As the PvP is not much attractive once a player have Dominion canons Mark III, Cipherbots, Frames and Protean Armorys and there is the ongoing discussion "How to make PvP battles again wanted" I would like to suggest the following idea inspired by many games I played. Also it my first suggestion of Battlegrounds so suggestions related balancing are appreciated!

PvP Battlegrounds
General:
- each Battleground would be thematically oriented (per race, NPC fraction or season event)
- thematic would not repeat = only one time option to obtain the rewards
- repeatable each 4-6 months, participation voluntary and free
- would last 14 or 21 GL days, on end of each GL day an updated tier board would be updated.

Rules:
- each player would have same basic energy recharge - this energy could be used only in Battleground.
- possible to have additional energy refill for GP and/or extend the max energy capacity
- PvP results from Battlegrounds would not count to regular current PvP statistic, xp would have real effect (open to discussion)
- first day of battleground you would see opponents on BT per rank (as now), each next day opponents per achieved battle tier ranged from 2 tiers lower to 2 battle tier higher tier than yours on BT.
- each disable of player with lower tier you receive badges (10-tier difference), if you disable same tier would grand 10 orange badges, disabled of player one tier higher would give 11 orange badges (10+ tier difference), 2 tiers higher 12 badges.
- if you are disabled during by your own attack on other player, you loose 5 orange badges each time. If you are disabled by other player in battleground, you loose 2 orange badges in benefit of same tier player, 3 badges for 1 tier lower player, 4 badges for 2 tiers lower player and 1 orange badge in benefit for any higher tier attacker.

Ranking:
- 10 tiers leader board, each tier with item needed for set ability, ability activation cost one energy cube.
- tiers would be per orange badges collected, where higher tier require higher score.
- each tier would grant the reward for all achieved tiers (2nd tier = rewards of 2nd-10th tier, 5th tier = 5th-10th tier rewards)


Example for "Crimson" Battleground
1st top 5% of players reward: Medal, random drop (40GP/Planet Flux/Terraforming Device) and all rewards for tiers 2-10
2nd 5.1-12% reward: Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 175)
3rd 12.1%-20% reward: Crimson Plating (size 15, hull 200 + 2% hull integrity)
4th 20.1%-30% reward: Crimson Grid (size 20, shields charge +15)
5th 30.1%-40% reward: Crimson Force-barrier (size 20, shields +400)
6th 40.1%-50% reward: Crimson Evasion module (size 15, defense +150)
7th 51.1%-60% reward: Crimson Nullifier (removes all harmful effects incl traps, cool-down 10mins)
8th 61.1%-70% reward: Crimson Core (size 25, energy +150)
9th 71.1%-80% reward: Crimson Adaptive Panel (size 25, cloak +150)
10th 81.1%-100% reward: Crimson Frame (size 10, scan +50)
-----------------------------
Rewards per tier are open for discussion - maybe move up scan bonus to higher tier (?)
Full set ability Crimson beacon: spawn one Extremely Rare Elite Flagship Crimson NPC (random chance of Vortul/Korteth/Rethion/Ha'tak)



Ha'tak, Crimson Overlord
Extremely Rare Elite Flagship
Rank: Matched
Shields: MROUND(ROUND(SQRT(Rank),0)*3,5)*100
Hull: Scaled: MROUND(ROUND(SQRT(Rank),0)*5)*100
Abilities: Repair each 10th second 1% of hull and recharge 1% of shields
Attack: Scaled: 25*(ROUNDDOWN(Rank/2,0)+ROUNDDOWN(Rank/10,0)+IF(Rank-9=MROUND(Rank-10,10),1,0)+IF(ODD(Rank),0,1))-50
Defense: Scaled: 25*(ROUNDDOWN(Rank/2,0)+ROUNDDOWN(Rank/10,0)+IF(Rank-9=MROUND(Rank-10,10),1,0)+IF(ODD(Rank),0,1))-50
Cloak: 2000
Rewards: Planet Flux, Terraforming Device, Quasi-Spacial Expander (estimated drop 75%/20%/5%)
Share - open for discussion
Expires: After 8 Hours
Experience Earned on Kill: 400

