New Server Type for the US Game

[Xest]

Would be a nightmare to play a buffing class in that situation, knowing every two minutes you have to get in range of everyone and pop a whole series of buffs, and then have to do it all again because someone was miles away chasing some archer or whatever.

One possibility would be to completely remove buffs, balancing the classes without them. But people like buffs and being able to help others.

So a better alternative would be to spread the buffs between a much wider range of classes, so that all the buffs aren't concentrated in one character. This I believe is the fundamental mistake Mythic made, giving 90% of the essential buffs to one class per realm.

For example, in Hib you could give strength/con spec to druid, haste spec to warden, dex spec to bard, int spec to enchanter. Thus to have all these specs you need all these classes present and not just a single bot parked at the frontier portal.

IMO the vampiir route would be best - award EVERYONE extra stat gains and make them unable to be buffed, the game is much more balanced buffed so that'd work best on the no buffs server imo.

[Lairiodd]

Was trying to think of an easy way to implement realm invasion. What about something like:

To invade a realm you need to:

1) own all your own keeps/towers
2) own all of the defender's keeps/towers
3) own your own relics
4) own the defenders's relics

At this point the border keep guards of the defender stop being non-killable

The two border keeps and realm capital work like normal keeps but get a bonus +5 to their level. If claimed at level 10, they would be level 15. Also the BK's would need to be moved into NF (rather than being part of the zone wall) so they can be defended/attacked, the capital would need to have defences added ... probably only need to change the capital city zone (allow the castle to have a closable door).

5) Capture the defender's border keeps.

At this point you are allowed to zone into the defending realm (classic mainland zones + capital only) .

6) Enter the defenders capital and "knock-out" the king (or whatever is leader ... is it regent in Albion ? )

At this point the defending realm surrenders and you get the following bonuses:

- Using the new guild dues code, all the players in the defending realm must pay a percentage of their loot to the guilds which have claimed various keeps as a tribute:

7 keeps of the defending realm: 1.5% each ( 10.5% total )
28 towers of the defending realm: 0.25% each ( 7% total )
2 border keeps: 3% each ( 6% total)
1 realm capital: 6%

This gives a tax on the "vassal" of around 30%. Those guilds which helped in the attack would end up claiming the valuable keeps and the guild which lead the raid would probably get to claim the enemy capital. If the "resistance" can recapture one of their keeps, the tax will not have to be paid for that keep.

I was also thinking that it could apply to non quest drops too, if a vassal player does an arti raid, there would be a 30% chance the arti if it dropped would be claimed as tribute and given to one of the enemy guilds.

Also, maybe add a small tax to using the trade interface and housing CM system.

- anyone from your realm can enter the vassal realm and go to any zone ( including TOA etc )

- rvr is only permitted in NF and the old classic mainland zones + capital.

- as long as you hold both border keeps + the capital, you can teleport from your capital to the vassal's capital

- you can use bind stones in the vassal as long as your realm holds at least 1 border keep

- you still cannot talk to enemy players.

- a border keep can be captured by the 3rd realm after the defending realm has been defeated. This allows access to the vassal, but does not give dues. Also, realm guards (who are from the winning realm) will attack players from the 3rd realm when they are in the vassal's home zones.

- defenders can flag themselves as non-pvp and then they cannot be attacked by or attack enemies when in their home realm. This requires talking to a npc in the realm capital to switch it on and off and has a 30 min timer. You cannot heal/buff someone without the flag on if you have the flag on. This only applies to the classic mainland + capital as in the other home zones, rvr is always prevented.

- You cannot trade with enemy players

Freeing your realm requires that you recapture both your border keeps and your capital.

So if you become a vassal, you lose around 30% of the money from loot/drops and you will be put in competition with players from the enemy realm for drops in your instance of TOA.

You can still exp in safety by flagging as non-pvp (or going to one of the expansion zones), but enemy players also gain access to your zones. This means that it is harder to get camps.

It would be interesting to see if camp etiquette changes ... if you go somewhere to exp in your home zone and there is an enemy group exping there, do you go somewhere else (you can't actually attack each other due to the peace treaty)? Obviously (or presumably ), if they were realm mates you would, but they are the enemy.

[Xest]

Personally I think OF with killable guards would've been fine, it'd still need a very very strong force to break through those guards with defenders backing them up so it's not something that would happen on a daily basis

[ololmatey]

if u run outta range of buffs u lose benefit but u still keep the conc buff on u and regain the stats etc when u get back in range and rofl at all the people with bots whining cos ppl from their svr will leave so they will be basically playing against the other sad pathetic stealthers with buff bots ah well have fun i know im goin to be buying a us copy to play on this svr with 3 other mates who havent pld daoc in over a year due to elitest pricks who think its needed to have buffs

[Fangorn Treebeard]

oh wow, this is the sort of thing that is bound to make me want to play daoc again, though because of the no TOA thing. How far is 5000 units though? Will you regularly be losing your buffs in the middle of a fight, or will buffs go when you're half a zone away from the buffer?

[Xest]

oh wow, this is the sort of thing that is bound to make me want to play daoc again, though because of the no TOA thing. How far is 5000 units though? Will you regularly be losing your buffs in the middle of a fight, or will buffs go when you're half a zone away from the buffer?

