Curse

Taigech · Jun 19, 2006, 08:57 PM // 20:57

THIS IS NOT DONE YET. I AM STILL PLANNING OUT KURZICK VS. LUXON OUTPOST BATTLES. Feel free to post comments though. I won't have that section up for a while.

Revamp the Factions Battle System, by Cios Taigech

Okay, after reading so many complaint posts about how flawed the current Factions/Alliance system is, I started thinking of how it could be improved (or, in this case, completely re-done)

Outpost/Town Battles:

Controlling an Outpost: [Kurzick vs. Kurzick, or Luxon vs. Luxon]

Instead of being forced to faction farm for a town, guilds and alliances should fight for it.

To gain control of the area, the attacking guild will form a 8-person group (consisted of only alliance members) in the town. Then, they will have to be warped to a map, kind of similar to a gvg map. There, they will have to attack the guild non-stop until they are able to win.
NPCs: Mercenaries, Mercenary Lord, Mercenary Bodyguard

The reason I chose mercenaries as the npc name, is because right now I am dealing with a case where your alliance is in the same faction as the town being attacked. (The situation where there are opposing factions will be talked about alter).

The controlling alliance can go into the town, and be able to access part of the map that no other alliance can. There, they can hire more mercenaries to defend the map. Some mercenaries will be more expensive, BUT IN NO WAY “MUCH STRONGER”. This can also act as a money sink.
THERE WILL BE A LIMIT TO HOW MANY CAN BE HIRED. Also, they won’t cost too much. Probably about 0.5-2.5k per mercenary.
This keeps balance, as alliance members can pool their money together to get the mercenaries to defend their town, even if they don’t have a lot of money to waste.
Possibly, there could be up to 20-40 mercenaries for you to clear out, and the Mercenary Lord that you have to kill. There are no flags, just a straight map where you must win (Yes, there is a resurrection shrine)
The reason mercenaries are so cheap is because the guild will probably have to buy many of them. Since there will most likely be more than one guild fighting for the outpost at a time, I propose there will be around 5 maps that can take on at a time. 5 maps*20-40 mercenaries per map*0.5-2.5k can lead up to quite a sum (but not unaffordable to poorer players)

Defending Situation:
There will be a new tab in the guild menu, indicating the situation of the outpost. It shows each of the five maps that could currently have a battle in it, the number of mercenaries left, the attacking guild/alliance, and any guild members that are defending it. When you purchase mercenaries, you are given the choice of assigning them positions, and their status (defending, ambush/rush the attackers, scout etc.)
In this, Officers and Leaders of the guilds in the alliance are able to assign mercenary positions and statuses from the outpost. You are only allowed to assign statuses before/after a battle has taken place. Plan carefully! Strategy may become key here- a guild may assign 5 mercenaries to scout for the party, then notify the mercenaries for a non-stop rush. However, it really depends on how the attacking party will respond to this (splitting groups may have an advantage to this situation.)

To send alliance members into the map, there must be a party of exactly 4 members, and they will go to an npc that can only be accessed by the controlling party. There, they will have the option of choosing which battle front to fight on. Defending alliance members will be helping the mercenaries defend the territory. When you join the map, a large notice will be displayed, saying: “ [Player Name] HAS JOINED THE BATTLE TO DEFEND ALLIANCE TERRITORY”
When players kill your mercenaries, you will have the option of buying new ones. This is limited by how many max mercenaries are allowed. (Eg. If the cap on mercenaries is 40, then they will only be allowed to buy up to 40 mercenaries at a time). They will arrive 1 minute after payment from a boat in an area located not too far away from the defending area. Also, clicking on any mercenary (other than the Mercenary Lord and Mercenary Bodyguards) will prompt them to follow you.
When your Mercenary Lord and all alliance defending players die, the map is taken by the attacking guild.

