There's a new dev blog on Planetary Conquest.
https://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/03/planetary-conquest/
tl;dr Star Wars Battlefront II's "Galactic Conquest" on a larger online scale.
Among the many things coming in the latest Dust 514 update, aside from improved visuals, is Planetary Conquest. Here, corporations compete to gain control over districts across the galaxy. Districts are key locations on planets and in FPS terminology are essentially the "maps." Here is how it works.
When the game update comes, there will be around 250 districts. The key to owning these districts is clones. Clones are your reinforcements, your respawn. Each corporation, the game's word for "clan," starts out with 0 clones. However, for the price of 20,000,000 ISK (in-game currency) a corporation can buy a pack of 100 clones. Once you have clones, it becomes a mad dash to see who claims all these unclaimed districts first. After that? Well that's when the fun begins.
As an owner of a district, you start passively producing clones over time at a rate of 40 per day. The owner of each district also has an array of powers. For one they get to select the infrastructure of the districts (literally changing the entire look of the map). This will not only be for selecting the best structures to suit your corporation's playstyle, but they will also provide varying bonuses such as increasing the max number of clones your district can hold or increasing the rate of clone productions from 40 to 60 per day. The owner also must select a time frame from which enemies can attack, so you do not need a team of players watching guard 24/7.
If a corporation owns no districts, they must buy the 100 clone bundle and chose a district to attack. If an enemy already owns a district, they can only attack nearby districts/planets by moving however many clones they wish from your district to an enemy district. When an enemy corporation attacks, they must select how many clones they wish to bring into battle. The defending team on the other hand has access to all clones at that district. A Battlefield-like Conquest mode is then played and whichever side loses all their clones first loses the district - or in the case of the attacks - retreat. Since the defenders will likely start off with more clones than the attackers, multiple attacks over days or weeks must be made, so there is a real sense of ownership and persistence. Each district can only be attacked once per day, and the corporation that attacked the day prior gets first dibs if they want to attack again the next day to prevent another corporation from waiting until a defending corporation is almost depleted and then attacking.
Last but not least, if your corporation is so good that you amass a large excess of clones, you can sell them to other corporations for profit, allowing you to get more of your favorite dropsuits, guns, and vehicles!
Dust 514 is completely
FREE TO PLAY so no excuse not to try it, and by no means is it pay to win. All the premium content is either the same as the free stuff except with early access or skill point boosters. Basically paying only lets you use stuff faster, but it takes a very short time to make one specialized trooper so all paying essentially gets you is quicker access to more variety, not better stuff.
Once you create your character you start getting 1,000 free skill points every hour even if you're not online, so might as well create one now even if you don't plan on trying it right away.
You can create a character without even downloading the game using this link,
https://dust514.com/recruit/Bu7K7M/
This is actually a recruiter link, and everyone who uses it will
get a free "Recruit Assault Rifle" for a slight beginners edge and a 7 day skill point booster, however you have to use the link before you get Dust 514 from the PS Store if you want the rewards.
. Was last year when you tried it out last? Since E3 the been through the Precursor and Codex builds to its current Chromosome build. The game's made serious leaps and bounds since back then and is expected to soon launch its release build (possibly around April to coincide with EVE FanFest) that will considerably upgrade graphics as well as a whole slew of new content and game modes.