5000 units is outside clipping range so bots will still work extremely well in a lot of situations (like tower hugging archers with their bots in the tower for example), that's why people like ololmatey are going to cry so hard when they find the truth about playing on that server - it'll be even more unbalanced, as there'll be less people with bots, those who do have bots will be gods and farm the living daylights out of those naive enough to think there wont be any bots there at all, the same goes for classes that don't need bots.

[Flippant Desires]

Cut 'n Paste job of latest on the new server type. In essence, it's all a 'big test' to start with, but if the server does take off (and stay there) then yes you will get different patches - including server specific changes to classes.

Q: Do I need to own TOA in order to activate Catacombs on the new server?
A: On the new server, you do not need to own the TOA expansion.

Q: Will the new server be on a separate patch process, or will it be patched just like the current servers?
A: We'll handle it the way we handle it now - we'll patch all servers at the same time, and some notes will only be for the specialty servers.
At first, of course, there will probably be a flurry of server-only fixes. Afterwards, we'll continue to try and keep in mind the server's special needs, though future expansions and patches will be primarily designed for the more typical servers.

Q: Will you be making changes to specific realms or classes on the new server?
A: Not right away. Right now we're looking at the big picture - how types and categories of spells will affect gameplay on a server with the new buff system. With the more specific details, it's more important to see it in action.

Q: Am I right in thinking the new servers are US only?
A: Correct. We can't and don't dictate server types to our partners, so the decision to set up a new type is up to them and the needs of their players.

Q: Is this new server going to be Mythic's answer to 'fixing' ToA? In other words, are you going to stop making adjustments to TOA on the main servers?
A: No! This is not any kind of "solution" to issues that still remain on the main servers. In the words of the executive producer for Camelot, Jeff Hickman, "It is simply an alternative ruleset, just like our PvP or Cooperative servers, designed to meet the gameplay desires of our players. The planning, balancing and updating of the regular servers will of course go on."
To be honest, as I told the TLs, this new server type is meant for people who would otherwise not play DAOC at this time. I don't expect that most people currently playing are going to do much more than roll on the new server out of pure curiosity. I DO expect that the people with active accounts who try the new toy will eventually go back to their "home" servers. And I hope that people who are reactivating just for this ruleset decide to stay.
This server is just an attempt to meet the needs of a niche group of players. What the heck, right? What do we have to lose by trying it out? It doesn't cost us anything to try, and some people might really like it. Maybe it'll end up being a small and dedicated group like Mordred or Gaheris. Maybe it'll be hugely popular. Maybe it'll be popular at first and then droop like a basset hound. We just don't know until we give it a shot. Better to take risks and work at something than to wait until afterwards and claim to have known all along. Really, I don't see why the industry as a whole doesn't just try off-the-beaten-path stuff more often. This isn't brain surgery or experimental atom splitting. No one dies if we guess wrong. But, I'm going to stop now; I'm digressing from the grab bag into cranky ol' Sanya land.

Q: Are you taking into account changes that have been made since ToA to balance the game?
A: Yes, and as Jeff told me, "We will definitely be watching this server for odd imbalances, and make any changes that might be necessary."

[pikeh]

if u run outta range of buffs u lose benefit but u still keep the conc buff on u and regain the stats etc when u get back in range and rofl at all the people with bots whining cos ppl from their svr will leave so they will be basically playing against the other sad pathetic stealthers with buff bots ah well have fun i know im goin to be buying a us copy to play on this svr with 3 other mates who havent pld daoc in over a year due to elitest pricks who think its needed to have buffs

elitist pricks who THINK its needed to have buffs. have you played the game at all recently? with the exception of a few people, generally everyone tries to get hold of buffs. why? becuase we know albs and mids will be doing the same thing, its the status quo. Im pretty sure every single hib would rather have either no buffs at all (even at range), or everyone gets vampiir like stats. Have to agree with xest tbh, and its what ive been saying all along, range buffs are just too impractical, and tbh i dont think it will make much difference. Look at brynja bridge for example. The amount of stealthers on there will still have access to bots kept inside bled, meaning the game is just going to be the same as it was.

[Luz]

Look at brynja bridge for example. The amount of stealthers on there will still have access to bots kept inside bled, meaning the game is just going to be the same as it was.

lol who in their right mind would go stealth at brynja bridge then, with no buffs.. let them stand there rotting away

[Ankh Morpork]

I've always said that I wish they had range on the buffs but I never did really think much of what it would mean during sieges...and to put too small range would proberbly been incredible silly too if it would mean the druid had to be like within 5-6m reach of the group... question is - what should they do? Removing the buffs fully is one solution but as you pointed out the vampiirs still got their buffs and lots of people are paying for their BB accounts (including me, but I would gladly let go of it). While I can understand why people say stuff like "mythic/goa dont want to get rid of the buffbots cos that would mean less money to them" I can also understand mythic/goa's point of view. I mean, they are not really giving us daoc cos they had nothing else to do - ofcourse they need profit from it too to be able to keep it up and to be sure the future doesnt mean reducing their staff to keep the company.
Another thing you seem to discuss is what happens to vampiirs if they remove the buffbots. Well, that IS a tricky question too. To remove the vampiirs stat bonuses would be one idea but that would also kind of be to remove their major feature imo. Perhaps it would work but who knows? Anyway, the major problem is that no matter what they decide to do I'm pretty sure that there will be people complaining...there always is and there will always be since you cant expect to make everyone happy with changes (especially not Xest )

/Ankh