Ideas for outposts types

[martinr]

Research Centres.

Guild Holds outpost, members can bring an npc x amount of animal mats and recieves a permanant bonus of an increase in chance of defeating that particular animal solo.

Then, brings a further greater amount of animal mats and recieves the next increase.

Idea: Guild members can take on 'missions' to retrieve mats, gaining a bonus in combat against the type of animal.

Workshops

Members bring x amount of crafted items, recieve new pattern, or bring x amount of harvested mats, and recieve back half the mats with a increase to its stats.


Farms

Guild Holds outpost, members can then get consumables free from it (remember the easter eggs?), non members can purchase them from the guild npcs.

Packers and mounts available free to guild members, with a stable within the outpost. Non guildies can buy from the farm and keep within the stable if friendly to guild.


Border Posts/Strongholds - Spawn points or teleport for guild members? (havent quite thought out these ones)

[aylwyne]

Eek! This turned into a really long post. But I'm pretty passionate about adding non-combat activities to the game and think outposts could be a good opportunity for this.


Diplomatic Outpost:
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To Occupy - Gain a certain number of fame points for each faction in a given amount of time (perhaps a week). If it's a Fyros diplomatic outpost in Zorai land, you'd have to gain enough Fyros and Zorai fame. This wouldn't be on a global scale as if you're already max fame, you can't gain any more. But it would count up the fame points from the missions you've done that week and show you your progress.

To Keep - Keep gaining enough fame points each week.

To Take Over - Gain X% more fame points than the guild occupying the outpost (perhaps 20%). This buffer gives the occupying guild a little advantage.

Benefits - An inherent fame boost with those races which should result in lower prices, higher vendor sale price, access to missions, etc.


Trade Post:
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To Occupy - Craft a certain number of items (range of types and qualities specified) in a set timeframe (you're trying to prove your guild can keep the trade post stocked with merchandise).

To Keep - Craft your quota of items each week.

To Take Over - Craft X% more items than the occupying guild in a given week.

Benefits - You get a merchant in your outpost where players can buy/sell goods. You get a % of all sales. Another benefit could be a unique pattern or patterns than your crafters can create.


Workshop:
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To Occupy - Provide a specified amount of harvested/quartered resources within the week to get the workshop up and running.

To Keep - Keep providing the quota of mats each week.

To Take Over - Provide X% more mats than the occupying guild in a given week.

Benefits - Special harvesting actions available to harvesters. Also, they could get a natural boost to their prospecting and extraction in the region of the outpost. Ability to find Supreme mats in non-PR regions Fighters could gain the ability to quarter choice mats from regular mobs.

Research Center:
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To Occupy - Gain sufficient knowledge of the region. Like you would have to gather one of each type of mob mat and harvested mat (both mission and crafting mats). Or maybe you have to do a mission for each NPC in the region.

To Keep - Keep providing a certain % of the knowledge each week. If the knowledge is measured in mats you gather, you'd have to provide a % of these mats each week.

To Take Over - Provide X% more knowledge than the occupying guild in a given week.

Benefits - Improved knowledge of the region. Excellent/Supreme nodes could be marked on your map. Mob and boss roaming areas could be shown on your map. All NPC locations could be shown on your map. Any variety of these would be a pretty interesting benefit. Perhaps you could actually choose.

Stronghold:
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To Occupy - Kill off the invading mobs/npcs.

To Keep - Fight off invading mobs/npcs as well as invading guilds.

To Take Over - Kill off the occupying guild's forces (players and hired guard units).

Benefits - Special combat actions (a new spell or fight action). A special spawn point that gives no dp.


I REALLY hope that they plan on adding some variety to how outposts are occupied and held as well as the benefits from having them. I certainly don't expect this to be the case on day 1 of outposts, but I hope they have some medium to long term plans on doing something like this.

[raynes]

And what happens when my guild and 100 npcs come marching up to your outpost to take it over?

[aylwyne]

And what happens when my guild and 100 npcs come marching up to your outpost to take it over?

If it was a combat oriented outpost with combat benefits, I'd fight you for it. If it was a crafting, harvesting, or diplomatic outpost with those type of benefits, I'd just ask you to move along 'cause you're clogging up the line for my vendor.

[raynes]

If it was a combat oriented outpost with combat benefits, I'd fight you for it. If it was a crafting, harvesting, or diplomatic outpost with those type of benefits, I'd just ask you to move along 'cause you're clogging up the line for my vendor.

And what if I went ahead and attacked it anyway? Better yet what if some npc tribe attacked you? Or are you suggesting that your guild be given special protection simply because you don't want to fight? If that is the case, that's really funny.

[aylwyne]

And what if I went ahead and attacked it anyway? Better yet what if some npc tribe attacked you? Or are you suggesting that your guild be given special protection simply because you don't want to fight? If that is the case, that's really funny.

