Curse

Ravious · May 16, 2006, 04:23 PM // 16:23

This thread is about making the average monkey care about the war.

Just brought to our attention, A.Net is working on access to Elite Missions, communication problems in Alliance Battles (AB), and so on. They have not announced whether they are going to look at the way Town Control works and the importance of the War....and I think they should be.

Town Control
Originally Jeff Strain had said that the best Alliances would be composed of both PvE players and PvP players. Right now, the best Alliances are the ones with the best trap-nuke teams (Kurzick) and fleet of low-skilled runners (Luxon).

The first thing that has to be examined is Faction per minute per skill.

In my opinion, Explorable Area quests require the lowest skill, and currently give the way for highest Faction per minute. Not all quests are equal. The recruiting ones, although requiring low skill, are probably accurate in the Faction per minute. The Luxon supply quest gives more Faction per minute than any other method in the game, and the quest requires less skill than any other Faction-giving quest.

Next we have PvE-type mission to gain Faction: Challenge Missions and Competitive Missions. I think Challenge Missions are a perfect balance of skill and Faction gain per time. The Challenge Missions usually take less than 15 minutes. With a halfway decent team you can get 500+ Faction; with a good team you can get significantly more. And most importantly it is fun with other people. IMO, Challenge Missions don't have to be touched.

Competitive Missions are the exact opposite. First, I wholeheartedly think that you should be able to make parties of 2. They would become much more fun, if you could partner up to go in. Secondly, the Faction gained is atrocious. It just isn't worth it, and this is very sad because I think Competitive Missions are the best new Mission-type for Factions. Because it is both random and the rewards are less than the two aforementioned ways to get Faction, no one plays them. I think that Competitive Missions need to give more Faction per time than Challenge Missions on average. First, we need more people to play them, a chance at a better reward than just doing quest by yourself is needed. Second, they require skill, possibly more skill than Challenge Missions due to lack of a cohesive team, ability to help players prior to locking skills, and knowledge of what is happening on both sides.

Finally, there are Alliance Battles to be considered. First, I strongly disagree with not putting Balthazar Faction in something a PvP character can play. It should be there in some way. Maybe not as much per kill as Random Arena, but Balthazar should be very pleased with the war going on. That alone will get more people involved. As far as Faction gain, I think it is right on per time per skill, if Balth Faction is added as well. And please dear A.Net, add a button to warp to the current AB, don't make me warp out of Cantha (where the war is taking place), to the GH, to run to an NPC. It seems from screenshots there were buttons before, please add them.

Okay, so we have looked at all the ways to get Faction repeatedly. A balance of Faction gained will significantly edge Town Control to the more skillful arena. If the fastest way to get Faction requires the most skill and most human opposition, I think people will believe that a more deserving Alliance holds the town. Sure, it is still Faction Farming, but there is no way around it with this current system. You just have to make it so there is as much skill involved as possible in Farming, so a great player can make 4x as much as a poor player running Supplies quests in the same amount of time.

Territory Control and the Effects Thereof

So, now we have quality Alliances holding the towns on each side. They get their de minimus rewards (fireworks that no one but them care about and a discount on ID kits) and everyone is happy. But, why care about the actual boundaries of the nations?

The boundary lines do effect the balance of the battles. Push the Luxons back a little and they get Etnaran Keys which gives them a slight edge. Notice though that, AFAIK, there has never been a fight on any other maps than Saltspray and Etnaran. Something is wrong here, and I believe that something is AB and boundary control is nothing to care about.

First, adding Balthazar Faction will go along way to getting more people into AB. They won't necessarily care about the war, but at least more will play.

Second, the top Alliances (those controlling towns) should be forced to care about the War. Faction as we know it, is reputation and the cashing in of that reputation. So, far it is all positive except for the daily Faction decay. Think of the top Alliances as the team captains or Board of Directors. Don't you think that if a corporation lost one of its subsidiaries to a corporate takeover, the Board of Directors would be held accountable if it was there fault or not? I think the same shold be applied here.

If the Faction loses one of their Outposts, all the top Alliances on the losing side lose a certain % of their total Faction because in the eyes of the Faction nation, the Alliance is not doing what they are supposed to...not losing against the other nation. Furthermore, I think this lost Faction should be converted to gold and given to the winning side, which of course they turn in their Faction to receive.

It would also be nice if the top Alliances had a way of knowing whether they were winning or losing. Possibly an NPC in Cavalon or HouseZH that said "as it is going now, we are going to lose [Outpost]" or "if thinks keep going as they are, we are going to push those dirty [Faction] past [Outpost]." Then again, possibly not, I can see the design elements in knowing afterhand.

