The idea is to use some of the most epic PvE areas for instanced oRvR fort/large scale scenarios called "Battle Zones", and is meant to tackle two issues; provide more variety as well as a way to break stalemates, and at the moment we only use roughly 30% of the available maps for PvP, leaving a lot of existing assets almost unused, repurposing these pre-existing areas should also make them a lot less effort.
Various events could trigger these BZs, such as zone locks, stalemates or random events (specific triggering rules towards the end of post).
They'd be joinable through using the Call To Arms (blue RoR button) or going to the area and would have reservations based on recent zone contributions, and would last 45 minutes with a 5 min prep time.
And give same reward as forts, but unique items in bags to encourage participation would be nice!
For each the below BZ, I'll provide objectives (how to win), settings (mechanics, details, etc), technical notes (additional dev work required beyond reserving and instancing the area, remove PQs, and mobs, adding BOs/Objectives/Lords, converting/creating WCs) and Battle Timelines (my guess on how different scenarios would play out during the BZ, helping calibrate some of the settings).
Battle Zones
Siege of Salzenmund, Nordland (168 vs 134)
Spoiler:
Objectives
Attacker: Escort lord from war camp to defender's war camp to kill lord.
Defender: kill enemy lord or defend for 45 minutes.
Lore: Salzenmund is the Empire Capital of Nordland; Order defending is the preferred state. When destro is defending this is justified by the T1 Epic quest coming to completion and taking over the city through corruption with Order attempting to cleanse it.
Settings
Attackers taking BOs increases attack against doors and enemy lord by 10% per BO.
Defenders holding BOs grant gates/barriers and lord 10% reduced damage taken per BO.
This means capturing a single BO effectively increases damage by 20%.
Attacker Lords is fort strength, preferred character is a Lord of Change.
Defender Lord is half fort health, preferred character is a warrior priest.
These lords do significant AoE damage around them.
Gates' health is equal to the other 50% of a fort lord's health, split across the 4 gates (G1=20%,G2=15%,G3=10%,G4=5%) and have a 100%+X% damage reduction, X is from defender held BOs, once the lord hit a gate it will apply a -100% debuff, allowing attackers to hit the gate with any attack.
Defender starts with 10 of 10 BOs, and can move freely within the area during the 5 mins prep time, attacks must remain in war camp.
The Lord will walk down the main road (following red dashes), going to Ebbe's Farm (4), then besieging outer gate (G1), walking to city center (6), and proceeding to G2 and G3, then take Noble Courts BO (10), destroy G4 and engaging the Lord in DEF WC.
If the BO is not already captured, the lord will stop to capture it, and all city BOs are guarded by 4xlv40 champions++, while held by defenders..
After G4 is destroyed, dead defenders will respawn in their 2nd respawn.
After attackers take Docks BO (7) they can teleport there from their Warcamp.
There's a defender travesable barrier through the Smuggler's Tunnel (5), the barrier can be destroyed by bringing 10 explosives spawning on countryside BOs (1-4) or by capping the ST BO (5).
Siege equipment:
Orcapults (2 spawned in WC and more can be summoned with item, as there's no postern door catapulting over wall is best means to help break funnel)
Single and multi target ranged siege (3 of each can be spawned at WC)
Technical Notes
- Bolster to 40 in the area is enabled for the duration of the siege
- Portal to Ostland is disabled for the duration
- Some (temporary) invisible impassable barriers will need to be placed along the mountain ridges and walls to prevent unintended access
- Gates to be converted either to function like normal keep doors or have attackable barriers added in front that once broken will force doors into open-locked position
Battle Timelines
Spoiler:
1: Attacker Domination (all objectives are quickly taken and rarely lost, weak defender funnels)
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
03:00 - AL arrives at pre-capped Ebbe's Farm (4)
03:40 - AL attacks outer gate (G1)
08:40 - G1 is destroyed
09:10 - AL arrives at pre-capped City Center (6)
10:00 - AL attackers Secondary Gate (G2)
12:30 - G2 is destroyed
13:00 - AL attacks G3
15:00 - G3 is destroyed
15:30 - AL arrives at Nobles' Courtyard (10)
16:30 - AL attacks G4
17:30 - G4 is destroyed
18:30 - Defenders are wiped and lord engaged.
