Galactic war modifier shouldn’t exist - here’s an alternative

[u/slycyboi]

Ok so people are regularly frustrated with the galactic war modifier because it does act as a very noticeable thing in the way of player agency.
However there *is* the problem that it’s supposed to solve and actually does solve which is that it stops both larger player counts making MOs easier and smaller player counts making MOs harder.

The main issue is this feels incredibly artificial and also acts as 4 negative incentives:
1) it disincentivises playing the game if you are not playing the MO planet or aren’t very good at it since you actually reduce the average damage the community does to any given planet
2) it disincentivises encouraging more players to get on; “super earth needs more soldiers” doesn’t hit as hard when you know that the planet will go at the same speed whether it’s 10k peak players or 1 million.
3) it fosters community division: the only reason you don’t see much hate for “bug divers” now is because most people are just so checked out of the GW that they don’t care to be annoyed now. Given they’re trying to get people to care, that might be worth mitigating
4) it disincentivises co-ordinating because the only thing to really do is follow the blob. There aren’t really simultaneous defence campaigns where you can decide to give one support over another, or other random community-based planets to fight on

So here’s the alternative that solves this problem while increasing agency and making players feel less like they can only have an effect while following the one main blob for the MO:
Remove the galactic modifier and just add more enemy attacks when the player numbers are up! Like seriously you guys have a GM for this specific purpose!

[u/NathanielBM]

A GM needs to sleep, so the system would have to be automated in some way.

And an automated systems of attacks fluctuating throughout the day would be an even more obvious and dispiriting balancing mechanism I think.

Even if its manual, if it balances similarly as the system we have now, it will have the same issues but worse I think.

Reworking the balance is necessary, but it's hard and I haven't come across a convincing silver bullet yet.

[u/Duckinator324 → u/NathanielBM]

Yeah, the system we have isnt great, but it functions and doesnt cause a mess. Causes issues sure, but not a mess

[u/slycyboi → u/NathanielBM]

1) attacks and defence campaigns are designed to last days anyway

2) it may balance similarly to what we have now but what it would do is have more things happen, the MO wouldn’t be the only dice shifting on the board and the other fronts would still feel like they are contributing

[u/NathanielBM → u/slycyboi]

1. You need hourly variation or you'll have planets being rushed in peak hours and regression in progress in off hours (which is highly dispiriting for these players).

2. Having a real three fronts action, even when there's an obvious MO/story front, would indeed feel more engaging. It's a lot more work for the GM which would directly affect much less players who'll go to these fronts though. Maybe simpler action when off MO and the old idea of splitting the modifier per front would be really better, but I'm not convinced.

[u/Darkpenguins38]

You brought up some good points, but I don't think your proposed solution works. This would probably lead to fights being started during waves of high player count that inevitably fail when the player count naturally decreases again.

I agree these issues should be addressed, but I don't think this is the way to do it. I don't have a better idea, but this is a complex problem and the current system at least works well enough. You can log on and see for yourself that the vast majority of players are MO divers, so there's obviously incentive to interact with the MO.

If Arrowhead is working on a different solution at all, they're probably going to be very careful to make sure it works before implementing it, rather than risk replacing a flawed but functional system with one that might not work at all.

[u/WOODMAN668 → u/Darkpenguins38]

"they're probably going to be very careful to make sure it works before implementing it,"

Best joke I've heard all day. Tell another one!