Shattered Kingdoms

The following is a run down of what I see as effective solutions to the current issues with CRS. The objective of these changes is to bring more parity between the challenge levels of defended and undefended raids, as well as to alter the structure of defended raids to be more engaging and enjoyable for both parties.

1) Remove murder holes from above and to the sides of the outer guardian. Leave the one facing out down the path. Remove Siegecraft from cabal skill list.

Reasoning: As it stands right now the main reason people don't attempt defended runs is that it's far, far too easy for a single ranged-capable defender to repel a full group of PCs. While the attackers are stuck on the guardian and guards, the defender can rain fireballs/bolts/arrows/wand zaps/cabal skills down on the attackers. The outer is buff enough, and the initial guard group lasts long enough for an effective defense to be mounted inside the keep, which will be made more feasible by later suggestions as well.

Siegecraft is essentially pointless in cabal defense, as siege weapons aren't effective deterrents nor do they provide enough DPS to be effective weapons. The bolts are unwieldy, and depending on race/class can't properly be carried anyways. Siegecraft will be replaced with a more pertinent cabal skill.

Result: Early warning system for cabal members remains intact, the path-facing murder hole remaining in place ensures that attackers can't just regroup a room away from the fight and re-engage, and solo defenders won't wipe full groups with ease.

2) Insert a maze-like pathway to the inner guardian. Add several "choke points" in this path with cooldown timers before you can move on to the next section. Guard groups spawn at entry of these choke rooms, and lacking PCs to reduce the cooldown timer with the lockpicking skill, at the end of the timer. PCs with lockpicking learned, and grouped with attacking forces, reduce timers by X amount for each one present. Defenders can use these to mount skirmishes and defensive engagements, as well as set up Stations (detailed later.) Random encounters have a chance to be generated on-move inside the non-choke rooms. The REs should probably be themed for the cabal in question, but should be miniboss-style engagements. REs spawn only on forward movement; retreating attackers have a clear path out as they've already "cleared the way."

Reasoning: It doesn't make sense that cabals' relics of power are a few short steps away from the entrance to their keep, and it also removes most of the PvE-style challenge of relic raiding. The main reason it's much preferred by most players to offline raid is because the PvE challenge of it is laughably low. Adding a longer pathway, with its own (variable based on the number of defending PCs) PvE challenges will bring more parity between defended and undefended runs, making the existing incentives for raiding when both groups are online more attractive than the easy-mode PvE raid.

Result: The PvE challenge of raiding when opponents are offline rises, making the idea of it less desirable overall when compared to incentives provided for defended raids. Those players who still would opt for the PvE challenge over the PvP challenge for reasons other than ease of entry still must contend with an end-game style difficulty, and an entertaining engagement. Tactical and strategic considerations for group composition become more important, and 3-man relic ganking ceases to be a thing.

3) Replace Siegecraft with a new skill: Station. Station is used to place a single, stationary guard group at a specified position in the maze. Two minute cooldown on use, spawning the guard group costs the cabal coffers the same as if they'd been spawned at the inner, and no more than one can be called to any one room in the HQ at a time. I'm up in the air as to whether this command should be allowed at the choke points, as those already spawn guard groups, but it probably wouldn't imbalance the PvP raids to allow that.

Dovetailing neatly into a solution for more public zone time for characters, instead of costing cabal coffers X amount when spawning guards, cabal'd characters could accumulate "Station points" by spending Y amount of hours in inn rooms. This would represent their efforts to recruit and hire underlings to the cabal's cause. Once you use your Station points, you can't call for more until you generate more. Same restrictions on when, where and how often the skill could be used during a raid would apply.

Reasoning: It makes atmospheric sense that the defenders of a keep would be organized by the ranking members, instead of only mindlessly throwing themselves in waves at the attackers. This also continues to make smaller defending forces competitive against large raid groups, allowing them tactical defense options for skirmishing and delaying, and attempting to win through attrition of opposition or resources. The guard groups themselves are not all that tough to deal with one at a time, so these really should just be providing a short delay for defenders to get a couple of shots in from the side or to reposition to prepare the next defensive line.

