A) Territory Control is poorly designed
The core problem with territory control is that it feels futile for big guilds to attack eachother. They have no way to truly defeat their opponent, and so, they don't even try anymore. This causes them to feel like they have nothing to do. There is no meaning to their struggle because it amounts to nothing. So they leave; or get bored and attack smaller groups, then leave potentially taking those smaller groups with them.
Siege timers in particular are an idea i've heard people say are just ridiculous. It also eliminates the possibility of a surprise attack also, which is kind of silly in a game with a focus on immersion.
Make it easier for guilds to destroy and take land from eachother. Push them to fight eachother or have them lose out of stagnating.
Also, i don't understand why you try to play it so safe when every player has a bank that can never have stuff taken from it.. You should allow people to destroy eachother's structures more easily.
B) No REAL player Incentive to Protect Beginners/Deal with criminals
Nobody has an incentive to protect beginners from criminal players, while criminal players have an incentive to kill as many players as possible.
This is a problem that has been siphoning players for a lonnnnng time, and it really needs to be dealt with.
Your bounty hunting system has failed as a deterrent, and provides no protection to beginners.
You need a guard duty system or something, where blues group up and hunt criminals for their reward.. Something so there is SOME incentive to actually protect your beginner players from being killed over and over. This is a fix that will make both sides happy, as criminals want PVP also.
What i wouldn't do to fix this, is make being a criminal a more undesirable playstyle, because the game also needs criminals.
Stop adding guards.. Stop putting down towers.. Stop making being a criminal harsher than it is and create a system that incentivizes PLAYERS to hunt and kill people who've engaged in criminal behavior.
Maybe put two criminal timers on criminals. One where when it runs out, the NPC guards don't attack, the other where it allows player guards who are on guard duty, or doing a guard duty task, to attack for a way longer time, like 20 minutes. Give players a guard duty task to collect 20 criminal heads or something. I promise you, people will be actively trying to deal with criminals way more than your bounty system; in turn, all sides are happy. Beginners protected, criminals get PVP.
C) Gameplay Balance (Mages in particular)
This is a HUGE issue also.. I feel like the developers really don't understand just how strong mages really are.
Tower shields/mobility+healing make them tanks. Heals make them supports that can keep their entire team alive. Their damage bypasses armor and can hit at range and is the highest possible damage per second you can do on the game (especially when factoring in that you can hit in an area), and has the easiest type of aiming. They have all of the utility in the game. They can stop healing, reflect magic, put up walls and so much more..
They do it all, and they do it all better than everything else.
If they're going to be damage dealers mainly? Then they cannot be too powerful at running and self-healing and tanking with a tower shield. That huge ranged damage NEEDS to come with the weakness of dying extremely easily if someone gets into their range.
Honestly, one of the best things you could do to balance mages, is give archers and melee users a way to block their healing on hit for a set timeframe, like 20 seconds or something, so they can't just dex mage run away and heal (dodge tanking essentially). Or maybe consider a way to enchant weapons, or add poisons to them or something.
Mages NEED a weakness, and currently, they do not have a significant one.
Also... Allowing mages to cast freely in water is grotesque.. You need to just turn off casting in water. Arrows don't work in water. Melee users are in armor and can't swim as fast. Mages have no limitation in water, and it is just way way way way too unfair. You could throw 20 footies in water against one mage, and the mage will kill them all easily. That is very obviously unfair.
Also...Letting mages holster a spell and cast it when their aim lines up... If an archer charges their bow, there is a constant stam drain for holding that shot.. Why are mages just allowed to pocket and fire their spell? Again, it just isn't fair, and it makes them VERY difficult to dodge for an enemy player. All Ecu spell casts should work like elementalism, maybe aside from heals. T-lash, flamestrike, corruption.. All these spells should fire immediately after cast; this gives opponent players an actual chance to time and dodge their cast. As it is? You literally can't avoid them at all.
Finally... There should probably be intelligence requirements on spells, and strength requirements on weapons/shields. Why is a 10 int thursar casting earthquake? It breaks immersion, and it breaks balance. Earthquake is the most advanced ecumenical spell.. How is someone with 10 int casting it and able to dismount anyone easily? The game in general just has a problem with hybrids. Hybrids have a major advantage over specialists. I won't go into too much detail here, but honestly, the game could do with stat requirements on all armor, weapons and spells. This would resolve some of these absurd hybrid situations.
Also, some specific VERY broken spells:
Shock: Way too fast to cast and does HUGE damage. Either it must be slower to cast or do less damage.
Deathhand: Ridiculous spell in so many ways, and i would say is the most problematic spell on the game currently. I genuinely believe necromancy spells should be reworked and made more ranged, instead of this weird sprint casting nonsense. Just cut deathhand healing and damage in half, and make it a ranged spell like a real mage. As it is, it is literally the best melee range attack on the game. Can't block it. Heals and takes off huge damage.. Quick cast and can be cast whilst sprinting.. No.. It is just too much. A lot of people will have quit the game over this spell in particular. Completely broken and unfair. Pair this with a tower shield, you have an immortal who does massive unblockable damage very quickly.
