Open-World Territory Battles

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    • Open-World Territory Battles

      Dear Albion players,
      With Queen, the way territory control is determined changes. Territory ownership is not decided by 5v5s anymore, but instead by Open World Battles.

      Goal
      Territorial Warfare has always been a big and important part of Albion’s DNA. In the past territory control was fought out purely with GvGs, which mainly allowed a few elite players to participate. While we really liked the highly competitive gameplay of GvGs, we also figured its exclusivity was not good for the game.

      Now, with Queen, territory fights will be Open World Fights where anyone can join. So all members of a guild can contribute to the success in territorial warfare. Since this can and will result in very large scale battles in the high end zones we also introduced Disarray and the Smart Cluster Queue to ensure the game becomes less focused on pure player numbers alone.

      But we also wanted to keep the highly competitive 5v5 gameplay relevant for a guild’s success. So we introduced the Crystal League, high stakes instanced 5v5 matches. Winning these will also upgrade the tower levels.


      Territory Claiming
      Claiming an unclaimed territory is not changed. Just go to a tower, pay the silver fee and complete the channel. However, since we will introduce so many new territories at once, the territories will remain unclaimable until season 8 starts. With the season start, towers will become claimable at two major time zones to give as many guilds as possible the chance to claim one.
      • Towers will become claimable at:
        • 1 February 2020 - 18 UTC - EU primetime clusters
        • 2 February 2020 - 1 UTC - NA primetime clusters
      On Invasion Days the land of Albion will still keep reclaiming its territories. So, all guilds have to re-conquer them on Invasion Days. (like in prior seasons)

      Declaring Attacks
      Attack declarations are made directly at the enemy territory. In order to declare an attack you need to first take out the Sentry Mage. When the Sentry Mage is defeated, the tower’s defenses are disabled. Now you can go to the tower and declare an attack. The actual fight will happen at the next day at this cluster’s prime time.
      • Attack Declarations can be made at any time, independent of a cluster’s prime time.
      • A territory can be attacked by multiple guilds at once. (they all join the same battle)
      • Declaring an attack costs 2 million silver
      • Example:
        • An attack declaration is made on Monday at 14 UTC.
        • The attacked territory's prime time is 20 UTC.
        • The actual battle time will be on Tuesday at 20 UTC.
      Open World Battle
      • The Sentry Mage despawns 15 minutes before the attack (disabling the tower laser)
      • Attacks can only happen at the cluster’s prime time.
      • The battleground is directly at the territory in the open world (not any instance)
      • Any player can enter the cluster and take part in the fight
      • As soon as the attack starts, guilds can claim the territory by channeling the tower:
        • The channel lasts 30 seconds, but can’t be interrupted by damage (only hard CC interrupts the channel)
        • The tower can be channeled by the defending guild to end the attack
        • OR by any guild with an attack declaration. (If your guild has no declaration you can’t interact with the tower)
        • The first guild to channel the tower wins the fight
        • If after 30 minutes no one has channeled the tower, the defender wins by default
      Territory Benefits
      Owning a territory has the following benefits:
      • Siphoning Mages which generate Season Points and Siphoned Energy for the guild (Farms now also have Siphoning Mages)
      • The territory has NPC guards that attack enemy guilds
      • The tower itself is armed with a devastating lightning beam, providing an fallback position when outnumbered in the open world
      • Some territories provide farm plots in the open world (Farms)
      Lastly territories are not meant as a home for a guild, but more as a strategic goal to fight over during guild warfare. Therefore territories ownership should be more easily changed. To provide a home for guilds, we introduced the new hideouts.

      Conclusion
      With these two systems we want to find the best synergy between Open World Attacks and accessibility, while still keeping the high stakes and highly competitive 5v5 gameplay.
      • Open World Territory Attacks will be the deciding factor in how big a guild’s territory can be
      • Crystal League Battles will be the factor that decides how high the quality of these areas is
      And like always we are open for feedback and further improvements in the future.

      But for now we are excited to see how you will engage with these new systems in the upcoming season 8!

      Cheers,
      Retro

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Retroman ().

    • @Retroman / @PrintsKaspian / SBI Developers passing by - I would have a few important questions for You' if you don't mind.

      1. "The tower can be channeled by the defending guild to end the attack" - if I'm not wrong, this pretty much means that you already need to hold enemy territory before the fight even starts, right? I can see it becoming incredibly bad mechanic, as you pretty much need to either hold your territory way before the scheduled time, or attack it way before it, making it possible for fights to take place even 30 minutes or more before the actual claimable time, and if your here before the fight - you probably already won. It reminds me of old long-time-to-take castles, where guilds had to mass WAY before the castles just because you had to be there way before to don't be zone-blocked by enemy zerg and have a high ground during a fight.

      2. "If after 30 minutes no one has channeled the tower, the defender wins by default" - I can understand the reasoning behind this, but if in 30 minutes either of the sides haven't claimed the tower it probably means that there is extremely intensive fight happening, and in my very own opinion it would be interesting to consider removing this mechanic, as it simply force stops the epic fights which occures rarely.