22:00 - Defender Lord is killed
2: Defender Domination (few BOs lost, attacker lord is killed)
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
02:00 - Attackers are wiped and lord is exposed.
15:00 - Attacker Lord is killed, barely contested
3: Phyrric Victory (hard fought battles in all areas)
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
02:00 - Major engagements, lord stalled
05:00 - AL arrives at Defender-capped Ebbe's Farm (4)
07:00 - AL attacks outer gate (G1)
15:00 - G1 is destroyed
18:00 - AL arrives at Defender-capped City Center (6)
20:00 - AL attackers Secondary Gate (G2)
25:00 - G2 is destroyed
26:00 - AL attacks G3
30:00 - G3 is destroyed
31:30 - AL arrives at Nobles' Courtyard (10)
33:30 - AL attacks G4
35:30 - G4 is destroyed
38:00 - Defenders are wiped and lord engaged.
39:00 - Respawned Defenders starts recapping countryside BOs
42:00 - fights break out over city BOs
45:00 - With 10% HP left on lord, time expires and defender lord explodes all invaders
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
03:00 - AL arrives at pre-capped Ebbe's Farm (4)
03:40 - AL attacks outer gate (G1)
08:40 - G1 is destroyed
09:10 - AL arrives at pre-capped City Center (6)
10:00 - AL attackers Secondary Gate (G2)
12:30 - G2 is destroyed
13:00 - AL attacks G3
15:00 - G3 is destroyed
15:30 - AL arrives at Nobles' Courtyard (10)
16:30 - AL attacks G4
17:30 - G4 is destroyed
18:30 - Defenders are wiped and lord engaged.
22:00 - Defender Lord is killed
2: Defender Domination (few BOs lost, attacker lord is killed)
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
02:00 - Attackers are wiped and lord is exposed.
15:00 - Attacker Lord is killed, barely contested
3: Phyrric Victory (hard fought battles in all areas)
00:00 - Attacker Lord (AL) departs from War Camp (ATK WC)
02:00 - Major engagements, lord stalled
05:00 - AL arrives at Defender-capped Ebbe's Farm (4)
07:00 - AL attacks outer gate (G1)
15:00 - G1 is destroyed
18:00 - AL arrives at Defender-capped City Center (6)
20:00 - AL attackers Secondary Gate (G2)
25:00 - G2 is destroyed
26:00 - AL attacks G3
30:00 - G3 is destroyed
31:30 - AL arrives at Nobles' Courtyard (10)
33:30 - AL attacks G4
35:30 - G4 is destroyed
38:00 - Defenders are wiped and lord engaged.
39:00 - Respawned Defenders starts recapping countryside BOs
42:00 - fights break out over city BOs
45:00 - With 10% HP left on lord, time expires and defender lord explodes all invaders
Spoiler:
Objectives
Kill Enemy Lord or have more health on lord at the end of 45 minutes
Subobjectives: Kill Mages
Lore: the Witch King and his most elite sorceresses battles for domination of the Great Vortex against Teclis and his archmages.
Settings
There's no pop cap, but admission will be balanced 1:1 after 100 on each side.
LoTD blob debuff is disabled, but normal lord damage reduction scale by number of nearby enemies is enabled (this means a small group does more damage).
Destro lord is Morathi, Order lord is Teclis and both are fort strength.
The 6 Archmages and 6 Sorceresses has the health pools of 1/6 of a fort lord (16.67%).
Lords and mages have no natural out of combat regen but Lords can be healed by abilities.
The center of the map (the Vortex), is a AoE damage zone and all players in it will take 4000-6000 spiritual damage every 3 seconds.
This AoE is a 100% strength in the center (white glimpse), then drops off linearly to 0% towards the edge (of purple blur), and is tied to the health of total health pool of all enemy mages and the lord.
This allows players to move to the other side without using Orcapults, but will take damage and be dismounted.
The Lords will take 3% of their total health per minute, tied to the health of all enemy mages/lord.
Technical Notes
- Remove all invisible barriers blocking the center area
- Add invisible barriers to cover cracks in the center area
- Portal to Isle of the Dead is only enabled if you either have a reservation or there's room for more.
