an observation: But I notice that Large scale Random Open World City Attacks isnt a thing anymore

MMOExposed

This just an Observation, but I noticed in the MMO genre, the concept of a Random Open World Major City raid/attack dont really exist anymore post Warhammer.           

Not talking about small Guild ran outpost and stuff like that. But I mean Major City attacks like back in WoW Pre-Cataclysm up to early WoTLK Achievement feature.         
           
I didnt play Warhammer at Endgame, but didnt it have a form of Major City attacks? Not sure if they were open world and could be at random like back in the older World of Warcraft days. But post Warhammer this seem to no longer be a thing in MMOs.       
         
Rift MMO for example didnt have city raids at all when I played in Vanilla.     
           
This feature in MMOs just seem to have faded away.         
           
Was s cool, to have random chaos from invaders attacking a major city at random and having people have to quickly form counter groups to fend off the invaders. We just dont see this anymore. Usually we see Siege Attacks on structures designed exclusively for PvP, like WvW in Guild Wars 2, so its not really random or open world anymore since its expected.  

Amaranthar

Hell yes! 

I like what UO used to do, where they had a plotline that ran for weeks, and sometimes a city came under attack. 
Trinsic was under attack for about 2 weeks at one time. There were some complaints, but mostly player loved it. 
These attacks were by a few major evil leaders, or their generals, intent on taking over the world. 

UO had a really deep plot running along with the game for years, until the game finally lost steam. 
(Also, the Dev behind it left.)

Example:
https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/487824/the-greatest-quest-artifact-to-ever-exist-in-mmorpgs 

cameltosis

MMOExposed said:

         
I didnt play Warhammer at Endgame, but didnt it have a form of Major City attacks? Not sure if they were open world and could be at random like back in the older World of Warcraft days. But post Warhammer this seem to no longer be a thing in MMOs.       

The way it worked in Warhammer is that you had a tug-of-war type contest for control of the open world pvp zones. Each zone you controlled would take you closer to the enemy city. Take enough zones and you get a fortress battle. Win 2 fortresses and u unlock the city.

The City Sieges were not open world, they were instanced. For 1 hour, players could start a city siege instance. I can't remember the exact sizes as it changed a lot. In RoR, city sieges are 24v24, but im sure I remember times on live where it was 72v72. They were PvPvE, but basically they were just larger versions of scenario / battlegrounds with a king to kill at the end.

Unfortunately, City Sieges never really worked well in WAR.

To start with, the rampant vertical progression meant you never, ever had a balanced fight in a city siege. The game was also balanced around groups, so organised groups had an even bigger advantage than they normally would. There was also a ward system in place, where if you didn't have good enough gear then the PvE portions of a city siege were also impossible.

So, most city sieges would end up with maybe 5 minutes of fighting. After that, half the losing side would quit in the hopes of joining a better instance, whilst the winning side would be left with some boring PvE in the hopes of getting some good gear later on.

Sovrath

Lineage 2 would have events where mobs would attack people leaving the city.

The more interesting stuff came from players luring raid bosses into towns and they’d decimate afk player shops.