I think, based on current population and the recent of/nf vote, a good solution to promote fun, active rvr of all types and satiate both sides of the poll, EV should be the primary rvr zone.
Essentially, the two main keeps on the NF side of EV bridge, the tower, then the docks should be considered for DF and claimable. This means, for example, berk and benowyc are active and claimable but the rest of the keeps are disabled. The port to EV tower would be a part of the chain. Taking berk would disable all porting (people would generally run down from EV safe port, but can also boat up from Excalibur, for example).
This fixes a lot of issues. First, it reduces the amount of total keeps that can be taken, somewhat removing this whole pvkeep problem where realms make a BG, chain all the keeps, then log their alt into DF to level for hours. Having less and more tightly located keeps will make keeping df and avoiding fights less easy, promoting more active rvr between realms.
This also gives the center EV island a great focal point for 8v8 and zerg vs zerg, keeps the OF chokepoint idea with the ev milegates, gives enough options to port or run from ev or relic keep areas, and focuses the action to the upper top of the rw map for all realms, helping solo and smallman find each other.
This is also a great way to manage the rvr zone for population, as if the population is higher, and people are complaining it feels zergy, for example, we can simply enable the next two keeps on the north side of the RW map. If it goes down again, they get disabled. This keeps the focus in and around ev but allows expansion based on population.
Lastly, this focused us on what I'd love to see as well - a claimable pve raid under EV that has serious benefits to having. Maybe xp boost for the realm, Rp boost, pve bonus, central port, whatever the case. Maybe even a port to a 50 dungeon from ev if owned, or any other sort of custom fun pve/rvr hybrid that promotes rvr action in the future.
Right now there are just too many keeps. Too much benefit to just zerging down a realm taking keeps for hours then logging df knowing it'll take a long time to get them back. If we tighten that up it will make it a lot more enticing for people to defend keeps as only a couple keeps means DF changes hands. EV is the perfect open roam area, surrounded by keeps, with milegate choke points, to appease the majority of the server.
Thoughts?
You could even set eras or boldiam as the "PK" or primary keep, that can't be taken but can always be ported to, and have players primarily port there or EV safe zone and boat or run into action. For example, you could always port to Eras, but to port to beno or any EV tower, you would need the chain of ERAS (PK) - berk - beno - alb EV tower - any other realm tower. A similar chain of berk as PK, beno first keep, EV tower would be good for centralized action with reduced keep count too. If possible, DF could also factor towers in so that the keep count and map size is reduced but there's still the possibility of taking DF by sniping towers in a bg or small/8man.
This would make the rvr zone centrally located to EV and expanded to this area for each realm
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Essentially, the two main keeps on the NF side of EV bridge, the tower, then the docks should be considered for DF and claimable. This means, for example, berk and benowyc are active and claimable but the rest of the keeps are disabled. The port to EV tower would be a part of the chain. Taking berk would disable all porting (people would generally run down from EV safe port, but can also boat up from Excalibur, for example).
This fixes a lot of issues. First, it reduces the amount of total keeps that can be taken, somewhat removing this whole pvkeep problem where realms make a BG, chain all the keeps, then log their alt into DF to level for hours. Having less and more tightly located keeps will make keeping df and avoiding fights less easy, promoting more active rvr between realms.
This also gives the center EV island a great focal point for 8v8 and zerg vs zerg, keeps the OF chokepoint idea with the ev milegates, gives enough options to port or run from ev or relic keep areas, and focuses the action to the upper top of the rw map for all realms, helping solo and smallman find each other.
This is also a great way to manage the rvr zone for population, as if the population is higher, and people are complaining it feels zergy, for example, we can simply enable the next two keeps on the north side of the RW map. If it goes down again, they get disabled. This keeps the focus in and around ev but allows expansion based on population.
Lastly, this focused us on what I'd love to see as well - a claimable pve raid under EV that has serious benefits to having. Maybe xp boost for the realm, Rp boost, pve bonus, central port, whatever the case. Maybe even a port to a 50 dungeon from ev if owned, or any other sort of custom fun pve/rvr hybrid that promotes rvr action in the future.
Right now there are just too many keeps. Too much benefit to just zerging down a realm taking keeps for hours then logging df knowing it'll take a long time to get them back. If we tighten that up it will make it a lot more enticing for people to defend keeps as only a couple keeps means DF changes hands. EV is the perfect open roam area, surrounded by keeps, with milegate choke points, to appease the majority of the server.
Thoughts?
You could even set eras or boldiam as the "PK" or primary keep, that can't be taken but can always be ported to, and have players primarily port there or EV safe zone and boat or run into action. For example, you could always port to Eras, but to port to beno or any EV tower, you would need the chain of ERAS (PK) - berk - beno - alb EV tower - any other realm tower. A similar chain of berk as PK, beno first keep, EV tower would be good for centralized action with reduced keep count too. If possible, DF could also factor towers in so that the keep count and map size is reduced but there's still the possibility of taking DF by sniping towers in a bg or small/8man.
This would make the rvr zone centrally located to EV and expanded to this area for each realm
