Battlegrounds

Ragni

A big thing that worked for another game was 'battlegrounds' (Dark Age of Camelot). This is where certain levels (say, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, etc) could fight (rvr/pvp) eachother on 'factioned sides'. Each battleground had a keep (central keep) in the middle and a spawn keep where you need to capture the keep in the middle to get a bonus (a level). Mobs were also present in the battlegrounds that were 'normal' mobs and some mobs were 'named' mobs that dropped unique drops and offered more xp/higher drop chance than normal (all mobs).

BG's since they were implemented are still going strong in said game. They are a 24/7 thing and a big staple as to why DAoC was popular and still very popular on private servers to this day.

Would AoC have such a thing implemented in the future?

• BG's were 'zoned instances' where you could opt in and leave at any time with no cap of amount of people, 1 instance per level base.
• Level based battlegrounds - 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, etc.
• 3 'factioned' sides compete against one another on a 24/7 hour basis.
• Drops only came from mobs or guards from the central keep.
• Other factions were enemies and were automatically enemies.
• 3 'outside' castles (or spawn areas) and one in the middle (central keep, king of the hill style).
• Mobs and other player kills rewarded xp. XP from mobs were given a 'bonus' xp from BG's.
• Named mobs existed and dropped special named loot but nothing 'over the top' but 'nice to have' items.
• All battlegrounds were 'different' landscapes but had the same 'idea' with 3 spawns and a central keep.
• Central keep had guards and a 'lord' that needed to be killed to claim it for your faction.
• If your faction had the central keep, you could defend it (guards/lord were on the same side).
• A reward for taking the central keep was a 'free level' and some gear (armor/weapons/accessories).

Kilion

From all we know there won't be something like that outside of siege events (for nodes and monthly for castles). And honestly: I don't think that pushing PvP off into instances makes sense for Ashes, if that were to happen, that would decrease PvP activities in the "overworld" too much.

P0GG0

arenas with no rewards could be nice to learn stuff.

Dygz

Steven considers Caravans and Sieges and Wars to be Battlegrounds.

Ludullu

No fucking instances, please, for the love of god. We already have too many.

Halae

P0GG0 wrote: »

arenas with no rewards could be nice to learn stuff.

I'd love for Military nodes to be able to construct, like, dueling squares. You queue up against someone else, and the game grabs you and your chosen opponent to put into the square. No way into a square when there's a duel in progress, but everybody can watch from outside the fence. That way it's not an instance, just a restricted zone, like the Brawler's Guild in WoW, but for pvp instead of a pve gauntlet.

Actually, both would be cool, but a dueling zone is what we're talking about here.

Kilion

Dygz wrote: »

Steven considers Caravans and Sieges and Wars to be Battlegrounds.

By now, this seems to be off the table or was that a recent thought he shared?

Dygz

It's not off the table - that is how Steven defines Battlegrounds for Ashes.

Otr

Ragni wrote: »

A big thing that worked for another game was 'battlegrounds' (Dark Age of Camelot). This is where certain levels (say, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, etc) could fight (rvr/pvp) eachother on 'factioned sides'.

That is a cool feature but maybe better when people have PvE areas to level up and grind and eventually switch to PvP whenever they want.

In the AoC's open workd I think such areas could remain part of open world.
I wouldn't mind high level players to be restricted entering low level dungeons by some guards or by a short dynamic solo passage which leads you to a different exit.

But then players should have the option to block their leveling progression to stay and enjoy the specific level dungeon they choose.

But AoC seems to go toward a more simple approach of using arenas, which will prevent low level players and can allow rvr battles too
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Arenas

Arenas will have a minimum level requirement to participate.[7]
The arena system may support cross-server combat.[11]

AidanKD

I think @Kilion hits the mark really. Intrepid have specifically designed the game with "natural battlegrounds" in mind. Caravans are like a mine cart escort. Sieges are the obvious large scale wars. There are also actual wars between nodes.

You also have the Open Seas for sea warfare.

If you instanced any of this then this would take people away from the natural events, which actually serve some purpose in the world. Battlegrounds exist to arbitrarily set a reason for pvp - whereas the design intent of Ashes of Creation is to inject it more naturally into the world.

I personally don't mind some instancing where it makes sense, like with arenas (could be 1v1/2v2/3v3/4v4/6v6/8v8). However, I would like a way to view duels! This is a must. If arenas will be limited I think they will need to have some instancing. However if they could be a regular building in any node, then you could have limited spaces people queue into - and these could be watchable. Would also be a nice way to incorporate regular tournaments.

Getting a bit side tracked!