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The match would start out by each individual player joining two opposing sides, which would be called Opposition Groups. Before hostilities begin however there will be a certain amount of time, which a timer would count up to. This is in order to ensure everyone has a chance to join an Opposition Group and select a Role Related Load Out. A Role Related Load Out is basically an assortment of equipment which is designed to aide the player in a specific sector of game play. So a field doctor might carry hypodermic needles to inject his fellow players with various drugs to assist in their physical and mental wellness. Within each Opposition Group there are subdivisions of six players called a Unit. Each Unit can have at maximum six players, but can have as little as one and a unit at any time may be Inhibited to prevent other players from joining. Players who are annoying, like those who demand Assignments. Players can still join an Inhibited Unit, but the Unit Chair, the head of the Unit who is capable of giving Assignments, must first provide a Join Request. Also during this preliminary period any player can apply to be Captain of their Opposition Group, the Captain is responsible for allotting assignments to the Unit Chairs. Once the preround clock has cycled up to a prespecified time, set by the host, the match begins. The players now may enter the field of battle through a series of Portals. At the beginning of the round players may Originate at the Portal at their Opposition Group's central outpost. The central outpost is impervious to enemy assaults and is surrounded by a Field of Bodily Harm which prevents enemies from crossing into the central outpost by removing a percentage of Wellness (measure of the players physical condition). Because the central outpost cannot be obtained by the enemy it is called an Unobtainable Post. At any point in the game a player may also use their Unit Chair as a Portal, assuming the Unit Chair has a Wellness index greater than zero.
The objective of the game is to achieve the many outlined Goals. Goals are predesignated areas which your team should take charge of. Goals are marked by your Opposition Group's Sigma. Sigmas are essential to this game mode, and can be found everywhere. On the Battlefield Diagram and Miniature On Screen Chart, your, and your enemy's Sigma represent Goals which they have Forcefully Allocated. Sigmas are also mounted on large masts and placed in central locations within the Goals. If your team has Forcefully Allocated a Goal then your teams Sigma will hang high on the mast, if your enemy has Forcefully Allocated a Goal then their Sigma is atop the mast. If neither team has attempted to Allocate a particular Goal then the Sigma over the area is cyan. As your enemy is capturing the Goal their Sigma will slowly rise on the Mast, if you are Forcefully Allocating the Goal than your Sigma will rise to the top. Goals are placed in strategic locations about the map. And may be Forcefully Allocated at any point in the round.
In order to Forcefully Allocate a Goal, you along with as many other allied players as can be mustered, must enter the Allocation Ellipse. The Allocation Ellipse is a defined oval around the mast which activates the rising of your Opposition Group's Sigma. In order to successfully Allocate the Goal the Allocation Ellipse must be free of enemy. If you are attacking and Allocating a Goal you are Engaging, if your Unit is losing a Goal you are said to be Retreating. However, there is definitely an ambiguous middle ground between Engaging and Retreating. This is when a Unit surrounds an enemy Allocated Goal and attempts to Disable all the Enemies in the Goal with no intention of Forcefully Allocating it for their Opposition Group. This method of play is called P.E.N.I.S. for Planned Engagement with No Intent on Securing. Some find this style of play illegitimate, while others hold the P.E.N.I.S. play style dear. Because these goals are essential to the game they will be hotly contested between the two Opposition Groups creating intense firefights unheard of in Conquest mode. The overbearing purpose of Goals is to quantify an Opposition Group's control of a Battlefield.
To better aid in this assessment at the beginning of the round each Opposition Group is alloted a certain number of Marks. As you control more Goals then your Marks remain unchanged. However, if your opponent controls more Goals than you undergo a progressive decrease in Marks called a Reduction (and visa versa). It is your task to avoid a Reduction at all costs. The number of Marks is a key determinant to the winner in each round, if an Opposition Group's Marks are Reduced to zero, they lose and their enemy is made the victor. Also, the rounds may be timed. If the host configures the game to have a time limit the Opposition Group with the most Marks at the end of the designated time is the winner. Marks can also be Reduced by Disabling players on the enemy Opposition Group. One Disabling translates into a certain ratio of Marks lost on the team that has the Disabled player. This ratio is set by the host.
Each individual player is also given a Tally based on there personal performance for the round. This Tally is made up of two portions, the player's Disabling Merit and the player's Opposition Group Utility Merit. The Disabling Merit is simple, for each Disable a player makes of an enemy they have two Tallies added to their Net Merit. Opposition Group Utility Merit on the other hand is more complex. This index tries to take into account the player's contribution to their Opposition Group and Unit, a player may have Tallies added for doing something like injecting their team mates with drugs to improve their play, or fragging an unresponsive Captain. A player might also have Tallies subtracted from their Opposition Group Utility Merit for harming their Opposition Group, by, for example, Disabling a player on your own Opposition Group. The Composite of these two Tallies forms the player's Net Merit.
It is extremely important to have a ridiculously high Net Merit, but even more important is to have an immense Disabling Merit. If a player is unable to achieve a significant Merit amount then they will be called the suxor by other players. To help obtain this high level of Merit players may choose to use Aides. Aides are third party programs which assist a player in any number of ways. One common Aide is the Targeting Aide, this assists the player in putting his iron sights on enemy flesh. Some call this cheating, but it is worth it if you are not called the suxor.
Obviously immense changes in game mode will require a significant amount of work, but in the end I think the transformation from boring Conquest to exciting and dynamic C.H.O.D.E.R. Is worth it. The differences in game play are immeasurable and this game mode will finally make POE2 a respectable modification.
This post has been edited by Sam Hoy: 24 February 2007 - 07:14 AM
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