AI city rework

[Rktim]

AI city rework

Foreword:
There is allot of potential in the player made city's, but i know that I'm not alone in feeling that this potential is almost completely gone, right now id say they only have something like 30% of there full potential, and thats playershops and AI raids combined, id even dare say that they are empty shells glowing with unused potential. And there are also still some fundamental and annoying bugs that needs to be fixed.

A player city, and especially your HQ should be just that, your organizations city, and your head quarters, here you have meetings, prepare for battle, head out to battle, or just hang out in one of the bars...

So after the survey in this thread:
Survey regarding AI city's.
I have come up with the following suggestions to bring out what might not be all of but at least more of the city's potential.

And hopefully, one day, we will WANT to go to our org city to hang out, team up, chat, prepare for raids or maybe just pass threw them on our way to something else.

Possible Issues:
And yes I do understand that some prefer the way things are where the AI city's stand deserted and prefer public meeting spaces, on the other hand, if done right, you would instead perhaps go over and socialize with your neighbors and get it going that way...
Non the less its still a valid concern all tho id prefer to stay optimistic and hope that AOs population will start to (and then keep) growing (something it seems to be doing on Rk1 atm..) and then this will be a minor issue because there will always be a certain % of people that will prefer to mingle in the big city's of Rubi Ka, and its important that we look forward, and build for grandness, and don't just give up. Also so far it seems that allot of people would like to see them as your organizations main hub for playing the game.

Also some ideas might require to much work to actually be implemented but I'm fine with that, its a suggestion after all and not a demand, and of course it would also be up to FC to implement ideas as they see fit (if at all), still i think they are good ideas, and im sure many other do also, but still, some of them might be to much work to implement...

HQ:
Make all the chairs in the org meeting room ”solid”
Put the city grid exit inside the lobby allow people easy access to the HQ making it a little more appealing (small changes can have big impacts)
Separate the tower and HQ grid exits inside the grid letting the HQ one stand alone so people can go there without having to click the city in the list.
Make the yalm entrance pads doors work giving you access to it there, and also exit it there.
Add a bartender in the bar
Add a full perk reset provider in the lab
A 2-way whompha to jobe
A ”decon room” for fast buffing before heading out to the fun, this coud be a small teleport pad in the hallway or lobby that warps you in to a exact replica of the BS decon room, with the difference that it has a pad in it to exit it back to your HQ, after all its only natural that orgs would have gotten hand on the technology for this after more then 2 years. Alternatively the addition of a bank terminal and a treatment clinic in the main hall...
Let one of the computer terminals in the research lab buff your CL by 25 points for 5min or until you leave the area.
Try to fix the door even more

Landing Pad:
Add a shuttle (preferably not unicorn one) on it that has a open door, upon steping up to the door you get asked if you want to go to one of the following destinations:
ICC pad (fast access to BS terminals)
APF hub
LoX hub
New space apartments and space club (announced in FWM afew weeks ago)
Omni Trade/Old Athen (depending on faction of city)
Will to Fight pvp dungeon (or similar)
Your organizations towerfeilds
Also give it 2 ramps letting you get up on it

Cloak field generator:
Let fixers and agents be able to enter it and find a single shop where they can buy up to ql 200 Cloaking Devices, new bullets usable with SMGs and Rifles and some new nano to each of the two professions

Player shops:
Add a new shop room inside them that sells SL and RK kits up to ql 300 (depending on the QL of the city/shop
Add VP and Tower shops inside it

Grid house:
Let it work like a outdoors grid terminal that costs 500k to use, 250k goes to the owners org bank and 250k leaves the game. Ether getting asked if you wish to use it (yes/no) while steeping under it or activating it by clicking a terminal.

Skybar:
Let the door at the base of it be active so people can use it to get inside
Add a bartender in the skybar..
Move the actual bar part higher up.

City controller:
Add a small AoE XP buff around it that scales with the amount of its charge, starting at 10, dropping to 0 if the CC is completely drained
City Controller shouts: !!WARNING!! Wave #! of aliens incoming! Evacuate the city!

Mining Operations Nano Powerup:
Add a external insurance terminal and respawn location so that those that wish to may save in there city, alternatively adding one inside the HQ's decon room...

