Alternative Method for PvP Territorial Conquest - IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Some time ago, I was reading about conquering enemy territory from another game, and it inspired a new way of determining control of Ryzom's outposts. I've written this from the point of view of outposts, but it doesn't need to be limited to outposts if other conquerable content or regions are ever implemented in game. It could also be exclusive to new content, and not touch existing outpost mechanics at all.

TL;DR Summary:

Basically, outpost ownership would not not determined by one or two battles, but by battles over time, with defenders having a slight advantage. The idea is that your ability to project force at any given time determines your guild's ability to defend and maintain control over outposts. This is implemented through capturing strategic areas around the outpost over time, like real military action, instead of unilateral declarations and trying to time the battles so that fewest opponents can attend.

Details

First, let's suppose that you don't "declare war" on an enemy outpost. In this (revised) situation, a constant state of war would exist, and whenever it is possible to fight, you can choose to join the fight or not.

Instead of an "all or nothing" approach to ownership and control, the owner has a percentage value to express Dominance over the outpost and the surrounding area. Everyone, including the owner, also has a percentage value to express Influence over what happens in the area; it generally illustrates the amount of prestige and respect your guild has concerning this particular outpost. A successful outpost owner will have high values of both.

To gain control over an outpost, the owner's Dominance must be reduced to 0% through multiple battles. Multiple opponents may cooperate to destabilize the outpost owners Dominance. Then, anyone who has a higher Influence than the owner may claim the outpost as their own, then work to improve their Dominance and Influence over the outpost and the area.

A few random times per day (say, between four and eight times), an Outpost Mission object will appear. Anyone interested may activate the Outpost Mission object to begin a countdown. Once the Outpost Mission object is activated, a PvP area is created around the outpost similar to what happens now during war declarations. A countdown will also begin.

After a period of time (20 minutes?) the Outpost Mission object will open, and allow anyone to claim an item that must then be carried to the Outpost Hall structure. This person would be VERY noticeable, and should be the primary target if a battle is raging. If you activate invulnerability, you destroy the object and must reclaim one from the Outpost Mission object when invulnerability wears off; someone else could also claim one immediately. Once the countdown is complete, the Conquest Mission object will remain for another 20 minutes (?) before it despawns.

Bringing the item to the Outpost Hall will demonstrate that your guild dominated that military engagement, even if you were alone the entire time. Your Influence will increase, and everyone else's Influence will decrease. If you owned the outpost, then your Dominance would increase. If you did not own the outpost, the owner's Dominance would decrease.

If no one returns the mission item to the Outpost Hall, or if 40 minutes (?) pass by and no one activates the Outpost Mission object, the Outpost Mission object despawns. Then, in a random time interval, another one will respawn somewhere around the outpost. In this situation, nothing changes. This indicates an acceptance of the current situation.

If you do not own the outpost, but meet the conditions required to seize ownership, you will have the option to do this at the Outpost War Banner. Only Guild Leaders and High Officers may seize control of an outpost. Seizing control changes ownership to your guild with your Dominance beginning at 0%. Influence values for anyone else are not necessarily changed. The ability to seize ownership is then locked until the completion of the next regularly (randomly) scheduled Outpost Mission encounter, regardless of the outcome.

Seizing control also immediately spawns a Outpost Mission object and begins the 20 minute countdown to activation. This is a "free" encounter intended for the new owner to gain a bit of a safety net to avoid losing ownership immediately. If the owner wins this encounter, they gain Dominance and Influence, and everyone else's Influence is set to zero. If the owner does not win this encounter or does not attempt the encounter, then nothing changes.

Seizing control further destroys any existing drill at the outpost. The new owner may NOT immediately build a drill, but must wait until their Dominance passes 50%. Once the drill is placed, however, it will continue to operate until you lose ownership of the outpost. This will avoid griefing by preventing others from reducing your Dominance to cause the drill to stop working but yet never seize the outpost for themselves.

Note: An attacking guild could "farm" the defending guild for Influence, in order to boost their Dominance to a higher value following a win at the "free" encounter. However this is a risky operation and leaves the outpost conquerable for quite some time, so anyone else could sneak in and seize ownership if they were willing and able. If no one else was willing or able to seize ownership and maintain control afterward, then it doesn't matter whether the primary attacker farms or not. The end result will be the same.

The times for the Outpost Mission object to spawn are random so that you can't effectively "camp" them. Generally conduct business in the area, and you will encounter the Outpost Mission object spawns.

Yes, this does mean that guilds with a sufficiently global population are better suited for maintaining control over outposts.

It also gives outpost owners a slight advantage in maintaining control.

This should also significantly increase the difficulty for one guild to maintain control over a large number of outposts if someone else is interested in claiming them.

One drawback to this idea is that right now, there is little reason to spend any time whatsoever in the general vicinity of your guild's outpost, unless you are digging in the area and have access to withdraw from the GH storage. Before this could be an effective strategy, there would need to be a reason to be in the area.

Perhaps adding features to the outpost that reflect their names, as others have mentioned, might inspire people to spend time at the outposts.

Since it is "magically" possible to access your GH storage from your outpost, perhaps a new bonus could be added that you can access your apartment storage from your guild's outpost. Perhaps also it could be possible to build a stable at the outpost for your meks that also sells mek food.

Note: Because you would be able to see when you are in danger of losing the outpost, you would have sufficient time to move your meks out of the stables. However, if outpost changed ownership while your meks were in the stables, they would just appear outside of the stables when you next logged in, no longer protected from the elements or from mek-griefers.

IDEAS FOR RYZOM

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