Henrik LOVES to remind everyone of the immersion and sandbox nature of this game... he's very proud of what they've achieved, thus far, and rightfully so. To that end, I was thinking of how could those concepts be used to build a more immersive and engaging War Declaration system.
IMMERSION
The idea was merge the immersion in the game with the war declaration status - by creating a War Board, or War Table, furniture piece which can be placed within Strongholds and Castles. Interacting with the War Board/War Table will allow guild members to see real-time status of ongoing wars... including metrics which indicate who's winning the conflict and by how much.
Once the War has concluded - a placeable wall decoration, or statue, is awarded to the guilds. Interacting with the item will display the final score from the conflict, allowing guilds to display their triumphs.
WAR POINTS SYSTEM
Disclaimer: The idea being proposed will need to be reviewed by Star Vault and the community, to reduce instances of exploiting or "gaming the system" - but what I'm proposing is more of a high level concept of how this could work.
Wars have a cost to initiate, to maintain, or to end... while the game needs many gold sinks, it would be exciting to have a "War Chest" that gets dispersed to the guilds based on their respective performance during the War. Essentially, you're wagering on yourself... putting your money on the table with the confidence that you'll take it back plus claim most of the War Chest.
Scoring the War Effort
Currently, trackable combat data points are limited to kills, damage dealt, healing done, players within impact range, etc. Once TC comes out, Star Vault could add in points for destroying personal structures, destroying siege machinery, destroying supply camps, destroying Castles, etc. Also, with a system like this - Star Vault could put some minimal point values on items like resource harvesting, mining, gear crafting, and hunting - essentially those actions are "fueling the war machine" and should be reflected in the war effort. Again, those PvE elements would be minimal points - but still allows for all members of a guild to have an impact on the war effort.
Scaling Combat Encounters
Since Mortal Online 2 doesn't have "character levels" to assess the scale of combatants in a fight, Star Vault could use a mechanic which devalues point stacking with massive force advantages. Star Vault does track "players within an impact/influence zone" - if you think back to launch, Henrik often talked about the stress upon the Tindrem node and they could count how many players were within the impact range of the Tindrem Bank. Star Vault could leverage that mechanic to generate data of numbers for each warring guild within so many kilometers of a kill, fight, heal, etc. Using this metric - valiant fights against odds would garner higher War Points per action, while crushing enemies would still gain War Points per action, yet at a slightly reduced rate.
Points for Actions
WAR POINTS SYSTEM - CONCLUSION
As outlined, the War Points system would be utilized in-game via placeable items to add more immersion for the War status; while the scoring system allows both PvP and PvE players to contribute towards the War Effort by continuing to enjoy the game as they always have. The War Points system also includes modifiers to score engagements based on the size of opposing forces. Star Vault would have to determine the ratios that best fit the game. In the scenarios provided - it seems pretty punishing to large guilds who perform poorly through merely throwing bodies into the fight, but those large guilds can still gain points, largely in their favor, if they perform well with numbers. Smaller guilds that perform well, against odds, also stood to score very well through the various skirmishes... which hopefully encourages smaller guilds to see a benefit is engaging in Wars with larger guilds.
GAMES WITH SIMILAR IN-GAME SCOREBOARDS FOR GUILD CONFLICT
Personally, I've played Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa and Funcom's Age of Conan... both of those games had in-game mechanics to track guild conflict and/or score in-game activities towards a guild score. Maybe the community can point to other games with similar metrics for in-game conflict and actions.
IMMERSION
The idea was merge the immersion in the game with the war declaration status - by creating a War Board, or War Table, furniture piece which can be placed within Strongholds and Castles. Interacting with the War Board/War Table will allow guild members to see real-time status of ongoing wars... including metrics which indicate who's winning the conflict and by how much.
Once the War has concluded - a placeable wall decoration, or statue, is awarded to the guilds. Interacting with the item will display the final score from the conflict, allowing guilds to display their triumphs.
WAR POINTS SYSTEM
Disclaimer: The idea being proposed will need to be reviewed by Star Vault and the community, to reduce instances of exploiting or "gaming the system" - but what I'm proposing is more of a high level concept of how this could work.
Wars have a cost to initiate, to maintain, or to end... while the game needs many gold sinks, it would be exciting to have a "War Chest" that gets dispersed to the guilds based on their respective performance during the War. Essentially, you're wagering on yourself... putting your money on the table with the confidence that you'll take it back plus claim most of the War Chest.
Scoring the War Effort
Currently, trackable combat data points are limited to kills, damage dealt, healing done, players within impact range, etc. Once TC comes out, Star Vault could add in points for destroying personal structures, destroying siege machinery, destroying supply camps, destroying Castles, etc. Also, with a system like this - Star Vault could put some minimal point values on items like resource harvesting, mining, gear crafting, and hunting - essentially those actions are "fueling the war machine" and should be reflected in the war effort. Again, those PvE elements would be minimal points - but still allows for all members of a guild to have an impact on the war effort.
