So, at this point both the siege and pvp topics are getting pretty out of hand. Therefore, I’ve drawn up an entire new game mode that I feel would satisfy many of these desires without putting off the more PvE or RP groups out there. Let me introduce my concept of Community Warfare that I call: Global Conquest.
Disclaimer: Wall of text ahead! I did my best to break it up into simple categories, and to keep the ideas simple. This concept is made assuming that the game is past it’s 1.0 launch and not as a mod or add on. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions below, but please read all the way through first! Updated 4/16/15
This mode is intended for guilds, but can support solo players as well in the form of Mercenaries. I intend to combine the best of Siege mode and faction based PvP as well as features like guild and personal leader boards. Also keep in mind I’m doing the best I can to head off cheese tactics before they can even start with some of the restrictions you may see below, but let me know if you think of anything I miss.
The Idea of Global Conquest is actually pretty straight forward. Guilds can opt-in to establish a fortress on a contested world once a week. They can capture and hold other guild’s fortresses by attacking and holding another guilds fort, expanding the borders of their territory and gaining bonuses, points and income per fort held. At the end of the month, the world is wiped and the statistics are put on a leader board. Guilds can acquire general wealth as well as glory for themselves by participating in GC even if they are not the most dominating guild. I’ll go into more details further down.
Global Rules:
Inventory is specific to the world you are fighting for! You may not bring anything else in from another world.
Full inventory drop when slain, including equipped armor and weapons!
Worlds are particularly resource rich! Mineral nodes have a chance to drop extra. Oort shards are plentiful!
No Titans on this world, but protectors are extra tough! It’s dangerous to go alone!
These worlds are not permanent. World is wiped at the end of the season, roughly once a month.
Portals and warps can not be built.
No beacons.
Griefing is not only permitted, it’s encouraged! This is a war zone, after all!
Getting Started
A guild must do a few things in preparation for establishing their fortress on a contested world. In order to begin, they must gather resources from their home planet first. Guilds require building materials, armor, weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies to establish their home fort, as well as having a portal specifically for community warfare and enough Oort shards to power it. Once a guild has all of these things gathered, they place them into the community warfare portal and open the portal to the contested world.
Upon arrival, a random location is selected on the contested world (which is specifically generated for CW events to make it as optimized as possible) and a per-fabricated fort is established. This fort is generally well defended, featuring walls that can not be grappled or destroyed, as well as a small garrison of weak but upgradeable NPC soldiers to defend it’s one weakness, the front gate. (Why NPCs? These guards are only here to insure that solo players are unable to take a fort themselves if they find a fortress when the guild is not currently online.)
The fort is divided into a few parts. There is the Armory, the Vault, the Portal, the Gate, and the Flag.
Armory) Once a player steps through the portal to the contested world, they do not have to worry about their gear, items or inventory. Players inventories do not carry over to this new world, and will return when they go back home. Instead, it’s now time to visit the fortress armory to equip themselves with everything they will need to survive on this new planet. The armory starts with only the equipment that the guild placed in the gate to begin with, and if more things are needed, they will need to be gathered and forged on this new world. Items taken to the Armory can be used by any member of the occupying guild. If the fort is lost, the attackers gain access to this armory with all of it’s contents! Armories are unique to their individual fort and are not connected to other armories owned by the guild.
Vault) Think of Vaults as a guild’s personal “ender chest” in on contested worlds, as well as the upgrade hub for the fort and it’s garrison of troops. Building materials and supplies can be brought back and secured in the fortress’s secured vault, and only guild members may gain access to this vault. When players bring building supplies to the vault, upon reaching a threshold the fort can be upgraded to a higher tier fort with better defenses. Armor and weapons brought to the vault upgrade the garrison troops as well. Vaults are connected to the specific guild, and if a fort is captured, items kept in the vault are not accessible to the occupying guild. Items placed in the vault are converted to resources of their specific type and can not be picked up by players for combat or building. Only put things in the vault to upgrade a fortress!
Portal) The portal serves three functions. Firstly, it can allow a player to teleport back to the guilds home world. Secondly, it allows a player to teleport between any of the guild’s forts on this planet. Thirdly, it acts as a respawn point for the player. (Players respawn at the closest portal that they died at.) Additionally, portals must be powered by Oort shards found on THIS planet. Every use of the portal expends one shard, and if a guild runs out of shards, they are forced to respawn at their guild’s home planet portal where they entered the contested world. Shards can be placed in the portal in advance to give a supply of uses, and can not be captured by other guilds.
Gate) Every fort has only one weakness, it’s main gate. This gate acts as a force field allowing occupants to come and go at will, but bars entry to outsiders. For an attacking guild to bring down the gate, they must physically dismantle the gate’s generators around the corners of the gate. These can take several moments to break individually, and regenerate themselves after a few minutes unless all four corners are destroyed. If all for corners are destroyed, the fort is now vulnerable to capture for 10 minutes. If the invaders are repelled, then the gate is repaired and attackers must start over. When a gate is attacked, every member of it’s guild is notified that their fort is under siege, and they should move to defend it as soon as possible!
