The Letter - Playing Field Event

The letter reached each of the three kings at the same time and even though they were known to be separated in eternal strife, after reading the letter each of them were speechless. The writing was sent from the chieftains of the Banished and made each realm an irresistible offer.

“Dear Kings of Albion, Midgard and Hibernia,

It came to our ears that you and your fellow residents were very excited when the magical gates opened the secret access to the Proving Grounds. Suddenly centuries of eternal war seemed to be forgotten and every one fought on his own or with just a small group of friends. That aroused our interest.

After an intense research done by our leading witch doctors, we found ways to open the magical gates again, whenever you want them to be open. But this is not done easily and for a certain price. Each realm will have to work together to bring us the needed materials. If each realm fulfills this task, then we will be able keep the gates open for at least 3 days in a row.

Below you will find a list which will show all needed materials per realm:

- Phoenix Feathers
- Phoenix Claws
- Snow of Midgard
- Soil of Albion
- Branches of Hibernia
- Arcanite/arcanium metal bars
- Duskwood wooden boards
- Tempered leather square
- Silksteel cloth square
- Task Completion Tokens

Deliver those to your local Contribution Collector which can be found in your capital cities and relic villages. But be aware after we have opened the gates once, it will take some weeks until our witch doctors powers are fully restored for another opening of the gates to the Proving Grounds.”

Long story short. Both Proving Grounds PvP events got amazing feedback and the staff is nearly asked on a daily basis when the next one will happen. As having this event permanently may harm the regular RvR too much, we decided to try something new and will let you, the players, decide by your contribution, when the Proving Grounds will open again for 3 days of PvP mayhem and fast leveling.

Here are the rules for the contribution:
1 - the event will start with the next reboot after all three realms delivered all mats to the Banished Npc
2 - the event will last for 3 days and can be extended 2 times by another 2 days for the same costs as the opening of the event
3 - after an event has ended, players can contribute for the next event, but between each events there needs to be at least 3 weeks of time
4 - there will be several new titles for players, depending on their contribution

Wed 6 Jan 2021 12:50 PM by

Uthred

Below is a first picture of the new Contribution Collector NPCs, the cows, not the big monsters in the background.

They can be found in each capital city and in the three main relic villages in about 10 mins from now (after the reboot).

Just hand them any amount that you would like to contribute, you can not hand in more than needed. If one source has already been fulfilled, they wont accept this materials anymore. For now, they will only tell you the total completion in %. Further updates will include a detailed Leaderboard.

Each source offers three new titles. Those titles arent availble yet, but any contribution will be tracked. They will be available most likely within the next few updates.

The event itself will start with the next reboot after all three realms delivered all mats to the Banished Npc.

For those who dont know about the Playing Field Event, here are some useful informations:

Basic infos:
Everyone will start at Level 1. If you want to join the event, you need to have a lvl 1 toon without any xp, rp and items. Only your starter weapon and your bind stone is allowed.

It is a PvP event. Everyone outside your group is your enemy. The realm timer is not active in this zone.

During the event, dont leave the zone. If you do, you will not be able to get back to the event with that character. In this case, you need to create a new toon, if you want to join the event again. It is intended that you cant use crafting there and you can only get equipment by killing other players. There are no mobs to xp, you only level up by player kills.

Use the Event Teleporter to port into the fight zone. When a member of your group is already somewhere in the fight zone, you will get ported to him.

Useful Commands:
/autogroup: Via this command you can toggle on/off if you want to be auto grouped or not. It is set to on by default. When it is enabled, you will be grouped with players within your level range. The command doesnt care about classes, it just fills up. If you want to build a premade group, you have to disable the command and then invite your friends in the safe zone. The groupcap is 5.

/event pet: Minstrels, Mentalists and Sorcs can summon a charmable pet inside the safe zone via this command.

/event count: It will list all brackets and the number of players in it.

The different level ranges:
Each time you level up and hit a new instance level range, you will get automatically kicked from your grp and ported into the new instance.
1-3
4-6
7-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-48
49-50
>= 5L0

Thu 7 Jan 2021 11:30 PM by

Uthred

Update:
All realms finished the contribution. The event will start in about 15.5h from now (4pm CET). You can now start to contribute for the extension of the event. If the goal doesnt get hit, it will count towards the next event.

Fri 8 Jan 2021 3:29 PM by

Uthred

The Event has started. Current estimated end of the event: Monday, 11th of January at 4.15pm CET

This is in about 72h from now. The event can be extended twice by 2 days each, if the Contribution Collector will get enough resources. If the goal doesnt get hit, it will count towards the next event. So nothing is lost. Have fun and enjoy the Proving Grounds.

