PvP changes announced

Silirrion

Game Director

   

 

Border Kingdom changes incoming...

When we started looking at the feedback for the Shrines feature there were a couple of things we wanted to achieve. Firstly we wanted to make some adjustments to the existing mechanics so that we could improve upon those mechanics and incorporate some of the feedback that you all provided on the feature. Then we also wanted to add in some new mechanics that will hopefully also provide some incentive and reward for single combat as well.



First, lets take a look at the improvements to the exitsing system. What we want to achieve with these changes is to allow raids to be formed to take part in the gameplay, and to spread the gameplay a little more to try and reduce the ease with which one guild, or force can monopolise the playfield.



Shrine Improvements

• 
  Rewards for making a sacrifice are now given to the group/raid that makes the sacrifice. This will allow players to form a raid that has players from different guilds and be able to make sacrifices this way.
• 
  Moved three of the altars to new locations around the playfield. This should make it easier for smaller guilds to hold a shrine, and reduce the ease with which one force can dominate the playfield.
• 
  Favor of Bori: Increased the duration of the buff from 15 minutes to 60 minutes.
• 
  The token reward for destroying a shrine can now be attained from when a shrine is at least 50% filled (instead of 75% as it was before). This increases the time period during which the destruction of the shrine yields a reward.
• 
  Decreased the respawn time required for the Idol of Bori recipe (5 minutes instead of 10 minutes). This should make it easier to craft the Idol of Bori.

The first change listed above is obviously the most significant. This was one of the requests we have seen listed most consistently when it came to how the system could be improved, and we agree. We feel that these changes should allow for more people to take part in the gameplay and encourage conflict in and around the Shrines between raid forces.



While the original intention was to make the Border Kingdom play more guild centric, we acknowledge that we underestimated people's willingness to 'game' that part of the system by consolidating guilds. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the system will almost certainly work better with this change and it being raid based. Hopefully this change will allow for raids to compete whether they are made up of one guild, or from many. It will also hopefully reduce the ability for huge guilds to easily dominate the playfield.



So that's the changes to the existing system. However we also wanted to add a little something extra to add in another element for the act of fighting in and of itself.



The Spoils of Combat



This is not something that we intend to be a major progression addition, more of a fun additional bonus that can occasionally reward you for dispatching your foes. It means that even if you aren't in a competeing raid there is still an opportunity for gaining some



Body Parts and Pyres



When a player gets killed by another player in PvP in Cimmerian End they will now have a chance to drop a Butcher's Bag. This bag contains one of three body parts. When this bag is picked up the player will get a buff for a body part.



These body parts can be used to make a sacrifice at the appropriate pyre. These pyres do not have to be captured, they can just be used to make a sacrifice.



A player can only carry one body part at a time, and these body parts are lost on player death. Making a sacrifice on a pyre will give that player an amount of tokens. Making a sacrifice on a pyre will render it uninteractible for a short period. A single player can only make a sacrifice at best every five minutes as the act of sacrifice places a lockout on the individual player which means they cannot recieve another body part for that time.



Each body part has a different spawn chance and reward. The three body parts are:

• 
  Severed Limb – A sacrifice is made by placing the body part on the Pyre of Limbs. There are three pyres of this type in the playfield. Each sacrifice of this type rewards 1 Conquest Throphy and some amount of PvP XP, Prowess and Glory.
• 
  Mutilated Torso - A sacrifice is made by placing the body part on the Pyre of Torsos. There are two pyres of this type in the playfield. Each sacrifice of this type rewards 3 Conquest Throphies and some amount of PvP XP, Prowess and Glory.
• 
  Severed Head – A sacrifice is made by placing the body part on the Pyre of Skulls. There is one pyre of this type in the playfield. Each sacrifice of this type rewards 5 Conquest Throphies and some amount of PvP XP, Prowess and Glory.

Wrapping up



So there we have it. These changes should be coming to the test server this week, and we hope they are ready for deployment on the live servers with the 2.0.5 update. We will of course be watching these changes carefully, and will continue to make further adjustments if we see a need.

__________________

Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison

Game Director