Healing as a non-citizen in a Node War

Doctyre

Last night a Node war was declared on Lyneth US server. I am not a citizen of either node, and was not in any groups, and not pvp flagged, so I figured I would just go and watch the fun. As the two sides clashed in open world PVP, they appeared to me as "white text" players. Not flagged. I also was not flagged.

I was on my cleric and I discovered I could actually heal players, on both sides. I could target heal, and AOE heal. Not damage (I tried that too lol).

Being able to heal an open world PVP engagement, specifically a Node war, when not a citizen nor in any of the groups, feels... off? Wrong?

Like, what's stopping interested (or hired ) 3rd party guilds/groups, from just showing up and healing one side or the other? This feels like it could be abused.

If a player is not a citizen, and not a member of a raid group, specifically during a Node War (where there is a score being kept), they should not be able to affect the outcome between the two warring Nodes.

I should not have been able to heal anyone during this fight except other onlookers and non-citizens, imo.

Thoughts?

IustinusShiva

Correct. Any abilities that refer to 'allies' don't count people who are not part of your party, raid, guild, or node.

Flagging pvp might work, but be aware if you damage people in a node war that you are not part of you will be declared a combattant and will gain corruption if you kill them.

AstuWar

Agreed.

Using a damaging ability on someone at war, while not being at war yourself, flags you purple for PvP. Using a healing ability won't flag you, letting you unfairly impact the fight, as one side needs to go corrupt in order to stop you. Simply flagging purple because of healing isn't fair for yourself either, as anyone outside the war will be allowed to kill you without punishment.

IMO:

Using a positive or negative ability on a citizen of a node at war, while in their or their enemy's node territory and not being a citizen of either yourself, should flag you as a participant of that node war and as fighting for one side or the other depending on which one your ability benefited.

This flag state should be temporary, like flagging purple for PvP, and you should return to being considered a non-participant after about a minute.

This flag state needs to be separate from flagging purple for PvP because temporary participants fight for a side in the war, which needs to be made known to other participants. Using only purple for both sides is not enough, plus you shouldn't flag purple because you healed someone and thus become freely killable by anyone outside the war.

Friendly citizens are currently identified with a blue shield icon and name, and enemies with red ones. Temporary participants and their side should be made identifiable to actual citizens and other temporary participants similarly, but differentiating them from actual citizens - for example, using light blue for friendlies and light red for enemies.

Temporary participants who switch sides mid-fight should either be flagged as enemies to both sides, or have their allegiance match the intent of the last ability they used.

Killing temporary participants and kills made by temporary participants should not grant war points. Temporary participants should not be able to complete other war objectives either. This is to avoid cheesing the system.

Actual citizens at war should be identified as such within their and their enemy's node territories, so that potential temporary participants (i.e., unflagged non-citizens) know beforehand that using an ability on these players will have them become temporarily at war as well. This is to avoid baiting people into inadvertently flagging for combat.

The same should apply to all opt-in PvP events, such as caravans.