Fri 15 Jan 2021 11:30 AM by

Uthred

Now that the event is over, thank you again for being part of it. Hope most of you guys liked it, at least the numbers looking really good:

We are already looking forward to another one. The Contribution Collector NPCs taking your contribution for the next Playing Field. As said in the first post, at least about 3 weeks need to be between two events, so the earliest possible date would be: February, 1st.

Sun 31 Jan 2021 1:24 PM by

Uthred

Last night the contribution has been fulfilled on all three realms. The Banished now have enough materials to open the gates to the Playing Field again.

We would like to put in an important patch before the start of the event regarding some class changes and those might cause another reboot if being buggy. As we would like to avoid any reboots during the event, we decided to start the event on

Tuesday, February 2nd at 6pm CET.
It will end on Friday, February 5th at 6pm CET.

If any issues occur because of the new patch, we still would have enough time to fix them properly before the start of the Playing Field.

As many of you have probably already noticed, you can now contribute for an extension of the event. As the amount is the same as to start the event, we decided to change the length of a possible extension from 2 days to 3 days. If the extension goal doesnt get hit, the contribution will count towards the next event in about 3 weeks.

The event will this time take place on a new map which is Lamfhota's Sound.

Fri 5 Feb 2021 12:44 PM by

Uthred

The first extension has been fulfilled. Playing Field will be extended for another 3 days. It will now end on:

Monday, February 8th, 6pm CET

The contribution collectors are now taking your contribution for a final extension. If the goal doesnt get hit, it will count towards the next event.

Fri 12 Feb 2021 10:32 AM by

Uthred

After the dust has settled and all traces of the endless battles in Lamfhota's Sound have been cleared, it is time to thank all of you who took part again in the Playing Field. This time we tried a new map and after most of the LOS issues had been fixed, we think it is the better map as it offers different places to fight for every playstyle, be it roaming or camping. The different terrain possibilites and the resulting opportunities from those, should give overall everyone a better experience.

Talking about everyone, the numbers were great again. Especially the first day of the event has been huge.

But it also shows, that 6 days might be too long. At the moment we are discussing some changes and we will let you know as soon as possible. Those changes wont affect the upcoming event.

So, the next possible start for the Playing Field would be: March, 19th.

Please keep in mind, that the event will start after the next reboot as soon as the contribution goal has been hit and the date has been reached. No matter what day of the week that would be.

Tue 16 Feb 2021 5:51 PM by

Uthred

As already stated in the last post, we were thinking about changes to the Event. After some discussions about pro und cons we decided to do the following changes. Please note that these changes will be active as soon as the current contribution has been fulfilled.

- Between two events there now has to be at least 6 weeks
- The possibility to extend an event has been removed

We increased the time between two possible events so that the event still stays somewhat special and will not become the regular/only way of leveling up a toon. We also think that 3 days in a row are enough as the event has a huge impact on any activity on the server.

We also discussed about two more things: either let players vote about the exact starting day of an event (weekend/weekdays) or keep the current system where an event will start about 24h after the contribution goal has been hit (after the earliest possible date). We decided to stick with the current system as it has two major advantages: on the one hand it will always change equally between weekdays and weekend if the goal gets hit before the earliest possible date and on the other hand, if players want to have it start at a weekend they still have the influence to do so by not fulfilling the goal too "early".

Future Changes:

To make building level groups easier, especially in low pop times or between events, there will soon be an event / test where we will test level scaling for pve in a special zone, the end result would be that your level won't matter anymore when building xp groups.

Depending on the results of that test (or multiple tests, depending on feedback), we might decide to make this the way forward for leveling in which case the classic and si zones will be reworked accordingly.

The general gist is that the mob color classification will still exist and reflect the challenge level of a given mob with some spots just being blue, some spots just being yellow and some just being red, regardless of your level or group size. At this time it is still unclear if your stats will be visibly scaled when you join a group or if it will all happen behind the scenes when casting / hitting / being hit. The general idea is however that stats will be scaled according to % of cap you have, e. g. the stat cap from items at level 10 is 15 and if you have a stat at 15 while grouped with a level 50 that stat would be scaled to the level 50 stat cap (75) (either visibly or behind the scenes).

Tue 2 Mar 2021 11:31 AM by

gruenesschaf

Live is doing a similar event starting march 5th: https://darkageofcamelot.com/article/catch-caledonia-event

We will delay our event until the 19th to not interfere with theirs, the event will last an additional day due to this unexpected delay, assuming the contribution is filled until then (which it most certainly will be) it will last from Friday the 19th noon CET until Tuesday the 23rd noon CET.

