Outpost suggestion

[aardnebb]

In Guild chat recently myself and a few others were discussing the current Outpost situation.

In my experience OP battles do tend to be a little one-sided. One faction tends to outnumber the other, resulting in most battles being decided simply by the number of players showing up on each side, the overall outcome is often obvious in the first 5 minutes of the battle unless a large group turns up late.

Sadly this is going to eventually result in all OPs being owned by one faction in the end, as the guilds owning OPs tend to get more recruits, so they get bigger, they win more battles with their allies, so they have more friends with OPs... See where this is going?

Jyudas came up with a particular suggestion we really liked.

How about if each OP battle was limited to a certain number of players per side? Suddenly there is a whole world of tactics, as you need to pick your teams to make the best use of your slots.

It balances numerical difference, increases the value of good tactics over brute force and hopefully will prove interesting to all.

Thoughts?

[uhuhu]

bah... hahahaha

[iphdrunk]

How about if each OP battle was limited to a certain number of players per side? Suddenly there is a whole world of tactics

It was suggested in french forums as well (30 vs 30 was suggested), it can be a good idea but some thoughts:

* How to fix an arbitrary number of players?

* The OP squads would need to be rebalanced

* only 250 AoDs/melees/healers will take part. Wait till the tells of "what level are you ? -115 fight -uhm, ok, I'll pm you if we can't find noone else". This approach removes low level players from OP fights, considerably

* don't tell a member of the guild owning an attacked OP that he can't go defend it because "it's full", or because the guild is larger than the allowed number of players

It could work, I think it goes more into the idea of a GvG setting (with alliances) rahter than the current FvF one, but a lot of open questions remain

[petej]

Make them Guild only and only players who've been in the Guild "X" amount of days (two weeks?) can participate. Also limit Guilds to owning only 1 Outpost (to be increased if/when we get some more)

They are supposed to be GvG after all

[vguerin]

This would penalize united forces and allow smaller folks to assume more power than they possess. A lack of unity or conviction is not a reason to seperate those more organised.

Outposts and spires are faction oriented and regardless of how/if they dumb it down there will be a way to keep things oriented that way. There should be nothing stopping allies from assisting you (and vice versa) in order to sate the disenfranchised.

[kostika]

Outposts and spires are faction oriented

No Outposts are supposed to be GvG, not FvF. It's the players who have made them FvF.

[aardnebb]

It was suggested in french forums as well (30 vs 30 was suggested), it can be a good idea but some thoughts:

* How to fix an arbitrary number of players?

Exact numbers just depend on the approach you prefer... personally I would favour a number of full teams, eg 4 teams = 36.

* The OP squads would need to be rebalanced

Agreed. Or possibly have a smaller number of people on the side that gets the NPCs.

* only 250 AoDs/melees/healers will take part. Wait till the tells of "what level are you ? -115 fight -uhm, ok, I'll pm you if we can't find noone else". This approach removes low level players from OP fights, considerably

True, but I consider that problem not as unfortunate as the current situation. Lower characters can still watch etc.

Though it would be difficult to code, what I would like to see in an ideal world is perhaps limit the max skill level used to the level of the zone (or level of Outpost) you are in. Skills equal to or below 51 in Blue zones, below 100 in Yellow etc...

* don't tell a member of the guild owning an attacked OP that he can't go defend it because "it's full", or because the guild is larger than the allowed number of players

Again, a shame, but better than the current situation IMHO.

It could work, I think it goes more into the idea of a GvG setting (with alliances) rahter than the current FvF one, but a lot of open questions remain

Yes they do, but I dont think there is a "perfect" solution. I just think this one is better than what we have at the moment. And originally OPs were supposed to be GvG from what I have read. But they turned into FvF with Neutrals having to make as many alliances as possible or be steamrollered by a faction.

[ajsuk]

While I can see and appreciate the aim of this attempt, it's just... silly...

[vguerin]

No Outposts are supposed to be GvG, not FvF. It's the players who have made them FvF.

Color things the way you choose, we know about your rose colored classes...

[kostika]

Color things the way you choose, we know about your rose colored classes...

I don't have rose coloured glasses. I jsut know what they said when they released outposts.