- Add Thunder effects from IC to the crater area
Battle Timelines
Spoiler:
1: One side domination
02:00 - most forces crossed over to enemy side
05:00 - Enemies wiped and nearby 3 mage engaged
10:00 - 3 Mages killed
15:00 - Enemies wiped again and 3 remaining mages engaged
16:00 - Half the forces engage the lord with 65% health remaining
20:00 - Last 3 mages killed
21:00 - All forces engage Lord with 30% health remaining
25:00 - Lord killed
2: Contested (Order blob vs destro split)
02:00 - destro forces split out across the map, while 3-4 order WBs in a blob cross middle together.
05:00 - 25:00 - Back and forth skirmishes, as destro small pulls ahead on mage damage forcing some order WBs back.
26:00 - Having done ~80% damage to the mages vs 50% for order, some destro warbands begin attacking Teclis Being ahead 3 Mages killed
27:00 - Order blob moves to defend Teclis but while taking extra damage are at a disadvantage
30:00 - Destro small man kill remaining mages and join battle for middle
33:00 - While Order managed to fight off some destro and heal their lord a little, they are eventually wiped in middle with about 40% health on lord and all of destro now attacking Teclis
38:00 - Teclis defeated and destruction claims victory!
02:00 - most forces crossed over to enemy side
05:00 - Enemies wiped and nearby 3 mage engaged
10:00 - 3 Mages killed
15:00 - Enemies wiped again and 3 remaining mages engaged
16:00 - Half the forces engage the lord with 65% health remaining
20:00 - Last 3 mages killed
21:00 - All forces engage Lord with 30% health remaining
25:00 - Lord killed
2: Contested (Order blob vs destro split)
02:00 - destro forces split out across the map, while 3-4 order WBs in a blob cross middle together.
05:00 - 25:00 - Back and forth skirmishes, as destro small pulls ahead on mage damage forcing some order WBs back.
26:00 - Having done ~80% damage to the mages vs 50% for order, some destro warbands begin attacking Teclis Being ahead 3 Mages killed
27:00 - Order blob moves to defend Teclis but while taking extra damage are at a disadvantage
30:00 - Destro small man kill remaining mages and join battle for middle
33:00 - While Order managed to fight off some destro and heal their lord a little, they are eventually wiped in middle with about 40% health on lord and all of destro now attacking Teclis
38:00 - Teclis defeated and destruction claims victory!
Spoiler:
Objectives:
ATK Stage 1: Supply ballistas to break magical barrier
ATK Stage 2: Kill 500 defenders
ATK Stage 3: Defeat Lord
Defender: Defend city and lord
Lore:
Order Defenders (preferred state): The Dark Elves siege Tor Elyr with the intend of completely looting and enslaving the city.
Destro Defenders: The High Elves siege Tor Elyr in hopes of cleansing and freeing their lost city.
Settings:
This BZ should play and feel almost like a massive CH22 168 man PQ with players defending and trying to prevent you from completing (P+E vs P).
Defenders won't have benefits from funnels to offset their lower numbers, instead they will have better mobility and a very strong lord and other mobs.
This is designed to give defenders a good chance regardless of AAO and still be somewhat fun for attackers.
The NPCs
The Lord's health is same as a fort lord, but damage and abilities are significantly improved:
AA speed 1:0, base damage ~5k.
Abilities:
Flurry of Strikes (10 sec cd): 3 second uninterruptible channel hitting every 0.5 sec, adds 1k to base damage.
Deadly Strike (1min cd): a single undefendable blow dealing 15k true damage.
Spin to Kill (30 sec cd): 5 sec channel, does 50% of base damage every 1 second to all within 60 feet.
Whirling Geyser (60 sec cd): 3600 damage version of SM's M4.
Broad sweeps (passive/tactic): all normal attacks and Flurry of Strikes does 50% damage to everyone in 180 degrees in front of lord.
Masterful Offense (passive/tactic): 30% reduced chanced to get defended against.
Legendary Resolve (aura): player allies within 150 feet, gain 1% reduced damage taken, 1% increased damaged done per 1% AAO (up to 80%) and 2 morale per second per 10% AAO. This aura applies to all friendly NPCs.
Order Lord should be Tyrion
Destro Lord should be Malus Darkblade (sorry maybe someone else is better)
- All NPCs in the area will receive bolster to the strength of CH22 Hardest PQ mobs, additionally military units will be converted to champions
- Hero NPCs (CH22 strength) to be placed on Gate of Elyr, Whitefire Tor and Fortress of Korhandir BOs. Once killed the heroes will not respawn.