Max DMG you can deal: Scaled: Rank*2.5
Minimum Shots to Kill: Scaled: Roundup((Hull+Shields)/(Max DMG))
Best Possible XP/Energy Ratio: Scaled: (((Minimum Shots)*10)+(XP Earned on Kill))/((Minimum Shots)*5)

didn't read it through but similar ideas have been suggested. This one seems to be more thought out and something more should be done with PvP rather that just click, click, click.
+1

When you say rank for the badges I assume you mean tiers. If so then +1 from me as well. Very well thought out. Nicely done.

Interesting concept but:
1. rewards should NOT include the following stats:
energy recharge
% scan
shield recharge (well, maybe some shield recharge, but 25 is probably too much. It would more than double the recharge speed)

2. Matched Elite just doesn't work.... Unless the share range is also scaled to the ship level but that would be complicated. Just make it a generic(non-matched) 250-9999 elite would be better. Doubt ppl below 250 can accumulate the set anyway.

thanks and yes, originally wrote only rank/s then found out that it could be confusing, retyped to tier/s at 02:00 AM my time - thus some words were not corrected.



-energy recharge decreased to 10
-2 % scan removed
- shield recharge decreased to 15

NPC is matched, as PvP Battleground has no rank limit or cap. If supported, the share range could be 400 ranks bellow and above the rank of alerting player rounded.
Other option, as written now is that the NPC would not be possible to share.

I'm a fan. Great concept, this would definitely get players standing.

The ppl who are likely to get the full set(able to get top 12%) are likely to be in 1k+ rank. Frankly 400 range would be very small in those levels. depending on the legion(ahem, namlak), it might turn into a solo.
That said, share range should scale with player rank, if it was made sharable. BT range or so would make sense.

the energy recharge is NOT negotiable. Dan have specifically said he would have none of that. the negotiable one was exclusive to shield recharge which tbh few ppl care most of the time.

ok, was not aware about Dan's statement.
If Ha'tak would be sharable, how many should be rewarded - I was considering top 3 max?

-energy charge replace by Crimson Nullifier (removes all harmful effects excl traps, cool-down 10mins).

Depend on how the ability is made.
If it is limited charge(refilled by GP), it can be a 5-10 depend on refill cost
If it runs on a 40 hour timer, 4-5 is reasonable (considering how much the higher ranks can NPC, it's not a huge deal)
If it runs on a 20 hour timer, than 3 man at most.

Thanks Uy23e.

This detail I would let Dan to decide... I am not sure, what if any impact on balance it would make. I would suggest to implement it as not limited by GP.

On other side, looking to my cargo...Containment Cages and Null Fuses I did another update so now the Nullifier removes all harmful effects INCL traps.
This would help players focusing on PvP a little.

Would it be more interesting, to make the tier rewards possible to upgrade as for some of new modules?
"If this device is already installed on your ship, this will instead upgrade its stats and upkeep by 50%."

Example:
Battleground each 4 months
After 11 Battlegrounds = 40months (1+10*4)
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 150)" - 1st time obtained (decreased from 175 for easy calculation)
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 225)" - 2nd time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 300)" - 3rd time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 375)" - 4th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 450)" - 5th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 525)" - 6th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 600)" - 7th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 675)" - 8th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 750)" - 9th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 825)" - 10th time obtained
"Crimson Cannon (size 10, attack 900)" - 11th time obtained

The above % bonus increase logic would apply to all items for set, yet not influencing the set ability to summon the NPC. Optionally for each complete set, the cooldown would decrease by 1 hour, thus with 11 complete sets it would be 40-10=30 hours.

The % bonus, number of upgrade (max upgrade) could need balancing but on other side, this would be a long term PvP activity.