The killtask system. Concerns and suggestions.

First off, I believe killtasks are a great addition. In addition to Eggs and RoG drops, they make for a very pleasant (solo) PvE experience.

That being said, there are some issues with the way it is currently working.

1. The current implementation isn't equally covering all level ranges.
2. The current implementation will cause a lot of griefing over certain wanted spots, especially when the game goes live and there will be double or triple the amount of players, I can see the entire system becoming a source of grief and frustration due to a sheer lack of mobs.
3. The current implementation is limiting the player experience to certain parts of the PvE content.

In order to address these points, I think a general solution for these concerns could be the introduction of a keep-based killtask system, combined with an expansion of the killtask items in mainland and SI zones so that players have a wide choice of options.

While the expansion for mainland and SI zones is straightforward, I'll expand on the keep-based killtask system below:

Every keep has a certain <Killtask NPC> which will allow you to hand in all killtask items from that zone (For instance Dun Crimthain killtask NPC will allow you to hand in the items from all Breifine mobs; moss monsters, bananach, invaders mobs, ... etc).

Secondly, all mobs in the frontiers will drop a unique kill-task item. The ones that already drop one keep their original item, but the ones who don't drop any will receive one that is only available in the frontiers and only exchangeable in the keeps.For instance, the fins near Crimthain will drop a killtask item that only drops from fins in Breifine and is only exchangeable for XP at any of the 4 keeps in Breifine. Fins in Cursed Forest will not drop these items.

An interesting consequence of this concept is that once an enemy realm conquers a keep in a certain zone, they can now also make use of the killtasks that are available in that zone. This spices things up a little in terms of keep benefits as well as PvE - RvR dynamics. Also, I stand by my suggestion for vastly increasing the XP (and loot) reward for keeptakes (and keepdefends!) in another thread. This would further incentivize players to adopt a keep oriented PvE approach.

Every zone that has a border keep attached to it (ie Cruachan Gorge, Mount collory, Uppland, Forest Sauvage, etc) will also have a <Killtask NPC> in the borderkeeps themselves to prevent other realms from completely canceling out the ability for lower players to hand in their frontier-specific XP items.

Last but not least, this also applies to BGs. Every mob in the BG should have a chance to drop killtask items which can be returned in the central keep. You could also hand them in at your Portal Keep for half the XP returns.

Wed 22 Aug 2018 3:17 PM by schreon

The reward for offensive keeptakes would have to be massive in order to get people raiding in enemy frontiers though. Else I see everyone sitting in their frontiers doing killtasks there. While that would be a great thing by itself already, because more people are lured into RvR zones enabling more battles, the fun really begins when an enemy realm conquered the keep necessary for all the 40-50 items ...

What I especially like about this is that you would be able to farm the xp items upfront and the keeptake is only necessary for the turn ins. Thus you can enter enemy frontiers, collect a lot XP items there, then take the according keep with your guild/alliance.

What pops to my mind instantly is that it would be nice if the FZ killtask items could be exchanged for (accountbound?) generic killtask items, so you can stay on your main character with which you helped raiding the keep. Else people mass disband after successful raid and hurry to bring their alts for all those turn ins.

Wed 22 Aug 2018 5:43 PM by Frigzy

schreon wrote: ↑
Wed 22 Aug 2018 3:17 PM
The reward for offensive keeptakes would have to be massive in order to get people raiding in enemy frontiers though. Else I see everyone sitting in their frontiers doing killtasks there. While that would be a great thing by itself already, because more people are lured into RvR zones enabling more battles, the fun really begins when an enemy realm conquered the keep necessary for all the 40-50 items ...

You make a good point. I think keeptakes in and of themselves should provide very substantial rewards for non-50, non-templated players. Guards should give amazing xp and should drop RoGs like any other mob. The reward for actually taking the keep should be comparable to a named boss mob raid, but better, or at least more reliable. A guaranteed high util RoG and a massive XP reward for killing the keep lord should be fine.

Of course you could get a bit creative and add rewards such as a token that boosts the xp gained by killtasks in that zone (both offensively and defensively) upon taking or successfully defending a keep. There are plenty of ideas that can be worked around it.

schreon wrote: What I especially like about this is that you would be able to farm the xp items upfront and the keeptake is only necessary for the turn ins. Thus you can enter enemy frontiers, collect a lot XP items there, then take the according keep with your guild/alliance.

Exactly. This would also prompt players to hunt not only for enemy XPers, but also explore and search for camps that are good to xp on for themselves. It would definitely increase the non-50 frontiers participation and casual RvR in that sense.

schreon wrote: What pops to my mind instantly is that it would be nice if the FZ killtask items could be exchanged for (accountbound?) generic killtask items, so you can stay on your main character with which you helped raiding the keep. Else people mass disband after successful raid and hurry to bring their alts for all those turn ins.

Do you mean that once people take a keep for said zone they would log their alts to go hand in the xp items they farmed in advance?

I can see how you would want to prevent this. At the same time your idea could be a great way to incentivize level 50 players to join the keepraids as well. Keepraiding would - in itself - become a way to level your alts to a certain extent. Just like one would farm xp items on a level 50.

The specifics of this measure are not exactly clear to me tho. It needs more thought (or clarification?)

Wed 22 Aug 2018 7:27 PM by schreon

What I mean is, people should be able to convert their previously farmed XP loot at the freshly raided keep into XP tokens for according level ranges, which then csn be muled over to other toons. Just like it is the case right now with standard XP loot. The only difference is that the according keep must be owned at some point.

The difficulty of raiding each keep and farming mobs in that region should defenitely be reflected by higher rewards. For example, as a Mid/Alb it is quite dangerous to farm near Dun Ailline, so they should get a bigger Invader bonus than for Loot that can be turned in at Dun Bolg.

Restricting each keep to a handful of XP loot types would motivate a raiding party to capture each keep at least once.

However, in order to make this working, standard XP loot level 35+ should be made much weaker. XP loot at keep hubs in the own frontiers should grant XP equal to what standard XP loot gives at the moment. And XP loot in enemy frontiers should give that extra Invader bonus which is even higher the deeper the according keep is in enemy territory.

I would really love to level that way. The way to 35 would remain the same as currently. The new system would just be an alternative to the current XP loot grind 35-50.

Hanging around in keeps should also be worthwile. For example, add crafting tables to keeps and grant a higher masterpiece chance when crafting there. Add a campfire where you gain an XP buff when sitting there for at least 5 minutes. Add merchants who sell some kind of OTD items for tremendous amounts of gold/platin or even feathers. Simply put lots of stuff there making it rewarding hanging around in a keep instead of a city.

Wed 22 Aug 2018 9:52 PM by Frigzy

Great input, completely agreed.