Invasion:
Most of the suggestions here will be to improve the rewards as it is an incredibly grindy and long term event that is hard to catch up on.
For anyone curious, here is a spreadsheet which outlines more details about the system:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...N1w9pEqTgvgjYfUtnM60vkd6U/edit#gid=1572939487
The biggest issue I foresee is that you can get rewards from each time the invasion event happens. This is a problem because many players won't be able to attend the event each time it happens due to timezones, work, or other obligations. However of course some players will attend all of the invasions. In previous updates that created new progression like garden or EHM, there wasn't a single event that only happened a few times a week that your progression completely relied on, you could go in garden or EHM and do the quests whenever you wanted, and weren't dependent on some arbitrary event timer that you either could or could not attend, which made a massive difference in how fast you could progress.
Since the system is so grindy, if someone can make the invasion event once-twice a week, but another player can attend it 3 times a week, this adds up massively over time. It's not like weeklies where two players have the same outcome and amount of rewards regardless if one player completes it in 1 day or farms a little bit for the quest each day. You only have one option with invasion, either attend the event or don't. Either get the rewards or don't.
There is also the question of when this invasion event will take place each day, who will decide when is the best time? Because someone will always miss out.
This update heavily restricts the players ability to progress on their own timeline and at their own pace because you are so dependent on attending the 'big event' that only happens a few times a week to get any resources to level up.
Changes to the event itself, I have two options here:
- Make the event much easier to win for the players and much harder to win for the akasch. Keep the debuff to world bosses intact (if the akasch win). This way there is still an incentive for players who have already completed all of their content in this system to continue to show up to the invasion. My fear is that if we remove the penalties to bosses for losing the invasion, there will be little/no incentive for players who have already completed everything to show up.
- Alternatively, remove/reduce the debuff to world bosses which occurs when players lose the invasion. In live the weaker factions would throw the event after they completed their quest so the bosses would get buffed and be harder for the strong side to kill which in my opinion creates a negative server health environment and mentality. There are long term risks to this approach (which I outlined above) in that once players complete all of the invasion progression content, they may not longer attend as there is no benefit to them, which in turn makes it much more difficult for anyone to catch up (one of the biggest criticisms of this system).
Changes to rewards, quests, etc (not saying you have to implement all of these):
- Increase laffi's stock to 6 items instead of 3 so there is more incentive for winning
- Increase the cap of 200 players per main faction in the zone during the event to 300
- Reduce the token cost of Gedlon's, Herstan's, and Yordan's to 50 tokens each
- Reduce the token cost of Ewan's rune to 100 each
- Change the daily eggs smashing quest to a weekly quest, to be more flexible for the players. Increase the requirement to destroy 100 serpent eggs in Ipnya ridge, Adjust the rewards x7
- Adjust the times for the event to be more in line with the demographics of the server
- Add a weekly marketplace quest, similar to the marketplace hiram quests, which players can use to obtain more tokens each day
- Reduce the amount of radiant hiram infusions required for a demigod's essence at a castle workbench from 100 to 70
- Improve the rewards from the weekly quest, reduce the rewards from the invasion event
Hero respawn slot:
Most of the suggestions here will be to reduce the effectiveness or limit the scope of the respawns as they heavily impact pvp health
- Restrict the usage of these from either Karkasse ridgelands, or the combination of Sungold and Exeloch. It is important to carefully pilot the release of these so they do not disrupt the state or enjoyment of pvp for players. Many are already complaining about the implementation based on the experience from other servers. We should err on the side of caution when adding such an impactful change.
- Add a cool down that is longer than the length of the duration of the respawn point, so they cannot be mindlessly spammed/chained ( by the same faction ) without any regard for timing or strategy. For example if the Nui is up for 10 minutes, it should start a timer of 12 or 15 minutes such that the nui cannot be claimed until the time has elapsed.
- Reduce the overall amount per week of these that are given to the heroes, so they will be used more tactically instead of chained for the entire duration of all the bosses.
Seaknight buff:
- Add a skill rank improvement for malediction, swiftblade, and gunslinger, and all future classes going forward. Currently there is an imbalance here.
