Ok, so, instead of attacking the city itself, I would create a city warehouse/ silo, where the capital's supplies are stored (in-universe explanation). This warehouse would be located near the city, but not within guard range.
Every X real-life days (every week?), an NPC group starts a trek from the warehouse to the city, this trek takes maybe 20-30 minutes in real time.
When the NPC trek starts, nearby players can tag up for attack or defense, just like in an outpost fight. Those tagged for attack can begin to try kill the NPCs en-route, while those tagged for defense can kill the attackers. (again, just like with outposts). The idea is:
- Each dead guard drops some loot -- up to the devs to decide what rewards might be there. Money? Harvestable materials? Perhaps some OP mats even, I'm sure the nations have some stocks of their own ;)
- The number of killed guards is tracked by the game. Proportionally to the number of guards downed, some city services are slowed down in turn.
- For example, lack of materials could cause city altars to "malfunction", and might make kami/kara teleportation to that city to take longer than the usual 15 seconds.
- Or maybe the bar has no supplies, and the barman NPC would not spawn for a few days (this could heavily affect trykers..)
- Maybe the corporal/sergeant in the capital would stop giving missions, because it's "too dangerous" to go out there, etc.
- Defenders should also earn a reward if a certain threshold is NOT reached. Nation points? Dappers? Up to the devs.
- As a PvE route, I would make missions that allow players to donate weapons/armors to the guards, in between treks. This would earn the players some reward (nation points?), and in turn would make the guards more numerous at trek time.
What is hard here is to strike a good balance:
a) Rewards must incentivize both attackers and defenders to participate. "Pvp for pvp's sake" is not enough, both sides need a tangible reward.
b) The punishment on city services must not be too harsh. Players that use the city but don't want to pvp (either because they are too weak, or simply because they are PvE-inclined) should not suffer too much collateral damage. I would make the effects on city services wear out faster than the timeframe between two guard treks.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading.
Every X real-life days (every week?), an NPC group starts a trek from the warehouse to the city, this trek takes maybe 20-30 minutes in real time.
When the NPC trek starts, nearby players can tag up for attack or defense, just like in an outpost fight. Those tagged for attack can begin to try kill the NPCs en-route, while those tagged for defense can kill the attackers. (again, just like with outposts). The idea is:
- Each dead guard drops some loot -- up to the devs to decide what rewards might be there. Money? Harvestable materials? Perhaps some OP mats even, I'm sure the nations have some stocks of their own ;)
- The number of killed guards is tracked by the game. Proportionally to the number of guards downed, some city services are slowed down in turn.
- For example, lack of materials could cause city altars to "malfunction", and might make kami/kara teleportation to that city to take longer than the usual 15 seconds.
- Or maybe the bar has no supplies, and the barman NPC would not spawn for a few days (this could heavily affect trykers..)
- Maybe the corporal/sergeant in the capital would stop giving missions, because it's "too dangerous" to go out there, etc.
- Defenders should also earn a reward if a certain threshold is NOT reached. Nation points? Dappers? Up to the devs.
- As a PvE route, I would make missions that allow players to donate weapons/armors to the guards, in between treks. This would earn the players some reward (nation points?), and in turn would make the guards more numerous at trek time.
What is hard here is to strike a good balance:
a) Rewards must incentivize both attackers and defenders to participate. "Pvp for pvp's sake" is not enough, both sides need a tangible reward.
b) The punishment on city services must not be too harsh. Players that use the city but don't want to pvp (either because they are too weak, or simply because they are PvE-inclined) should not suffer too much collateral damage. I would make the effects on city services wear out faster than the timeframe between two guard treks.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading.
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My home is always sweet Yrkanis..