Friends and fellow players,
I've stayed out of a lot of the discussions going on in the forums and in discord. I'm much more concerned about making sure that new and returning players get quickly integrated into the community, get their questions answered, make a new friend or two, and start having fun.
So why am I making this post? Well, it's mostly because I'm worried. Not a lot, mind you, but enough that I thought it was important to post my thoughts. Before i50 came around, the Task System worked pretty well and everyone was chasing tasks. There was fighting in every frontier zone. When the task zone changed, everybody moved on to the next zone. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.
i50 kind of up-ended things. Now, people rarely do tasks and Emain has become the static swamp for RvR. Cathal Valley addresses some of the issues but creates others for many players. Ultimately, RvR is better when the population is spread out and battling in other frontiers. I think if we could incentivize fighting in less-frequented zones, then the state of RvR will be better for everyone. Ok, this is a rough idea, but bear with me. I don't think we need big changes and everything here is subject to change, but here goes...
The Frontier Bonus System
Every frontier zone has an RP bonus based on how many players are in the zone. The bonus would be tiered into something like None (zone is full), Low, Medium, High, and Max (zone is empty). Basically, the more players there are in a given zone, the lower the overall bonus in that zone would be.
Here's an example of how this works: imagine that everyone is in Emain and the RP bonus is None (A big stretch, but try it!) The other 3 Hibernian zones are empty and showing High bonuses. Players see that Breifine is now awarding a higher RP bonus than Emain and start migrating to fight there. As the minnows move to Breifine, the sharks follow and Briefine begins filling with players. Hibs running from Drum Ligen now find action in Breifine and they no longer need to complete their run to Emain. Eventually, the bonus in Breifine drops as the zone fills up, and now Albion and Midgard can choose to push onward into Cruachan Gorge, where the population is lower and awarding a higher RP bonus. Consequently, the RP bonus in Emain begins to climb again, because most players have moved deeper into Hibernian frontier zones. Albs and Mids then begin repopulating Emain, clash there for the high RP bonus, and the cycle goes on and on across the Hibernian frontiers.
The Midgard and Albion frontiers would work the same. Players could find a high RP bonus in Odin's Gate, and once the zone attracts more players and fills up, they can move towards Jamtland Mountains to regain the bonus RP they lost. The system will also reward lone wolfs who hunt in very low population zones in search of high RP kills. It could also help groups find 8v8 action more consistently. Full groups would be able to more easily locate each other in less populated or empty frontiers. A /frontier command would show the RP bonus tier of every zone, so players would be able to determine roughly how many other players are active in each frontier, how much of a bonus they would receive for killing them, and ultimately where they would prefer to RvR. To prevent RP inflation, the overall player kill RP of the server can be lowered or perhaps cut in half to make room for the bonus RP available in The Frontier Bonus System.
I know this is a lot to consider, and something like this can wait until after launch, but DAoC is at its best when there is RvR waged constantly across all Frontiers, and when players can more easily locate the action. What do you guys think? Ok, I'll shut up and go resume being just Tamlan the Albion greeter!
Thanks for reading!
I've stayed out of a lot of the discussions going on in the forums and in discord. I'm much more concerned about making sure that new and returning players get quickly integrated into the community, get their questions answered, make a new friend or two, and start having fun.
So why am I making this post? Well, it's mostly because I'm worried. Not a lot, mind you, but enough that I thought it was important to post my thoughts. Before i50 came around, the Task System worked pretty well and everyone was chasing tasks. There was fighting in every frontier zone. When the task zone changed, everybody moved on to the next zone. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.
i50 kind of up-ended things. Now, people rarely do tasks and Emain has become the static swamp for RvR. Cathal Valley addresses some of the issues but creates others for many players. Ultimately, RvR is better when the population is spread out and battling in other frontiers. I think if we could incentivize fighting in less-frequented zones, then the state of RvR will be better for everyone. Ok, this is a rough idea, but bear with me. I don't think we need big changes and everything here is subject to change, but here goes...
The Frontier Bonus System
Every frontier zone has an RP bonus based on how many players are in the zone. The bonus would be tiered into something like None (zone is full), Low, Medium, High, and Max (zone is empty). Basically, the more players there are in a given zone, the lower the overall bonus in that zone would be.
Here's an example of how this works: imagine that everyone is in Emain and the RP bonus is None (A big stretch, but try it!) The other 3 Hibernian zones are empty and showing High bonuses. Players see that Breifine is now awarding a higher RP bonus than Emain and start migrating to fight there. As the minnows move to Breifine, the sharks follow and Briefine begins filling with players. Hibs running from Drum Ligen now find action in Breifine and they no longer need to complete their run to Emain. Eventually, the bonus in Breifine drops as the zone fills up, and now Albion and Midgard can choose to push onward into Cruachan Gorge, where the population is lower and awarding a higher RP bonus. Consequently, the RP bonus in Emain begins to climb again, because most players have moved deeper into Hibernian frontier zones. Albs and Mids then begin repopulating Emain, clash there for the high RP bonus, and the cycle goes on and on across the Hibernian frontiers.
The Midgard and Albion frontiers would work the same. Players could find a high RP bonus in Odin's Gate, and once the zone attracts more players and fills up, they can move towards Jamtland Mountains to regain the bonus RP they lost. The system will also reward lone wolfs who hunt in very low population zones in search of high RP kills. It could also help groups find 8v8 action more consistently. Full groups would be able to more easily locate each other in less populated or empty frontiers. A /frontier command would show the RP bonus tier of every zone, so players would be able to determine roughly how many other players are active in each frontier, how much of a bonus they would receive for killing them, and ultimately where they would prefer to RvR. To prevent RP inflation, the overall player kill RP of the server can be lowered or perhaps cut in half to make room for the bonus RP available in The Frontier Bonus System.
I know this is a lot to consider, and something like this can wait until after launch, but DAoC is at its best when there is RvR waged constantly across all Frontiers, and when players can more easily locate the action. What do you guys think? Ok, I'll shut up and go resume being just Tamlan the Albion greeter!
Thanks for reading!
