News PvP TL:
Introduction
When we sat down and evaluated all the feedback we were getting on PvP in Conan, one concept emerged at a high level as a common thread (feature-wise) in terms of what players have been consistently looking to get out of the PvP experience in Conan: ongoing, accessible, outdoor PvP content. Such content can take many forms, but early on we determined that a common paradigm and rule-set was required, that players can learn and apply in different situations as we expand upon PvP content in the future.
Also, with T3 raids soon to be introduced, we also saw the need to create a new tier of PvP gear to offer a viable gear progression path to players who are exclusively interested in that one aspect of Conan game-play. However, we decided that the acquisition of such gear should come from dynamic and interactive player situations as opposed to strictly relying on accumulated PvP experience. We also came to the conclusion that the token system could provide an ideal currency to be used to purchase this next tier of PvP items, and thus players will also see an introduction of PvP tokens of several types, that can be acquired though a combination of existing content such as mini-games, and the new content outlined below. Note that PvP experience will not be deprecated, rather the new tiers of PvP gear will be purchased in tokens but still require the appropriate PvP levels.
DISCLAIMER: I want to stress that while we plan on patching this to TestLive accompanying 1.06, it will be extremely unlikely that this PvP content reaches Live with the 1.06 update. Public outdoor PvP content is exactly the sort of dynamic feature that needs extensive testing in genuine player driven environment, and this means regardless of when we release such PvP features to TestLive, it will simply need to be there longer than other types of updates to ensure the best and most balanced player experience when it is ready to go out.
Shrines of Bori
With Shrines of Bori players will experience a guild-based ongoing outdoor conflict with capturable objectives, which takes place in the Border Kingdoms: Cimmerian End.
A Border Kingdoms playfield was chosen for this feature because unlike other playfields, only one instance of a Border Kingdom will ever exist at a time.
An additional change has been made so that players who have previously logged out in the Border Kingdoms: Cimmerian End will appear upon login at one of the existing entrance/exit locations of the playfield, chosen at random. This is to prevent players from strategically logging out. This change has also been applied to Aquilonian End and Border to Kush.
Note that all Border Kingdoms block a player's use of teleport spells (Path of Asura, Path of Comrades, etc).
Brannoc Village
Four Shrines to the war god Bori have been placed around Brannoc village. A shrine generally consists of the following elements:
* A Banner, to be captured and fought over by guilds
* An Altar, where a guild who has captured the Banner may make offerings to Bori and receive tokens and PvP experience, which conversely may be destroyed by other guilds.
* A Merchant, who sells useful materials in a limited stock that spawn on a timer of 5 minutes. This means these materials don't spawn for 5 minutes after the Merchant has spawned. The Merchant is considered a Group Mob and is attackable, although he will not aggro unless attacked. If killed, he will respawn after 5 minutes.
Capturing a Shrine
A Shrine is captured when a member of a guild who does not currently own that Shrine interacts with the Shrine’s associated Banner for an uninterrupted 5 seconds. The Banner then enters a contested state for at least 60 seconds. A guild can retake their “contested” Shrine if a member of the guild interacts with the Banner for an uninterrupted 5 seconds.
Thus, the Banners have three possible states:
1. Neutral – This is the “start” state of the Banners, such as when the playfield comes up. Neutral Banners appear on the map with a unique icon.
2. Contested – This state occurs when a member of a guild interacts with a Banner attached to a Shrine his guild does not own for an uninterrupted five seconds. Contested Banners appear on the map with a unique icon, and also a playfield-wide message is broadcast. If a member of a guild who owns the Banner (and therefore not part of the contesting guild) interacts with it for an uninterrupted five seconds, it is immediately reverted back to the owning guild.
3. Captured – If a Banner has been contested for a continuous 60 seconds (this may be modified), it then is owned by the capturing guild. This resets the other elements of the Shrine, such as the Altar and the Merchant.
