Hey everyone,

Season 4 is well underway and we have recently seen the introduction of Guild & Alliance cooldowns, Siphoning Mage Changes, new Warhorses and the reintroduction of many choke points in the world map. We appreciate all of the feedback you have shared with us on this so far, and you can find the latest adjustments being tested here on our NDA Balance Playtest thread.

Naturally, many of you guys are wondering what's next on the agenda and what is the current status of features we mentioned in our last Live Dev Q&A on the latest Roadmap, therefore we want to use this opportunity to give you more details on the upcoming Crystal Realm GvG Feature and get your thoughts and feedback on it ahead of time.

Keep in mind that the details of this feature are subject to change up until the point that it goes live.

1. Participation

If your guild owns a Resource territory you will have the additional option to fight once per day against other groups who have also chosen to use this feature.

2. Ruleset

In these GvG battles:

• full loot is active
  
• item power is soft capped at 1000, and each item power point above this threshold only counts 50% e.g. item power 1600 will be reduced to 1300.
  
• the scoring mechanics are the same as in regular GvGs
  
• the battle vault of the territory the team starts from is used
  

3. Requirements

To start the match:

• players have to join (queue) the match (it will be listed below the regular upcoming GvG battles). This is possible from anywhere in the world as it is for regular GvG signups.
  
• players have to be in the cluster of the territory from which they joined the battle during the time window of the territory
  

4. Time Windows

Currently the system offers two time windows similar to those of siege camps:

• 14:00, 13:00, 12:00, 05:00, 04:00, 03:00, 02:00, 01:00; 00:00 start at 3:00 UTC
  
• 23:00, 22:00, 21:00, 20:00, 18:00, 17:00, 16:00, 15:00 start at 18:00 UTC
  

5. Tower Level

Each of the Resource Territories will have a tower level of 1, 2 or 3. Tower levels will:

• increase after a win in a Crystal Realm Battle
  
• decrease after a loss in a Crystal Realm Battle
  
• remain the same after a draw in a Crystal Realm Battle
  
• increase if the system cannot find an opponent for you
  

The tower level will also influence the rewards for the Crystal Realm Battle (see below).

6. Season Points

To keep the rough balance of Season points, we will move some of the points from territory ownership over to participation in Crystal Realm Battles

Previous Daily Season Points for Territory Ownership:



New Daily Season Points for Territory Ownership:



Max Season Points per Crystal Realm Battle:



The Season Points will be sent directly to a team’s guild, while the siphoned energy can be looted along with other rewards at the end of the match.

Since this is the most crucial part that will also influence the seasonal competition we want to give you a bit more insight on our thought process here:

• we want to set a point amount per fight, that reflects the risk you accept by entering a full loot battle against potentially strong opponents
  
• we are keeping the total season points available per season roughly the same. This is necessary to keep all siphoning energy prices and thresholds stable
  
• since we also match teams around the world against each other we think that only your tower level should influence the amount of points
  
• and since these fights are synchronized (in two time windows), we see a potential for guilds with more than few GvG teams to shine here
  
• we are still discussing the final values here, especially the share of the GvG fights compared to the territory ownership
  

7. Rewards

Rewards will be given out at match end as follows:

• the winner always receives 25% of the total possible reward
  
• 75% will be divided into 4 bonus loot lists and be given out based on the final tickets at match end
  
• for example:
  
  • a 150:0 win will give 100% of the loot to the winner
    
  • a 1:0 win will give 62.5% (25+ 37.5) to the winner and 37.5% to the loser
    
• a draw will give out only 75% total and divide it between both teams based on final tickets
  
• A team that signs up but cannot be matched will receive 25% of the total winner loot and approximately 63% of the total season points
  

As an additional motivation, Crystal Realm Battle rewards include:

• non-tradable Tomes of Insight
  
• non-tradable Silver bags
  
• a chance for black market drops
  

There will be a set total amount of these items (Team1’s tower level at match start influences Team1’s loot etc.) and this will be given out following the same breakdown described for season points above.

8. Matchmaking

• The matchmaking system will attempt to match teams of the same tower level against each other and only match different tower level teams if there would otherwise be no fight at all
  
• This system will also prevent Crystal Realm Battles between two Territory Teams from the same Alliance!
  

Since this is quite a bit of info here, it would be great if you can reference the heading when sharing your feedback on that particular area. For example, if your feedback is on Time Windows, please use that as a subheading within your post.

Additionally, we plan to introduce this feature with our next update, but we do not have a time-frame to share for that just yet.

Thank you and we very much look forward to your feedback!

- Evoque & the Dev Team