      3. "The channel lasts 30 seconds, but can’t be interrupted by damage (only hard CC interrupts the channel)" - again, I can understand the reasoning behind this, but it definitely empowers what I will write about in section 4, which is that you will need to probably suicide your tanks in to actually make the fight longer and winnable, which is pretty ridiculous mechanic. I would prefer it WAY more to lets say have a channeling interrupted only after getting attacked from ex. 5 damage sources. Also, does knock-ups count as "hard-cc"? If so, you pretty much just need one SS that will rush in, press his E once per 25 seconds (7.1 omelettes, maybe even assassin hood) and that's it. Introducing only hard CC interrupt is understandable, as you try to avoid what is now happening in yellow zone warcamps, but in yellow zones you already most of the time interrupt launch channel via SS, so it would probably change nearly nothing in the matter which you try to change for better.

      4. "Increases the yield for resource gathering for EVERY player in the cluster" - I really don't like it as a gatherer - it will pretty much mean that you will have to protect your cluster at all times with your guild just because you will actually gather LESS because of how many players would try to just take advantage of this buff which should definitely be just for a alliance of a guild that holds this territory. What is Your statement on this topic?

      The post was edited 1 time, last by DuendeBrek ().

    • DuendeBrek wrote:

      It reminds me of old long-time-to-take castles, where guilds had to mass WAY before the castles just because you had to be there way before to don't be zone-blocked by enemy zerg and have a high ground during a fight.

      Exactly, even layout further promotes it. If its hard to get into the terri while theres players inside, you will just see attackers being there ealier and taking that better position.

    • DuendeBrek wrote:

      1. "The tower can be channeled by the defending guild to end the attack" - if I'm not wrong, this pretty much means that you already need to hold enemy territory before the fight even starts, right? I can see it becoming incredibly bad mechanic, as you pretty much need to either hold your territory way before the scheduled time, or attack it way before it, making it possible for fights to take place even 30 minutes or more before the actual claimable time, and if your here before the fight - you probably already won. It reminds me of old long-time-to-take castles, where guilds had to mass WAY before the castles just because you had to be there way before to don't be zone-blocked by enemy zerg and have a high ground during a fight.
      1. The attacker can choose the day, the defender start in a advantage. If you start with disadvantage then what is the point of a terry. If you say there is a prime time, but man i dont have dat luxury to take off every day for a disadvantageous battle.

      DuendeBrek wrote:

      2. "If after 30 minutes no one has channeled the tower, the defender wins by default" - I can understand the reasoning behind this, but if in 30 minutes either of the sides haven't claimed the tower it probably means that there is extremely intensive fight happening, and in my very own opinion it would be interesting to consider removing this mechanic, as it simply force stops the epic fights which occures rarely.
      2. If the attacker party this pu**y then just dont launch a attack. Risk = Reward.

      3. Im Black zone player i have no idea what happening in yellow/red zones.

      DuendeBrek wrote:

      4. "Increases the yield for resource gathering for EVERY player in the cluster" - I really don't like it as a gatherer - it will pretty much mean that you will have to protect your cluster at all times with your guild just because you will actually gather LESS because of how many players would try to just take advantage of this buff which should definitely be just for a alliance of a guild that holds this territory. What is Your statement on this topic?
      4. It is for your guild you said it correct and why are you worrying about gathering when you sleep? Its more content for gatherers and gankers. I really liked when players did guild activities next to their territory then defended it when the siphone mage got attacked..

    • DuendeBrek wrote:

      4. "Increases the yield for resource gathering for EVERY player in the cluster" - I really don't like it as a gatherer - it will pretty much mean that you will have to protect your cluster at all times with your guild just because you will actually gather LESS because of how many players would try to just take advantage of this buff which should definitely be just for a alliance of a guild that holds this territory. What is Your statement on this topic?
      I guess they exactly want to encourage this. People wanting to go and steal other guilds/alliance´s resources to get some solo/small scale PvP.

    • DuendeBrek wrote:

      @Retroman / @PrintsKaspian / SBI Developers passing by - I would have a few important questions for You' if you don't mind.

      1. "The tower can be channeled by the defending guild to end the attack" - if I'm not wrong, this pretty much means that you already need to hold enemy territory before the fight even starts, right? I can see it becoming incredibly bad mechanic, as you pretty much need to either hold your territory way before the scheduled time, or attack it way before it, making it possible for fights to take place even 30 minutes or more before the actual claimable time, and if your here before the fight - you probably already won. It reminds me of old long-time-to-take castles, where guilds had to mass WAY before the castles just because you had to be there way before to don't be zone-blocked by enemy zerg and have a high ground during a fight.
      Realistically we expect both sides to be there early before the fight.

