What would you pay for a BZII subscription game?

[MrTwosheds]

I just really miss the intensity of commanding in BZ. It's still the best game I've ever played, warts and all.

We still play...some of the old school show up occasionally. 1.3.6.2 still has a few warts, but It plays at speeds unknown in 1.2.
It would be great to see you back in game.

[Nielk1]

I think the F2P model in a game like BZ would best be exploited with having the ability to define a custom sub-faction to a race with certain vehicle choices and lots of visual customization, keeping a roster of members, etc etc. The best system would be to make money they "I want it now" rather than the only way to get it, to implement a tech level tiering system so ppl with decked out tech trees can't pummel newbies or be sure that all setups can be used equally against all others though in different ways for each.

The world would have to be in a constant flux of what top level race owns what area, where you could enter a conflict area or could exist separate. Allowing mercenaries or freelance individuals would be interesting but would create an entirely different method of play as most borders wouldn't mean much to them.

[MrTwosheds]

To be practical, in the light of bz2, you would need a system that restricted access based on skill or length of service
Newb Zone to Trooper wars to veteran matches and an elite zone. This would keep the noobs out of the vet games and the vets out of the noob games.

[Ded10c]

I can see this working, but it would take a fair amount of money and time to set it up. If anybody ever does get something like this going, let me know

[Zero Angel]

To be practical, in the light of bz2, you would need a system that restricted access based on skill or length of service
Newb Zone to Trooper wars to veteran matches and an elite zone. This would keep the noobs out of the vet games and the vets out of the noob games.

A lot of modern RTS games use an automatching system to do that, or otherwise some clearly displayed ranks. Some games even use a rating system based on the Elo rating system for calculating skill levels and matching accordingly.

In BZ2, I would use a system like this for calculating team strength.

Define some vars:
Csk (Command skill (From 0-100))
Tsk (Field tactics skill (From 0-100))
Fsk (Fighting ability (From 0-100))
Mrl (Morale (From 0-100))

Mpr (Morale modifer for calculations (from 0.75 to 1.25))

Set up a pre adjustment based on the Morale variable (scaled from 0-100)

Let Mpr = ((Mrl-50)/200)+1 # Morale adjustment, Mrl inputs between 0 to 100 will yield a result between 0.75 and 1.25 the final number gets multiplied against existing skill levels to allow for a 25% degree of flexibility, or 'standard deviation' when calculating team strength

Now define skill equation sets

Thug
Thg = (Tsk+Fsk)*Mpr

Commander
Cmd = (2(Csk+Tsk)+Fsk)*Mpr

(in 1.2 where it is easier to escape combat the commander's calculation would be closer to (3Csk+Tsk+(.5)Fsk)*Mpr)

Take note that the commander level also has a x2 modifier, this is because the commander is the most important player in a strat and has the greatest ability to skew his team's chances of success, so his skill level is counted twice. (ie: Sly commanding 2 noobs vs 3 relatively decent players and Sly wins? -- well this is the reason why, and so is morale, given that players have the ability to affect other players morale).

Team Strength Rating is roughly equivalent to
Cmd+Thg[0]+Thg[1]+Thg[2]+Thg[3]

How the variables Csk, Tsk, and Fsk would be calculated via computer would be a good question (Fsk perhaps would be calculated based on kills/deaths where each kill is matched up to another players Fsk rating and used to modify the player's) -- Tsk might be based on skill-type objectives such as killing an upgraded pool, canceling an enemy building by killing a constructor who is building/upgrading it (scrap cost) vs your commander's own time/scrap cost to resupply you with a ship; and Csk would be measured only while in command and would be calculated based on the aggregated Team Strength Rating (TSR) of your team vs the aggregated TSR of the enemy team.

[Ded10c]

Tsk might be based on skill-type objectives such as killing an upgraded pool, canceling an enemy building by killing a constructor who is building/upgrading it (scrap cost)

Doing it that way could cause some problems. If you don't quite arrive soon enough to completely kill the constructor and it finishes the building right before you finally kill it, you still had the common sense to attack it in the first place.

[Zero Angel]

It depends, sometimes killing the con can be a zero gain for your team (for example if the commander is not saturated with build/thugging priorities and just picks up the scrap from its death and quickly builds another) or even a small loss for your team (ie: if you die killing it, and the commander picks up the loose from the dead con and your dead ship, counted against the rebuild time of an empty and chaingun for your own commander).

If you kill a constructor that is in the middle of building/upgrading something then it is almost always a net gain because of the large scrap cost that the commander has to take (40 for the con, plus 30-80 for the building) combined with the building delay (10 seconds of recy build time + walk time of the cons)

[Ded10c]

I made the assumption that the constructor in question would be building something at the time, but you have a valid point regardless.

[Commando]

Customizeable faction logos on your ships would be cool. If you had to pay for them, it may be a good source of revenue. That or maybe even customizeble ships, where the differences is purely cosmetic.

[Nielk1]

Ive got a bit more complex an idea. What about a very mechanical style of that Spore Create Creator dealy. Where you create your tech tree for your squadron directly. Actually, that is going in my notes for future games.

[Commando]

Never played spore so I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Zenophas]

Customizeable faction logos on your ships would be cool. If you had to pay for them, it may be a good source of revenue. That or maybe even customizeble ships, where the differences is purely cosmetic.

Lol.

Ive got a bit more complex an idea. What about a very mechanical style of that Spore Create Creator dealy. Where you create your tech tree for your squadron directly. Actually, that is going in my notes for future games.

Sounds nice, but I wouldn't want to be involved in modeling all of that.

[rice303]

more back on how much to pay I would pay 40$ for 3 months and be very happy...... Just so long as updates are good improvements

[AcneVulgaris]

All very good, very expensive ideas

[Red Devil]

make it playable on the ipad so people can play it wherever