Outpost war mechanics - English - Ryzom Community Forum

Please drop me a line if anything here needs to be changed or explained better; the initial post was meant for the Fireflies forums only. Thank you :)

n.b. Lots of thanks to Bitttymacod for explaining this stuff in an unrelated forum

A battle for the control of an outpost starts with a war declaration. This costs the attackers some dappers - approximately 1`000`000 for a q50 OP, and 16`000`000 for a q250. The attacking guild sets the date and time for their attack.

Example declare:

A war has two phases, let's first focus on Phase 1 (defense).

The battle takes two hours, divided into 24 rounds of 5 minutes each. During each round, a number of NPC guards will appear. The attackers "win" a round by killing all the guards that appear; they lose the round if they fail to do that. Conversely, the defenders "lose" the round if all their guards are killed. Keep in mind that the guards attack anyone who is tagged as Attack!.

Player approaching the outpost must choose if they remain uninvolved (neutral) or if they tag as defender or attacker. A player that belongs to the attacking guild cannot tag for defense, neither can a member of the defending guild tag for offense. Other players are completely free to pick their side, disregarding nation allegiance, religious allegiance and everything else.

Winning or losing Phase 1 of the battle is controlled by the Current Round Level (see the above screenshot).

It starts at 0 and increases by 1 with each round won by the attacking side, going down by 1 should they lose a round. Depending on the outpost level, the attackers must meet a certain threshold within 24 rounds : q50 OPs have a threshold of 3 (minimum level 4 to achieve), while q250 OPs have a threshold of 5 (minimum level 6).

It is a perfectly valid scenario that an attacking guild could win 3 rounds in a row, lose one (max attacker round level stays 3, but current round level goes down at 2) - then come back and win 4 more rounds in a row, pushing max attacker round level to 6.

Current Round Level also controls the amount of NPC guards that will spawn in that particular round. Guards come in "sets" defined by role (melee guard set, ranged guard set etc), and the amount of sets appearing during the round is equal to the round level. In other words, the attacking guild must face a mounting difficulty and manage to kill an increasing number of guards .. and sustain a lot more damage.

Guard spawns are spread during the 5 minute duration of a round. At Round Level 1 they appear when the round begins, at Round Level 2 the second set appears at the 2m30s mark, etc. Should the Round Level become high enough, multiple guard sets could be spawning at the same time.

The defending guild can "hire" stronger guards by allotting money for them, and it is strongly advised that this is done. In a q250 OP, one set of guards costs 50`000 dappers. This also encourages attacks on OPs belonging to dead guilds - if no one is online to change the guard type, then attackers only have to kill the weaker default guard type.

A couple of guards sets:

Phase 2

If the attacking guild fails to push their Max Round Level past the threshold, the battle is over and the outpost stays with its current owners. No more fighting occurs.

If the attacking guild manages to push past the threshold, then there is a second phase of the war, giving the former owners a chance to win back their property. The former owners get to set a date and time for this phase, usually one day after.

Players tag up again according to the sides at the time of declare: defense if they are helping the former owners of the OP, and offense if they are helping the would-be owners.

Phase 2 is mechanically similar to Phase 1 : there is a two-hour battle, divided again in 24 rounds. However, this time the roles are reversed, the NPC guards work for the attackers, and it is the defenders who must attempt to kill those guards. The defenders must meet the threshold imposed by the attackers during phase 1! If the Max Attacker Round Level got to 14, then Max Defender Round Level will have to be 14 or higher in order to win and retake the OP.

If the defenders manage to meet the Max Attacker Round Level, they can safely stop fighting.

If the defenders fail to do so, the outpost will soon change hands. The attacking guild automatically gains control of the OP, and they can install a drill so that they can get the special materials.

Regardless of who wins, the higher threshold achieved by either side will be controlling for future battles. It slowly "cools down", at the rate of 1-2 points per week, until it is again settled at the default requirements (thr. 3 on q50 OPs, thr. 5 on q250).

Misc Notes

from Naema: If you own the OP, and you buy additional NPC Gaurds, you can position them in several different places around the OP by right clicking on them when buying them. A map opens up and you can choose where to place them.
It is good strategy to try to place yourselves in the middle of the gaurds to both protect them, and have them protect you. The goal is to not let the attackers kill all your guards or they win the round.
drill costs: Once a guild acquires an outpost, they must first install a kami or karavan drill, before their guild hall will start accruing the precious OP materials. The cost of a drill varies with the outpost level - up to 16.000.000 dappers in a level 250 OP.