Next Game Idea: The Public Battlefield

This idea is really cool! 😇

As well as the Personal Neighborhood idea, this idea seems to combine aspects of the Backyard Battleground in GW2 and Giddy Park in BfN. It more reminds of Giddy Park because of the ability to play with other players in a public lobby, but it also combines the aspect of the Backyard Battleground quite well because of the war zone in the middle (the area of the backyard outside the bases where plants and zombies battle). A cool benefit, while in the Public Battlefield, is if players were able to select the game mode they would like to play no matter their current location in the Public Battlefield. That way, they would be able to quickly set up a game mode they would like to play, queue for a game mode and keep hanging out in the battlefield while they wait for a game (although being able to cancel the queue the player is in would also be really helpful as they may change their mind or something). If most of the main services, such as Rux, character selection booths, and other more essential content, was available in both bases in every battleground, that would really benefit players as well as they would not have to leave to their personal neighborhood just to go and say, for example, buy an item from Rux or customise your character.

The Public Battlefield seems like a great way to play with other players, as you have the option to participate in the current activities that are running (similar to the Giddy Park activities that happen on a rotation) or you could stay protected in your team's bases and talk to other allies if you feel like doing that instead. If the map of this battlefield would change from time to time, it be interesting as you can play on several maps. However, so players can remain in the same map without it changing out of nowhere, it should only change every few hours or so to prevent players from being interrupted with what they are normally doing. There should be a time limit in the corner of the player's screen so they have a heads up that the map is going to change soon so that players can play accordingly knowing that the map they are currently playing in is planning to change (perhaps this timer could start with 30 minutes to go, or at least 15 minutes). As an option, before entering a Public Battlefield, there could be a lobby available for each playable map so that the player can select which map they want to play on at the time (before it changes or they leave that lobby). 

Preventing most of the issues that Giddy Park had in public lobbies, such as all the spawn camping, would make the battleground more fun as players can opt to stay in their base and not participate in activities, if they would like to. However, if players could passively gain rewards for participating, it would encourage players to participate and it seems like a really good idea as well. There would be a benefit to participating in these activities or objectives, rather than simply playing Multiplayer all the time, just so you can earn rewards. If players are short on time or if they want a little amount of cash so they can afford something or XP so they can promote a character (or something like that), they can head into a battlefield and earn those rewards nice and quickly. Adding quests seem like a good idea, as players have the option to complete them for added rewards. Similar to the quests or challenges in BfN, it could be that when you enter a battlefield, you can check what quests the game have given you for the battlefield and decide whether you want to do them for extra rewards or not (perhaps you can also reroll the quest once like in BfN if you do not want to do your allocated quest). 

The idea of balancing seems absolutely awesome as well, because it gets really annoying, in GW2 and BfN, when the team sizes are really unbalanced and a team might be say 12v8. Players would not really have to be concerned about leaving a lobby knowing that at the game's earliest convenience, another player will join the team in the leaving player's place. The activities will be much more balanced as there will be more balanced amounts of players available. Perhaps the game could do something about matchmaking in the battlefield as well, however it is probably more important to consider the team sizes, so piority should be given to having balanced team, rather than attempting matchmaking. Apparently, the matchmaking that was added did not work out particularly well in BfN and Battle Arena. When a party of players join a battlefield, if they were to all join on the same team, which would be likely, the game would have to most likely find players to balance out the other team at the earliest convenience. However, this should not happen too often (where a group of players suddenly join on one team), but as long as the game can address this potential issue, this should all work out fine.

The objective ideas seem really great, during the course of a potential new shooter, more activities and objective modes could be added. There is so much potential in all this, there could be activities based off of specific game modes, such as Turf Takeover, Gnome Bomb and Suburbination, for example, as well as bringing completely new activities to the table as well. Adding special seasonal activities and events during specific times of the year (like the Gnome Hunt in BfN in the Luck 'O The Zombie event) would spice up gameplay a bit, maybe there could be a seasonal exclusive reward given to all players that participate in those activities for the first time as well. Having exclusive customisations for performing specific actions in the battlefield would also further encourage players to play around in the battlefield. To add to the overall replayability of the public battlefield, perhaps treasure hunt and more activities (and other features) can be added to the battlefield, meaning that players will find themselves coming back to fresh content?

In Conclusion

Having a Public Battlefield hub or something along the lines of this would be really cool to see in a new shooter. Players would have many options of what they can do, including participate in a rotation of activities, stay safe in their team bases away from enemies (and socalise if they wish), complete some quests or more. You would have the option to play with friends here or to simply play with other players that are currently in your lobby. Being rewarded for playing and participating in the battlefield means that players will feel a sense of accomplishment. Because of how versatile the Public Battlefield would be, there would always be something for everyone.

That's everything from me! 🙂