Invasions
A few weeks ago, we started a new 'tradition': During the weekend, we'll have a No Drops Day (you don't lose your stuff when you die, monsters don't drop anything). During the NDD, there is a general invasion for everyone, with monsters ranging from Spiders to Giants and sometimes Dragons, and this invasion is free style, pure hack and slash fun, almost no rules (although we encourage players to fight monsters their own levels, and not kill the monsters designed for the newbies).
The second part of the day is a big invasion on one single map, where we start with 520 giants, 60 red dragons and 20 black dragons (the numbers can vary a little).
The objective is to clear the map in a given time period (around 4 hours). If the players manage to do that, then the next weekend they get a similar event. If they fail, then the next weekend they will get a weaker invasion, and no No Drops Day. However, if they do kill all the monsters in the allocated time, they get another NDD next week.
Until now, we had the final invasions in Bethel, a small desert map which is mostly.. deserted. Being a small map, 600 monsters are allover the place, and it is very hard to kill the first 100 or so (you basically die within the first 1 to 10 seconds in the map). However, after the monster density decreases, it's relatively easy (ie. not insanely difficult) to kill the other monsters.
Given the fact that most of the fighers enjoy No Drop Days, they work together as a team, regardless of their alliances or wars. Lower level players that normally can not kill giants also participate in the invasion, either by acting as cannon fodder, and/or mages, harming and poisoning the monsters.
After the last invasion, one of our players, Conavar, came up with an idea on how to spice up the invasions.
He suggested that there should be some secondary objectives to an invasion, that would give the players some bonus such as extending the deadline, removing some monsters from the map, give the players access to some hidden supplies, and so on.
The secondary objectives could be escorting a player to safety, having to kill a player, etc.
I immediately fell in love with this idea, mainly because it reminded me of one of my favorite childhood games, Tie Fighter, which is a futuristic combat flight simulator. I am not sure how many played that game, but the idea behind it is that you pilot various ships and you need to accomplish some well defined goals. Goals like destroy a certain ship, protect/escort another ship, disable one ship and then protect it, and variations on this theme. Those missions were very well constructed, and made the game really fun. Most of them had a primary goal that had to be completed, and secondary, or bonus goals, which were optional.
Because Bethel is such a small map, it was impractical to run any side missions there, since the monster density won't allow it. So instead we used Idaloran, which is a BIG map. There were two announced secondary objectives, one of them being that in 1 hour the city must be clear from any monsters, and the other one was to find and escort Gicu (the character I run invasions with) to safety. The first secondary goal failed, but the second one was completed. Near the end of the invasion, I added a 3rd secondary goal, where two black dragons in another map had to be killed in 30 minutes. Players completed that goal as well.
Overall, it was a very nice invasion, and pretty much everyone who participated enjoyed it. A lot of good items degraded during the fights, which contributes to the economy and our pocket :D Many health essences and rings and mana potions were also used, which contributes to the economy alone (not to our pocket).
I'm looking forward to the next weekend, and have to come up with some new ideas about secondary missions.
The second part of the day is a big invasion on one single map, where we start with 520 giants, 60 red dragons and 20 black dragons (the numbers can vary a little).
The objective is to clear the map in a given time period (around 4 hours). If the players manage to do that, then the next weekend they get a similar event. If they fail, then the next weekend they will get a weaker invasion, and no No Drops Day. However, if they do kill all the monsters in the allocated time, they get another NDD next week.
Until now, we had the final invasions in Bethel, a small desert map which is mostly.. deserted. Being a small map, 600 monsters are allover the place, and it is very hard to kill the first 100 or so (you basically die within the first 1 to 10 seconds in the map). However, after the monster density decreases, it's relatively easy (ie. not insanely difficult) to kill the other monsters.
Given the fact that most of the fighers enjoy No Drop Days, they work together as a team, regardless of their alliances or wars. Lower level players that normally can not kill giants also participate in the invasion, either by acting as cannon fodder, and/or mages, harming and poisoning the monsters.
After the last invasion, one of our players, Conavar, came up with an idea on how to spice up the invasions.
He suggested that there should be some secondary objectives to an invasion, that would give the players some bonus such as extending the deadline, removing some monsters from the map, give the players access to some hidden supplies, and so on.
The secondary objectives could be escorting a player to safety, having to kill a player, etc.
I immediately fell in love with this idea, mainly because it reminded me of one of my favorite childhood games, Tie Fighter, which is a futuristic combat flight simulator. I am not sure how many played that game, but the idea behind it is that you pilot various ships and you need to accomplish some well defined goals. Goals like destroy a certain ship, protect/escort another ship, disable one ship and then protect it, and variations on this theme. Those missions were very well constructed, and made the game really fun. Most of them had a primary goal that had to be completed, and secondary, or bonus goals, which were optional.
Because Bethel is such a small map, it was impractical to run any side missions there, since the monster density won't allow it. So instead we used Idaloran, which is a BIG map. There were two announced secondary objectives, one of them being that in 1 hour the city must be clear from any monsters, and the other one was to find and escort Gicu (the character I run invasions with) to safety. The first secondary goal failed, but the second one was completed. Near the end of the invasion, I added a 3rd secondary goal, where two black dragons in another map had to be killed in 30 minutes. Players completed that goal as well.
Overall, it was a very nice invasion, and pretty much everyone who participated enjoyed it. A lot of good items degraded during the fights, which contributes to the economy and our pocket :D Many health essences and rings and mana potions were also used, which contributes to the economy alone (not to our pocket).
I'm looking forward to the next weekend, and have to come up with some new ideas about secondary missions.
posted by Radu at 4:25 AM
4 Comments:
There is a down side to having so much of the weekend time as no-drops-day. People who need to gather dead animal parts for summoning or potion making can't do it during that time. Other than that, it seems like a pretty exciting kind of event.
I can't explain how much fun I had this Saturday. Even though I did lose a col, I couldn't have had more fun.
Good work, I love NND days and your invasions. I am more of a newbie, but I figured out that perks like fatal man make invasions more fun for me because I can actually hit & defend against monsters like giants. With no fail restore, I can act as the "cannon fodder" and take the damage, leaving people who can actually kill the giants to spend all their time for fighting. With the mirror cloak, fatal man perk, and evanescence I can block/damage the monsters 1/5. I can't wait till the next invasion.
Great work Radu
Saint
Well, there are, of course, some downsides with the invasions, but you can't please everyone, and the good of many outweighs the good of few.
Speaking as a sub 30's a/d who manufactures a lot, I agree with the first comment to a certain extent, but the upside of the ndd is that it allows a lot of people to participate in the invasions who wouldn't otherwise. If it was possible, I would suggest a compromise in terms of either (1) modifying the game to make no drops day apply only to the users, so the monsters drop on NDD. This also makes the invasions on ndd even more attractive; or (2) more low-level invasions for the noobs! The one during the week was great fun if a bit brief, (maybe 4-5 times the number of animals?) There's no NDD needed, and plenty of animal parts for all!!
Post a Comment
<< Home