Introduction:
I ready like the idea of adding more dynamic events to the open world. The issue with what we have now is that they do not feel special or worthy of getting a sudden group together and rising to the challenge. The first time you see a corruption portal and close it, it’s really cool. (Especially the one that you need to break the door and then go inside to close the portal.) The issue is, these things are up all of the time. It’s easy to be desensitized, They also do not have any impact on the world around them such as closing them to delay invasions and can be easily ignored. In contrast, Turkulon/Gleemite was well received initially because it was less common and felt more random and as a result you can make things more rewarding (please bring back Gleemite meteors as starmetal and ori ore nodes). A final piece of this is there is a desire to make invasions more accessible to casual players and even players of all levels. There was this idea of “practice invasions” that was brought up in the development videos.
Idea:
What if we had an event that was less common, happening 1-2 times a day (maybe not at all some days) at random hours based on the time zone of the server. So it could be, one in the middle of the day and maybe one at a higher chance between 6pm-10pm. The game would select a settlement’s fort at random that does not have an invasion/war at that time. If something is miraculously happening everywhere, then it doesn’t happen that day.
This would trigger a mini invasion at that location. All players over global would be notified, “Fort Ebonscale is under attack by the Lost.” The creature type can be random and it would only choose types appropriate for that area to ensure proper game immersion. Corrupted are a possibility everywhere but perhaps might see more Lost in Cutlass Keys and more Ancients in Everfall.
Players from all factions can then flock to the fort to help defend it, they can flag to PvP each other for dominance and it can result in a mixed PvE and PvP event. The rewards should be reasonably significant because it’s not common. You can’t make a dynamic event such as corrupted portals give really good rewards, because otherwise people would farm it to oblivion. Yet since this is less common of an event, this can be more in line with actual invasion rewards if you are alive at the end and inside/near the fort (triggering the same way as any other dynamic event, if you leave the area it will give the warning).
One distinct difference here from a regular invasion is that this is dynamic event. What happens impacts the open world, so it’s no longer a success or fail and the event ends. In this, you either are present in the fort before they invade and help defend at the walls or don’t make it in time and need to take the fort. Additionally there is the possibility that they have control over the fort after a failed defense. This fort could in theory be held by enemies for days if it’s not cleared. Add new high tier elite enemies. Having a boss-level new enemy at the center near the flag (or at the end of the invasion that crashes through the gates) make it difficult and geared towards 50+ people defenses. The boss should have a strong mass wipe mechanic. It should be difficult.
Additional thoughts:
1: The final boss can be a hippo.
2: if a player has PvP active at end, when boss is cleared, Significant increase the rewards. Ideally we would have another less PvE focused dynamic event(s) at the forts as well, such as a fort spontaneously being marked on the map so that factions can all head over there for a King of the Hill-like event (for another post!)
3. Allow people to flag or not flag. This should be focused as PvE event but give additional incentive to flag.
4. Allow all levels to participate but gear this towards end-game players. Gives that, oh shit look at those badass players doing it. I wanna get there someday kinda moment. Rewards scaled based on level to prevent abuse. They could help on siege where player level particularly important.
5. Ideally the siege weapons would be active during this time. Would need to code them to work only on PvE enemies and not usable by PvP players (if you are flagged). In other PvP modes like one described above it would be cool to have them usable for PvP but that’s a whole other issue (would be to be destroyable, repairable, etc).
6. We need more special feeling dynamic events. This can be accomplished by making it more rare and giving it really good rewards such that people will drop everything to get to them. This makes it feel more special compared with corrupted portals.
Tldr; Make an uncommon/rare dynamic event where a spontaneous invasion is declared on a random fort. Broadcast this to all players. Players must either defend the fort in time or clear it out if it was taken over by the invasion. Gives forts relevance and helps create spontaneous open world PvP.
