Having offered my assistance (such as it was) to getting this idea put forth, I feel I must disagree with Yricl's assumption that this will invigorate OP contests.
Yes, it will allow smaller groups to attack OPs and have a chance of success. However, as he points out himself, there is nothing to keep an Alliance from attacking in force and taking the OP back with a large threshold, so the Alliances will still have the materials.
Given that, why would anyone bother to attack who did not think that they had a chance of holding it for enough time to actually harvest some good stuff? It is only the level 150 and higher OPs that have a chance of producing q250 materials, and that chance is low except for the level 250 OPs (which is why they are the ones that get fought over). Except for obtaining OP mats there is no reason to own them, hence no reason to attack them. This is true now and the proposed change won't alter that.
I can think of a few things to add to this, or just to propose, that might do more.
First -- lengthen the immunity period between attacks and make that increased length inversely related to the threshold level achieved by the attackers in the first round or to the number of attackers. (i.e. you get a longer cooldown if you "barely" take the OP or if you take it with fewer people than you do if you take it by overwhelming the defense). This would complement Yricl's proposal, but clearly it would have to be carefully balanced. What it does is give an incentive in terms of harvested materials for people to attempt taking an OP with a smaller force.
Second -- make the low level outposts useful again by allowing overcrafting with lower level OP mats. There is no particular use for a q150 armilo tool, or greslin or erigos pick, or a q100 vedice sword. If we can use q50 armilo from Psykopla Knoll and have a chance at a q250 tool, that OP will become desirable. I think this is a good idea in general, but it could be combined with Yricl's suggestion. (Again, balance issues would need to be addressed.)
Yes, it will allow smaller groups to attack OPs and have a chance of success. However, as he points out himself, there is nothing to keep an Alliance from attacking in force and taking the OP back with a large threshold, so the Alliances will still have the materials.
Given that, why would anyone bother to attack who did not think that they had a chance of holding it for enough time to actually harvest some good stuff? It is only the level 150 and higher OPs that have a chance of producing q250 materials, and that chance is low except for the level 250 OPs (which is why they are the ones that get fought over). Except for obtaining OP mats there is no reason to own them, hence no reason to attack them. This is true now and the proposed change won't alter that.
I can think of a few things to add to this, or just to propose, that might do more.
First -- lengthen the immunity period between attacks and make that increased length inversely related to the threshold level achieved by the attackers in the first round or to the number of attackers. (i.e. you get a longer cooldown if you "barely" take the OP or if you take it with fewer people than you do if you take it by overwhelming the defense). This would complement Yricl's proposal, but clearly it would have to be carefully balanced. What it does is give an incentive in terms of harvested materials for people to attempt taking an OP with a smaller force.
Second -- make the low level outposts useful again by allowing overcrafting with lower level OP mats. There is no particular use for a q150 armilo tool, or greslin or erigos pick, or a q100 vedice sword. If we can use q50 armilo from Psykopla Knoll and have a chance at a q250 tool, that OP will become desirable. I think this is a good idea in general, but it could be combined with Yricl's suggestion. (Again, balance issues would need to be addressed.)
---
Remembering Tyneetryk
Phaedreas Tears - 15 years old and first(*) of true neutral guilds in Atys.
(*) This statement is contested, but we are certainly the longest lasting.
<clowns | me & you | jokers>