An epic Epic replacement that'll be EPIC!?

[HexD 214]

Note: I wrote this over a day or two and added little bits and pieces, it's not a complete blueprint but I reached the point where IDGAF and just wanted to post it so I could close the window. Add to it, get mad, tear it apart, whatever. It's out there now and if others like the idea maybe it'll grow into something and if not, it won't.

 

Fair Warning:

What you are about to read goes against everything you know, understand and possibly love about Wurm Online today. Please remain calm, breathe deeply and take time to truly grasp what has been laid out in front of you. If you are easily confused or offended please do not click the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

 

The image represents just a rough visual idea of what I would like to suggest, the idea is based on Planetside 2 mechanics. 

 

 Key:

B = Each kingdoms respective home base.

1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 = Points earned per hour whilst held and the type of resources found there.

Zone = Polygon

 

The Map

The map is comprised of 3 hexagons made up from 6 polygons, 3 singular island polygons and a centre island polygon. In the hexagon formation there is a single polygon which acts as a kingdoms home base. Every other polygon has a number assigned which represents its value and a colour which represents it's difficulty to hold and the resources which can be obtained from it. They don't have to be perfect equilateral triangles but each of the 3 hexagons do have to be identical as do the other singular polygons.

 

Zones:

Each zone will have an obvious change in aesthetics or theme. The further from the Capital the darker the area becomes. They are each rich with resources for their zone type and each zone type is the only place players can gather that resource type.

 

• Capital zone: 

This tile is defended by the King/Queens guard, can not be conquered and serves as a respawn point and a base of operations for it's kingdom. No points are earned from them and no resources gained. They can be looted by opposing kingdoms for a large portion of stored resources/items. The Capital itself would be a no build zone and would have resource buildings built into the design, such as,  Armourer, Weapon smith, Blacksmith, Kitchens, Leather worker, Carpenter, Shipwright and an Apothecary. Players would be able to build infrastructure like defences and homes around the no build zone. The zone itself would be lush grass hills and forest.

 

• Zone 1:

This zone is defended by 'Knights' and is the hardest to conquer due to its close proximity to the defending kingdoms Capital. The zone itself would be green with less trees and more farmland. They offer resources such as farming and healing resources. They also house the kingdoms grain stores which can be raided by opposing kingdoms.

 

• Zone 2:

This zone is defended by 'Soldiers' and is the second easiest to defend and second hardest to conquer due to its relatively close proximity to the defending kingdoms Capital. The zone itself would be large dense forests with pockets of steppe and tundra. They offer resources such as wood, leather and horses.

 

• Zone 3:

This zone is the third easiest to defend and third hardest to conquer due to its proximity to the defending kingdoms Capital.. The zone itself would be vast sand dunes and baron on the surface and rich in ores underground. It would have all vein types.

 

• Zone 4:

This zone is the second hardest to conquer and would grant a minor buff while held. The buff would grant 10% increase in all kingdom members CR and DR. They would essentially be 'Rifts' as we know them today and upon completing the rift the zone would be conquered. They offer no resources.

 

• Zone 5:

This zone will be the hardest to conquer but the most rewarding. Offering 5 points per hour held, no kingdom guards will spawn here.. The zone itself  would be filled with mycelium almost void of plant life save a few scorched trees, a dark and baron place with a random dragon that defends the capture point. The unique would be passive to the kingdom that held the zone. When a dragon is defeated, a new random dragon would spawn after a 6 hour cool down. While the zone does not provide any resources, slaying the dragon will provide drake or scale armour pieces, 1 piece per kill of random quality ranging from 50 - 90.

 

NPC Guards:

Guards are determined by the zone. Ranging from strongest to weakest.

 

• Kings/Queens guard in the Capital zone,

These units have 90 in all stats and wear drake.

• Knights in Zone 1,

These units have 70 in all stats and wear plate.

• Soldiers in zone 2 and

These units have 50 in all stats and wear chain.

• no guards in zones 3, 4 or 5.

 

Capture points will have their own guards called Templars. Templars are paid for with coins and each kingdom can hire more Templars on any point held. Players can choose between 'Templar knights' and 'Templar Soldiers' when hiring guards for their control points.

