Shattered Kingdoms

We want to promote people logging into the game, not logging out of the game. Most proposals to "make the system better" over the years have not taken that into consideration. Any system that makes it easier to defend your relic by logging out rather than actually defending is a total fail in my view. If we need to make it tougher to take the relic when people are logged out, that's fine. But it has to be careful not to cross the line into NOT being better than when opposing players are actually present.

That is why I suggested that there is some sort of counter that keeps track of how many people, in the cabal, are logged in within the last x minutes. Whatever x is. Then when the Hammerites or the Imperials all log off because they hear about a large group forming or sense several of an opposing faction come online, it is just as detrimental to them. I would even go as far to say that if a raid happens and they logged off in that time period and their relic was taken, thieves could steal many of their things. Since, that is main reason why people log off, to keep their lewt.

People attack when they are sure nobody is on to defend. Maybe what we need is for the game to send notifications (email, txt?) to logged out players when a raid begins. This is kind of intrusive to outside life, but just the possibility of people responding to this system (even if it is configurable to be turned off), may make attackers more likely to attack when people are online instead of waiting for everyone to logoff. Just a thought.

Here's the issue, Dulrik.

Right now, the system is actually keyed to encourage SOME people to log out, and SOME to stay online. Why? Because when you add one or two defending PCs (especially if they have allies that are not in the same faction, because those don't seem to be counted correctly by the system as defenders) ON TOP of the system-loaded delays is a major nuisance to try to overcome. You can't chase down a couple of quickly-moving, ranged- or spell-capable defenders, especially if they have room effect cabal abilities (which, has already been pointed out, is the case in all but one instance) because you're constantly being delayed by the guard groups. It's not that the guard groups are particularly hard, it's just that they're time consuming, and all the while happy little defender guy is sitting a room or two away, chuckling with amusement as he plinks away at a distracted group.

If there's a full group of defenders on? The one or two NPCs that spawn are a joke and mowed down with barely a pause. Yeah, sometimes that results in a decent PvP battle, but if the group of raiders is prepared and experienced enough, they can often get in and out before defenders have a chance to actually, you know, defend. And even if there are one or two at the HQ at the time of attack, they're just going to get steamrolled or ignored while the guardian gets steamrolled.

If there's NO defenders on (and let's face it, at some point there will always be a time when there are no defenders on), you can just take your time and work through the guard spawns, take a breather to refresh your casters between guardians, and take a nice leisurely stroll through the park to grief your enemies.

And, yes, CRS is largely used to grief enemies. Whether it be farming coin on the guard NPCs (lol@some of those amounts dropped; why sell gear for three hours when you can just sit outside the front door of an HQ and make twice as much in half an hour?), or just straight "curb stomping" (as you once put it to me, D) your enemies and taking their toys away over and over again, it's not fulfilling its intent. Oh, and let us not forget occassions when factions have been literally kicked when they're down again and again because the option of RPing defeat is not even presented by the relic-holder (Adepts V Fist, anyone?). The system as it stands sure doesn't incline anyone to admit defeat in a war, either, since all a losing side has to do to get its relic back is get a healer, a dps, and maybe an offensive caster if they want to get through it a bit faster and go when there's no one on to defend.

Never work, not unless you extend the duration (i.e. specifically and only increase the HPs of the NPCs in question) to some obscene length of time.

EDIT: Actually, I suppose another viable option would be to make CRS raids much more like raids in MMOs, with minibosses and convoluted pathways to follow to reach the big bad at the end, but that would also require defenders to not be able to mount defenses except at key points. It would just become impossible to use the system if the defenders could just constantly pick away at the attackers through every stage of the raid maze that itself would last half an hour or more.

What is the intent of CRS?

This is the intent as stated by Dulrik at some point?

Yeah, a few times over the years since its inception. Not necessarily all in one place at one time in so many words, but that's what the system is supposed to accomplish.

CRS could be dramatically helped by providing a decent delay between guardians allowing the defenders to respond in kind, and throwing more NPCs in isn't the answer. The problem is that a qualified group can tear through an outer guardian in a minute or two, and you can't really compensate the guardian per se without compromising the ability for a smaller group to even stand a chance. I'd propose more of a global lengthening of the raid system: sort of the fantasy equivalent to a real siege.

After defeating the outer guardian, you're committed to the siege, but you can't just grab the key and unlock the door -- you have to knock it down. This is a longer process (5 minutes-ish) during which you have to stay in the same room as the defeated outer guardian, allowing the defenders to siege up and use the ballistas / murder holes to try and repel the attackers. It also allows a hopelessly outnumbered defending force to gather reinforcements and help with a siege. During this phase, cabal gate would allow you to directly teleport into your keep (I'll also put in a word here and mention that protracted scenarios like this are why the fatigue penalty should be cut back toward a 1:1 basis).


As for the offline attacking trend, it might be interesting to have the guardian artifact be checked on major ticks, and spawn / despawn based on whether there are members online. This way you couldn't steal a relic when players have been offline for more than 15 minutes, but wusses wouldn't be able to log off to avoid their relic being stolen. It would have the unfortunate side affect of you not being able to immediately apply cabal skills if you're the first member to log on, but that's a relatively small price to pay.