Zone Flip Bonuses

I have to be honest, it’s all a bit confusing, but that could just be my age. Every time I think I have it nailed down, something happens which throws me. So here’s my rough handle on things.

If you manage to flip a zone, you get a bonus for contributing to capturing the keep, which as a healer is easy. You also get a bonus if you’ve defend your keep in the zone before the flip occurs. Brilliant, so 10K for the flip, + 2 * 5K, for “defending” your keep and “attacking” their keep = 20K.

Then you can get a small bonus, for capturing a BO, just before the zone flip, lets say 2K. Hard one to get to be honest, because they’re constantly being taken. Now I’m not sure if this bonus is specifically related to the end of tier zones, like for instance Chaos Wastes and Reikland.

I’ve also had one situation where I’m pretty sure I’ve been awarded a bonus for the capture of a keep in the previous zone. So I was involved in the capture of the Destro keep in Kadrin Valley and then was involved in the capture of the Thunder Mountain Destro keep. Which seemed to award me 3 * 5K, 5K for defending TM Order keep, 5K capturing TM Destruction keep and 5K for capturing the Destruction keep in Kadrin Valley. Which seemed to be a rolling total of accrued keep captures in the tier. Of course it may have been related to lack of sleep, but I definitely saw 3 * 5K. Was I just drunk on Christmas spirit? A nice reward for those who have ample free time.

Now I’m sure you’ve noticed and I hope it’s not me, but the end of tier zones seem to be a lot more focused on contribution when it comes to the keep bonus, where as the middle zone, like Praag, is more a fixed value for the contribution. Ever wondered why people rush outside the warcamp in an end of tier zone, when it’s just been lost to Destruction/Order, that’s because an RP bonus is awarded for the defense. You could stay inside the warcamp, but you’d miss any AAO that’s being offered. Hell I picked up 9K one morning for an unsuccessful defense of Kadrin Valley, by the time the 400% AAO had been applied. Not bad for getting my ass whipped. Now with Praag, there you just a few officer medallions and a warlord crest flung my way, which reinforces my belief in the 1st line of this paragraph.

I’ve tried for a while to get a handle on the award of bonuses and how the mechanic actually works. So if you know, then post it up and let everyone in on the secret.

I often wonder if this is why people often mill around the keeps in an attack, because they want to be sure that they qualify for keep capture bonus, because they’re clueless as what else rewards them? It’s like, oooh if I run off to defend that BO or recapture it, will I lose my contribution/bonus? If I jump to another zone to help out there, do I lose my contribution to this zone? The problem is, is that by making the system opaque, it just limits people’s willingness to try new things.

Signed

Confused Of Warhammer

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DDDomination Mode Is Up

This has really got me excited, since it’s going to offer the player base a lot of opportunity to show some real strategy, that’s of course if they can make the effort. Now if your server is wildly imbalanced, then this mode will just offer the opportunity for a one sided slaughter fest and a 2 hour zone flipping service. But for a balanced server, then it’s going to be a lot of fun. Well I certainly hope so.

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I’m Getting A little Bit Moist!!

It was early this morning that I saw the patch notes for 1.2 come up, so I had a really quick scan, quickly copying them into an email and sent them to work, for a proper read over the first coffee of the day. No need to rush through them, then.

You know what, it’s actually quite nice to be put into a positive frame of mind, especially after a couple of days of moaning and/or whining about Warhammer. In fact I was getting a little bit over excited.

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Let Loose The Dogs Of Choo Choo!

Choo Choo Train

Yes, you know what I am talking about, it’s the train of people that just goes from BO to BO to Keep, worshiping at the shrine of the holy RP. Are people that lacking in imagination that they just go along with the path of least resistance? Their present concept of fun, is this monotonous trawl through the zones, accumulating renown points, influence and potentially a piece of raid armour.Yawn.

Is this what people signed up for when they subscribed to Warhammer? This appalling choo choo train. Now lets not try and blame Mythic on this one, people also have a responsibility for creating their own fun.

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The Mysteries Of Zone Control

How many of you out there really know the hows, whats and wherefores of zone control? Hell I have made it to 40 and I am still clueless about what’s going on. Now granted I may well be alittle bit on the slow side, but I do feel I should be more knowledgeable about how everything fits together. Seriously if I was a soloer and I didn’t read the forums, then I’d honestly have no chance of linking the dots, that are the zone control mechanics.

