Patchnotes 20/09/16

[georgehabadasher]

1.4.0 had no NPCs at BOs and a solo player was able to cap a flag. It worked fine, both sides were still able to rank their keeps, and the zerg was still able to defend the BOs (if they didn't, the resource carriers would heal keep doors by like 30%+, depending on AAO).

And that's it. We don't have resource carriers, we don't have keep levelling, etc. Therefore, there's no incentive for the zerg to sit on BOs if they can be taken by a single player. If we had all the above, then I'd argue for no NPCs (or very few) as well but at this moment in time we don't have that.

But BOs still serve as a valuable asset, ableit for different reasons from live. They prevent the attackers from even hitting the door and they also buff/debuff damage zone-wide. That's much more powerful than RCs healing the door or ranking keeps.

[Marsares]

1.4.0 had no NPCs at BOs and a solo player was able to cap a flag. It worked fine, both sides were still able to rank their keeps, and the zerg was still able to defend the BOs (if they didn't, the resource carriers would heal keep doors by like 30%+, depending on AAO).

And that's it. We don't have resource carriers, we don't have keep levelling, etc. Therefore, there's no incentive for the zerg to sit on BOs if they can be taken by a single player. If we had all the above, then I'd argue for no NPCs (or very few) as well but at this moment in time we don't have that.

But BOs still serve as a valuable asset, ableit for different reasons from live. They prevent the attackers from even hitting the door and they also buff/debuff damage zone-wide. That's much more powerful than RCs healing the door or ranking keeps.

You only need a few in order to be able to hit a door and typically those are within easy reach of a zerg to recapture them when they get tapped. 95% of the time the zerg will therefore still stay at the keep, with the exception of a quick run to retake in order to retain control of enough BOs to keep the door attackable. BOs are therefore only "valuable" when they are unlocked, the rest of the time they just sit there although since a few days they now contribute also to Diminishing Rations.

[Vigfuss]

Penril, your suggestion to remove npcs probably makes more sense for low pop NA primetime. But i agree that the resource carrier metagame was much better for spreading out the zergs.

I think there are all kinds of possible side games these kinds of mechanics can create, and i think it's totally unnecessary to mess with damage. I suggest to scrap this buff/debuff thing and just use the coding work that was already done to apply it to renown gain instead of damage.

[Zanilos]

Penril, your suggestion to remove npcs probably makes more sense for low pop NA primetime. But i agree that the resource carrier metagame was much better for spreading out the zergs.

I think there are all kinds of possible side games these kinds of mechanics can create, and i think it's totally unnecessary to mess with damage. I suggest to scrap this buff/debuff thing and just use the coding work that was already done to apply it to renown gain instead of damage.

What it was really really good at was getting people to not do do RvR until keeps were rank 4.

[Gobtar]

BO guards don't stop a zerg that is true, but they do stop solo players from flipping a BO.

If we are trying to develop a system that incentives splitting up the zerg. we should still want a system that incentives group and warband play. The reason why I didn't like 1.4.8 RvR, was because you could literally take a zone yourself, and if the BOs were being capped back and forth you would just go to a different zone, so you may PvE. The fighting only happened once keeps hit Rank 4.

I think that maybe the guards presence should be tied to something like population or make it so that players could invest in BO guards, or maybe upgrade it with additional defenses implements. Guard duty while part of war is by no means glamorous.

It would be interesting if the faction controlling the BO had to make an investment to have BO guards, moving it away from an all or nothing status. In essence the faction would be reinforcing taken strategic points.

Similarly you could make it require time to upgrade the BOs so they may generate better resources (as mentioned prior). this would make it more important to reclaim a taken BO so that you can keep your progress rather than upgrade it all over again. The guards strength could likewise have ration debuff so that if you are dominating with numbers it's much easier to take a NPC guarded BO.

A lot of possibilities.