I've been wondering if something like this would work for a while. No, I haven't thought it all the way through, so post if you like the idea or if you think its a bad idea and why.
Make the cartels only available for capture once per server restart, just like how the Turfs are set up. Except maybe make them always a Red zone, so that when gangs try to camp there waiting for the pop, people can still fight.
This could do a couple things I've thought of.
If you get the capture, you'll actually have time to put the perks to use. It sucks cap'n arms only to get to black market and another gang start contesting.
It could make it more likely that several gangs will be preparing and waiting for a cartel to 'pop' and once it does it will be all out war.
It could bring more fights to Turfs, since you cant just go to a cartel and fight at any given moment. I'm sure not being able to fight at any given moment will be a negative to players, buut Turfs pop every ~45mins, if you make a Cartel pop in between each turf there will almost always be somewhere available to fight. And you've always got the Vs Cops locations.
It could make it more likely that a gang will keep the cartel through the restart, and then the reinforcements being put in place. I know the cartel gangs don't like the reinforcements, but they could now use them to their advantage by going to the cartel before it pops and be the ones defending and using reinforcements to their advantage. Difficult to do with the random pops, but not impossible. And if they aren't prepared, the gang who doesn't control the turf will get to use the reinforcements that are more likely to be there to their advantage.
I imagine this will get a lot of -1s from the guys who fight cartels the most, are used to it and like the way it is now. But I've only been playing for a little more than six months and I'm not partial to how they work currently. So try to be open to change, it can't be that much fun winning all the time.(I wouldn't know)lol
I think this will bring more players, variety, excitement, and reward to cartels. What do you think?