Attacking Situation:
As mentioned earlier, you must form an 8-person alliance-only party in the map. When your entire party is ready, you must zone to the area outside the outpost. Located right outside will be an NPC with the title “ [Outpost Name] Deserter”. Talk to him/her, and you will have the option to attack the territory and try to gain control of it.
When you warp in, everyone in the outpost and in the controlling alliance will be notified: “ [Alliance/guild name] IS NOW ATTACKING [Outpost Name]! Defend your territory!”
When you are warped in, you will be situated at the very corner of a map, whereas the Mercenary Lord is located at the other side. Inside, there will be mercenaries located in groups and patrolling the area. Within a certain area, if you are sighted, all mercenaries are notified and the npcs go on high alert. This allows for some strategic play- possibly luring mercenaries out, or ambushing a small party when they aren’t within area. If a mercenary party is nearing death, some npcs may break off and try to alert the rest of the party. Periodically, there will be a wave of mercenaries that come and try to attack you.
If a few of your team is killed, they will be resurrected in 2 minutes at the resurrection shrine (if you don’t resurrect them by then). However, if every single one in your party is dead, your alliance loses and you are unable to try again for ½ an hour. (giving other alliances a chance at taking the outpost). Also, if your party is near death, an npc will break off and notify the rest of the mercenaries, whereas you will soon be rushed with about 80% of the surviving mercenaries.
When you defeat every remaining defending player and the Mercenary Lord, you will take control of the area.

General Situation:
At any given time, there may be 3-5 battles going on for an outpost at a time. An npc will be located at the centre of the map, where players can talk to and find information on the battle front.

Each battle will be given a max of 40 minutes. At 30 minutes “Victory or Death!” is triggered, and all mercenaries except for Mercenary Lord/Bodyguards will rush the team. The time limit is obviously made to roll the alliances that try and take over the outpost.

Each alliance may only have one party per outpost attacking at a time. If the attacking party loses, their alliance will have a 30-minute ban from re-entering that outpost.

Problem 1: What happens to other battle fronts, when an alliance takes over the map?
Immediately, all battle fronts will end. Mercenaries will all die, and everyone in the outpost and in battle fronts are sent the message “[Alliance/Guild name] HAS TAKEN OVER [Outpost name]!”
The newly controlling alliance will then have a 45-minute amnesty to purchase and assign posts to their mercenaries.

YOU DO NOT GAIN ANY KURZICK OR LUXON FACTION FROM TAKING OVER YOUR OWN FACTION OUTPOSTS.

AW Lore · Jun 20, 2006, 01:16 AM // 01:16

wow.... are you a mind reader?

this is (more or less) the way i thought owning a town would go.

as for now, the defending side has a major advantage, as they can keep hiring mercenaries.

to even out this you could maybe make the atacking side join in a two 8 team party like vizunah square and unwaking waters, and perhaps they could choose how to go in:
atack from different sides or atack together from the same side.

all in all, i would love to see you to keep improving this idea.
i like it

Rogmar · Jun 20, 2006, 01:21 AM // 01:21

Yeah! let's fight over Bai Paasu Reach in Civil War while Kurzicks obliterate us at Saltspray...
Look what happened to the Russians during WWI
Good Idea btw, it's just that there shouldn't be a choice between fighting for your side's Territory (Luxon/Kurzick) or fighting between alliances. Right now fighting in Alliance battles gets you faction = outposts...Maybe this idea would work in Ch3 though, how the conflict in Africa is going between warring tribes

Taigech · Jun 20, 2006, 01:34 AM // 01:34

Yay... responses! ^_^

I was thinking that you shouldn't get alliance faction for trying to gain territory of your own faction.

Instead (what I've been thinking/working on) you would get more alliance when you warp to an OPPOSING faction outpost, and there you fight. It would be significantly harder, wich each side busting out with their special monsters: Kurzick: Protector things, and Luxon: Siege Turtles.

Like with those scored missions, but this time with more at stake.

To AW Lore: I was thinking the ability to hire more mercenaries, because we all know a team of players is going to be much stronger than some npcs.

Rogmar: I was thinking smaller battles for control of the outpost, and huge blown out battles for taking other alliance territory.

Navaros · Jun 20, 2006, 03:19 AM // 03:19

First thing they need to revamp is make there be an actual point to holding a town.

Since there is no point to holding a town, it would be a waste of time for the devs to implement elaborate changes as described in the original post.

The Purple Pants Guy · Jun 20, 2006, 03:33 AM // 03:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navaros

First thing they need to revamp is make there be an actual point to holding a town.

Since there is no point to holding a town, it would be a waste of time for the devs to implement elaborate changes as described in the original post.

Done: Elite missions.

Hidden in the Mist · Jun 20, 2006, 04:47 AM // 04:47

Second point - Money. Buy them them off the merchant for only 480g and sell them to plays at 500g for a 20g profit for every key.

Taigech · Jun 20, 2006, 04:10 PM // 16:10

Well, yeah there should probably be more of a benefit related to controlling a town...

I was just trying to find a way where obtaining the town could actually be fun, not mindless faction farming.