      We could also have said the battle starts at X and the tower can be channeled only 15 minutes after X minutes. However the result would be the same. i.e. both sides meeting there before the tower can be channeled. So no matter what time we put the capture timer on, both sides want to be there early to make sure to control the tower at the crucial time window. That is why we decided to use the battle timer as the claim timer to have only one time for players to remember. (in fact 15 minutes before the fight start, the music already changes and a timer in the cluster start counting down.

      Fights happening 15 to 30 minutes before the claim timer will be unavoidable due to the open nature of the new system.

      Cheers,
      Retro

      EDIT:
      And another important info, that was missing in the original post, the Sentry Mage despawns 15 minutes before the battle, disabling the Tower beam (I will add this info to the post)

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Retroman ().

    • Retroman wrote:

      Tower Upgrades

      The territory tower can be upgraded with Crystal League. Crystal League matches can be started from a territory tower. Winning those matches from the tower has following benefits
      • Winning a Crystal League match level 4 or higher gives an additional Crystal League Chest for each member of the winning team.
      • The tier of the chest depends on the won tower level, i.e. T5 Chest for a T5 match, etc

      @Retroman This isn't a 100% clear to me, do you still get a T5 chest if you win a T5 match on a T1 tower? Or does one need to fight at a T5 tower to get a T5 reward?

    • Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant. This bonus given to everyone and players not in your alliance or guild will create problems for terris. This lowers the need to even level the towers yourself if everyone gets the zone bonus. The bonus should be half as good for non-ally or guild members atleast. The owners/allies of the tower should get more then everyone else bonus wise. Please either make the bonus for ally or guild members only or at the very least 50% less for non-guild/ally and 100% bonus to ally and guild. This will increase the need to really fight over terris since well you can't even store farm seeds in the tower chest or mats. @Retroman

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Neef ().

    • Boedavildje wrote:

      Retroman wrote:

      Tower Upgrades

      The territory tower can be upgraded with Crystal League. Crystal League matches can be started from a territory tower. Winning those matches from the tower has following benefits
      • Winning a Crystal League match level 4 or higher gives an additional Crystal League Chest for each member of the winning team.
      • The tier of the chest depends on the won tower level, i.e. T5 Chest for a T5 match, etc

      @Retroman This isn't a 100% clear to me, do you still get a T5 chest if you win a T5 match on a T1 tower? Or does one need to fight at a T5 tower to get a T5 reward?
      You can get a T5 chest on a T1 tower.

    • Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.

    • Neef wrote:

      Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.
      Its more content, It makes other players venture on your cluster, making it more interesting. It might make the owner guild try to scout the map for rogue gathers. This is all good for the game.

    • Neef wrote:

      Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.

      I hear you, but that would seem impossible to implement for enchantment rates. You could still do that for gathering bonuses, but would you include allies in the bonus?

    • Kyrw wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.
      Its more content, It makes other players venture on your cluster, making it more interesting. It might make the owner guild try to scout the map for rogue gathers. This is all good for the game.
      Enchantment rate for everyone, bonus yield for the owner.

      What is the point to hold a territory if all i get is energy and maybe some farming plots?

      Placing a hideout and keeping it sounds way easier, and way harder to lose.

    • Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Roccandil wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.
      I hear you, but that would seem impossible to implement for enchantment rates. You could still do that for gathering bonuses, but would you include allies in the bonus?
      No. Allies benefit from the protection of the terri already. The GUILD owning the terri should get this benefit, just like the actual terries do.

      And i'm still all up for a no alliance game. Switching the UI for a NAP system where the 'allies' would still be attackable would be ideal.

    • Retroman wrote:

      Example:


      An attack declaration is made on Monday at 14 UTC.

      The attacked territory's prime time is 20 UTC.

      The actual attack time will be on Tuesday at 20 UTC.
      What if attack declaration is made on Monday 23 UTC
      Prime Time is 20 UTC (so attack is 3 hrs after prime time starts, but still during the prime time, as the PT window is 4 hrs)
      The actual attack will be Tuesday or Wed at 20 UTC?

      Kyrw wrote:

      Neef wrote:

      Roccandil wrote:


      Neef wrote:

      Can you please reconsider giving the whole zone a gather yield bonus and enchant.
      Honestly, I want to see how this turns out. If it results in guilds bringing zergs to protect gatherers in enemy-boosted maps, I think that would be awesome. :)
      Yeah, I just feel like why should the whole game get a bonus from 1 guilds hard work in leveling that tower, Like i said at the very least the buff should be atleast better for the owners. This would still create battles and fights because the zone will still have a bonus to all players weither its 100% of the bonus or 50%.
      Its more content, It makes other players venture on your cluster, making it more interesting. It might make the owner guild try to scout the map for rogue gathers. This is all good for the game.
      ^ this.

      The bonuses that are Region (cluster) wide - will also bring mass PVP content to your gankers... its a win-win for everyone. If the bonus if guild only - no other players/gatherers would dare enter (lots of risk for 0 reward)