Scaling Combat Encounters
Since Mortal Online 2 doesn't have "character levels" to assess the scale of combatants in a fight, Star Vault could use a mechanic which devalues point stacking with massive force advantages. Star Vault does track "players within an impact/influence zone" - if you think back to launch, Henrik often talked about the stress upon the Tindrem node and they could count how many players were within the impact range of the Tindrem Bank. Star Vault could leverage that mechanic to generate data of numbers for each warring guild within so many kilometers of a kill, fight, heal, etc. Using this metric - valiant fights against odds would garner higher War Points per action, while crushing enemies would still gain War Points per action, yet at a slightly reduced rate.
Points for Actions
- 500 points per kill (prioritizes kills)
- 1 point per Damage Dealt
- 0.5 point per Healing Performed
- 10 points per stack of mined material (should be scaled on grade of material)
- 10 points per stack of harvested material (should be scaled on grade of material)
- 5 points per gear created (should be scaled on grade of gear)
- 1 point per creature hunted (should be scaled on difficulty of the creature)
- % modifier for amount of fighters, per side, within X kilometers of engagements.
- For instance, (Guild Alpha has 12 fighters) / (Guild Bravo has 6 fighters) = 2 modifier becomes +/- .2 multiplier on combat engagements.
- In this first scenario, Guild Alpha arrives with 12... and Guild Bravo arrives with 6... Guild Bravo inflicts heavy losses on the 12, thus Guild Alpha retreats from the fight after losing 6 and only killing 3 - but hoping to avoid hemorrhaging more points.
- ((Guild Bravo gets 6 kills for 3000 points) + ( 1350 damage points) + (300 healing points)) x 1.2 (.2 additional modifier for fightiing 1:2 odds) = 5,580 War Points
- ((Guild Alpha gets 3 kills for 1500 points) + (700 damage points) + (900 healing points)) x 0.8 (.2 reduction modifier for fighting 2:1 odds) = 2,480 War Points
- SUMMARY - Guild Bravo gets rewarded for performing well in a fight against sizeable odds - to incentivize engaging in fights that might not appear in your favor at the start - due to a numbers disadvantage.
- In the second scenario, Guild A arrives with 12... and Guild B arrives with 6... Guild Bravo gets wiped out by the 12, with none surviving, while only inflicting 3 kills on Guild A.
- ((Guild B gets 3 kills for 1500 points) + (600 damage points) + (600 healing points)) x 1.2 modifier for fighting 1:2 odds = 3,240 War Points
- ((Guild A gets 6 kills for 3000 points) + (1350 damage points) + (600 healing points)) x 0.8 modifier for fighting 2:1 odds = 3,960 War Points
- SUMMARY - Guild Alpha gets points for winning the fight but penalized for winning with 2:1 odds - essentially, Guild Alpha should win that fight and they still earned points towards the war effort for doing so. Guild Bravo earns compensatory amount of points to reward fighting versus fleeing (and likely still dying)
- In the third scenario, Guild Alpha arrives with 12... and Guild Bravo arrives with 6... Guild Bravo gets steamrolled by the 12, with none surviving, while not registering any kills on Guild Alpha.
- ((Guild B gets 0 kills for 0 points) + (400 damage points) + (300 healing points)) x 1.2 modifier for fighting 1:2 odds = 840 War Points
- ((Guild A gets 6 kills for 3000 points) + (1350 damage points) + (600 healing points)) x 0.8 modifier for fighting 2:1 odds = 3,960 War Points
- SUMMARY - Guild Alpha gets points for winning the fight but penalized for winning with 2:1 odds - essentially, Guild Alpha should win that fight and they still earned a large point advtantage towards the war effort due to their excellent performance (almost a point gain of 5:1 ratio). Guild Bravo earns compensatory amount of points.
WAR POINTS SYSTEM - CONCLUSION
As outlined, the War Points system would be utilized in-game via placeable items to add more immersion for the War status; while the scoring system allows both PvP and PvE players to contribute towards the War Effort by continuing to enjoy the game as they always have. The War Points system also includes modifiers to score engagements based on the size of opposing forces. Star Vault would have to determine the ratios that best fit the game. In the scenarios provided - it seems pretty punishing to large guilds who perform poorly through merely throwing bodies into the fight, but those large guilds can still gain points, largely in their favor, if they perform well with numbers. Smaller guilds that perform well, against odds, also stood to score very well through the various skirmishes... which hopefully encourages smaller guilds to see a benefit is engaging in Wars with larger guilds.
GAMES WITH SIMILAR IN-GAME SCOREBOARDS FOR GUILD CONFLICT
Personally, I've played Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa and Funcom's Age of Conan... both of those games had in-game mechanics to track guild conflict and/or score in-game activities towards a guild score. Maybe the community can point to other games with similar metrics for in-game conflict and actions.
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