Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-eve-online-theft-ended-in-death-threats.
There will be "out of band" spying; the higher the stakes the more people will try and work around any in game controls you put into place. You should definitely have those controls to protect guilds against it as much as possible but its going to happen.
From an in-game perspective, the PvP aspect of spies and hunting spies could be fun. I think with the caravan and node mechanics really do give some fun opportunity for some interesting PvP. For example: being able to "steal" the time and manifest contents of a caravan could be super cool. Having that information only available at certain times and have other classes have the ability to "see" spies under the right conditions could be very cool. Say the Assassin class can steal the caravan info but Striders and Wardens have the ability to spot them. All mages can lay traps that mark Assassins for everyone to see, but Shadow casters have some particularly high level ones. Kind of a capture the flag component. Disabling or reducing node effectiveness could work in a similar way, with charlatans being the class that can sneak in with a disguise and disable a node and other classes able to see through their disguise. Setting up Bad intel, false flags etc... all could be super fun.
That said, put it in a dlc. I am already ready for the game to come out
Whoa, I like the idea of messing with caravans - would it be too far to be able to reschedule caravans/forge documents to take charge of someone else's caravan/Trojan Caravan?
Problem remains that there's a lot to gain for criminal activity with not much to show for skillful counterplay.
If I'm being honest, with nodes being in direct competition with each other, this is something I expected as a default mission that nearby nodes might spawn. The game has this system where the nodes and surrounding content are all intertwined, so that when players activate something in a node, it triggers corresponding content in the surrounding environment or competing nodes. When someone schedules a caravan transport at a node, it should cost them some amount of money. I fully expect that node to spawn quests that use that money as rewards to entice other players to provide security and escort that caravan safely. On the other hand, there should be quests spawned for players to raid those caravans at the surrounding competing nodes. If they want to add a layer of spies and intrigue to the game, adding an intermediary quest that requires a spy to obtain the caravan schedule before the caravan raid quests can be issued at that node, I would absolutely support that.
If the developers aren't already thinking that deeply about what kind of content to include in the game, well that really, really worries me.
I wouldn't call this a big risk.
9 times out of 10, the spy is a throw away character created solely for the purpose of spying. If it is discovered to be a spy, the reason for that character continuing to exist ceases.
This is what I was saying earlier about the risk. There is already a time sink in spying, that is the risk.
Thats actually a really good point, so what if you can only spy at max level? That would be wayyyy more time invested and the name would be known as a spy from that point on.
Caravans are - for the most part - a player initiated thing, they leave when a player wants to run a caravan.
If I have a caravan of valuable materials that I am wanting to transport, there is no way I am going to interact with any in game system that will allow a rival to know my plans. I am going to transport it when and how I think is safest.
Why ever should it cost an extra $15 a month?
If you are spying on me from your main account (assuming you want to maintain your main character while spying), I will know about it.
The only way you can effectively spy on my guild is to use a clean account - which obviously costs $15 a month.
If I'm happy to use one of what will be many many alts for it, I don't need a second account.
However, I will know who your main is - this is especially true if I suspect your guild of planting a spy. If I suspect that, it isn't even a fair contest, tbh.
I mean, that would be a give away. However, the game has a number of built in giveaways that are honestly no less telling.
Edit; literally anything that is account only (including the ability to log on to one character on your account at a time), can be used against you in this specific situation. Think about how many things in Ashes are tied to accounts, and honestly you don't stand a chance at being a spy without a second account.
You would need to have no alts on the account that are citizens of a node - any node. You would also need to have no alts that are known members of a rival guild - and a few other small details that I am not going to go in to.
This means that for all intents and purposes, that character may as well be the only one on the account.
I guess it depends how they're doing the whole Alt thing. If you can see whatever character I'm playing on cos one of my characters is in your guild, then I guess it'd be a problem. The benefits of citizenship don't seem to be that massive that missing out would be an issue.
Given that "Intrigue, espionage and intelligence gathering is a legitimate aspect of the game.", I can't see them making it too easy or giving absolutely everything away.
In another game I played, I became an officer in the guild of our arch-enemy, after being invited by the player that was actively hunting down my main character. There are ways to play the game. You just have to be willing to put the time and effort in.
That is information I am able to find out easily enough. I have yet to play an MMO where this information wasn't able to be obtained if you knew how to look for it.
Which is the whole point here. I can fairly easily find out what other characters are on your account (fairly easy in comparison to leveling up a character to be a spy). You have no real way of hiding that, other than having no assets on those characters, and not logging in to them at all while you are spying on my guild.
Yeah, this is why any in game system for spying just isn't worth it.
pretty much, if anything it allows for even more cover to do out of game spying.
Indeed.
Step 1 of being a successful spy if there are in game systems for it would be to infuriate the guild twice, once normally and once using the in game systems. Then you "catch" yourself, increasing the trust the guild has in you.
shhhhh, dont tell everyone how to spy
It's ok.
Step 1 is easy. It's step 7 we don't want them to know about.
thinkin like a trickster
I havent played yet, so I obviously am just working from what info is out there.
From the wiki:
So it sounds like Routes and launch windows are, while player initiated, scheduled events. So it could work, I believe, based on what we know now. The wiki goes on to talk about inventory so a manifest, time and route would be the three bits of information that could be stolen. Player driven caravans are different then the mayor driven caravans that drive the PvP events is my understanding.
Another thought would be to have the ability to "bribe" caravan NPC guards, so when the attack comes they run or fight FOR the bandits. Double agent oppertunity if the Guards can be bribed back...
That kind of thing would add some fun dynamics to caravan and node raids for sure.
" Pat tried to steal the plans, but got caught and killed. Joe tried andgot the the time and part of the route, Beth bribed 4/10 guards... we should be able to take this. 6pm wendsday meet here"
Then they show up and its 12 guards and extra players because they new that they were there... fun times