Flag) The flag is what denotes which guild has access to a fort. When a guild establishes a fort, the flag pole is placed in the middle of the fort. The objective of other guilds is to reach the flag and hold it for a time period in order to claim the fort. The area around the flag is generally difficult to defend and open, so attack it with extreme care! Once a flag is captured, the invading guild has access to the armory, portal, and gate. Items in the vault are not accessible, but the vault can access the guild’s own vault, which is now connected.
If a guild loses it’s fort, or all forts under it’s control, they must gather resources back on their home world for yet another attempt at global conquest. Don’t worry though, Items in the vault are stored, and your next attempt will have a head start with these resources still available.
Territory
Each fort established claims a territory around itself. This territory is divided into two parts; a conquered zone and a protected zone. Outside of this claimed territory is neutral zone. Let’s look at Fort. Example for a visual of the zones around your fort. (Don’t judge my MS paint skills! this was a quickie!)
Protected) Each fort established sets up a protected zone centered around itself that nobody is allowed to build or destroy inside of, not even the guild that owns it. This serves two purposes, firstly, attacking guilds can not bypass a guild’s fort’s defenses by building or digging under it, over it, etc. Secondly, this prevents a guild from completely enclosing their own fort in stone and preventing attacks. This zone extends a decent way from the perimeter of the fort.
Conquered) The conquered zone is the territory that a guild itself owns. Only the conquering guild can build in this zone, however anybody can destroy. Destroying blocks in a conquered zone that you do not control doubles the time taken to destroy blocks. This is where guilds can set up watch towers, walls, traps, etc or gather materials and resources for themselves. Any creatures inside of a conquered zone are passive toward it’s new masters, and will attack intruders on sight. Attacking a passive monster will cause it to defend itself as well.
Neutral) Territory outside of a guild’s claim is neutral, no rules apply here and any thing goes. Any neutral monsters will attack on sight.
When a guild captures a new fort, their territory will attempt to connect itself between the any forts in the area, claiming any neutral territory in between. Be careful though, the more territory you claim, the more spread out your defenses will become and the more difficult to hold what you have gained!
Attacking and Defending your Fort
So, the act of attacking a fort is fairly straight forward, and is designed to require at least a small number of players to accomplish. Since the walls are high and grapple hooks don’t stick inside the Protected Zone, The only vulnerable point of attack is through the main gate. Entering the protected zone or attacking the gate causes an alert to all guild members or their hired mercenaries online at the time, so you’d better act quickly and bring back-up!
NPC Garrison) Entering the protected zone draws the attention of the fort’s garrison troops to automatically attack enemies in or around the fort. If a fort’s garrison troops are sufficiently well upgraded, they can repel a number of enemies even if no guild members are online. These guards will do battle with what ever they are equipped and upgraded with such as magic staffs, ranged or melee weapons. Slain NPCs will respawn every few minutes, and can hold out against a protracted siege if the attackers are not adequately prepared.
Capturing the Fort) Once you’ve broken through the outer gate and entered the court yard of the fort, you must hold the majority of players inside the fort for a few minutes. Your progress will show as a progress slider that will slowly advance one way or the other depending on how many players are occupying the fort. Once the slider reaches all the way toward the attackers side, the fort is conquered! You now have access to all rooms in the fort and gain capture points for your achievement. NPC Garrison will respawn at the lowest level and under your guild’s control. Your flag now flies over the fort and it’s territory is added to your own!
Defending the Fort) If the slider moves all the way toward the defenders side, the fort’s gate resets and all guards respawn. At this point, the fort can not be captured until the gate is destroyed again.
Mercenaries
Guild’s are not for everybody, and some players would rather just fight for who ever will hire them instead of devote themselves to a specific guild. Mercenaries can swear themselves to a guild’s conquest by adding their token to a guild’s Community Warfare Portal. Once they’ve done this, they serve as the guild’s hired mercenary. Mercenaries act similar to Guild troops with a few exceptions.
- They do not spend the guild’s Oort shards when they respawn.
- They do not have access to the Guild’s Armory.
- They can only capture a fort for their ally if a member of that guild is with them.
The Leader Board. Glory and Honor!!!
Every capture, kill, death, and upgrade made by a guild and it’s allies is scored up and tracked. Guilds in the top percentage are displayed on the leader board by ranking. At the end of the season, the top Guilds receive additional perks such as vanity guild banners, embellished tabards, etc. Guilds also get to keep what ever is left in the vault at the end of the season to distribute among themselves, and ?are awarded gold/currency based on their score? I dunno, something nice for doing well. I could use ideas for this section, guys!
Individual players scores are also tracked, and scored separate from their guild. All you Mercenaries out there can gain personal glory and honor too!
If you read this far, I really appreciate it guys! Go ahead and leave me your feedback and opinions below, and a “like” if you would be excited to play this game mode!
This could be a great idea for a mod but i think its too complex to be part of the game itself.