How to Raise Grayzone to Another Level

[Taldren]

The game has potential--great potential actually. Full disclosure--I haven't seen or sought out information on what's planned for the game so if my suggestion is already in the works, great.

There are three amazing features that set this game up for success:

1. Three Factions
   
2. 1 Large Map without Loading Screens
   
3. Persistent Map Lobbies

Now, the current gameplay loop satisfies the individual drive for progression. I complete individual tasks, scavenge, make money, level up, and acquire better gear...all while accessing more and more of the map. Fantastic for individual players. But, what happens when I've acquired all the best weapons and loot? What happens when I have $500K and there's no risk or tasks left to compete? Well, the game then only holds up based solely on the quality of its PvP or how quickly the devs can create new PvE content. Is that enough to keep players engaged when there are plenty of extraction shooters being released all the time?

Right now, Grayzone is missing one critical gameplay layer that could help elevate it and distinguish it from most of the Tarkov competitors.

Long-Term Collective Motivation

The most recent and best example of this is Helldivers 2. The game has a perfectly serviceable individual player progression tree, but it also has a co-operative, meta level layer of gameplay sitting on top of that. Something that rallies the community and encourages others to play. "For Democracy" and all that.

It would be amazing to create a similar layer of meta progression and persistence to Grayzone based on its three factions. PvE could also be incorporated into this as well considering it's already part of the game and Helldivers 2 is a good example of that.

Collective Meta Features

• Faction-Based Scoring - See how your faction is doing in the conflict against the other two at all times. This is persistent until a wipe.
  
• Faction-Based Rewards for Performance - Participation and victory in objectives against other factions, as well as overall faction rank provides individual players with bonuses.
  
• Control Point Objectives - This could be a separate "mode" in the game that frames the current map into a series of control points linked by lines. Each faction is faced with two fronts at all times. This mode would require a lot of rules regarding player limits and minimums, as well as "victory" conditions and how they are scored for each faction but it's doable. Players across all modes would see the impact that these conflicts have on the overall performance of their faction.

In the long-term, Grayzone would become a persistent war game for territory among three private factions. Guild/Clan/Company systems could be implemented as an additional layer for groups of players to compete in leaderboards within their own faction and to see how they stack against enemy faction clans.

Ultimately, some form of persistent meta that takes advantage of the current faction system would elevate Grayzone from being a simple extraction shooter, Tarkov competitor, to something far more interesting.