Overarching Summary

The main goal of this update: engage our current Outfit communities and bring back lapsed outfit leaders.

Based on observations throughout the game’s life, there have been at least a handful of recurring reasons outfit leaders have left over the years. Those typically fall under: limited reward or incentive to lead, not enough to do with their community of players, no end-game or “greater goal” beyond “winning” a continent, and not enough strategic depth.

• Give outfits communal goals. • Add strategic depth to gameplay. • Encourage competition among outfits.

Outfit Loyalty

Players within an outfit are given a personal progression system that is only advanced when capturing or defending bases with outfitmates. Your “loyalty level” increases over time in a battle rank-style vertical progression, while merit is a currency you earn while doing meritorious actions (capturing and defending bases, again.) Merit is used to unlock items from the outfit vendor on board Sanctuary. Loyalty determines what kinds of items you can purchase at the vendor.

• Players earn “Loyalty” and “Merit” by capturing/defending bases with outfit mates. • Merit is a currency used to purchase special items from Outfit Vendors. • Loyalty determines which sorts of items you can purchase. • Loyalty decays over time while offline or leave the outfit.

Outfit Vendor Item Examples, purchased with Merit on board Sanctuary: • Consumables - Boosts, Command Chat Tokens • Cosmetics - Decals, Banners, Armor • Weapons - Variants or Special Weapons • Equipment - Abilities, Suits, Utilities, Etc.

Resource Metagame

Every region now has a resource value associated with it. Outfits earn ticks of resources periodically when they own a base, and outfit members earn a small amount of resources per base capture for the outfit, divided by the amount of outfit members participating in the base capture.

• There are three resource types, each associated with a rarity. • More defensible or deeper lattice bases give more or rarer resources per tick. • Individuals do not hold resources, and instead deposit them into their outfit bank whenever they’re received. • Harvesting of outfit resources is tracked on a server-wide leaderboard. • Resource gain can be boosted with Oufit Resource Boosts. • Boosted resources do not contribute to leaderboards. • Resource types and tick rates show on the map. • Outfit resources are used to craft War Assets.

War Assets

The resources your outfit harvests are used to craft War Assets that can be called down onto Auraxis. War Assets can heavily impact the tide of battle and are limited in use. Outfit leaders can grant privileges to craft and/or deploy these assets.

• War Assets take time and resources to craft. • Outfits have a capacity limit for War Assets, and heavier Assets take more storage. • Assets also have a maximum that can be held per type. • War Asset crafting time can be eliminated by funneling more resources into its creation. • Most War Assets are summoned from the map screen, like a waypoint. Example Assets • Steel Rain - Coordinated drop pod assault onto the target location. • Citadel Shield - Massive projectile-blocking bubble shield. • Support Missions - Designate map locations that require support, and draw attention to them. • Orbital Satellite Uplink - Call in an Orbital Strike anywhere on the map. • A.N.V.I.L. - Airdrop a vehicle of your choice into combat.

Outfit Bastion

Each Outfit now has access to their own Bastion Fleet Carrier. Like other War Assets, this massive interplanetary craft can be called in to battle once it is refueled and re-armed. The Bastion is the big-bad of the battlefield, and can project force at long distances. They require a coordinated effort to destroy, and having one on the field will quickly tip the scales toward the faction summoning it.

• Bastions act as a vehicle spawn point for your outfit and squad/platoonmates. • The Captain (driver) can navigate the Bastion around the continent by using Waypoint commands. • A Bastion comes equipped with an array of abilities and mannable turrets. • Players that eject from a Bastion are launched as an ESF when they depart. • Multiple weak points must be destroyed to take down the Bastion, it is impervious to damage otherwise. • Each faction can have only one Bastion on the field at any given time. • When a Bastion is on the field, it will contribute to Empire Strength. • Destroyed Bastions must be refueled/rearmed, and face a long crafting time before being able to be resummoned

Outfit Wars

An Outfit now has the opportunity to opt into a monthly competition that places the top 3 Outfits of each faction against one another, in up to three different qualifying brackets. These top Outfits go head to head (to head) on a new continent called Desolation. The victor receives resources, recognition, and bragging rights. A competition cycle consists of an off-season where players can choose to opt into the qualifying phase. At the end of the qualifying phase, the highest ranked outfits create the brackets.

• Outfits harvest resources from continental territory control to earn score. • Boosted resources do not contribute to this score. • At the end of the qualifying phase, the outfits with the most harvested resources (and 2nd most harvested resources, and 3rd most harvested resources,) of each faction will be pitted against one another. • When the qualifying phase ends, a preparation phase will begin, to give players time to coordinate with their outfitmates. • When the preparation phase ends, Desolation opens. • When Desolation is active, there is a brief 10 minute window before an Alert begins. • During the Alert, each Outfit will try to control facilities and score kills to gain points toward a total. • At the end of the Alert, or if the point total is reached, the Outfit with the most points is declared victor. • We will be streaming the top-tier matches on Twitch.tv. • Players can watch the match stats play out on the Outfit War page.

Desolation

• Outfit Wars map: takes place on a planetoid far from Auraxis. • Room for up to six competing outfits, with three being utilized at launch. • Competitive atmosphere, mostly-symmetrical environment layout. • Each outfit starts at their Command Center, and has limited resources. • Cortium is scattered throughout the map, with “infinite” Cortium nodes at the center bases. • Heavy focus on open-field combat, traditional bases are almost non-existent