Tactics melee abilities. There are also limited medical abilities such as Bandage Wound that allow you to treat other players without the use of a Medical Scanner, but those are less effective and short range. Self-healing can be done through the use of consumed Stimulators. Support types (buffs/debuffs) are represented through many of the skill lines, but there are several lines completely dedicated to them including: Defensive Tactics, Leadership and Entertainment. In addition, pets can play an important role in combat and support.
Vehicles also play a large role in PvP. Vehicles can seat multiple passengers, and be used both for transportation, or for attack. There are specialty types of vehicles designed specifically for sieges or vehicle to vehicle combat. Vehicles can be destroyed, and tactical vehicles require a garage to be spawned or repaired. These garages can be placed in player-created cities. This adds a tactical element as they must be mobilized from distance and can not simply be dropped into the middle of a firefight. Similar to pets and equipment, vehicles can be upgraded and improved using a vehicle upgrade system, which allows for significant customization.
Hardcore Server - Not hardcore enough?
For those who are looking for a bit more PvP action,we are going to be offering 2 different ruleset servers. The "Normal" ruleset is the baseline functionality. You can not loot dead players in the normal ruleset, and there is in fact very little penalty for death. We want to encourage players to participate in PvP by focusing on the fun, rather than penalizing players for being killed. The Normal ruleset employs Active and Reserve military system which modifies where a player can kill or be killed.
The Hardcore ruleset is tailored towards players who are looking for a more PvP centric experience. Under the normal ruleset the protected areas are safe from non consensual PvP. However, on the hardcore servers the game world offers no safety areas and the only protection you would have is from faction guards or other players. We are still in the process of finalizing the exact mechanics of this ruleset. We currently are discussion a variety of those mechanics in our forums if you or your guild is interested in providing feedback.