 

Economy

Kingdoms earn coins by growing their kingdoms population by having enough food in their stores, every 1000 grain will provide 1 additional citizen, each citizen will provide an additional silver coin to the kingdoms coffers each hour. Silver coins are used to hire guards for control points.

 

Resource Buildings

Traditional Wurm creation would not be used and the need for improving removed. Instead items would be generated by resource buildings which are supplied by players efforts on the battlefields. Players earn resources depending on the zones they hold. Each hexagon would house all the essential resources needed to supply a kingdom with all key equipment. Resources earned would have to be gathered by players in their respective zones and placed into the resource building of their type before being able to create actual items. Players combine two items of the same type to increase the quality by item quality / 10. For example taking 2 50ql items and combining them would increase quality on 1 item by 5 and the other item is destroyed, or taking two 90ql items would add 9ql. All items have a creation quality of 50, repairing works as normal.

 

Armourer:

Weapon Smith:

Blacksmith:

Kitchen:

Leather Worker:

Carpenter:

Shipwright:

Apothecary:

 

Scenario

Each scenario runs for 30 days, during that time each kingdom fights for scenario points by conquering and holding zones. After 30 days the kingdom with the most scenario points wins and the points and zones are reset.

 

Multipliers:

Holding certain combinations of zones grants a x 2 multiplier to those zones combined points. Connecting the zones from one kingdom to another, represented by the snake like red line in the map would earn 20 points per hour held, the yellow triangle connecting the 3 islands would earn 24 points per hour held and the green triangle connecting the 3 inner zones would earn 18 points per hour held.

Rewards:

 

 

Capturing

To capture any zone a player must start the raising of their kingdoms banner on the banner pole. The raising of a banner takes 60 minutes. An opposing kingdom may stop the raising of a banner by going to the banner pole and raising their own banner. If a banner is half way through being raised and an opposing kingdom starts to raise their banner, the opposing kingdom must first wait the duration of the existing banner to be lowered before their banner raising can start. Meaning at 50% raised the opposing kingdom banner raising would take 30 minutes to lower the existing banner and then 60 minutes to raise their banner for a total of 90 minutes. At any point during the raising of a banner an opposing team can revert it and raise their banner. No player needs to be standing still during this process and instead would be free to move around to defend or even leave the zone. Kingdoms may only capture a zone if they own an adjoining zone meaning they have to chain zones from their capital to progress further afield.

 

Transport

There will be no ridable animals, horses maybe hitched to carts and wagons which can be driven. Rowing boats, sail boats and knarrs will be the only available ships. No teleportation of any sort.

 

Let me just say I was bored and usually can't be bothered to write out any of the ideas that float around my head. For some reason I felt the need to get this one out and while it's not polished or perfect I think it does get most of what the idea is, across. I feel it would be a fitting replacement for epic because it would be less grind focused and more about actual combat and more fun orientated gaming rather than survival simulator. I know the model is fun because Planetside 2 adopts  a similar model and that game is very fun to play and very engaging, I know Wurm isn't an FPS but I think with a few tweaks the territory control system and a less time consuming gearing system, it could be just as fun as games like Planetside 2. 

[Mclavin 3,704]

Have my vote

[Wurmhole 3,650]

I don't pvp - but I'd probably give this a shot.  It is like a board strategy game brought to life!  Take this to crowd funding

[zigozag 918]

Seems ok as an instanced PvP mini-game (not so mini though), but you didn't address the fate of current Epic servers and everything on them at all, if this happened to replace them.

Edited August 6, 2017 by zigozag

[nicedreams 1,035]

+1  Sounds like good idea.  I play Planetside 2 and understand what you mean.

[HexD 214]

 

3 hours ago, zigozag said:

Seems ok as an instanced PvP mini-game (not so mini though), but you didn't address the fate of current Epic servers and everything on them at all, if this happened to replace them.

 

Yeah that's a tough one to tackle.