General changes:
Allow access to all buildings from people not in org as long as they are teamed (or in a raid group) with a org member...
A F-grid like grid that has exits to all AI city's, perhaps based on the CSP maps number system, and making this map, or a map like it, the default game map...
Let alien raids have a set amount of invaders with a level that is based of the person that drops the cloak, let it be as it is now for random invasions.
Let there be a really small chance of a random invasion even if the cloak is up. (slightly bigger then now tho )
Let players build a GMS terminal (1x1) outdoors in there city.
A small rollerrat house (sides with your faction) that clears out any mobs within city limits. Spawns about 10 rollerrats that spin around your city and wack the crap out of any mob in sight (like those horrible Avalon fields with mobs in it). When aliens pop the rollerrats freak out and poof.
Various leveled mission terminals or NPC(s) based on expansion type- As examples, say, Mission Terminals that gave Xan-oriented, Shadowlands-oriented and Alien-oriented missions. Missions would be exactly like normal RK missions, (find item, find person, kill person, return item and repair item). SL missions would obviously be in the Shadowlands, but Dust Brigade and Alien missions could be either in the Shadowlands or on Rubi-Ka. NODROP loot based on type (SL loot from the Shadowlands, Alien loot from alien missions, etc.), but left as unknown for mission prize (low percentage for leadbots or Zodiac items or Albtraum items or Xan items to drop but with even a chance for items to drop, people would do them, even @ 220/30/70). Lower QL versions of high-level items (Capricorn's Unreliable Memory, Cancer's Time-Wasting Memory and Forgetful Memory of the Aquarius, and maybe Xan Symbiant, XXX Unit Delta/Gamma/Epsilon which can only upgrade lower QL Symbs, for example) would make these missions pleasing for all levels.
Change the Rompha bar whompa to lead to a bar in Tir instead, come on give the clammies a break..

Last Words:
There is allot of concern about the size of the buildings, allot of people feel that they are to big, perhaps allot of them could do good of being made a little smaller except for maybe the HQ and the Skybar (they are as impressive as they should be), some would also like to see them completely re-done but that feels a bit unrealistic to me...
I know you people will come up with TONS and TONS of more good ideas, and il try to pick out the best once and add them here, remember that I cant add them all tho even if I would want to

[Rktim]

reserved

[lordran]

Very very nice!! I see a lot of work incoming for Means

[mrgimpy]

Very nice Tim, and well taught out! the "New space apparentness and space club" space club ftw in space you can only party harder!

But on a serious note this would make a nice change and also using the cities would be a far more intresting place to be so ...

-=-Bump-=-

[Rktim]

Originally Posted by mrgimpy Very nice Tim, and well taught out! the "New space apparentness and space club" space club ftw in space you can only party harder! But on a serious note this would make a nice change and also using the cities would be a far more intresting place to be so ... -=-Bump-=-

Gah! Spell checker stabbed me in the back! XD

Fixed and ty =)

[Darion]

You got some nice ideas there

Originally Posted by Rktim A small rollerrat house (sides with your faction) that clears out any mobs within city limits. Spawns about 10 rollerrats that spin around your city and wack the crap out of any mob in sight (like those horrible Avalon fields with mobs in it). When aliens pop the rollerrats freak out and poof.

That should be done by a reworked guard house imo... guard house as it is now does not only have no use but badly interferes with ai raids. Patrolling/stationary guards should keep the city area free of any non ai mobs running around, but NOT participate in ai raids. Also players from the city's owner organization should be able to go there and get a 'guard pet' that stays for the duration of an ai raid (ground + ship), despawns when leaving the city area and triggers additional aliens. Pet level scaling with player level and guard house level ofc, resulting in lvl300 guards for a 220 player at 300 guard house.

[Dooma]

Sounds really good, would like to see that ingame.

[FixerSepyuff]

Can someone summarize this? Too much text at too low font size. o.o

[Rktim]

Originally Posted by FixerSepyuff Can someone summarize this? Too much text at too low font size. o.o

Well there is ctrl+scroll you should try it, but non the less i made the font size bigger..

also..

added:
"Also some ideas might require to much work to actually be implemented but I'm fine with that, its a suggestion after all and not a demand, and of course it would also be up to FC to implement ideas as they see fit (if at all), still i think they are good ideas, and im sure many other do also, but still, some of them might be to much work to implement..."
Under "possible issues"

[FixerSepyuff]

Originally Posted by Rktim Well there is ctrl+scroll you should try it, but non the less i made the font size bigger.."

Nah, if the person that uses such low fonts didn't care, why should I?

[kenbutsu]

Originally Posted by Rktim HQ: Make all the chairs in the org meeting room ”solid” ... Alternatively the addition of a bank terminal and a treatment clinic in the main hall...

Great idea to have bank and treatment clinic inside the org hq for twinking sessions and swapping gear. Could there also be some sort of joint bank or "armory" where orgmates can deposit items they wish to share or give away? I know this has been suggested many times before, though :/

On a social note, it might be nice to have our city apartments or a small dorm inside HQ (maybe a series of doors up 1 floor from the org meeting room?), making it feel like we live in our city and can have orgmates over to visit. Oh btw, hands off the snacks in my fridge!

[Oppopji]

Bump, also fix skybars. Here's an example of how skybars used to look at the release of AI (left) compared with how they look now (right).

The reason for this change was IIRC because people had trouble flying to them. A teleporter system should have been used instead of moving the bar section close to the ground as it is now (stupid imo).

[Rktim]

Originally Posted by FixerSepyuff Nah, if the person that uses such low fonts didn't care, why should I?

Huuuuuu? Omg its Times New Roman, besides i made the font size bigger just for you because i do care so go read it!