Their timeline makes sense if they assumed our event would start today and therefore end before their event, however, the timeline is just horrible as it stands when ours were to start this weekend, which it looks like it would have based on the contribution. If we do not delay, their event will start with a lot fewer people than it would if we delay, at the same time given they only have a 3 day "registration" window for characters to become eligible to participate in the event even the remaining days would be heavily affected. If we delay by just one week we would cut into the most important phase of their catch up event: the level 50 bracket.

If you want to participate in the live event it would be for the best to copy your phoenix installation and then doing a clean install. It's possible that otherwise you will run into issues when playing on the live servers. Their free to play accounts appear to have access to the event, just note that class / race restrictions apply to the f2p accounts.

There are subtle and not so subtle differences between our event and the live event, the biggest being no pvp setting, time gating, no auto grouping and everyone 10+ in the same instance.

No pvp and everyone 10+ in the same instance appear likely to cause major issues down the line. Time gating also has the potential to make it fizzle out early on.
The reason for everyone being in the same 10+ instance as well as the leveling being time gated is however at least understandable, both things together would make the event work even with a low number of players yet it would be at the cost of the low level players on the later days.
The normal rvr setting instead of pvp setting is more difficult to understand (if it actually was a deliberate choice and is not just a technical limitation) as it makes the event susceptible to being dominated by just one realm.

Wed 17 Mar 2021 12:06 PM by

Uthred

The contribution has been fulfilled. The Banished will open the portals to the Playing Field on March, 19th, noon CET (in about 47h from now). The event will end on Tuesday, March 23rd, noon CET. There will be no extension. The Contribution NPCs are now collecting stuff for the next event in about 6 weeks from now.

Tue 23 Mar 2021 1:00 PM by

Uthred

Thx to everyone who joined the event. The earliest possible date for the next Playing Field is May, 5th.

Wed 5 May 2021 10:55 AM by

Uthred

The contribution has been fulfilled and instantly the discussion with the Banished started. It was a tough one as they were discussing about labor law and asking for some union representatives to monitor their working conditions while doing the summoning. But I think we managed to get the best result for you as we could agree on a nice change with them.

We can now announce the following:

Event Start: Thursday, May 6th at noon (Berlin time) which is in about 23h from now
Event End: Monday, May 10th at noon (Berlin time)

Explanation:
We discussed about the starting and end day of the event and decided to make a change to the duration. From now on (including the event tomorrow), the event will last for 4 days, if it starts on a monday, tuesday, wednesday or thursday. If it starts on a friday, saturday or sunday it will last for 3 days.

We decided to extend the duration for one day if it starts during the week, as most people are working and dont have that much time to play.

Wed 5 May 2021 4:19 PM by

Uthred

There will be the same event only changes like last time:
- cc duration above 10s is halved before det / resists, e. g. 1min13s becomes 10 + 63/2 = 41s on which resists and det etc. apply
- resist buffs have no effect
- resist debuffs have no effect other than rupting

PLUS:
As the Level 49-50 bracket was really crowded (more than 500 players in it), we will put in an additional bracket which will start at 5L0.

Sat 8 May 2021 10:57 AM by

Uthred

As written in the post before the main reason to put in the rr5 bracket was to split up the population in the last brackets and also to separate casual & hardcore gamers as the hardcore 24/7 players would very fast leave the 49-50 bracket and could find mindlike players in the 5L bracket. But the result wasnt as expected, so we are going to try somehing new.

- the rr5 bracket will be removed
- auto groups are now all or nothing, you can no longer invite some people and have the rest filled up
- the 49-50 bracket is now split between auto groups and normal groups / player with auto grouping disabled

Wed 23 Jun 2021 6:14 PM by

Uthred

Once again the contribution has been filled and the event is going to start very soon:

Event Start: Thursday, June 24th at noon (Berlin time) which is in about 16h from now
Event End: Monday, June 28th at noon (Berlin time)

This will be the event only changes (same as before):
- cc duration above 10s is halved before det / resists, e. g. 1min13s becomes 10 + 63/2 = 41s on which resists and det etc. apply
- resist buffs have no effect
- resist debuffs have no effect other than rupting
- there will be only one Level 49-50 bracket
- any groupsize will be able to fill up via auto group

Please note the following:
We are currently discussing with the Banished about the future of the event. Until we come to a solution, they refuse to take any further contribution and thats why the Contribution NPCs have not been reset yet.