This is a thought I had many years ago and submitted to Mythic with no response back in 2002. It has probably been mooted many times before, but here goes anyhow, something for all to think about and comment on .
One of the major problems of this game has always been its lack of “endgame”. As there is really no realm endgame people tend to concentrate on personal aggrandisement and this can have a detrimental effect on the realms themselves. What I believe is needed is something that will draw all players to the realm they fight for and I do mean all from the most humble to the top flight RR10s.
What am I babbling about? In a nutshell have a proper war which culminates in the sacking of a capital city!
Is it possible, well yes Gaheris and Mordred showed us we can all enter each others realms, and there was a DOL server which tried this but it failed for lack of people to carry it out.
So how would it work?
Once a month (or at whatever time interval the devs deemed appropriate, but we will work with once a month), the devs would declare that weekend X from Friday noon CET to Sunday midnight PST (for example), would be the War event. This would be announced at least a week in advance so that the guild leaders could get their shit together and organise! Additionally the unguilded would be told, by the forum and announcements. Two weeks would probably be best. Comms between guild leaders and other realm personalities would then try and organise who was going to do what and when. Comms security would be the concern of the realm, and it is highly probable that espionage and subterfuge would take place, all part of the war, and all's fair in love and war.
Once people were aware leaders however they “emerged” would then try and maintain security while planning how they were going to either attack or defend or both. Numbers could well be the deciding factor. Everybody will say they will turn up, but whether they will is another matter. Crossrealming would have to be turned off for entire weekend, whichever realm logged into first you'd be stuck with.
So how does it work? There are a number of stages which have to be achieved which get progressively harder.
Stage one: take all the frontier keeps of the target realm ( will use alb as the target throughout , but the principles apply to all). You have to take them all and so the relic keeps are last and one of those will be the portal. Once all the keeps and the portal are taken then the invaders can port to the designated area of the target realm. The portal only remains open while all the other target enemy keeps are held, if one is lost the portal closes and no more reinforcements may port and importantly no rezzes for the invaders.
Stage two: The invading army is transported to Alb, but not Camelot, Lyonesse, they will then have to progress through the various zones. Now in keeping with a line of communication theme (LOC), the invaders will be required to take and hold 2 points in each zone on the journey north (but not in the arrival zone, where they just have to hold the portal point/fort). So for example as the invaders left Lyoness and entered Cornwall their next target would be Yarleys farm and Cornwall station. In Avalon marsh Caer Witrin and Adibrarbs retreat. Camp Forest, The lethanthis asscociation and Caer Ulfwych. In Salisbury the two towers. These points must be held in a LOC all the way back or rezzes are not available, so the invaders can just charge and hope they don't loose too many on the way north or garrison those way points after seizing them.When you get to Camelot hills you have to hold Prydwyn Keep.
Stage three: You finally arrive at Camelot, you have a secure LOC in place. Now normally capitals are zoned into, so some sort front end would have to be put on to represent the siege of the capital. Once the doors were down all could port in where they have to kill everything in sight to get to the throne room where King (insert name) will be supported by their closest warriors and be mega Keep lord and guards. Kill them and the task is done. Appropriate rewards dished out to all invaders online, as some will be defending the the LOC and frontier keeps. Rewards to be decided but generally a nice goody or two and some cash.
You could have an interim stage between two and three, whereby the invaders say sack housing and loot the contents before taking the capital. The losing defenders with houses lose their contents and the attackers have them distributed as a cash equivalent. This gives everybody and incentive to defend the realm to the best of their ability.
Additionally as reward a title could be given as an invader which could be displayed under their name like RRs are now.
The event could either end on the first fall of a capital or continue throughout the weekend so realms had to think about defence even if they have just sacked a capital. Once the event was over all invaders would be repatriated automatically and life would resume as normal. No hidden lingering stealth in the enemy heartland.
Why would we do this. Well we all know burnout and boredom play a part in the death of a server as well as the gap between the casuals and the leets growing ever larger and more insurmountable, it is a way everybody can get involved with lowbies constantly harassing the invaders and their LOC or the frontier, Realm pride is up for grabs as well as bragging rights etc. In short it tries to redress the slip from a gaming collective experience to indvidual (and usually selfish) gaming. Now we may have gone too far down the individual route, but perhaps not.
So far as the technicalities are concerned its has all been done before, entering foreign realms, setting way points etc, so hopefully there would not be too many difficulties. The other thing is not to have it on all the time but as a monthly or bi monthly event which can be looked forward to, planned for and enjoyed by all players. We used to have something similar by way of Realm pride, I remember on Tristan back in 2001(ish) the week long siege of Nottmore, taken by the Hibs and held by them for a whole week against all comers.......