Making an Offer
An Offer is made to the Altar when a member of a guild who owns the Shrine interacts with the Altar for an uninterrupted 5 seconds, and an appropriate resource is in the player's inventory. A Shrine may only be interacted with for this purpose by 1 person at a time, and there is a 5 second global cool-down on any player making an offer. Making the offer removes the resource from the player's inventory.
As different objects are of intrinsically different value, each resource has been assigned a value which represents how much the resource is worth to the war god. If there are multiple items in a player's inventory which may be offered to the shrine, the items are offered in order from least valuable to most valuable.
Rare PvP Resources
We have added a number of rare PvP resources to the nodes which already exist in Border Kingdoms: Cimmerian End. These items are unique (a player can have only one of a specific rare PvP resource at a time), and will drop 100% of the time in PvP death. Harvesting these resources require the existing harvesting feats.
Rare resources drop from existing PvP resource nodes at the following rates:
* Tier 3 Rare PvP Resources: drop 5% off Tier 3 PvP nodes (per tap)
* Tier 2 Rare PvP Resources: drop 10% off Tier 2 PvP nodes (per tap)
* Tier 1 Rare PvP Resources: drop 15% off Tier 1 PvP nodes (per tap)
Therefore a player who wishes to make an offer to Bori using a rare PvP resource must first harvest the resource (or otherwise obtain it) and return to the Shrine without suffering a PvP death.
Since there are several tiers of PvP resources, each rare type has been assigned a number of units based on the how much favor the sacrifice yields with Bori.
* Tier 3 Rare Metal/Precious Ore PvP Resource = 180 units
* Tier 2 Rare Metal/Precious Ore PvP Resource = 45 units
* Tier 1 Rare Metal/Precious Ore PvP Resource = 20 units
* Tier 3 Rare Stone/Wood PvP Resource = 60 units
* Tier 2 Rare Stone/Wood PvP Resource = 18 units
* Tier 1 Rare Stone/Wood PvP Resource = 10 units
Idol of Bori
The Idol of Bori is a crafted item, and there are versions of the recipe for each of the five crafting professions. Similar to the rare PvP resources, it is also unique and a player may only have one Idol of Bori at any given time. It also drops 100% of the time on PvP death.
Recipes for the Idol of Bori are sold on the merchant who spawns after a Shrine is captured. The materials used to make the Idol of Bori are the common PvP resources (which currently exist in the game), as well as a unique limited-stock ingredient that is sold on the Merchant and spawns 5 minutes after the Merchant has spawned. After his ingredient is purchased by any player, the Merchant will restock after 5 minutes assuming he isn't killed which resets that timer.
Offering the Idol of Bori to the Shrine yields 50 units.
Making a Sacrifice
A Sacrifice to Bori is made when the Altar has accumulated enough units. A Sacrifice to Bori is made automatically when the Altar has reached or surpassed this required unit amount.
After a Sacrifice has been made, all members of the controlling guild who are in the playfield receive the Favor of Bori event. Also, after a Sacrifice to an Altar, the other 3 Altars in the playfield have their Offerings reduced by 50% of the total amount needed to trigger a Sacrifice. This is independent of which guild controls the other shrines. Bori rewards action!
Favor of Bori
Upon a Sacrifice, Bori grants a favor to all members of the controlling guild who are in the playfield, up to a limit of 24 players. This includes:
* Some amount PvP experience
* Some amount of PvP Tokens
* Some amount of Glory (PvP Renown)
* 15 minute duration buff called “Favor of Bori,” which stacks up to 5 times.
In order to encourage and support smaller guilds in the face of a greater number of opponents, the amounts of tokens awarded is inversely proportional to guild members in the playfield. The breakdown is as follows:
* 1-6 guild members in the playfield yields 12 tokens per member
* 7-12 guild members in the playfield yields 6 tokens per member
* 13-18 guild members in the playfield yields 4 tokens per member
* 19-24 guild members in the playfield yields 3 tokens per member
If there are more than 24 guild members in the playfield at a time, Bori will randomly choose 24 players of the guild in the playfield to grant his favor. However, in this case Bori will only grant 1 token to the chosen 24 players (instead of 3) as Bori is not impressed by overwhelming odds.