So, if the Alliance loses a huge chunk of their Faction for not helping, that should get them motivateed. But, how can we get the common player interested in the war? I think A.Net was just banking on personal pride possibly: "I am allied with Luxon, we just lost Seafarer's, time to get jiggy on those Kurzicks's." But, I don't think anybody has that. First, the only thing that matters with who you are allied with is AB. Other than that, you can believe your character to be Kurzick when the guild is Luxon, for instance. I don't want this to change, it is better that people are allowed to play on which side they choose (except for AB) regardless of what their guild/Alliance chooses.

But, to get the individual motivated for the war, I am coming up short. I actually have no idea. It is however very much needed. Possibly others can come up with ways to get people interested. Unlike Alliance Town Control you couldn't have a penalty, it would have to be a reward.

Competitive Missions and the War
I want to disclaim that I do not know of any benefits for one side winning more for Competitive Missions. AFAIK, right now they are just games with no effect on either side of the war or the war itself.

I think this needs to change. Competitive Missions are such a great addition to GW and they have so much potential. It would be cool if they had a small effect on AB.

For example: If Kurzicks are winning the Jade Mines, they get Stonespore Defense System, where in AB if a captured point is changed to the opponent's side, the point emits Stone Spores briefly. If Luxons are winning Ft. Aspenwood, all of the Kurzick NPCs have 10 less AL. Just small stuff really, but where the player feels like it is all integrated. I think small bonuses will also help push Kurzick past Etnaran keys, for instance, if they wanted. They would have to go be winning Jade Mines and Ft. Asp. too. Be much more interesting.

It should be integrated. A.Net has great potential with this mechanic. It is almost done, but IMHO, needs a little tweaking to make it very noteworthy instead of just eye candy.

Mesti Arcanus · May 16, 2006, 04:49 PM // 16:49

At a first read, I'd have to agree totally with this (even the Luxon Supply Lines, as much as it would pain me to lose my current faction source

). I agree that the system has a LOT of potential, (I greatly enjoy what I've seen so far), but it needs a bit of tweaking and some added cohesiveness. Your points are well thought out, and well articulated. ANet can worry about the exact numbers of course, but for now I say:

/signed

Dougal Kronik · May 16, 2006, 07:32 PM // 19:32

/Signed

Definitely need to get the individual to care about the Faction they are allied with and want to be victorious over their opponents.

Some points seem to have a lot of merit, especially the rebalancing of the Faction rewards for the types of Quests/Competitions the players involve themselves. I do feel that the only repeatable quests should be in the UW or FoW. And that the Cooperative Missions on the Kuzick/Luxon side reward Faction for successful completion. This would encourage players to actually play and get involved in the war.

sinisters chaos · May 16, 2006, 08:30 PM // 20:30

/signed

perfect!

Ag3ofshadows · May 16, 2006, 09:16 PM // 21:16

ill never know considering ill never have dsl/cable to make it that far in the game w/out being completely useless

Gmr Leon · May 16, 2006, 09:30 PM // 21:30

/signed

Indeed people should care about the War and which faction is winning or losing.

Rayea · May 16, 2006, 10:51 PM // 22:51

well, maybe giving out tiny *individual* rewards to players when their side was winning might get the 'man on the dirt path' interested....
perhaps something you have to collect a few of to get better items....

anyone remember the Games in the Calm Lands? (ff10-2)
there were two sides there and the more credits you had on one side, the better stuff you could swap for....
and the more you helped out the side of your choise, the more you noticed stuff chanign (apparently..i never realy bothered promoting ether side lol)

so imagine....maybe you have to get a Badge....a Luxon Badge or a Kurzic Badge....that badge shows the folks that your one side or another...you can only have one badge on you at one time....and you cant have the other badge unless you trash the first one *this is to stop peeps playing both sides off on eachother and getting 2 times the stuff* (best worn in the sides teretory, and stored in stash when in the other sides teretory or in neutral lands)

once you have the Badge, you can now trade the tokens in that your side has given out for whatever help you have given the main fighting force...(the quests ect that you do for the side youve picked)
you dont get a token if your side looses teretory, but you do if they gain land or strategic placements.

i mean, c'mon..everyone knows were gready little *beeped* these days ^^ offer the man on the street something for sticking his neck out and taking a side, and he might, if the stuff he can get in the end is worht it

(and i dont mean the jade or amber armour, ether you know....)