Anyhow what do people think?
One of the major problems of this game has always been its lack of “endgame”. As there is really no realm endgame people tend to concentrate on personal aggrandisement and this can have a detrimental effect on the realms themselves. What I believe is needed is something that will draw all players to the realm they fight for and I do mean all from the most humble to the top flight RR10s.
What am I babbling about? In a nutshell have a proper war which culminates in the sacking of a capital city!
Is it possible, well yes Gaheris and Mordred showed us we can all enter each others realms, and there was a DOL server which tried this but it failed for lack of people to carry it out.
So how would it work?
Once a month (or at whatever time interval the devs deemed appropriate, but we will work with once a month), the devs would declare that weekend X from Friday noon CET to Sunday midnight PST (for example), would be the War event. This would be announced at least a week in advance so that the guild leaders could get their shit together and organise! Additionally the unguilded would be told, by the forum and announcements. Two weeks would probably be best. Comms between guild leaders and other realm personalities would then try and organise who was going to do what and when. Comms security would be the concern of the realm, and it is highly probable that espionage and subterfuge would take place, all part of the war, and all's fair in love and war.
Once people were aware leaders however they “emerged” would then try and maintain security while planning how they were going to either attack or defend or both. Numbers could well be the deciding factor. Everybody will say they will turn up, but whether they will is another matter. Crossrealming would have to be turned off for entire weekend, whichever realm logged into first you'd be stuck with.
So how does it work? There are a number of stages which have to be achieved which get progressively harder.
Stage one: take all the frontier keeps of the target realm ( will use alb as the target throughout , but the principles apply to all). You have to take them all and so the relic keeps are last and one of those will be the portal. Once all the keeps and the portal are taken then the invaders can port to the designated area of the target realm. The portal only remains open while all the other target enemy keeps are held, if one is lost the portal closes and no more reinforcements may port and importantly no rezzes for the invaders.
Stage two: The invading army is transported to Alb, but not Camelot, Lyonesse, they will then have to progress through the various zones. Now in keeping with a line of communication theme (LOC), the invaders will be required to take and hold 2 points in each zone on the journey north (but not in the arrival zone, where they just have to hold the portal point/fort). So for example as the invaders left Lyoness and entered Cornwall their next target would be Yarleys farm and Cornwall station. In Avalon marsh Caer Witrin and Adibrarbs retreat. Camp Forest, The lethanthis asscociation and Caer Ulfwych. In Salisbury the two towers. These points must be held in a LOC all the way back or rezzes are not available, so the invaders can just charge and hope they don't loose too many on the way north or garrison those way points after seizing them.When you get to Camelot hills you have to hold Prydwyn Keep.
Stage three: You finally arrive at Camelot, you have a secure LOC in place. Now normally capitals are zoned into, so some sort front end would have to be put on to represent the siege of the capital. Once the doors were down all could port in where they have to kill everything in sight to get to the throne room where King (insert name) will be supported by their closest warriors and be mega Keep lord and guards. Kill them and the task is done. Appropriate rewards dished out to all invaders online, as some will be defending the the LOC and frontier keeps. Rewards to be decided but generally a nice goody or two and some cash.
You could have an interim stage between two and three, whereby the invaders say sack housing and loot the contents before taking the capital. The losing defenders with houses lose their contents and the attackers have them distributed as a cash equivalent. This gives everybody and incentive to defend the realm to the best of their ability.
Additionally as reward a title could be given as an invader which could be displayed under their name like RRs are now.
The event could either end on the first fall of a capital or continue throughout the weekend so realms had to think about defence even if they have just sacked a capital. Once the event was over all invaders would be repatriated automatically and life would resume as normal. No hidden lingering stealth in the enemy heartland.
Why would we do this. Well we all know burnout and boredom play a part in the death of a server as well as the gap between the casuals and the leets growing ever larger and more insurmountable, it is a way everybody can get involved with lowbies constantly harassing the invaders and their LOC or the frontier, Realm pride is up for grabs as well as bragging rights etc. In short it tries to redress the slip from a gaming collective experience to indvidual (and usually selfish) gaming. Now we may have gone too far down the individual route, but perhaps not.
So far as the technicalities are concerned its has all been done before, entering foreign realms, setting way points etc, so hopefully there would not be too many difficulties. The other thing is not to have it on all the time but as a monthly or bi monthly event which can be looked forward to, planned for and enjoyed by all players. We used to have something similar by way of Realm pride, I remember on Tristan back in 2001(ish) the week long siege of Nottmore, taken by the Hibs and held by them for a whole week against all comers.......
Anyhow what do people think?