- And NPC density/numbers to be greatly increased. Regiments of 20-30 soldiers guarding each bridge, and 30-50 guarding city centre.
- All NPC benefits from Legendary Resolve
The BOs
Defender WC will have a teleportation mirror that can be used without tokens to go to any BO held by defenders.
Elyr Riders' Camp (ERC), Elyr Gate (EG) and Fortress of Korhandir (FK), starts off in hands of defenders, and EG and FK are protected by a barrier as well as fairly high amount of champions and a hero of CH22 +24 strength. The barrier is only attackable while all 3 neutral BOs belong to attackers.
Sacrificial Site (SS) is undefended and the Tor Elyr Outpost (TEO) is lightly guarded requiring a 6 man to capture.
Defenders can neutralize but not capture BOs.
The Ballistas (Stage 1)
Once any BO is captured ballista supply boxes will appear, take these to a flag near ballistas to supply THOSE 4 ballistas.
Ballistas are spawned after the first supply box is dropped at their flag.
Each ballista spot hosts 4 ballistas, each guarded by 4 champions, but are otherwise vulnerable to defenders, and have a 2 minutes respawn timer if destroyed.
When manned the ballista has a single player version of the ram mini game (1 shot every 5sec), when unmanned they will fire once every 20 seconds at 50% power.
If left completely unmanned, but fully supplied, it will take 20 minutes to break the barrier, using 720 shots from 50 supply boxes (36 shots per minute, using 3 boxes per minute).
If fully manned and supplied, it will take 2:45 minutes to break barrier, using 396 shots from 23 boxes (144 shots per minute, using 12 boxes per minute)
Shots per box: 12
Boxes per BO per minute: 2
Starting shots per ballista: 10 (120 total)
Outer City Barrier (Stage 1, 5-20 minutes)
After not being attacked for 30 seconds, the barrier will start to regain health as a fort door would with all 5 BOs just captured and held by defenders, once back to 100% health, the BZ timer will run down faster, same as fort.
This effect will only begin after 10 minutes.
The Slaughter (Stage 2 - 5-10 minutes)
Kill 500 defenders and citizens (any NPC within Tor Elyr, NPC defending BOs do not count, or any player within the BZ)
The Final Stand (Stage 3, 10-20 minutes)
After stage 2, the inner barrier is lowered and the Lord is exposed (Yes, obviously if it was Tyrion, he'd be on the front line killing Druchiis, so let's say he is gravely wounded already.. ).
Respawn is now moved to either ERC, FK or EG if defender held (in that order) or jail if not.
Battle Time Lines
Spoiler:
1: Attacker Domination
02:00 - TEO and SS captured
03:00 - all balistas spawned and manned, hero attacked at ERC.
06:00 - ERC hero killed and BO captured.
07:00 - defenders at FK and EG engaged
08:00 - FK and EG defenders wiped. all required bolt supply boxes delivered.
09:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier down and stage 2 begins.
13:00 - FK and EG captured. 300 killed.
15:00 - 500 killed, stage 3 begins, lord and defenders engaged
17:00 - defenders wiped and sent to jail, all focus on lord
28:00 - lord killed, attacker victory
2: Defender Domination
02:00 - engagements over TEO and SS leads to losses on both sides, with def flanking stragglers at TEO and picking of box runners.
03:00 - attacker blob engage ERC hero, but are intercepted from def WBs from Tor Elyr and flanked by more WBs from EG mountain road.
06:00 - ERC hero survives and attacker wipes, meanwhile 2 spots of balistas where set up.
07:00 - ERC defenders pushes to SS and TEO.
08:00 - Some respawned defenders ride out to destroy the siege equipment. Barrier left at 80%.
10:00 - clashes between TEO and EG as defenders prevent slipthroughs
14:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier fully recovered, faster count down begins. Battle goes on but victory is already decided
25:00 - Count down finished, defender victory
3: Phyrric Victory (hard fought battles in all areas)
02:00 - TEO and SS captured
03:00 - all balistas spawned and manned, defenders attacked at ERC.
08:00 - ERC hero killed and BO captured. Attacker blob spreads out a bit to cover balistas and ERC, SS and TEO
10:00 - back and forths with some lost BOs and destroyed siege.
14:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier down and stage 2 begins.
