IDEAS FOR RYZOM

During outpost battles, it should be possible to damage the drill and any future building that might be constructed. It should also be possible to repair the damage during outpost battles, for anyone brave enough to try this in the middle of a battle. During battle, those repairing must be flagged appropriately. Multiple people should be able to repair the structure for an increase in repair speed.

It should take twice as long to repair a point of structural integrity as it does to damage a point.

If a drill is damaged, production should decrease for as long as the drill is damaged more than 25%, scaling downward. So:

- 100% - 75% integrity = normal operation
- 75% - 25% integrity = half production
- below 25% integrity = no production
- 0% = the drill is destroyed and a new one must be built

The visual appearance should reflect the damage the structure has suffered. A lovely little animation should run if a building/drill is fully destroyed.

During in-game events, such as the Fyros retaliation for the Matis attack, participating players should be able to target buildings (including fences and walls) for damage or destruction. Whatever damage the buildings suffer, that would be the damage that needs to be repaired in a subsequent event, instead of simply replacing the existing structure with a flaming cinder. Imagine a Matis attack making it to Pyr, and collapsing tunnels in the city. Or Fyros razing the gazebo in Yrkanis (and killing that stupid yubo Bubbles in the process).


If a battle is not in progress, the repair process should happen without additional user assistance. Confirm the cost for repairs, pay the fee, repair (slowly) happens. Homins should be able to chip in and repair the structure faster, collecting the mats from the main outpost building at appropriate times.

New tools would be used to repair structures.


(Related to this, the reverse should also be possible: building a new drill should show different graphics throughout the construction stages instead of just the one almost-built drill for the hour and then "poof" new drill.)

I'm not sure what the benefit of this would be in a 2 hour battle. I don't know many people that need those cats or mats right at that moment.

I can see building destruction and repair being usable during events, but in OP battles? What's the point in that? Attackers would gain no benefits from that, and defenders probably wouldn't bother much, as drills are relatively cheap and can be thrown out with no regrets. As long as there is no griefing guild that would make fun of destroying others drills, this feature is useless for battles.

which is exactly what it'd be used for, people vandalising outposts outside of op battles out of spite or whatever...
In battles, a losing attacker would likely do the same, cause damage to the outpost out of spite.

It would add an element of depth to gameplay if outpost buildings without regular active maintenance by the owning guild would deteriorate over time, maintenance consisting of guild missions to do repairwork, repel bandit tribes and incursions by kitins and other wildlife, etc. without the possibility of assistence by other guilds (so as to prevent alt guilds from holding outposts, see also next point).
If no such missions are successfully completed over time (and the number needed could go up more than linearly with the number of outposts, say 1 mission a week for 1 outpost, 1 mission a day for 2 outposts, 1 mission an hour for 3, etc., thus making it harder for guilds to hold multiple outposts) the outpost would fall fallow and any guild can claim (after missions to rebuild it) ownership, except the guild that was lax in their duties.
Mission difficulty of course dependent on the outpost level.

No more inactive guilds with outposts, no more guilds holding 5+ outposts with 2-3 people and a strong guild backing them from the outside with threats to attack anyone who dares oppose them.

At least for outposts, the idea was that the drill could only be damaged during a battle, which would at least protect against most of the griefing. It could be repaired at any time. The only way for an attacker to damage the drill without contest is by winning a round and spending the entire time that the defenders are regrouping to hit the drill. This could be an incentive for the defenders to regroup and get back into battle quickly.

I believe that it would be petition-able for repeated war declarations as that could be considered griefing. Back in the day, you could petition someone who made a false declaration as a distraction from the real outpost battle, which is at least an order of magnitude less offensive.

If the attackers won the attack phase, they would temporarily have control over the outpost and thus unable to damage the drill further. They could begin to repair it if they liked =)


As noticed, this would open up many possibilities. Begin with periodic maintenance costs, some arbitrary amount per hour or day. The maintenance costs stay the same for a damaged drill even though the output is reduced. If the guild treasury runs out of money, the drill starts to become damaged.

Next, increase the costs of building a new drill. Instead of building a new drill when outposts change hands, don't destroy the existing one; that never made sense anyway. The new owners can repair the damage, begin paying maintenance, and operate the drill that is present. If the new owners want a different drill they would need to replace it. The current low costs mean that little thought needs to be given when picking a drill because it's cheap enough to change whenever.


Destructable buildings at outposts and events could be a stepping stone for future possibilities. But the code would need to be in the game before thinking of grander plans, such as settlement construction in any new region that may happen to open up -- assist your chosen civ in establishing footholds in wild frontier-land while fighting off the Kitin and other predators, or anything else. And having drills degrade without paid maintenance would be useful right now.

Given the low cost of drills, there's no incentive to do as you state except for attackers to grief... It'd be recognised for the harassment it is, and dealt with as such.