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The (Lack Of A) Relationship Between BO’s And Keeps

Sorry if this one is pretty long winded, so it’s okay to take a break if you get tired.

I originally commented on this particular subject on someone elses blog, though I had considered the idea even before that. My current understanding is, that Battle Objectives (BOs) currently provide 2 things.

1. A buff which is provided when talking to the sergeant. Unfortunately the buff is lost when you die and requires a journey back to said person to reinstate. As many people have noted, this is less than ideal. Ideally the buff should be applied when entering the ORvR lake. Not so sure about the crafting uplift buff in the same manner though.

2. A number of guards which protect the keep, which are now conveniently labelled to inform the player they are BO related.

Though semi useful reasons for taking a BO, they really aren’t intergrating the BOs into the zone. If you don’t take the BO, it’s certainly not the end of the world. Yes, there are extra guards. But there aren’t the uber guards from DAOC keep takes. We need to make the capture of BO’s more fundamental to the process of capturing a keep.

So what I will try and provide is a full outline of my current thinking. Now it may have been put forward elsewhere, but I haven’t read it. I definitely think I have had an original idea, so try and be gentle if you have to tell me otherwise.

It’s very simple, make each BO provide a 10% bonus/reduction in the health of the keep doors. They provide this bonus in the form of a magical ward, which if the BO is taken, takes 10% of the maximum health off the doors health. Not 10% of the remaining health. So if the 4 BOs were taken in sequence and the doors hitpoints was a maximum 100, then the hitpoints would go from 100 -> 90 (1) -> 80 (2) -> 70 (3) -> 60 (4). In the lower tiers with fewer BOs, then I would propose the percentage is increased, to maintain it’s significance. It’s important to educate from the earliest age (level).

Now it’s crucial that the BO’s once taken don’t lose their importance during the keep take and so maintaining ownership is vital. If the BO gets retaken, then the doors hitpoints will regain that 10% health. Heh these are magical wards, so anything is possible. I could even say that the energy released by the conflict in the local area, powers the raising of the new wards on the door. A bit chaos death magic like for my order sensibilities, but I am sure an apt explanation from the order side could be forthcoming. Mythic, if you are reading this, please make the wards visable on the doors. So 4 wards up, the shimmer is strong, then reduce the shimmer by 25% as each ward is lost and vice versa.

There are couple of things I would be hoping to achieve here. Provide an impetus for groups/warbands to hold BOs by either camping them, or wandering between them to make sure control is maintained. Now the 15 minute lock downs on BO is very useful here, since it would mean that you are guaranteed to keep the 10% bonus for that time period. This would hopefully provide group/warband action for the more organised setups, the banners would be out, since that speed bonus will be very useful.

Provide a reason for a well co-ordinated attack. If you were to hit the 4 BO’s in Reikland in a synchronised manner, the doors would be down by 40% before the word had hit the street of an attack. They could then hold those BOs from any counter strikes, since the quickest way to slow up the attackers, would be restore the wards on the keep doors. Now I believe that the holding forces in the region of the held BO’s should receive a % of the total rps awarded for a successful keep take. But also those rps gained for successful BO defence, should be included into the keep defence pot. This is very much the situation of, you scratch my back I will scratch yours for the Order or Destruction sides. People will appreciate the work undertaken by all those involved.

Now I think it’s widely accepted that keep attacks, when the keep is defended can be a exercise in boredom. So anything that gets you inside the keep quicker, has to be utilised. I know keep doors are there to provide a slow down factor and to prevent too many ninja keep takes, but a 200 character zerg is going to rip the doors down like they are made of paper anyway.

Additional benefits of this integration, would be a small reduction in the number of people hanging around keep doors and thus reduce the loading in these areas. Mythic have raised the spectre of additional doors (This is unconfirmed). But lets utilise what’s already in the field of play, before adding stuff like this. This would bring the BO’s properly into play, in a manner which I think is sadly lacking at the moment.

With the above I have really tried to cover all the angles. It’s not enough to have what you think is a good idea, but it’s necessary to provide the rational behind it. If you have any comments, then let me know and if you think it would add to the whole experience of ORvR, then lets get it in. Heaven knows how I would get all this in a CSR form though.

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