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WildStar Reveals Warplot Construction, Recruitment, PvP Combat

Posted on April 16, 2014

WildStar has been on our radar since PAX East 2013 partially because of its Warplots PVP combat and player housing. Carbine Studios has already implemented the core functionalities and most of the rich customization for their large-scale battle mode in the game’s beta. That said, series newcomers may want a comprehensive understanding of this expansive and explosive gameplay mode before joining their first War Party. I went to a Warplots demo at last week’s PAX East for a debriefing with Carbine’s PVP Lead Designer, Jen Gordy.

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We'll cover the following topics in this full-feature post on WildStar's updates:

  • Warplots Summary
  • Ratings and War Coins
  • Creating a Warplot
  • Plugs
  • Nano Packs and Strategy

I’ll cover as much as I can here without frying your brain too much, so to get a more in-depth sense of 'just' the customization and dynamics of Warplots, check out our video below. In this WildStar preview, we'll look at warplots gameplay, PvP strategy, warplots construction, and some more advanced gameplay mechanics.

WildStar Warplot Gameplay & Construction

WildStar: What Are Warplots?

Warplots are 40 vs. 40 PvP base battles (you might be interested in ArcheAge, too) and are one of the three PvP opportunities in WildStar, joined by Arenas and Battlegrounds. Players of Level 15 or higher can join a Warplot party, or War Party, and at that same level can construct their first Warplot. A single War Party team can have as many as 80 players on it sroster (at least 40 of whom would not participate in a particular battle). In the event that a War Party does not have 40 members, the party leader can recruit mercenaries in the form of players not assigned to a War Party who'd still like to participate in Warplot combat. Free agents, basically.

War Parties use a ranking system similar to WildStar’s guild structures. War Party leaders can set up custom ranks and give War Party-specific permissions for customizing the Warplot space and battle-specific tasks, such as summoning NPC guards.

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War Parties can win a battle two ways. They can win by attrition by depleting the enemy team’s energy meter entirely or they can win by destroying their opponent’s two generators at the back of the base. I'll elaborate on this in the Nano Packs and Strategy section.

WildStar Ratings and War Coins 

Warplots assign two types of ratings: The Team Rating judges the success and failure of a War Party’s entire team; the Personal Rating gives players access to special War Party equipment rewards through WildStar’s PVP progression system.

War Coins are a Warplot-specific currency that a War Party uses to purchase – and I’ll define these later – Plugs, Deployables, and various upgrades. War Parties are awarded War Coins by participating in matches (regardless of outcome), but they also get a bonus payout for winning and if they destroy the other party’s Plugs.

WildStar: How to Create a Warplot

Creating a Warplot happens independently of the battle so that the team is not rushed to set everything up. Each Warplot has the same skeletal set of features, including but not limited to:

  • Two generators in the back that the opposing team will try to destroy (one way of winning).
  • Team force-fields that only that War Party’s members can bypass.
  • Stairs and walkways for defenders to quickly access their Socket modifications, or Plugs, for quick defense.

Each Warplot also has seven areas containing Sockets that the team strategically upgrades in the form of Plugs. Plugs function similarly structures in RTS games -- armories, research bays, and upgrade facilities are some examples.

WildStar Warplot Plugs

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Warplots feature four Plug categories, three of which have multiple varieties. Once deployed, each Plug type has two upgrade states that can be unlocked with match resources. Some of these Plug types require someone with the Architect crafting specialization to build the Plug using a resource pack called a Fab Kit, and some Plug types require a specific Team Rating in order to be deployed.

Total Battle Maintenance is the value assigned to the number and types of Plugs deployed on the Warplot. Teams can build for a high or low battle cost depending on how much energy they can afford to manage. Total Battle Maintenance is the primary source of the War Party’s energy meter draining over time. The War Party players’ deaths, any team boss deaths, and any Plug destruction will drain the energy meter as well.

Now for an overview of the different Plugs and their specific Plug types:

1. A Travel Plug is a deployment station that can quickly get players into the battlefield. It features a number of pads that will shoot the player through the air and onto the map’s neutral ground; this is like a Halo man-cannon. Upgrades will enable a War Party to unlock more and better hot-drop locations.

2. Small Plugs are set up in the entrances and offer offensive and defensive capabilities. Some of these Plug types even let players extract an item from the Plug’s Structure Unit, a smaller, vulnerable structure, that they can take with them to the battlefield -- for example, a cannon or a shield. Here are a few Plug types:

- MilitaryResearchCenter: assigns a health bonus for Deployables such as traps and turrets.

- Silo: gives a War Party-wide bonus for armor mitigation.

- Guard Support: adds additional guards to the plug such as Snipers DPS.

- Barriers or defensive grids, like laser obstacles (traps) between players and their objective.

3. Large Plugs feature two types:

Guard Plugs generate NPC guards that can be used offensively or defensively by purchasing a variant. There are several guard types that have different ability kits and roles like tanks and long-distance combatants. The War Party can upgrade the health and damage of its guards and even upgrade the surrounding Guard Plug area to have hazardous features, such as heat vents on the ground.

Hazard Plugs create a 3D hazardous environment in their given area. Opponents who enter a hazard zone generate a hazard bar that ticks down while they take damage. When the bar ticks all the way down, those players will take additional damage, and the whole time they’re in a hazard zone, they may incur additional hindrances like a sprint debuff.

4. Super weapons are offensively-driven tools that expend significant match resources. Super weapon abilities will have different cool-downs and will also have team-wide cool-downs so the team does not spam its most powerful assets.

- Multiple Rocket Launcher: fires ten waves of missiles around targets in small damage radii, or “telegraphs.”

- Orbital laser: one large circular telegraph.

- Boss Owner Plug: Here’s the crown jewel of the Warplot experience. A War Party can go out to a veteran dungeon or raid and get a boss token that, during Warplot combat, will summon 20-man holographic version of that boss. When the boss is summoned, it will defensively patrol that team’s base. However, the team can expend match resources to send that boss to the enemy Warplot... for a Kong vs. Godzilla boss vs. boss battle. While in the base, the boss will also attack NPC guards and generators.

Nano Packs and Strategy

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War Parties must gain control of Nano Pack nodes on the battlefield in order to use anything from the Plot Ability bar, including repairing Deployables, upgrading Plug types, summoning reinforcements, firing Superweapons, and more. The strategy employed on the battlefield may depend on whether the War Party wants to win by attrition or by generator destruction.

For attrition, the team likely wants to control Nano Pack nodes in the center of the map so that they can access their guards, Superweapons, and send their boss out. A straight-up-the-middle approach will make it easier to inflict damage through player kills, Plug destruction, and boss kills.

For generator destruction, a War Party will want to be aware the enemy’s traps & turrets, guard types and placement, and other defenses in the base and in the neutral ground.

Carbine’s Plans

Warplots will work on a seasonal system but will have a pre-season so that Carbine can perfect its gameplay in time for the game’s launch. At the end of the season, a War Party member can qualify for team rewards if his/her Player Rating is within a certain reach of the Team Rating; for example, a Team Rating of 1600 will require a Player Rating of 1400 for team reward qualification. Carbine has implemented this system to ensure that rewards go to the people who are participating.

I have more than enough motives to be one of those participants. Warplots features enough of a structure to give players a break from the looser dynamics of exploration, but it provides deep and surprisingly creative customization for what will be a chaotic lightshow of spells and explosions. WildStar releases on June 3.

- Nick "stuBEEF" Pinkerton.