Dont get me wrong I am guilty of being a capital that was nothing more than my house on Besevrona. I was nothing more than some random portals in the distance explorers would use to get back to the PS hub.
I decided to trade all that in to try to make a functioning city.
So prestige is already being gamed by players. They build prestige vaults and force mergers, all in order to be the capital of a planet and/or to increase footfall. Now take the fact that some do this in order to increase footfall and we are going to further encourage that because now footfall is also part of being the capital?
So how many footfall coops are we going to have built right next to portal hubs now? And this is good for the game exactly how? Why does this do anything for new or existing players?
I think new players already have a hard time competing in prestige wars. Getting up to 30 million is not easy. It takes a team effort in most chases. But if a new player can gather enough like minded friends anything is possible.
If you do not have a reason for someone to pay you a visit you are not going to have any footfall. It would have to go off visit counts and not collective coin from the visits.
I never step foot in a co op. I would assume most do not.
That is interesting because I would not use a coop either but they exist and they make coin for players. they run hunts and other activities over them is my understanding. And they appear to be successful so if I wanted to be capital that is what I would do. And link to one of the portal hubs and or malls even if it is just a road to do it. . does not mean the settlement has to be in a concentrated area, just linked up.
I think coops will fade soon. The one time i entered one looking for bones. I ran for 10mins to find the stand empty.
I recently had a guild member decide not to join a hunt because they didnt want to go down a slide for 15mins.
I would definitely let the devs think of the best way to implement this as I don’t have data that they probably do.
If I would think of a way to compile this, I would suggest prioritize unique visits per day, and consistency of visits per a pre-dertermined time frame, for example 15 day, 30 days something like that.
At the end of the day, I don’t think it would deter casual players… if done right hardcore players can be the backbone and casual players would provide the support needed for the settlement to retain their capital status.
This system would eliminate 1 player that is hardcore from completely stomping down 100 casual players and even then their prestige will keep them in top until a) their beacon expires or B) they are beat by another hardcore player.
So the hardcore players are in charge and the casual players are just their minions???
Not what you meant I am sure but kinda how it reads to me
Exactly!!! They push and push their prestige to incredible heights but that’s what… 1-2-3 players??
Footfall has always been tied into the capital status and prestige but what I am looking at is activity. 1 unique visit per day would count towards a ranking/measuring system to give capital on a rotational basis, so capital would be a evolving status. But I beg you to look at the big picture, not worry about the small details that are non-existent.
And I would ask you all to look at the original post as the proposition of the changes for capital is also tied into other things that tied together.
That’s how it is with any functioning body of anything though. Even in peaceful communes, everyone gets a long and works together but a group of people ultimately control the decisions(the hardcores) and those who bring the decisions life (the minions/slaves/builders/consumers)
Same thing in a capitalist society.
Same thing in a socialist society.
Same thing in a communist society.
That kind of thing is just normal to any society, You can not get away from that if you aim for a fully running system (of anything).
There are decision makers and planners and there are those who do the bulk of the work as a whole, but not individually.
or maybe it’s too stark a line in my mind and I just need a different way of viewing those things.
edit:
That’s an important thing. The idea is more important, The minutia can be hammered out once an idea is discussed.
Footfall could also calculate time of visit.
I would love Iconicsberg plaza to be a hang out spot for people to relax and chat. I know I need to create a reason for that 1st.
Not remotely what I meant but I can elaborate.
Hardcore players build networks, malls etc. They are the reason why some settlements have grown so fast right now of they decide to build they get undisputed capitals because of prestige.
Casual players have no capability to reach those heights. But under this new capital change it would encourage activity, not just 1 player but many. While the hardcore player is the backbone (runs network, mall, builds for prestige) he cannot achievement absolute capital status without the collaboration aka (presence of other players)
For example if myself is building a 30milling city alone and there is a 20 player settlement but prestige is only 5million under the new system they may be scored the same but if the 30mil city does not keep rising or if the 20 players stop playing it’ll shift capital to one or the other.
Yeah exactly Orrian, let’s not get confused on what I meant footfall is a measurement/cool down system I wanted to build off. Picture like a check mark, instead counting footfall coin you would count unique visits equalling 1 point toward capital at the end of the period set in place points will be calculated (somehow) and give a score to each settlement (this would also work with total amount of prestige).
I am definitely not meaning Footfall coin earned determines who is capital.(maybe that was not clear)
I see this being very similar to a “like” system which basically boils down to being a popularity contest… not in its entirety… but can certainly be gamed in that way.
I think if there were more ways to incentivise visitors to go to a settlement, beyond just shops and portals, it would be more difficult for popularity to be a factor.
Might make for some interesting hostile planetary takeovers if certain large guilds decided to do a portal based footfall co-op and run their members through it every day.
Under this system, wouldn’t it be possible to make a hunt platform a Capitol though. You have a few dozen hunters at a time on platforms. Some have multiple beacons
That’s a very interesting point. I’d not even considered the hunt platforms. They could have multiple guilds and groups using them at any given time
Yes, popularity. But with everything you would need check and balances, for this I propose prestige being a counter balance. Although a place would be very busy, you still need a good amount of prestige, and additionally also add a timer(like a campaign) for like a month. If that settlement runs low on activity it’ll drop it’s rating towards capital, but this way is a active moving system.
This now! It’s ridiculously over priced to run buffs.
It’s definitely going to take a complex calculation like he suggested earlier to fulfill this idea.
So we’re talking the following factors to be included:
Prestige
Unique foot steps
Time the footstep occurred
There were a few other things I think 
How complex do we want it to be to determine the capital? I thought James wanted to simplify complex parts of the game and remove the fat?