The core problem with territory control is that it feels futile for big guilds to attack eachother. They have no way to truly defeat their opponent, and so, they don't even try anymore. This causes them to feel like they have nothing to do. There is no meaning to their struggle because it amounts to nothing. So they leave; or get bored and attack smaller groups, then leave potentially taking those smaller groups with them.
Siege timers in particular are an idea i've heard people say are just ridiculous. It also eliminates the possibility of a surprise attack also, which is kind of silly in a game with a focus on immersion.
Make it easier for guilds to destroy and take land from eachother. Push them to fight eachother or have them lose out of stagnating.
Also, i don't understand why you try to play it so safe when every player has a bank that can never have stuff taken from it.. You should allow people to destroy eachother's structures more easily.
B) No REAL player Incentive to Protect Beginners/Deal with criminals
Nobody has an incentive to protect beginners from criminal players, while criminal players have an incentive to kill as many players as possible.
This is a problem that has been siphoning players for a lonnnnng time, and it really needs to be dealt with.
Your bounty hunting system has failed as a deterrent, and provides no protection to beginners.
You need a guard duty system or something, where blues group up and hunt criminals for their reward.. Something so there is SOME incentive to actually protect your beginner players from being killed over and over. This is a fix that will make both sides happy, as criminals want PVP also.
What i wouldn't do to fix this, is make being a criminal a more undesirable playstyle, because the game also needs criminals.
Stop adding guards.. Stop putting down towers.. Stop making being a criminal harsher than it is and create a system that incentivizes PLAYERS to hunt and kill people who've engaged in criminal behavior.
Maybe put two criminal timers on criminals. One where when it runs out, the NPC guards don't attack, the other where it allows player guards who are on guard duty, or doing a guard duty task, to attack for a way longer time, like 20 minutes. Give players a guard duty task to collect 20 criminal heads or something. I promise you, people will be actively trying to deal with criminals way more than your bounty system; in turn, all sides are happy. Beginners protected, criminals get PVP.
C) Gameplay Balance (Mages in particular)
This is a HUGE issue also.. I feel like the developers really don't understand just how strong mages really are.
Tower shields/mobility+healing make them tanks. Heals make them supports that can keep their entire team alive. Their damage bypasses armor and can hit at range and is the highest possible damage per second you can do on the game (especially when factoring in that you can hit in an area), and has the easiest type of aiming. They have all of the utility in the game. They can stop healing, reflect magic, put up walls and so much more..
They do it all, and they do it all better than everything else.
If they're going to be damage dealers mainly? Then they cannot be too powerful at running and self-healing and tanking with a tower shield. That huge ranged damage NEEDS to come with the weakness of dying extremely easily if someone gets into their range.
Honestly, one of the best things you could do to balance mages, is give archers and melee users a way to block their healing on hit for a set timeframe, like 20 seconds or something, so they can't just dex mage run away and heal (dodge tanking essentially). Or maybe consider a way to enchant weapons, or add poisons to them or something.
Mages NEED a weakness, and currently, they do not have a significant one.
Also... Allowing mages to cast freely in water is grotesque.. You need to just turn off casting in water. Arrows don't work in water. Melee users are in armor and can't swim as fast. Mages have no limitation in water, and it is just way way way way too unfair. You could throw 20 footies in water against one mage, and the mage will kill them all easily. That is very obviously unfair.
Also...Letting mages holster a spell and cast it when their aim lines up... If an archer charges their bow, there is a constant stam drain for holding that shot.. Why are mages just allowed to pocket and fire their spell? Again, it just isn't fair, and it makes them VERY difficult to dodge for an enemy player. All Ecu spell casts should work like elementalism, maybe aside from heals. T-lash, flamestrike, corruption.. All these spells should fire immediately after cast; this gives opponent players an actual chance to time and dodge their cast. As it is? You literally can't avoid them at all.
Finally... There should probably be intelligence requirements on spells, and strength requirements on weapons/shields. Why is a 10 int thursar casting earthquake? It breaks immersion, and it breaks balance. Earthquake is the most advanced ecumenical spell.. How is someone with 10 int casting it and able to dismount anyone easily? The game in general just has a problem with hybrids. Hybrids have a major advantage over specialists. I won't go into too much detail here, but honestly, the game could do with stat requirements on all armor, weapons and spells. This would resolve some of these absurd hybrid situations.
Also, some specific VERY broken spells:
Shock: Way too fast to cast and does HUGE damage. Either it must be slower to cast or do less damage.
Deathhand: Ridiculous spell in so many ways, and i would say is the most problematic spell on the game currently. I genuinely believe necromancy spells should be reworked and made more ranged, instead of this weird sprint casting nonsense. Just cut deathhand healing and damage in half, and make it a ranged spell like a real mage. As it is, it is literally the best melee range attack on the game. Can't block it. Heals and takes off huge damage.. Quick cast and can be cast whilst sprinting.. No.. It is just too much. A lot of people will have quit the game over this spell in particular. Completely broken and unfair. Pair this with a tower shield, you have an immortal who does massive unblockable damage very quickly.
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