I don't think there is a fair way of doing it as in someones eyes it's always going to seem unfair. I think it comes down to whats best for the population in general and that imo would be to allow all current Epic players to transfer to Chaos/Freedom and simply shutdown Epic cluster. That would enable the servers used for the Epic cluster to be used for a conquer game mode or similar and might even free up some resources to help Xanadu with it's lag, don't really know how that works though.

Once all players are on Freedom/Chaos, anyone who wishes could cross over to the new game mode freely via a portal on Chaos.

 

As for Epic items, I don't really know.

Allowing them to cross over is going to upset someone and not allowing them will upset someone else but imo allowing Epic players to bring what they can carry is the best option, I really don't think it's going to have much of an impact.

 

Failing that, a nice thing to do could be to allow all the really nice items like scale/drake, rares and such to be auctioned to players on Chaos and Freedom, even the newly converted Epic guys could bid. The money raised would go to a charity and to acknowledge the players giving items they could have a unique title and some free premium time or a special non combat item/animation and a commemorative statue with all their names on a plaque in the centre of all starter towns, maybe some creative person would even write them into Wurm lore. Yes, this would enable people to pay to transfer their items but it would be in a competitive manner and no guarantee they would get their items back unless they paid through the teeth for them all and even if they did that then at least a charity some where would be better off for it. Better than losing everything I guess.

 

 

[Klaa 4,872]

Heh haven't played PS2 in ages; though, its a fun mmo shooter.

 

Aye the conquering and connected zone system works well there; though, didn't they limit needing to be connected to certain key areas and not just a neighbor? Kind of already have some of this with the tower and battle camps, perhaps certain resources and the like can gain bonuses within kingdom influence.

 

Also speaking of Epic, Id recommend keeping the Home servers and changing up the "Wild" servers more. The original reveal Rolf mentioned had far more extreme terraforming which could be kept off the Home servers for those that dislike them.

 

Basically making the Wild servers more extreme with plenty of fire and lava. At any moment the ground can literally be swept away from under you (except on a Home). Doom!

Edited August 7, 2017 by Klaa

[HexD 214]

Yeah they have set paths kinda like a wiring loop of sorts.

 

Keeping the home servers from Epic and having them operate like Freedom servers and switching out Ele for the suggested game mode could work. Solves people losing toons and items because they can just keep them on Epics PVE servers. Allowing 'all' servers to connect to the new game mode which gives all players a new instance of their characters, as I think the new game mode would work best if everyone started  with the same stats and skills so, so having to regrind wouldn't be a factor.

[Reylaark 1,100]

I'm confused, offended, and angry!  

 

This is a really cool idea though, loved Planetside 2 and a medieval take on it would be really cool.  Viking invasion of England type of thing.  I think Gloria Victis is maybe trying, but it lacks a lot of what I really like about Wurm.

 

No idea if this should be implemented or not, but Wurm rocks and Planetside 2 was fun... rocks+fun can't be wrong.

[Zenity 728]

1 hour ago, BeardedMan said:

Yeah they have set paths kinda like a wiring loop of sorts.

 

Keeping the home servers from Epic and having them operate like Freedom servers and switching out Ele for the suggested game mode could work. Solves people losing toons and items because they can just keep them on Epics PVE servers. Allowing 'all' servers to connect to the new game mode which gives all players a new instance of their characters, as I think the new game mode would work best if everyone started  with the same stats and skills so, so having to regrind wouldn't be a factor.

 

Not a whole lot different from how I'd like to see the Epic Home server issue resolved, other than making sure those servers are segregated from the main Freedom servers for a year or two, to allow them to settle down and not 'flood Freedom with massive amounts of moonmetals and unique products', as some have suggested might happen if they were simply joined to the freedom cluster "as-is".

 

I'm unsure about your ideas on PvP, I'm not really heavily invested in PvP in general, despite having a character or two on Epic, but it'd possibly settle the issue of what to do with Elevation if the home servers were detached, (but kept).

It's certainly interesting however, and full marks for thinking outside the Wurm box, I'm not sure how long this would take to implement however, it seems quite involved, and would require quite a few changes to existing code, that means a lot of time.