I'm not proposing special protection. If you want to take over a crafting outpost, you're more than willing to try to perform better at crafting than the guild that occupys it.

If you ever go hunting, you know that more often than not, outposts are in relatively safe zones. Most of them are pretty clear of aggro mobs.

The non-combat oriented outposts would definitely need to be in those areas. The combat focused outposts would be in more hostile areas.

The general idea is no different than modern "rules of war" where certain types of targets are considered off-limits and when an army disregards those rules, the collective governing bodies of the world (UN, etc.) tend to get involved and take measures against the offending party.

It's not unreasonable that the governing bodies of our 4 races also have some kind of rules for "civilized" warfare (always thought that was a strange notion, but it exists nonetheless). There could easily be pacts against taking out non-military targets (diplomatic outpost, harvesting outpost, etc.) by force. Perhaps the game mechanics would still allow your army to take over a non-hostile outpost but there could be repercussions to doing this that are enforced by our noble homin leaders.

[raynes]

I'm not proposing special protection. If you want to take over a crafting outpost, you're more than willing to try to perform better at crafting than the guild that occupys it.

If you ever go hunting, you know that more often than not, outposts are in relatively safe zones. Most of them are pretty clear of aggro mobs.

The non-combat oriented outposts would definitely need to be in those areas. The combat focused outposts would be in more hostile areas.

The general idea is no different than modern "rules of war" where certain types of targets are considered off-limits and when an army disregards those rules, the collective governing bodies of the world (UN, etc.) tend to get involved and take measures against the offending party.

It's not unreasonable that the governing bodies of our 4 races also have some kind of rules for "civilized" warfare (always thought that was a strange notion, but it exists nonetheless). There could easily be pacts against taking out non-military targets (diplomatic outpost, harvesting outpost, etc.) by force. Perhaps the game mechanics would still allow your army to take over a non-hostile outpost but there could be repercussions to doing this that are enforced by our noble homin leaders.

You are right, there governing bodies that sort of watch over and set rules. But if a country wants to attack Spain, there is nothing to physically stop them. What you are suggesting is that Spain be given a special status that somehow makes all weapons useless within their borders.

Outposts will give the opportunity for the creation of governing bodies. They are called guild alliances. So just like in real life if someone where to attack Spain, there would be a really harsh and swift responce from their allies. In the game if someone where to attack a alliance outpost, they would have to deal with a swift and harsh responce.

[aylwyne]

You are right, there governing bodies that sort of watch over and set rules. But if a country wants to attack Spain, there is nothing to physically stop them. What you are suggesting is that Spain be given a special status that somehow makes all weapons useless within their borders.

Outposts will give the opportunity for the creation of governing bodies. They are called guild alliances. So just like in real life if someone where to attack Spain, there would be a really harsh and swift responce from their allies. In the game if someone where to attack a alliance outpost, they would have to deal with a swift and harsh responce.

I'm not saying Spain gets special immunity to weapons. What I did say was that there would be harsh penalties if someone did use weapons.

Yes, it's possible that guilds could do this themselves, however, that also relies on people wanting to spend their gametime policing others.

It's just like other problems that arise in these types of games (kill stealing, etc.). The developers could say, "well, we'll leave it up to the community". The problem is, in general it's not fun to spend your few hours of gametime worrying about policing others. It's better if the mechanics do that.

I'm proposing that, similar to the real world, if someone wants to break the accepted "rules" of combat, they can. However, I'm also proposing that the burden for policing the community be somewhat placed in the game mechanics, just like they try to do with things like kill stealing (50% damage, etc.). The game mechanics themselves help form part of the policing body and impose some penalty (fame drop or something) if someone takes over a non-hostile outpost by force.

[bobturke]

Some great ideas guys!

[thurgond]

I would really like to see different types of outposts including different non-military ways to take initial posession of an outpost, but I think the military option of taking over or destroying an outpost should be there. Once a guild takes over an outpost, the only way it should loose posession is when another guild wipes out the defenders, invading kitin wipe out defenders, or the guild can't pay or stops paying maintenance.

I'm taking as a given that each outpost will have one or more groups of npc defenders. The cost and type of defenders could vary by type of outpost:
Farms - cheap to recruit (plentiful farm boys) and maintain.
Border posts - faster reinforcements.
Strong holds - defensive advantage, probably cheaper bollards.
Diplomatic posts - expensive defenders but big fame penalties if attacked.
Research Centers - cheaper autolauncher defenders.
Workshops - better gear for defenders.
Trade Post - cheaper maintenance.
Magic Pole = cheaper magic user defenders.

The owning guild's fame with neighboring tribes or the civilization if near a city should also affect the cost of defenders. For example Kult of Kami would have a hard time finding defender recruits in Majestic Garden, could populate an outpost in Fleeting Garden relatively cheaply from the Zorai tribes there.