Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

While Mercenary (or matchmade) PvP and PvE is all about individual advancement (more levels, more devices and upgrades, i.e. persistent buffs), Conquest (or "AvA" - Agency vs. Agency) gameplay is geared entirely towards Agency advancement and is well considered Global Agenda's endgame. But at level 30, when players have unlocked all of their skills and devices, Todd explained that Mercenary gameplay is still useful to  unlock better or more specific upgrades that suit a player's gameplay style.  

Hi-Rez also made a few concessions to the more PUGish nature of Mercenary matches. Todd noted that  infinite respawn beacons and progressive spawns in the Payload map, for instance, make the loss of a respawn beacon much less of a punishing blow than in Conquest PvP. Conquest maps, in contrast, are much larger, so the travel time to get into the action when a poorly constructed and defended respawn beacon is destroyed can be very significant.

Data Farm (left) is a Control map, while Ice Gorge (right) is a Breach map and a format that AvA players will get to know quite well.

Conquest (unlike Mercenary PvP) affords both the attacking and defending teams the chance to select their own 10v10 teams, but Todd noted that the defending agency's team, unless extremely well organized, may be a somewhat ad hoc assortment from the agency and allied agencies. To help, agency leaders have a number of tools to sort out whose best suited for the task, the most important of which is a player's "combat rating", which is a measure of his or her success at Conquest PvP. Combat rating goes a long way toward determining combat prowess, according to Todd. "In beta, we've seen that skilled players tend to do well regardless of map type and, somewhat, regardless of class as well."

The actual map used in the AvA match depends on what kind of facility the defending team has built. "If you have built a lab level 2 facility, and that's the one that I choose to attack, we'll be playing on a particular map that is a medium-sized lab. If I attack Stew's map and he has a mine level 3, then the map we're playing will match a large mine."  And while Breach will be the only Conquest match type at launch, Hi-Rez plans to introduce "resource stealing " missions in the future.

That (or any) particular facility may be won or lost with a match, but Todd explained that in Conquest gameplay, each side might expend different levels of resources and crafted items (such as respawn beacons) in the attempt.  These items are carried into the battle on the attacking team's "cargo ship" and once expended, cannot be replenished in-game. Choosing what you bring to the fight in Conquest play can sway the battle in your favor, but what you bring may not be available in time elsewhere on the map if your production can't meet the demands of combat. All this means that agency leaders must be both good combat leaders with plenty of strategic vision, but also skilled at logistics so their agency's reach doesn't exceed its grasp. We look forward to learning more about AvA play from Todd in the coming weeks.

The promise of Global Agenda is an MMOG that has both the story and comfort level to convert shooter-averse MMORPG fans into territory conquering PvPers, yet has enough grit to appeal to hardcore shooter fans. While the maps mission types may seem familiar, interesting twists such as jetpacks and movable, destructible respawn beacons may change the contours of now conventional online shooter gameplay. That Global Agenda ties all this and more into a full, persistent, large-scale PvP oriented package makes this title one to watch in early 2010.

We like to thank Todd, Michal, and the Global Agenda team for putting together this interview us during a busy holiday season, and look forward to learning more about Conquest gameplay in the weeks to come.