Result: Solo- to low-defender numbers have options, tactical choices for both attackers and defenders open up, and CRS engagements become more entertaining. Restrictions on use prevent "spamming" for easy-mode defense, and costs are inline with existing coin requirements for cabals and so no real additional farming becomes necessary beyond what is normally so to recover from a raid. Attackers using blitz tactics have a harder time contending with this due to group composition, whereas slower groups are less challenged, making tactical considerations more key to success as well as providing a predictable threat level when planning initially for those more PvE-minded players.

Assuming collaboration with solutions to maximize public zone time, player presence in inns around the game goes up as cabal members make efforts to stock up Station Points.

4) Severely reduce frequency and damage of inner guardian gas blast when any defenders are present. At three defenders present, guardian breath becomes deactivated.

Reasoning: Given the other challenges and tactical considerations in this new model, gas breath is unnecessary except in the highest "PvE challenge mode" version of it. Solo and duo defenders still could use the slight edge it provides if it comes down to the final fight, but should not be able to count on it being as powerful as it is now.

Result: PvP CRS engagements become more attractive, PvE challenge level is reduced as appropriate. More parity between the two kinds of raid is achieved by balancing defensive measures available.

5) Increase cabal bank account maximums to 75 obsidian, random encounter spawns cost the same as guard group spawns, reduce the cost of guardian spawns by 33% to 50%.

Reasoning: Guardians cost a lot to repop, guard groups can end up costing a lot over time, and extended engagements should have a fair chance of being eventful all the way through.

Result: Slightly more front-loaded coin farming to ensure maximum protection. Harder for attackers to just spam kill the outer when preparing for an offline raid.

6) Disable room-affecting cabal spells for attackers, except at choke point rooms.

Reasoning: Defenders should have the upper hand in this regard, thematically and tactically. Choke point rooms can still be used tactically by attackers with room-affecting spells, but between them they should have a disadvantage. I.E., Druids and Harlies can't use that one thing they do to block up the back door, MC can't do that one thing they do room by room to cover themselves throughout the entire maze, Crux can't do that one thing they do to prevent defenders from getting close enough to pose a threat, etc.

Result: When and where considerations and tactics become more important in every raid, adding to the engagement by players of both sides.

7) Cabal members cannot access Inner Guardian room or the maze until an attack is underway, or they are in possession of an enemy relic. Remove costs and cooldowns on Cabal Gate, allow Cabal Gate use inside HQ. Add Cabal Door command that only functions in the inner guardian's room, which opens a gate to the entry hall of the HQ.

Reasoning: The maze and guardian rooms would be something of a safe zone for players to hide in, and they shouldn't be used as such. Cabal Gate and Door should be available to defending players for tactical advantage in a raid situation. After all, it makes sense that members of the faction would know "secret passages" to get from one end of the place to the other and slip past attacking forces. Allows more tactical and strategic considerations for both attacking and defending parties.

Result: Broader range of tactical and strategic considerations required and available on both sides of the equation. Maintains the ability for solo and low-numbered defenders to be competitive against large forces. Removes inner guardian "safe room camping" from the game entirely.

8 ) Increase rewards and incentives for PvP relic raids. Increased risk associated with raiding should come with increased reward. Participation in PvP relic raids should net at least one LP, with victories gaining up to 5 (depending on group sizes involved). Victory bonuses to HP should be increased by 25-50%, add a randomly selected bonus to Will, Fort or Ref.

Reasoning: With risk should come reward. As it stands now, the rewards for engaging in PvP relic raids don't meet the risk, and the changes I'm suggesting actually increase the risk to some degree and so the rewards should scale accordingly.

Result: Greater incentive to engage in online relic raids combined with heightened challenge/risk on the PvE raiding side will increase the likelihood of people raiding defended keeps.

9) Increase benefits to cabals holding enemy relics. These could include reduced guard spawn costs, innate save bonuses, access to resources inside the HQ (fountains only work when holding one relic, food available at two relics, etc). Scale/time-delay drawbacks to having your relic captured. At relic loss, a faction's top level ability is disabled. For each week the relic is held by an enemy faction, another ability is disabled until they're all shut off. Add win-loss state. After two weeks at no cabal abilities, cabal diplomacy status is set to "defeated" automatically, the relic is returned, and various drawbacks are assigned for a predetermined length of time. Victory bonuses are given to members of the victorious faction.

