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.
Node War Issues
kleavor
Member, Alpha Two
A Node War between Winstead and Miraleth was declared on Castus, and the way it is unfolding encourages citizens to log out of the game for hours and some even renounce their citizenship, which long-run damages the growth of nodes.
Node War End Conditions -
To my understanding, a Node War ends when 1000 kills are made, or an event spawns in which each side can get enough points to end it. The problem with the event is that it is going to take ~5 hours before it spawns, which means 5 hours of constant ganking and experience loss.
As I'm sure you can guess, 1000 kills might be fine for conflict between many, many people, but as it is in this Alpha Wave 1, there are not that many people leveled, geared, or willing to be a good show of force to contend with more aggressive PVP types. And as there are not as many people to kill, those 1000 kills are funneled into a select few, equating into tremendous experience loss for those that choose to stick around on the game.
1000 kills spread into perhaps a few tens or hundreds of people that try to meet that conflict head-on, lead to those that actively trying to participate in the Node War to severe experience debt.
The big problem is that it is extremely costly to the losing side in more ways than simply failing an event: Citizens renounce their citizenship to escape continuous death, people log out for more than a few hours to do the same, and those that tough it out are forced to bare the brunt of the experience debt.
Simply put, an event such as a Node War that forces an entire node to participate in PVP should only last for a small amount of time, an hour perhaps, to encourage people to continue playing. Any longer and people will simply choose to abandon the game, either for hours or forever. So both a timer and a shorter ending condition, such as say, a few hundred kills to complete, seem entirely reasonable. Anymore and the game become not only a nightmare, but unplayable.
City Guards -
It is my understanding that city guards are meant to mete out punishment to any that choose to bring conflict into the cities themselves, and this was absolutely not taking place. Mobs of enemy citizens were able to continuously kill people inside of the city and the guards do nothing about it.
Obviously one way to help is to make it so that guards attack anyone that attacks another player in the city itself, so that there is at least one safe spot citizens can retreat to so they can re-group to stand a chance against any attacking forces.
Experience Loss during Node Wars -
There should absolutely be no experience loss during Node Wars or even guild wars. When the goal and inevitability is death, players should not be punished with this, especially if it is as inescapable as a Node War. The end result is only multitudes of people, entire node citizens, rage quitting as they are slaughtered over and over again with no possibility of respite, as the guards do nothing to prevent or discourage conflict in cities. I would be significantly more inclined to stick around and try to play the game and PVP in the event, but the risk is absolutely not worth spending my time.
Emberspring Spawn -
My home is set to the Miraleth Emberspring, and that is also the closest respawn. Once you are dead, the enemy side spawn-camps the Emberspring, and you are then actually incapable of playing the game.
One way to solve this is to make sure Emberspring choices always do not have the same choice twice, i.e., Miraleth and Miraleth is a no-no. If your home spawn is the same as the closest, the game system should give the next closest Emberspring as an option, to help prevent this inescapable spawn-camping.
Another solution would be to implement a grace-period when respawning to prevent getting killed before your screen can even load.
Node War End Conditions -
To my understanding, a Node War ends when 1000 kills are made, or an event spawns in which each side can get enough points to end it. The problem with the event is that it is going to take ~5 hours before it spawns, which means 5 hours of constant ganking and experience loss.
As I'm sure you can guess, 1000 kills might be fine for conflict between many, many people, but as it is in this Alpha Wave 1, there are not that many people leveled, geared, or willing to be a good show of force to contend with more aggressive PVP types. And as there are not as many people to kill, those 1000 kills are funneled into a select few, equating into tremendous experience loss for those that choose to stick around on the game.
1000 kills spread into perhaps a few tens or hundreds of people that try to meet that conflict head-on, lead to those that actively trying to participate in the Node War to severe experience debt.
The big problem is that it is extremely costly to the losing side in more ways than simply failing an event: Citizens renounce their citizenship to escape continuous death, people log out for more than a few hours to do the same, and those that tough it out are forced to bare the brunt of the experience debt.
Simply put, an event such as a Node War that forces an entire node to participate in PVP should only last for a small amount of time, an hour perhaps, to encourage people to continue playing. Any longer and people will simply choose to abandon the game, either for hours or forever. So both a timer and a shorter ending condition, such as say, a few hundred kills to complete, seem entirely reasonable. Anymore and the game become not only a nightmare, but unplayable.
City Guards -
It is my understanding that city guards are meant to mete out punishment to any that choose to bring conflict into the cities themselves, and this was absolutely not taking place. Mobs of enemy citizens were able to continuously kill people inside of the city and the guards do nothing about it.
Obviously one way to help is to make it so that guards attack anyone that attacks another player in the city itself, so that there is at least one safe spot citizens can retreat to so they can re-group to stand a chance against any attacking forces.
Experience Loss during Node Wars -
There should absolutely be no experience loss during Node Wars or even guild wars. When the goal and inevitability is death, players should not be punished with this, especially if it is as inescapable as a Node War. The end result is only multitudes of people, entire node citizens, rage quitting as they are slaughtered over and over again with no possibility of respite, as the guards do nothing to prevent or discourage conflict in cities. I would be significantly more inclined to stick around and try to play the game and PVP in the event, but the risk is absolutely not worth spending my time.
Emberspring Spawn -
My home is set to the Miraleth Emberspring, and that is also the closest respawn. Once you are dead, the enemy side spawn-camps the Emberspring, and you are then actually incapable of playing the game.
One way to solve this is to make sure Emberspring choices always do not have the same choice twice, i.e., Miraleth and Miraleth is a no-no. If your home spawn is the same as the closest, the game system should give the next closest Emberspring as an option, to help prevent this inescapable spawn-camping.
Another solution would be to implement a grace-period when respawning to prevent getting killed before your screen can even load.
2
Comments
I get the whole 'risk vs reward' thing sounds cool on paper, but ultimately, it will always devolve into some mega guilds ganking everything else with very little risk and all reward while the other players are busy quitting the game.
IMO it should be almost the OTHER way around... if you want players to PvP over nodes, GIVE THEM EXP rather than subtract it.
PvE focused: WoW / FFXIV / Lineage II
Sandbox: Ultima Online / Darkfall / Mortal Online
Big Influence: SNES Fighting games / Starcraft / Diablo II / Smite
So if you are a PKer who wants to circumundulate corruption system all together, kill low levels and loot crafters in towns with no penalty, then just declare a war against guilds you know you can handle due to the numbers,. level and gear difference.
Corruption system? What's that? The current war system should be just renamed to griefer mode.
Blown past falling sands…