How are Outposts working here?

[ashitaka]

Hello!

On Aniro we are observing a problem of lack of turnover on the outposts. Very few outposts have been taken since their release.
Basically, we have strong factions and for both Kamists and Karavaners it's easier to defend an Outpost on their territory that to get a new one. Some people are saying that is because of outposts' levels that even at a minimum still stay hard to beat. Others think it's simply because of massive alliance around factions, giving a FvF battle everytime.
As we are wondering what could be the solution to make outposts turn more, someone suggested to ask to other communities to see how it works with them.

(For a lot of players, even if PvP and outposts aren't the best thing to do in a MMORPG, the lack of other content push them to find that kind of occupations)

So what's the situation of Outposts here ?

[ajsuk]

I'd say we're experiencing exactly the same things as you are...

[ghyselsj]

I've been out of the picture a while, but the last OP battles I fought in a few months ago were like that mostly, FvF battles. This has somewhat changed though, but as said, I dont know enough to explain how it is on Arispotle.

However I do have a thought on how I'd like to see them. Rather than dropping the OP levels every few days, and then sitting at the minimum, there should be an attack by bandit tribes on it if it has been sitting at minimum level for, let's say, a week, without getting attacked. That way, even if you do manage to get an OP, and noone attacks it, you can still be attacked by bandits. This makes holding an OP slightly less easy, but it's still not perfect.

Most people see outposts not as the outpost itself, but as a crystal drill with some land around it. Outposts should be more heavily contested, and with more GvG than FvF going on; not just a way to get richer and level faster.

Don't get me wrong, I love the outpost goodies, I use crystals and OP tools, but I'd like to see more action around the outposts.

Greets,

[jawa00]

it's easier to get people together for defending an outpost than for attacking an outpost. helping another guild to defend their OP seems to be ok for everyone. but helping a guild to take an OP for this you need a lot of diplomatic or a strong alliance. so in most OP wars there are a lot more defenders than attackers. of course there are some exceptions and that are the real good battles then.

maybe it would be possible to keep OP wars GvG if both guilds negociates about that together first. but who is going to trust a guild that wants to take away "your" outpost?

[grimjim]

The same problem exists here but the sides are (or were) unbalanced towards the Karavan in the extreme, making their advance somewhat inexorable.

It's unclear how the recent shakeup may have affected things in that regard though there was a 'reversal' in an OP battle in Tryker. Even so, that took a Tryker/Kami/Neutral alliance and some disarray and non-participation in the Karavan ranks in order for a victory to be acheived.

My guild recently stepped out of the whole thing by selling our outpost as it was basically too much stress and worry and not what we wanted from the game.

I think for Outposts to really be successful there need to be some built in balancing mechanisms and some other, non-PvP ways to earn the Outpost rewards - albeit at a lesser rate.

Possibilities might include...

* Limiting OP battle participants or guilds (and filling the gaps with NPCs).
* Spires (MAY shift the PvP emphasis away from outposts, but I doubt it).
* Add crystals into missions as a low level reward OR make Kami/Karavan missions give honour points (as from the temple event) to be traded AT the temples as they were before.
* Have crystals as a recoverable R2 reward (already mentioned somewhere).

I still think it is a great pity that the emphasis of the outposts shifted from 'rebuilding the world from before the swarming' to 'squabbling over resources for the 'war'' but what's done is done I guess.

[varelse]

We did have one or two outpost battles (serious takeover attempts as opposed to false declarations or friendly handoffs) a week up until a couple weeks ago, but for the most part, outposts are just as stagnant here as they are on your server. There are some which have been in the hands of the orginal holder since release, without any challenge (serious declaration) being made.

I expect that the introduction of spires will tend to limit outpost battles even more. They'll limit the instances of faction vs faction outpost fights, since it would be very difficult to stage a successful attack on an outpost located in a region held by the opposing faction. The attacking group wouldn't be able to teleport or respawn anywhere near it after a wipeout. The probability of guilds of the same faction fighting each other would most likely not increase from what it is now, and in fact I'd expect it to drop. We'd be less likely to attack guilds in our own faction when we're all going to need to work together to keep our teleporters active in the roots and on our favorite hunting grounds, after all.

Spires will also limit the effectiveness of transfactional alliances, but might give a greater influence (in outpost control at least) to non factioned players.

[ashitaka]

I expect that the introduction of spires will tend to limit outpost battles even more.

On this point, I'd say you see a possibility: outposts stuck by spires, but if spires are easy to take/loose, they will change lots of things in OP wars. Spires sound like they are the keys to the OPs of their areas (if you keep it long enough to have it during the attack). If it is possible to take the spire on the ennemy territory, its OP will be easier to take.

But as we are fed up with waiting for spires when the next announced content is R². We try to find a simple solution. Consensual GvG requires trust between both guilds and generally speaking RP reasons. It happened a few times, but this is not the habit of all guilds. Also in the Matis alliance, the idea of using the competition aspect of outpost wars to play "Matis" has been abandonned because even if some guilds were rather pro, it was out of question for others to fight each other one day and all defend Verdant Heights together the other.
Also the new treaty doesn't help us at all, it's a bit like pointing those who PvP and say "booh you're stupid not-RP powergamers", tossing aggressive backgrounds of both Matis and Fyros to the garbage by the occasion. Every gouvernement say we're in peace, and for outposts well we don't care at all. Episode 2 has splitted the world in two and now it gives stuck outposts, yet the answer would be let's make peace treaties until spires comes in?
The direction of the Saga isn't clear. Maybe it's what could unblock the outposts, thank to rivalties between civilisations and not only factions. Alliance of interest between Zoraïs and Matis on a side and Fyros and Trykers on the other side would make things more interresting. But it can't come from players by themselves. I don't know alot of players ready to try dodgy alliances and risk to loose everything if not followed.

Erm back to the topic, what do you think of a system that would allow only up to three guilds at maximum to take part to the attack and three for the defence?

[grimjim]

Erm back to the topic, what do you think of a system that would allow only up to three guilds at maximum to take part to the attack and three for the defence?

No good due to variable guild size.
If you'd limit anything it would be number of battle participants and instead of the existing NPCs would get a few NPCs to fill the gap if you were short.

[kurita]

No good due to variable guild size.
If you'd limit anything it would be number of battle participants and instead of the existing NPCs would get a few NPCs to fill the gap if you were short.

some good Ideas were posted in the "Dear Players (OP related)" Thread

and back to topic,
well we have a slight overdose of Karavan, so they hold more OP´s atm,
but still OP battles aren´t a daily occurence... which is largly cause OP´s GvG turns into FvF
as ether defender or attacker(or both) are playing the "we are the same Side, please help us" tune sooner or later

[naib73]

We did have one or two outpost battles (serious takeover attempts as opposed to false declarations or friendly handoffs) a week up until a couple weeks ago, but for the most part, outposts are just as stagnant here as they are on your server. There are some which have been in the hands of the orginal holder since release, without any challenge (serious declaration) being made.

I am not long around in this game but these infos dont suprise me anymore....
Actually its sad... this game is awesome in mass pvp and still ppl seem to be very very carefull about OP battles.. cause of friendships.
In the game i played before this would have never worked.. the strongest guild would have challenged all weaker guilds... trying to gain more power from the outposts. Which is imo the way outposts should be used here... but this community seems way too nice to each other...which isnt a bad thing... but BORING.