Hi all,
When it comes to large scale Outland gameplay, one of our core design goals is to encourage as much conflict as possible.
This is always a balancing act between making it easy to get to and find fights on the one hand, and making sure that a coalition of players does not become overly dominant on the other hand. Part of this is also to set up the game systems in such a way that conflict is always encouraged as much as possible, of course within the constraints that in an open world Sandbox MMORPG, players can freely choose on how to play and who to fight.
Over the past weeks, we have received a lot of feedback regarding the role of hideouts for power projection in the Outlands. Due to the flexible custom rights system, it’s currently possible for each hideout to in principle act as a respawn point for an entire coalition, no matter what their actual in-game alliance status is. In addition to that, freshly placed hideouts can fulfill that role right away, which encourages placing hideouts just for this purpose, which goes beyond their intended design.
Hence, with the next balance patch due early February, we are restricting the set home functionality for hideouts in the following way:
Players can only set home in a hideout that belongs to their guild, and in any level 3 hideout that belongs to a guild that is part of their alliance.
The goal here is to make power projection for non-allied coalitions more difficult, without hindering the set home feature per se. Through the level 3 requirement for alliance respawn, we want to combat the spam of level 1 hideouts and make specific level 3 hideouts more of a strategic target to fight over, while at the same time increasing the relevance of a guild’s own hideouts.
This change is being implemented on a trial basis. We are aware that various work-around strategies might exist and want to observe how this plays out in practice. We will monitor this very closely and then decide on how to proceed, which could include taking further steps if required.
When it comes to large scale Outland gameplay, one of our core design goals is to encourage as much conflict as possible.
This is always a balancing act between making it easy to get to and find fights on the one hand, and making sure that a coalition of players does not become overly dominant on the other hand. Part of this is also to set up the game systems in such a way that conflict is always encouraged as much as possible, of course within the constraints that in an open world Sandbox MMORPG, players can freely choose on how to play and who to fight.
Over the past weeks, we have received a lot of feedback regarding the role of hideouts for power projection in the Outlands. Due to the flexible custom rights system, it’s currently possible for each hideout to in principle act as a respawn point for an entire coalition, no matter what their actual in-game alliance status is. In addition to that, freshly placed hideouts can fulfill that role right away, which encourages placing hideouts just for this purpose, which goes beyond their intended design.
Hence, with the next balance patch due early February, we are restricting the set home functionality for hideouts in the following way:
Players can only set home in a hideout that belongs to their guild, and in any level 3 hideout that belongs to a guild that is part of their alliance.
The goal here is to make power projection for non-allied coalitions more difficult, without hindering the set home feature per se. Through the level 3 requirement for alliance respawn, we want to combat the spam of level 1 hideouts and make specific level 3 hideouts more of a strategic target to fight over, while at the same time increasing the relevance of a guild’s own hideouts.
This change is being implemented on a trial basis. We are aware that various work-around strategies might exist and want to observe how this plays out in practice. We will monitor this very closely and then decide on how to proceed, which could include taking further steps if required.