Reasoning: Finney was right in saying that there's not a lot of benefit from holding enemy relics aside from buffing your own guardian. At the same time, penalizing weaker factions so harshly is probably not ideal. The time frames I've listed above are rough, and could probably be adjusted downward, but I figured I'd give factions enough time between each stage to prepare and gather resources for recovery/defense attempts. Victory and defeat statuses provide clear winners to conflicts (something the CRS system was meant to do in the first place and thus far has failed to achieve in the main), and allows defeated factions a chance to rebuild/resupply until they're in a position to be a threat again to their enemies. It also provides a built-in cooldown timer on CRS in general, which is something that's needed to keep the system from being overused or repetitive. Penalties and incentives are more effective sticks and carrots when they're paired together, and currently the CRS system really only provides the stick.

Result: Increased CRS PvP activity, more clearly defined victory states between factions, less burnout from constant conflict and CRS activity, and incentivized participation in CRS as opposed to punitive action for failure to participate. Reduced/scaling penalties provide factions with captured relics more opportunity and ability to engage in recovery efforts against opponents, with thematically appropriate increased difficulty as their separation from their relic intensifies. More "back and forth" action accomplished in the CRS arena since it becomes desirable to have enemy relics and to defend your own.

I think with these changes implemented, CRS becomes an entirely different animal and one that's more approachable, functional, and useful for a broader range of the player base. It also provides a more appropriate parity between the PvP and PvE challenge of CRS, with stronger incentives to opt for the PvP side of the coin.

TL;DR version:

There isn't one. Read the post or don't participate in the discussion.

EDIT: Remembering that there's already a skill in the game called Ambush, I renamed it to Station.

Good post. Can't really comment on it that much as I've not participated that much in the current system, but I do like point 9.

One might consider that the cabal/tribunal's lowest ability should perhaps never be removed, so that even in their worst state there's still potentially some boon to being involved in a cabal.

I disagree. Being without your cabal's relic of power for so long should essentially invalidate your right to be called a member of that faction. After all, you've not been able to muster the force or diplomacy necessary to have your relic returned one way or the other.

I mean, if you pass the bar exam, but only accept jobs flipping burgers, can you really call yourself a lawyer?

None of this actively solves the issue of encouraging multi-faction participation -- which is the biggest problem with CRS right now.

Are you talking about, for example, Fist Talons and diplomacy issues as regards cabal vs trib?

This just seems like a bunch of long winded hooey and flim flam that doesn't actually address the main issues that are plaguing crs.

I'd rather hear actual solutions instead.

I really hate defending OA, but in this case trollking, make a case on why it is flim-flam and why it doesn't solve the CRS issue instead of a weak-handed flame of it.

Depending on how it is delivered, I think this is actually promising.

Does flipping burgers mean they forget what they learned in law school?

I'm not against a user losing all their powers with lose of the relic, that is in fact the status quo.

It seems then that the real crux of what you're suggesting is that all powers of a cabal derive from the relic. The alternative is of course that some power does not derive from a relic, but perhaps training, or in the case of tribunals political prerogative, etc.

Does a tribunal that has lost their relic, lose the authority to enforce laws in their kingdom? Do judges of that kingdom lose the ability to rule on crimes? (Honestly I'm not entirely sure, ha!)

Anyway keep in mind I was only throwing out a consideration, so whatever the opinion isn't worth that much. Even without taking that line of thought that one step further, I think the post is well thought out and probably has a great deal of merit.

Well, that's where the misunderstanding is, then. Tribs don't have relics. Also, Dulrik has stated multiple times that he's pretty firm on the fact that cabal powers all come from the relic.

In answer to your question, though... Yeah, eventually they will forget their law info.

I think this idea has merit. It is my opinion that CRS is a hurdle for many players in SK. For the most part, it isn't fun. OA's idea sounds pretty good to me.