Solo/Small Man RvR Incentives

Hey guys,

Some of you may know me under the name of Zarkor on the uth boards. I've written quite extensively on the matter of casual RvR incentivizing and of course have formed my own thoughts on the matter over the years.

This topic is -to me- the most important factor to make or break any classic DAoC server.



The core requirement for smallman RvR is a steady, sustainable and natural influx of non-optimized players into the RvR zones. They provide other non-optimized or non-grouped players with reliable access to relevant action.

In Classic times, this influx was driven by sheer enthousiasm and a broad lack of game knowledge. The majority of players simply did not know how to or feel the need to min-max their character, let alone their group setup. As a result, it created an almost idyllic target-rich environment.

In modern day DAoC, this target-rich environment can not be created using the same causes. People know the game and will naturally stall their participation in favor of optimizing their character/gear/setup/numbers.

This creates a spiral of competition which causes people to virutally only venture out when they are above a certain optimization threshold. What's worse, we can see that this threshold only increases over time as the server ages and more and more players and groups become established and increasingly optimized.

This process of drying out the landscape for beginners and non-optimized players and playstyles is what gradually killed other classic servers before.



So the question is: how to create a steady, sustainable and natural influx of non-optimized playersin modern day DAoC?

The key to do this is to create systems which work with the natural inclination of players to seek out the most effecient way of character progression.

In other words, you need to create a game setting in which non-optimized players will choose to venture out in the RvR zones despite their full knowledge of the risks and odds involved. It must be worth their time and effort to choose the frontiers over any other zone or activity because the net reward for such a choice ends up being the highest of all the options.

Of course, RvR is not a fully controlled environment and the risk of being devoured by stronger, more optimized opponents will always remain. This is why the benefits should be so significant that even the possibility of a powerless death should not affect the overall willingness of the sub-optimized players to take their chances. Also, the time-to-action should be a serious factor to consider in any solution. This also has a big effect on the severity of death in RvR.

So, the benefit of this choice must be quite distinct in order to garner enough interest overall. Once a critical mass of sub-optimized players are naturally and sustainably active in the RvR zones, the action itself becomes an additional incentive, further stimulating activity.




Let's look at some options:

The simplest way to come to actual ideas is to look at the targeted players and their needs. There are two main categories of non-optimized players.

1)Players under 50: What do they need to progress?

XP, gold, gear, fun and RPs.

Clearly the easiest group to incentivize RvR participation for would be the players under 50. If you can give them very significant benefits in terms of XP, gold and gear compared to the non-RvR options, you can attract a large group of players that are relatively weak but can be convinced by the fact that their reward is potentially huge. It's important to note that if you make things easy even outside of the RvR zone, people will simply ignore this benefit and grind in safety as they are naturally inclined to do in the first place. The difference in benefits must be significant enough!


2) Solo (or smallman) level 50s: What do they need to progress?

Fun, RPs and potentially gold.

The solo or smallman level 50 players themselves are harder to convince of the benefits of going out in a non-optimized setup. Their progression options are limited and they are mainly concerned with being able to enjoy their playstyle rather than flat bonuses or guard tasks. If they can not find relevant opponents, the fun ends, regardless of how many RPs they can get through other means.

Concretely, you could come up with tasks that encourage RvR that naturally flows from smallman RvR that is generated through non-50 RvR participation. For instance, guarding or overtaking certain XP spots for your non-50 allies by killing invaders could grant you certain rewards. Stopping the enemy forces near their portal keep could grant you extra RPs if you are a level 50 solo or duo.

The rewards could be aimed at improving the quality of life of a solo or smallman player.

For instance you could create some sort of refillable potion that grants you hastener speed (or slightly less to prevent balance impact) for a short while. Usable only out of combat. The item can be stacked indefinitely (no cap) and can be stacked through killing enemy players in solo or duo as level 50, or killing enemy players if you are not level 50 yet. Additionally, it can be stacked by killing level 50 or higher mobs in the frontiers. Again, only dropping if you are solo or smallman as 50 or any time if you are lower.

Additionally, killing level 50 or higher frontier mobs as solo or duo could grant a very significant return in gold per kill. This could count for non-50s too.

Another example could be that your charge items gain a stack if you make a solo or duo kill.


With small measures such as these, the playstyle of mixing PvE and RvR on a smallman scale could be vastly improved. Even if you are waiting on enemies you can opt to gain some minor but significant character progression in the mean time. Of course this will put you at a disadvantage if you encounter enemies during your fight.





The examples I give above are just that, examples. What's most important is the way this problem is approached. If the real causes are not sufficiently handled, the solution will not be sustainable. I hope I've at least contributed some insight into the problem with this post.

Overall, creating an enticing RvR ecosystem for non-optimized players will create the base of the pyramid for all other forms of RvR. It's importance can not be understated.