Basing System Rework

[BiTzSam]

Highly encourage you to fully read all the points before you comment


Over the years the basing system has devolved from being a competitive environment to somewhere that facilitates creating alliances that allow for the current dominant gangs to hold multiple bases, often uncontested from any real attackers that have a chance of holding that base by themselves if they manage to take it.

Bases can literally 'AFK' hours in long instances where their held bases are completely empty of any attackers or competition. This has ultimately depleted the motivation for any new gangs to try enter the basing scene without the help of some alliance.

We have seen complaints about the current system recently, and over the years both ingame and on forums. There have been multiple discussions on what can be done about it, and a recent staff discussion has led to a possible solution that aims to:
- INCREASE BASING COMPETITION
- REMOVE ALLIANCES
- REIGNITE THE BASING SCENE

The idea is as follows;

- Gangs will be separated into two categories. Gangs WITH over 10,000 basing hours and gangs that have under 10,000 basing hours.
- Gangs that have over 10,000 base hours will be locked out of the current existing bases. This means if you are on the gang tag of a gang with over 10,000 hours, you will not be able to enter the base/ take the flag.
- Gangs with under 10,000 base hours will continue to be able to take the existing bases as usual.

FOR GANGS WITH OVER 10,000 BASE HOURS
- You will now have to base in a Gang Fortress
- The Gang Fortress will be a new base added to the game, that consists of 3 separate flags within a single giant base (effectively 3 gang bases housed into one area).
- The flags can be captured by up to 3 different gangs. (so effectively 3 gangs can be earning hours at once).
- Only members on a gang tag over 10,000 gang hours will be able to enter the base. No gang allies, no Offtag members.
- Each of the 3 base areas will be different, and every 4 months the 3 bases will be completely changed into a set of 3 completely new base layouts. This will happen a total of 3 times over a 1 year period. This means you will effectively have 9 different bases put on a rotation of 3 bases at a time so that you don't get bored of the same area for extended periods of time.

FOR THE EXISTING GANG BASES
- Door and Vault (flag) HP values will be INCREASED. Meaning it will take more damage to destroy a door/ take a base.
- A possible change down the line is that the gang hour earn rate for a gang holding 2 bases is halved in the second base. (so instead of earning 2x hours from holding 2 bases you will only earn 1.5)

FOR BOTH CATEGORIES (under and over 10k base hours)
- A seasonal gang point system will be added. The season will be every 3 months.
- Every 3 months, the top 5 gangs with the most hours earnt in that 3 month period will earn gang points depending on their position. (this is separate for gangs within the 10,000 and under 10,000 base hour category- so top 5 in under 10k hours and top 5 in the base fortress over 10k).
- The gang points can be saved up and then spent by the gang leader on new gang rewards that are based around cosmetics. (eg a gang flag, gang themed furniture, gang vehicles etc are just beginner ideas).
- After 3 months the scores will reset and gangs will have to compete for the top 5 earnt hours again.
- These gang points have no pre-requisite (meaning a gang starting at 0 hours could base for 3 months, be in the top 5 and earn gang points they can spend).
- gang ally protection will be removed. You will still be able to have up to 5 gang allies, but you will no longer not take damage from allies inside bases- anyone not on your current gang tag can be hurt/ killed.
- Removing the ability to run through gang doors when you hold the base, you must grab the door/ door button first to open it
- Possible additional change is slightly increasing the cooldown when healing with foods/ medkits when inside bases.

Current reward system
- In regards to the current gang hour rewards, all rewards above 35,000 gang hours that are currently ingame will be removed, essentially capping gang rewards at 35k.
- The gang hideout gang hour requirement will also be increased from its current value to roughly 12.5k base hours and replaced with something like more gang hats. (what to replace it with hasn't really been decided yet).

That's it for the changes really.
The hope is that the Base Fortress will become a competitive war environment where gangs above 10,000 base hours are forced to fight each other to earn hours due to the limited amount of bases up for grabs. This will significantly decrease the ability to form alliances, and remove the ability to 'afk' base hours uncontested.
Will also free up basing for newer gangs to essentially have a fresh start at basing, and increase the overall basing competition from there being more active gangs due to the gang point incentive to consistently base, as those rewards are essentially free to any gang and not locked behind hour requirements.

The staff discussion was pretty large so hopefully I didn't miss anything, i'll try answer some questions about it- just not anything already listed in the thread.

NOTE
These changes are pretty extensive and will take a while to implement (have to make 3-6 new bases for the gang fortress to have the 3 ready for release with 3 on hold for the next rotation, in addition to the gang point sytem).
As a result there is no set time frame on when these changes will happen aside from it being made a priority hopefully starting on the base levels as soon as possible.

Regarding gangs already at the required hours waiting for their gang hideout- as long as you can have your hideout finished, and you had 4k hours at the time of the change then you can still get the reward added