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.
Feedback: Caravans
Rym
Member, Alpha Two
Currently, Caravans are in a worse spot than they were in phase 1 for several reasons.
They have been significantly nerfed, when they should have been significantly buffed (except for the gold gains).
There is currently no incentive to protect a caravan that you see in the world, if someone is attacking it, you are heavily incentivized to attack and plunder it, rather than help the player.
I have a few ideas that can help balance out the scales, so the playing field is more fair and even. It is currently overwhelmingly in favor of attackers, as attacking is a high reward, no risk move (unless you consider possible XP debt and a teleport to town a significant risk), which shouldn't be a problem if you're 25.
I have the following ideas in mind:
1: Significantly increase the movement speed of lower tier caravans, as they are more or less slower than walking speed. Furthermore, remove the addition of the caravan slowing down to a halt when it's attacked by players and NPCs.
2: Significantly increase the HP of the Caravan, I'd say about 800k as a starter HP is good enough. Currently, it doesn't take more than 5 minutes for 2 players to completely destroy a caravan.
3: Significantly increase the defense properties of a Caravan with armor plating, causing them to receive 90% less damage from all sources (counter mechanic coming later in the topic).
4: Higher tier caravans now reflect 100% of the damage inflicted on them (counter mechanic coming later in the topic).
5: Create an incentive for players for defend a caravan to the end, this incentive should be in the way of either gold or glint, calculated depending on starting node + when the defender joined the caravan + the caravan's destination node.
I will explain my reasoning and counter-mechanics to my proposed changes.
1: Currently caravans are slower than walking, yet they are also extremely easy to destroy if you put your mind to it. It won't reach it's destination before it's destroyed unless it's very close already.
2: Going off my first point, Caravans feel extremely weak and vulnerable to attacks, increasing their HP is a way to mitigate and prevent people from attacking them without an organized group.
3: The armor plating is intended for protection of the caravan from players and NPCs alike, and the counter-mechanic is a one-time use item from the black market which costs 5 gold per item. This item would remove the armor plating on the caravan, allowing it to receive 100% normal damage from attacks. This is intended to cause unorganized groups to shy away from attempting to attack a caravan, while incentivizing organized groups to thoughtfully select their caravans as they now risk losing their gold for irrelevant gains in gold.
4: This is another way to incentivize people to not randomly attack caravans, Armor Plating would be on tier 1 crafted caravans and above, while reflective magics would be craftable from tier 2 and above. 100% reflect is needed imo, because a cleric or two could easily outheal a 25% or 50% reflect shield. The counter-play is another 5 gold one-time use item. This incentivizes groups to select their targets carefully, and will force them to gamble on whether the victim's cargo is worth the investment or not.
Those changes would even the playing field by forcing players who raid caravans to no longer mindlessly attack and extort caravan riders for gold, but instead spend their own gold while being forced to select the proper caravan players in order to gain returns on their investments. The extra HP and movement speed on the caravan is intended to guarantee that you would need an organized party of 8 players to take down a caravan that is, for example, over 75% of the way from Miraleth to New Aela as a simple example.
The rewards for the attackers should be according to the cargo the driver was moving, low-tier cargo should guarantee gold loss, while high-tier cargo guarantees gold gains for attackers.
I see Caravans as a "gold pinatta" that's supposed to be attacked by groups of at least 8 players which have organized themselves for this task specifically, not harassed by 2 measly players that randomly stumbled upon it.
They have been significantly nerfed, when they should have been significantly buffed (except for the gold gains).
There is currently no incentive to protect a caravan that you see in the world, if someone is attacking it, you are heavily incentivized to attack and plunder it, rather than help the player.
I have a few ideas that can help balance out the scales, so the playing field is more fair and even. It is currently overwhelmingly in favor of attackers, as attacking is a high reward, no risk move (unless you consider possible XP debt and a teleport to town a significant risk), which shouldn't be a problem if you're 25.
I have the following ideas in mind:
1: Significantly increase the movement speed of lower tier caravans, as they are more or less slower than walking speed. Furthermore, remove the addition of the caravan slowing down to a halt when it's attacked by players and NPCs.
2: Significantly increase the HP of the Caravan, I'd say about 800k as a starter HP is good enough. Currently, it doesn't take more than 5 minutes for 2 players to completely destroy a caravan.
3: Significantly increase the defense properties of a Caravan with armor plating, causing them to receive 90% less damage from all sources (counter mechanic coming later in the topic).
4: Higher tier caravans now reflect 100% of the damage inflicted on them (counter mechanic coming later in the topic).
5: Create an incentive for players for defend a caravan to the end, this incentive should be in the way of either gold or glint, calculated depending on starting node + when the defender joined the caravan + the caravan's destination node.
I will explain my reasoning and counter-mechanics to my proposed changes.
1: Currently caravans are slower than walking, yet they are also extremely easy to destroy if you put your mind to it. It won't reach it's destination before it's destroyed unless it's very close already.
2: Going off my first point, Caravans feel extremely weak and vulnerable to attacks, increasing their HP is a way to mitigate and prevent people from attacking them without an organized group.
3: The armor plating is intended for protection of the caravan from players and NPCs alike, and the counter-mechanic is a one-time use item from the black market which costs 5 gold per item. This item would remove the armor plating on the caravan, allowing it to receive 100% normal damage from attacks. This is intended to cause unorganized groups to shy away from attempting to attack a caravan, while incentivizing organized groups to thoughtfully select their caravans as they now risk losing their gold for irrelevant gains in gold.
4: This is another way to incentivize people to not randomly attack caravans, Armor Plating would be on tier 1 crafted caravans and above, while reflective magics would be craftable from tier 2 and above. 100% reflect is needed imo, because a cleric or two could easily outheal a 25% or 50% reflect shield. The counter-play is another 5 gold one-time use item. This incentivizes groups to select their targets carefully, and will force them to gamble on whether the victim's cargo is worth the investment or not.
Those changes would even the playing field by forcing players who raid caravans to no longer mindlessly attack and extort caravan riders for gold, but instead spend their own gold while being forced to select the proper caravan players in order to gain returns on their investments. The extra HP and movement speed on the caravan is intended to guarantee that you would need an organized party of 8 players to take down a caravan that is, for example, over 75% of the way from Miraleth to New Aela as a simple example.
The rewards for the attackers should be according to the cargo the driver was moving, low-tier cargo should guarantee gold loss, while high-tier cargo guarantees gold gains for attackers.
I see Caravans as a "gold pinatta" that's supposed to be attacked by groups of at least 8 players which have organized themselves for this task specifically, not harassed by 2 measly players that randomly stumbled upon it.
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