RvR Ideas: The Campaign

I had too much to dream last night, too much to dream.

I've tried to think of a different campaign system for WAR's RvR. It borrows a lot from Bootae's posts about DAoC and WAR and I've also incorporated features from the new City Siege. I've found it a bit tricky to convey exactly what I wanted but will post anyway :p.

The campaign would involve two phases, first a fight for control of the keeps, then assault and defence of the Forts.

Phase 1: WAR for Territory

Summary: All zones and all keeps are open for capture and Order and Destro fight to claim as many keeps as they can until all are controlled. When claimed, keeps can be used as port locations for guilds and alliances. Keep control will offer a strategic advantage in Phase 2.

All 18 keeps in T4 are contested and open for capture at the start of the phase. There are no Keep Lords or Keep Doors.

To gain control of a keep 6 players need to interact with an objective inside the keep. Controlling a keep will NOT lock it down, i.e. they are immediatley recapturable.

Controlling a keep will spawn a very low HP door, this door is only designed to a allow some response time if it's attacked.

Rally Flags: Once a Keep is under a faction's control guilds can place a Rally Flag within the keep that will allow guild members to port inside using a Keep Scroll. Guilds can only have one Rally Flag active at any time but multiple guilds can have a Rally Flag in the same keep. Alliance Rally Flags are also available. These allow all players from an alliance to port there.

Guild and Alliance Flags are bought just like standards. Keep Scrolls have a 10 minute reuse timer on them. The whole point of generous use of scrolling is to avoid a situation where players have to stand guard at keeps for a long time as that is boring. Alliance scrolls give well organised alliances an edge.

Taking an already controlled keep will place it in a neutral state for the next 10 minutes. After this it becomes open to capture again by either side. The reason for this 10 minutes of neutrality is to keep Phase 1 from ending too quickly.

When every keep is controlled by one side or another (i.e. there are no uncontrolled keeps left) a 1 hour timer starts after which Phase 1 ends. This extra time is to give some final furious fighting over the keeps in key locations (see Phase 2). In the final hour keeps don't go into a neutral state when captured but pass straight into the control of whichever side captured them.

Phase 2: Push to the City

Summary: Order and Destro now battle for the Forts. Capture all 3 enemy Forts to win the phase and open up the City. Keeps control from Phase 1 provides strategic advantage as keeps are now permanently locked and are available to port to and from for the entire faction who control them.

Every keep you controlled in Phase 1 will be locked and uncapturable during Phase 2. They act as permanent port locations for all players from the faction who control it, not just the guild or alliances that placed Rally Flags there. Keep Scrolls are still on a 10 minute reuse timer.

Keeps can then be used to stage attacks on an enemy Fortress or to rally to and defend your own. The value of controlling the keeps closet to Forts should result in some serious conflict over these in Phase 1.

Capturing a Fort
Capturing a fort involves killing a Fortress Lord. These don't do damage, they just require a lot of killing. Fortress Lord's HP doesn't reset or regenerate so any damage done to them is permanent and once they are dead the Fort is captured until the campaign resets. They will take a tonne of killing so it will take numerous attempts to take them down.

Attackers cannot rez inside a Fort but Defender's can. Several waves of attack will be needed therefore, each one aiming to chip away at the Lord's health as much as possible.

Controlling the Middle Zone
The top and bottom zones are strategically important to assault or defend nearby Forts so the middle zone needs a reason to be important too (i.e. Praag, Dragonwake and Thunder Mountain). In Phase 1 BOs weren't involved but in Phase 2 the four objectives in the middle zone in each pairing come into play. Control of 3 out 4 BOs spawns a Monster who makes it's way to the enemy Fort and gives the Lord there a wallop. Doesn't kill it, just makes a nice dent in it's HP. Monster's can be killed and healed. I'm not totally sold on this monster idea but control of the middle zone's needs to offer something of value.