The amount of PvP experience a player obtains from making a Sacrifice is proportional to the number of tokens he receives.
Destroying an Enemy Altar
Players may destroy the Altar, should the Shrine be owned by another guild. Note this is different than capturing the Banner, which causes the Shrine to change hands. Destroying an Altar does not cause the Shrine to change hands, but it is still an undesirable event for the guild whose Altar is destroyed.
To destroy an Altar, a player of a guild who doesn't own the Shrine must interact with the Altar for an uninterrupted 5 seconds. Doing so causes the Altar to lose 10% of it's health. When the Altar reaches 0 health, it is destroyed.
Similar to making an offering, interacting with the Altar such a way may only be accomplished by 1 player a time, and there is a 5 second global cooldown on interacting with the Shrine in this manner. If the Altar is destroyed, it will lose all of the accumulated offerings. Afterwards, it respawns in 5 minutes with 100% health. Upon a successful Sacrifice, the Shrine will obtain 25% of it's health back if it was damaged, up to 100%.
If an Altar is destroyed, the attacking guild receives some smaller number of tokens if the number of offerings on the Altar is greater than 75% (aka the Altar is more than 75% full). Altars which are 75% full or greater have a special particle effect visible. Similar to making a sacrifice, the number of tokens obtained in this manner is inversely proportional to the number of guild members in the playfield.
For destroying an enemy Altar:
* 1-6 guild members in the playfield yields 6 tokens per member
* 7-12 guild members in the playfield yields 3 tokens per member
* 13-18 guild members in the playfield yields 2 tokens per member
* 19-24 guild members in the playfield yields 1 tokens per member
* If there are more than 24 guild members in the playfield, there are no tokens obtained in this manner
There is no PvP experience or buff rewarded for destroying an enemy Altar.
Improving a Shrine
For each successful Sacrifice made to an Altar by a guild without the Altar being destroyed (or the Shrine changing hands due to capturing the Banner), the power of the Shrine will be increased up to a cap of 5 successful Sacrifices. This means there is a cumulative benefit for holding a Shrine for an extended period of time.
With each Sacrifice, the amount of units added to the Altar by an object (rare PvP resource or Idol of Bori) will increase by 5%, and also 6 seconds will be added to the amount of time the Banner needs to be in the contested state before being captured by another guild.
This means, after 5 successful Sacrifices (without losing the Shrine, or the Altar getting destroyed), the number of units granted by a rare PvP resource or Idol of Bori obtained will increased by 25% of the base value, and the contested time on the Banner will be increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
Losing a Shrine
A guild loses its Shrine if a different guild captures the Banner. This means it is interacted with for an uninterrupted period of 5 seconds, and then the Shrine remains in a contested state for an additional 60-90 seconds. When a guild loses its Shrine, the Altar and the Merchant will despawn, and all progress and timers on the Shrine will be erased and reset to initial values.
Owning Multiple Shrines
It is perfectly possible for a guild to own multiple Shrines. However, because making a Sacrifice reduces the offerings on the other Shrines by 50%, guilds may or may not find holding multiple Shrines as a useful strategy.
PvP Gear
Just a quick note about Tier 2 PvP gear. This gear will require a player to have reached the appropriate PvP level, and is priced in PvP Tokens similar to how raid gear is priced in Raid Tokens. The PvP Tokens obtained from performing a Sacrifice of Bori are of only one type. A different type is obtained through mini-games, and are rewarded upon the completion of wanted-poster style quests to win at the various mini-games (one quest per mini-game type). These quests are on several-hour cooldowns.
Mar 26 Jan - 13:00