Make keep tasks more dynamic - Phoenix Freeshard

The main problem right now, is how keep tasks makes people react...

Defenders: Hug keep, and circle around walls with as many as possible to kill attackers coming to get credit.

Attackers has actually 2 choices:
1) If you have a chance of getting 2+ fg's to the keep and clear guards before to many defenders arrive, you have a chance of taking it.
2) If the keep is far from attackers portal keeps, we have the fg's circling scenario, and then the attackers goal becomes to kill/die at keep to get credit.

My suggestion is as follows:

When keep task is announced, the defending realm ONLY gets noticed that one of their keeps has been designated for attack, NOT which one!
The attacking realms gets the message of which keep to attack.

This creates a situation alike to relic raids, where defenders need information on where the other realms are moving, so they can mount a proper defence at the right spot!
The attacking realms will likely be fighting both guards at the keep, some defenders, and each other.

Followup suggestion...
If you want to delve further down on this, the system could continue that IF the attacking realms take the keep, the task continues with another keep attack/defence in same realm. This will continue until defending realm has won a defence task.

Mon 10 Sep 2018 9:37 AM by yallia

I like the 1st suggestion, think it would make it interesting. Have to take in consideration that atm there is always 2 to 6 keeps that are unclaimed, most likely due to low population. A realm particularly underpopulated would not have a lot of fun against that.

Overall it would make defense a bit harder which is probably a good thing since there isn't many time when people actually try to go for the keep.

I'm alb and to be honest I think most of the reason comes from the fact no one is trying to organize, and no one tries to coordinate with other. I mean, just look when there is a bunch of groups forming at pk, 99% of the time they randomly leave as soon as they get buffed.

Even if the groups are close, they refuse to regroup and will just use a different route. On the other side, it's very common to see hibs & mids arrive all at once, grouped and ready to fight, with a clear objective.

I'm saying all this because I'm also not sure the lack of dynamism isn't due to players being to lazy / selfish to make it more interesting. Still think your idea is nice though.

However, I really don't like the follow up suggestion at all !

Mon 10 Sep 2018 9:59 AM by Druth

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, albs have a big issue with running together.
The other day my group got zerged 3+ times, and yet still the suggestion to run with another group was met with silence.
In the end the group dissolved with the argument: "It's hopeless". Hopeless? We didn't even try to find some other group to run with?
Mind you, my group had no problems adding fights, or killing soloers.

Is also an issue for a weaker realm, but lets hope underdog bonuses can help make it more fun for them

Mon 10 Sep 2018 11:24 AM by schreon

Considering the age of discord, there will always be at least 1 guy on the attacker realms who will announce the targt via chat.

However, if both the attackers and the defenders don't know the exact target for a while, we should see almost the same effect. The existing tasks could even be scripted in a specific order, keeping the action in one realm a little longer:

Phase 1: Fight in any portal zone (exactly like the existing task)

---- now RNG decides which realm will be under siege. RNG says: Albion ---

Phase 2: Fight in Albion

--- now RNG decides which zone will be under siege. Options: [Pennine Mountains] or [Snowdonia or Forest Sauvage]

Phase 3: Fight in Snowdonia and Forest Sauvage

--- now RNG decides which keep will be attacked. ---

Phase 4: Gather in front of / inside of Caer Renaris
Explanation for Phase 4: Spawn an invulnerable "Commander NPC" for each attacking realm, near the target keep, somewhere in the forest. People get a little credit for just staying near that commander for some minutes. The commander NPC might be surrounded by those ultra strong guards that we know from the PKs, just for the duration of Phase 4. Despawn those guards when Phase 4 is over.

Phase 5: Attack/Defend Caer Renaris
Optionally remove the invulnerability from the Commander NPC and make it run to the outer gate of the keep. This might counter purple defending guards to some extent. Keep in mind that the commanders of both attacking realms will be there. It's possible to either let them attack at the same time, or delay the attack of the other realm a little bit.

Phase 4 might sound strange first, but imho it is important to give the attackers the same opportunity as the defenders: simply go to a common place where they can stick around and wait for the action to begin.

Mon 10 Sep 2018 11:37 AM by Druth

schreon wrote: ↑
Mon 10 Sep 2018 11:24 AM
Considering the age of discord, there will always be at least 1 guy on the attacker realms who will announce the targt via chat.

I thought about this, but:
- x-realm spying is not allowed, and so you could be banned for it.
- with regards to first point, people are unlikely to be as stupid as to broadcast which keep before attackers have even arrived.
- even if a group of people do it, and keep the intel to Discord, it'll still be better than the situation we have now.

People will always find ways to cheat to gain an advantage, our hope is that banning them when caught will at least deter others from also doing it.

Even when Mythic startet to ban people for radar, some still kept on doing it.
Uthgard even had an infamous episode with a streamer who had forgot he had radar running while streaming. Of course claiming he was merely testing it for fun for the first time ever

Mon 10 Sep 2018 8:09 PM by Niix

Why not just make it 'Take any keep in <mid/alb/hib>' and force the realm to work together to ensure their keeps are claimed and notified which one is under attack.

Would be a lot harder to defend, especially if alb/mids split.... but does that really matter?

Mon 10 Sep 2018 11:39 PM by yallia

That idea would be nice on a server with a lot of population, but one of main reason for those task is to concentrate the action in one place. If it was a "take any keep" task, most people would just go to Beno / DC / Bledmeer to cap it fast before reinforcements comes. And people would probably don't bother defending ; might as well just steal a keep on your own while you lose yours.

If you had enough player to defend & attack at the same time sure it would be pretty awesome, but we lack the playerbase and the organisation for that ^^

Wed 12 Sep 2018 8:09 AM by Druth

yallia wrote: ↑
Mon 10 Sep 2018 11:39 PM
That idea would be nice on a server with a lot of population, but one of main reason for those task is to concentrate the action in one place. If it was a "take any keep" task, most people would just go to Beno / DC / Bledmeer to cap it fast before reinforcements comes. And people would probably don't bother defending ; might as well just steal a keep on your own while you lose yours.

If you had enough player to defend & attack at the same time sure it would be pretty awesome, but we lack the playerbase and the organisation for that ^^

I just think the system of bundling all defenders around the keep, and attackers doing kamikaze attacks is not very productive.