@Oppopji
Added

[Sidana]

I don't believe cities should be bumped as a place to be for longer times so here we go... I like people congregating in major NPC cities, gives me a sense of population. Now imagine everyone hanging out in their org city, AO would be even more deserted than it is now. So with all this in mind (another shameless selfbump):

Originally Posted by Sidana What use do we have for player cities? Besides player shops there are none. They still act as a money sink but I don’t think there’s that much surplus flowing in now, most of the creds are going around with little influx from missions and some farmers, but on the other side there are people hoarding money. If needed, adjust the rent for space in the side HQ. Or the price of advantages. There’s also the sentimental value of owning a plot of land. I love my city but would let it go nevertheless if there was a good reason for it. Downsides are plenty. They are huge sources of gfx lag, they are ugly and repetitive, mess up the landscape (though there are a few that fit in really well, kudos for the designer there). They have no real use. They make travel on RK unbalanced as meeps and folds have almost no value since you can just walk up to a nearby Neuters Wompah and that’s it. They are always deserted, even when there’s a raid in one of them. Some of them also provide unfair advantages to reach certain places in the game like spawnpoints and statics. Did I mention they feck up the landscape? As an added benefit, one of the big problems of the much needed server merge goes *poof* with the cities. So, the idea is to have a central HQ for each faction in their capital cities (Rome, Athens, Borealis/Newland) in which any org can rent some floor space (instanced). The orgs can also buy (for example, that idea is ingenious!) refined notum to allocate it for org benefits. Make GMS service charge for a flat monthly fee. Make orbital laser operators demand a salary. Collect rent for the Quantum Scanner Terminal. In fact it makes sense if the price of the services consists as the majority of the monthly rent, not the office itself. Did I mention we have the pristine land back that way? Also just imagine the possibilities of a centralized location for all communications for example, like eng and fix getting in and blocking transmissions to the orbital lasers. The possibilities are virtually endless here… Aliens are easy. [aliens are solved now with instanced cities] Selling via the GMS directly is pretty self explanatory. This can actually even out prices for players, because those who have a shop close to a grid/Wompah exit can sell for more than those who have theirs at the far end of RK. Or make an auction house. Shops gone = natural landscapes. :]]]

[Rktim]

Originally Posted by Sidana I don't believe cities should be bumped as a place to be for longer times so here we go... I like people congregating in major NPC cities, gives me a sense of population. Now imagine everyone hanging out in their org city, AO would be even more deserted than it is now. So with all this in mind (another shameless selfbump):

Well i like the way you think, i used to think like that myself awhile ago but then i realised 2 things...

1: Yes we all have weary found memories of the good old days where one could run over the wast wilderness of Rubi Ka, However... Removing AI city's for its surface wont bring those days back, they are gone, period... See if we remove AI citys then what will we have? Well about 10 almost constantly deserted maps, another 10 thats party deserted...
Yes the RK wilderness will be wild again, but no one will ever go there except for a few nostalgics hunting down a TK lackey or some random fr00bs, hardly worth removing something with so much potential imho...

2: AO can not be built going "Hey we wont have any players in a year so we cant do this or this or it will look deserted or it will be to challenging to the current player base" etc etc etc because guess what, then in a year we are guaranteed to not have any players... Sure you cant build to big atm, that would be counterproductive, but on the other hand you must still expand the game and build for greatness, your logic is the same flawed logic that many use in recessions "its a rescission, i better not spend my money but save what little i have" which leads to the rescission becoming worse and worse because people aint spending enough to turn it around hence more people loose there jobs and more people start spending less and less.

As for server merges, tbh the only server merge i could think of that would be worth doing would be Rk3 --- Rk1 but even that should wait, allowing one way character transfers from Rk3 to Rk1 would be a much much better solution.

[Solssss]

Pathing needs to be sorted first.

[Rktim]

Originally Posted by Solssss Pathing needs to be sorted first.

I'm assuming you are talking about alien patching during raids....

Well this issue as a city to city issue, meaning that there is no easy fix, a dev actually has to come to your city, and get showed exactly what the problem is and then sit down and ether move spawn points or re-do the landscape... Alternatively a mail to FC with all the cords (ALL) and information (ALL of it) they need, perhaps a map showing exact movements and thorough description of the problem, and most likely once every 3 months until they get time to fix it, only saying that they need to fix it (and nothing more) in random threads on the forums wont help at all... -.^

[SultryVoltron]

Originally Posted by Solssss Pathing needs to be sorted first.

This is exactly what I was gonna say.

[gergiskoo]

Redoing the buildings might help correct some of the pathing problems.

Also major bump for the OP. Extremely thorough, creative, and fairly simple (it seems) for FC to implement.

[tacoleet]

Could have sworn I said something about pathing in the last thread..

Something along the lines of:

1) City Owner places 5 positions where aliens spawn around the city.
2) From those spawn locations, the city owner will draw (by clicking on CC map) at least 4 pathing lines from spawn location to the CC.

Also.. I said in the last thread too..

wtb City Controller shouts: !!WARNING!! Wave #! of aliens incoming! Evacuate the city!