15:00 - Battle rages in Tor Elyr
25:00 - 500 killed, stage 3 begins, lord and defenders engaged
30:00 - defenders wiped and sent to FK, all attackers focus on lord
35:00 - lord at 60% health, defender return to harass
40:00 - lord at 25%, defenders over extended and get wiped again.
42:30 - Lord killed, attacker victory.
02:00 - TEO and SS captured
03:00 - all balistas spawned and manned, hero attacked at ERC.
06:00 - ERC hero killed and BO captured.
07:00 - defenders at FK and EG engaged
08:00 - FK and EG defenders wiped. all required bolt supply boxes delivered.
09:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier down and stage 2 begins.
13:00 - FK and EG captured. 300 killed.
15:00 - 500 killed, stage 3 begins, lord and defenders engaged
17:00 - defenders wiped and sent to jail, all focus on lord
28:00 - lord killed, attacker victory
2: Defender Domination
02:00 - engagements over TEO and SS leads to losses on both sides, with def flanking stragglers at TEO and picking of box runners.
03:00 - attacker blob engage ERC hero, but are intercepted from def WBs from Tor Elyr and flanked by more WBs from EG mountain road.
06:00 - ERC hero survives and attacker wipes, meanwhile 2 spots of balistas where set up.
07:00 - ERC defenders pushes to SS and TEO.
08:00 - Some respawned defenders ride out to destroy the siege equipment. Barrier left at 80%.
10:00 - clashes between TEO and EG as defenders prevent slipthroughs
14:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier fully recovered, faster count down begins. Battle goes on but victory is already decided
25:00 - Count down finished, defender victory
3: Phyrric Victory (hard fought battles in all areas)
02:00 - TEO and SS captured
03:00 - all balistas spawned and manned, defenders attacked at ERC.
08:00 - ERC hero killed and BO captured. Attacker blob spreads out a bit to cover balistas and ERC, SS and TEO
10:00 - back and forths with some lost BOs and destroyed siege.
14:00 - Tor Elyr outer barrier down and stage 2 begins.
15:00 - Battle rages in Tor Elyr
25:00 - 500 killed, stage 3 begins, lord and defenders engaged
30:00 - defenders wiped and sent to FK, all attackers focus on lord
35:00 - lord at 60% health, defender return to harass
40:00 - lord at 25%, defenders over extended and get wiped again.
42:30 - Lord killed, attacker victory.
Battle for the Port of Barak Varr, Barak Varr - In Progress
Trigger Rules
1. If 1.1-1.3 are true, start a 0-1 hours random length timer to start a Battle Zone.
The % chance of a certain BZ being triggered is calculated as follows:
Spoiler:
Option 1)
1 - ((1/Total Zone Distances)*(Total Zone Distances - (8 - Distance to specific Zone)))
Where a zone distance means number of zones (t1-t3 pairs count as 1) away from most active zone, then the distance is subtracted from 8.
This value grows by 1 for each 24 hours since the last time the specific BZ was triggered.
Additionally 1 to 3 added for most population appropriate BZ.
The 8 is determined from longest zone distance being 5, counting active zone as 1, and adding 3 for going to a different pairing (Elf to Chaos), this gives a range of 1 (furthest) to 8 (same/closest).
The Total Zone Distance is the combination of distances to all Battle Zones.
For example with active zone: Dragon Wake
Zone | Inversed Zones away | Chance to Trigger
Nordland | 1 | 7.69%
Barak Varr | 2 | 15.38%
Isle of the Dead | 7 | 53.85%
High Pass | 3 | 23.08%
Total: | 13 | 100.00%
Option 2) Equal chance between all existing BZs (e.g. if there's 4 each has a 25% chance)
Option 3) Equal chance but weighted for most appropriate considering current total population and realm balance, and some for when the BZ was last played.
1.2 Not while Fort or Battle Zone is in progress, or 1 hour after
1.3 No Zone movement or keep sieges for over 1 hour
2. If 1.1-1.2 and 2.1 are true, a 10% chance to trigger relevant BZ, this % grows by 0.5% point per hour since last BZ.
2.1 Battle lines moved to zone of Battle Zone or adjacent if no T2-4 battle line goes through (Opening Ostland could trigger Nordland; Dragonwake could trigger Isle of the Dead)
Anyway, that's it for now, will update later with the other BZ, let me know what you think and if there's some other awesome unused area you'd like to include