Warhammer Online Keeps – Not a bad system
Posted On Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 By Jay
Update: Fancy that! My main issue is that the keep system being implemented has no design hook into other sections of the game.
Having reflected on Warhammer Online state of open world pvp, it dawned on me that very little in that game has to do with holding a keep. In fact, the few rewards that exist that involve keeps have to do with attacking and taking over a keep not holding out against a siege. so I put my thinking cap on and designed a content centric system that borrows ideas from other mmos and leverages existing tech.
Goal:
- Players want to own keep
- More players want to adventure/pvp in RvR lakes than in other systems
- Creates a critical mass of defending players
- Players want to prevent the opposing faction from owning keeps
- Constant tension and pressure for keep defenders
- Create denser content for player consumption
- Players want to own keep as they level
Problems this system is not meant to resolve:
- Class balance issues
- Trade Skill mechanism and value
- Partial integration
- Population balance within a server
- We can encourage players and they must manage this themselves
Opposing factions will fight over ownership of a keep. Once a keep is owned, an ownership timer begins. Initially only the renown vendors and general item merchants spawn in the keep for use by the winning side(current implementation). After 1 day, and for each day afterward up to 6, a new item is available from the renown merchant that is specific to that Keep. Keep items are unique to each keep. After 7 days a pve instance(called a Keep Instance) opens for the owning side. This instance will drop the highest level pvp items available to the tier(1-11, 12-21, etc). Difficulty will be balanced towards mid tier renown items(8, 15, etc) and mid tier PQs items to complete. Tier 4 Keep Instances drop items that aide in City sieges and end game pvp. Items that drop from Tier 4 Keep instances are not set items and are on par with City Dungeon Itemization.
The keep owners side is granted a zone wide defense buff. The buff is minor and equal in value to the diametrically opposed offensive buff the opposing faction is granted. Testing will prove whether the buff should affect RvR and/or PvE.
The Keep owner also has access to special aesthetic trade skill recipes that are only available when a keep is owned. These recipes should represent the chaotic and fun aspects of the Warhammer Universe(think holiday weekend items from World of Warcraft).
The keep system already allows for ownership and specific guilds to own them. Prototypes and early roll out are based on new content.
Prototype:
- Instance portal spawns at top of keep based on timer
- Vendors spawn based on timer
- Keep ownership grants zone wide buff
Alpha:
- New Spawner: Spawn List of attacker and defender types based on keep state
- Spawner spawns appropriate entities based on keep ownership and is controlled from the PQ system
- PQs complete and reset
Beta:
- Guard spawners are triggered from RvR lake ownership
- Vendor entities populate based on keep ownership time
- Keep resets to a neutral state if no pq is completed after 7 days
Head in the clouds:
- Keep ownership grants an xp bonus to the owning side after 1 day
- Keep ownership leader boards for guild competition across servers
- Unique trade skill recipes drop from an RvR lake only if the keep is owned
Final and Approved:
- 36 instances, 2 per lake per tier
- 144 PQs themed around defending or attacking a keep
- 32 items per lake, 16 per side
- 108 Trophies
The specifics are in the desired player behavior. Encouraging player RvR is centric to the “War is everywhere theme”. Warhammer Online had a similar level of content across each tier but divided the player base. Encouraging players to play in similar areas creates the critical mass necessary to initiate conflict. The time limits allow for more casual players to always take part in the RvR. They may not be able to participate in the actual attack/defende and holding of a keep, but they can complete PQs in the lakes and benefit from the additional PvE and PvP content provided.
Hardcore players will have more to brag about. And the opposing faction certainly wouldn’t want you to own a keep for any length of time. There is however one issue this design fails to resolve. Keeps can be attacked at any time of day. Many guilds will attempt to log in the off hours for a straight up PvE challenge avoiding PvP altogether.
I tossled with the idea of requiring the attacker PQs to defeat defender players but I ran into a chicken and the egg situation. In order to create the desired population, the defending PQs would need to be the most rewarding PvE content available, and therefore more precious to the player base. There is a fine line between creating compelling content and over compensation for the issue. This solution can go a long way to solving some of the population issues with War PvP. Testing and future patches will determine what Mythic actually does!
