Can we talk about the zonelock system
Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 3:29 pm
Many different systems have been tried both on Live, and on here. And the current version is not broken, unplayable or time-consuming. It's just abit.. Boring?
On Live the first version of the system involved many different aspects of the game in order to lock a zone,
- Pve victory points (PQ)
- Tier2 & tier3 victory points
- oRvR kill victorypoints
It had a bit of everything, and while it took a Realmwide effort to actually lock a zone with this system it also had a very different and more satisfying feel to it. You knew your kills mattered, your Scenario win could secure the lock, your lowlevel alt could help while doing lower tier, or PQs. Everything came together to the realm's effort.
They eventually moved on from this system and came up with other ideas, same goes for on here. RoR zonelock system is working, we don't see stallmade zones for days, and theres not really a need for the random draw-timer any more. Zones flip based of population and action, the campain resets and bags get mailed.
So why do I want to bring up this subject? Well for starters I think the system is abit too Flag-based. There are sooo many cool mechanics in our current version of the zonelock system, but they are all hidden behind "sit on the Flags" gameplay:
- Siegerams will have more hp based of the Stars on your keep
- Keeplord will be stronger vs attackers based of Stars
- Posterndoors can't be used based of Star difference between the two realms.
- Siegeweapons deal more damage based on Stars - Ram/oil gain 15%more damage for each BO
(I tried looking up these mechanics but didn't find anything about them in the orvr guide sticky post on here so this is just rumor based or from firsthand experience)
The mechanics are cool, make for interresting gameplay apart from the one area where I think the system is flawd "building the stars" based of standing in range of the BO flags and do... Nothing.. It stars already in T1 where new players are introduced to the system, they get rp/xp/inf ticks for doing nothing and they are "raised" to play like that. Furthermore after all the AFKers leave their BOs when it's Siegetime. You will have 4 tanks doing the ramming, a few canoneers fighting enemy siegeweapons. And then again, a none interacting system where you can sit basicly on your mount and do nothing. Because you can't damage the doors and try to outdps the repairing forces on the inside, the oil can't be healed by a 4man crew trying to fight off the ranged dps presure, and so on. So the attacking force will have 4 rammers, 3 canoneers and then the rest of the attackers will be standing there waiting for something to do.
That is a whole lot of afking or inactivity, in order for the fights to actually start. Sure you might get ganked while standing on the BO flags, but there is no punishment towards the campaign for dieing (resourcedrops help this alittle but without being really important) it will just stall before someone else takes your spot, or you run back to the very same flag and continue soaking up progression (rp/inf/xp) for doing nothing.
When the doors are down, that is usually when the most action happends. Both realms rally everything they got in the zone and smash their heads together in a funnel, flankattack, or counterpush. Great! Depending on who won the massive battle downstairs and upstairs, it is now keeplord time. The keeplord encounter has been changed alot, and right now I dont see too much of a problem with him. It's not resetting too much, oneshotting people outside of the lordroom, or 1min CC to someone pushing pass lordroom randomly. However the system has no room for a "stronger" outnumbered(AAO) force to ever taking on the lord while being outnumbered, when was the last time we saw an AAO keeptake (apart from the one we did in Trollcontry a month back, it just doesnt happend)
As I started out by saying, I don't think the system is broken right now. But I wish it had way less inactivity based around the cool mechanics, had more value in winning fights in the open (rvr kills matter towards the lock) and that the 6mans could have an impact like a key Scenario win back in the day would delay or ruin a lock.
I would like to end with a big thank you to the Devs for their work on the server, time and effort, and to hear what others have to say on this topic
And ofc, while reading this I stood afk leeching ticks on a BO like a boss #PartOfTheProblem
TLDR: The game has too much inactivity based around the core mechanics of locking zones, and zonekills dont matter enough, what do you think?
On Live the first version of the system involved many different aspects of the game in order to lock a zone,
- Pve victory points (PQ)
- Tier2 & tier3 victory points
- oRvR kill victorypoints
It had a bit of everything, and while it took a Realmwide effort to actually lock a zone with this system it also had a very different and more satisfying feel to it. You knew your kills mattered, your Scenario win could secure the lock, your lowlevel alt could help while doing lower tier, or PQs. Everything came together to the realm's effort.
They eventually moved on from this system and came up with other ideas, same goes for on here. RoR zonelock system is working, we don't see stallmade zones for days, and theres not really a need for the random draw-timer any more. Zones flip based of population and action, the campain resets and bags get mailed.
So why do I want to bring up this subject? Well for starters I think the system is abit too Flag-based. There are sooo many cool mechanics in our current version of the zonelock system, but they are all hidden behind "sit on the Flags" gameplay:
- Siegerams will have more hp based of the Stars on your keep
- Keeplord will be stronger vs attackers based of Stars
- Posterndoors can't be used based of Star difference between the two realms.
- Siegeweapons deal more damage based on Stars - Ram/oil gain 15%more damage for each BO
(I tried looking up these mechanics but didn't find anything about them in the orvr guide sticky post on here so this is just rumor based or from firsthand experience)
The mechanics are cool, make for interresting gameplay apart from the one area where I think the system is flawd "building the stars" based of standing in range of the BO flags and do... Nothing.. It stars already in T1 where new players are introduced to the system, they get rp/xp/inf ticks for doing nothing and they are "raised" to play like that. Furthermore after all the AFKers leave their BOs when it's Siegetime. You will have 4 tanks doing the ramming, a few canoneers fighting enemy siegeweapons. And then again, a none interacting system where you can sit basicly on your mount and do nothing. Because you can't damage the doors and try to outdps the repairing forces on the inside, the oil can't be healed by a 4man crew trying to fight off the ranged dps presure, and so on. So the attacking force will have 4 rammers, 3 canoneers and then the rest of the attackers will be standing there waiting for something to do.
That is a whole lot of afking or inactivity, in order for the fights to actually start. Sure you might get ganked while standing on the BO flags, but there is no punishment towards the campaign for dieing (resourcedrops help this alittle but without being really important) it will just stall before someone else takes your spot, or you run back to the very same flag and continue soaking up progression (rp/inf/xp) for doing nothing.
When the doors are down, that is usually when the most action happends. Both realms rally everything they got in the zone and smash their heads together in a funnel, flankattack, or counterpush. Great! Depending on who won the massive battle downstairs and upstairs, it is now keeplord time. The keeplord encounter has been changed alot, and right now I dont see too much of a problem with him. It's not resetting too much, oneshotting people outside of the lordroom, or 1min CC to someone pushing pass lordroom randomly. However the system has no room for a "stronger" outnumbered(AAO) force to ever taking on the lord while being outnumbered, when was the last time we saw an AAO keeptake (apart from the one we did in Trollcontry a month back, it just doesnt happend)
As I started out by saying, I don't think the system is broken right now. But I wish it had way less inactivity based around the cool mechanics, had more value in winning fights in the open (rvr kills matter towards the lock) and that the 6mans could have an impact like a key Scenario win back in the day would delay or ruin a lock.
I would like to end with a big thank you to the Devs for their work on the server, time and effort, and to hear what others have to say on this topic
And ofc, while reading this I stood afk leeching ticks on a BO like a boss #PartOfTheProblem
TLDR: The game has too much inactivity based around the core mechanics of locking zones, and zonekills dont matter enough, what do you think?