Thursday 29 April 2010

What would happen if Keep Defense earnt better Rewards?

Zizlak had an intersting post t'other day amidst all the new patch hype. The gist is that the new city siege mechanic isn't going to do anything for the general RvR campaign and as City invasions will still happen all too often they will soon run out of The Epic. The new city siege could end being a daily super-scenario.

The problem I've found with the RvR campaign in the last month since I came back to the game is that there's just so little actual fighting. The opposition have no incentive to defend in any force so it's just one side getting a little organised or waiting to become the underdog, then claiming a few unopposed keeps and waiting patiently for the lock. So much standing around and doing nothing.

This could actually get worse with the new City mechanic with both sides probably quite willing for their City to fall to get experience of the new City and the rewards that come with it. In my last post a couple of days ago I was happy with rewards for participation but having said what I've just said I do hope the rewards for a successful invasion far outweigh those for the losers.

Back in May 2009, before my break, the RvR was still hugely contested on Karak Norn. City invasions were just starting to happen. It provided plenty of action but if I'm honest it was very frustrating too because Order (my team) were outnumbered and/or outclassed. We could put a lot of effort into defense and get nothing out of it.

I want what Zizlak wants. The RvR campaign to be THE enjoyable part of the game with a City invasion being a special rare treat at the end.

It got me wondering what would happen if they made Keep Defense a very worthwhile experinence for the players, like very, very rewarding.

How about if players defending a keep were rewarded with a 5 times drop rate on crests and other loot drop. New seed drops maybe. Perhaps introduce scenario insignias into RvR but only for keep defense kills. Whatever, but worthwhile stuff.

The point would be to make defending a keep so worthwhile that players/guilds would want to turn up to defend. But to get the rewards for defending you would have to attack and take a keep in the first place, so it would encourage attacking as well.

It's a counter-intuituve idea but I think that changing the emphais from attack to defense in RvR might mix things up a bit.

I'd love to hear other's opinions on this idea and any other thoughts on how to give general RvR a boost in the arm.

5 comments:

  1. Definitely a concern. If players aren't grinding scenarios they are allowing their opponent to flip zones.

    The rewards definitely need to be addressed in RvR to up the action.

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  2. Thing is, on Gorfang, an order dominated (most of the time) server A bunch of destruction guys (and me) turn out to defend.

    I think that they should allow defense tickes to happen multiple times.

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  3. I disagree with you. The problem is not there is little incentive to defend, people will defend just for a tick all day. Its that most people will not attack a defended keep leading to RVE. Other side shows up to defend, 80% of the time they will pull off and go somewhere else. The only thing I can think that would help this is to make keeps actually worth something for having, rather than "Eh, let them take it" For instance, DAOC has the supply line where you couldn't port to a keep if they took a keep in the line. Or that there were realm bonuses based on how many keeps the realm owned. There needs to be a reason for defenders to drop everything to defend, and a reason for attackers to keep at a keep even if defended.

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  4. by worth something, i mean from attackers and defenders

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  5. You're right there Ryan. It's something I overlooked, folks do tend to give up easily in on both attack and defense when there's is "too much" oppostion.

    I would like to see something like you suggested from Camelot in WAR. There's probably lots of ideas that could work.

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