We have yet again finally gotten an update to what they are seeing in terms of the territory PvP influence and everything along with it. First bit is that this is good news that they are taking a look at this and finally deciding to make changes to it. But, heres why its a letdown…
PvP missions and running up territory influence is extremely poor right now and always has been. Has it gotten better since day 1? Absolutely, but not anywhere near the place most people want to see it. To have to gather up people and push anywhere from 3 days to 3 hours just to get a chance to declare on a territory if you get contested along with it, on top of the frustratingly boring missions with the lack of any sort of PvP along the way makes the whole system just not enjoyable to anyone. Which is also on top of some routes for missions being the most absurd thing ever like Mourningdale for any faction or Reekwater for covenant just as examples.
So instead of me continuing to go on about how bad these missions are, as most of you and the developer team have probably read over and over now, how do we actually make pushing a territory 1. fun and engaging and 2. worthwhile for all factions including the one that own said territory?
- Making fun and engaging content:
- Running from Point A to Point B and back to Point A over and over is terrible (Almost like those OG missions that were in the game that the devs decided to change up, just saying). Running from Point A to Point B back to Point A with some PvP, a little more fun but more annoying than anything because youre just getting slowed down. Running from Point A to Point B and back with a ton of PvP from all 3 factions, everyone running missions trying to dec, now thats actually fun. However, unfortunately, the last time thats actually happened, atleast for me, was a full year ago. So how do we actually get that same thing but in todays setting? Running PvP missions for attacking factions needs to be quicker and more like a gamemode such as OPR instead of purely to push a bar. Running PvP missions for the defending faction needs to be worth your time and act as a way to gain a territory/war benefit before the war.
(And before I break these down, I want to address that the PvP track, while it was cool for a while and added a small incentive for PvP mission running, it is not anywhere near the level it was when it released. Since then, most people dont care for this anymore except for maybe a jewelry piece still or the specific craft mods, but outside of that, thats it. Most of the armor and weapon rewards are lackluster and arent really anything sought after anymore as most of the time you get better gear from OPR crates than 10 tracks in the PvP track. Also, PvP track needs to be infinite instead of stopping at 200 I think it is.)
So, how and what does this mean? Lets break it down.
PvP Missions for Attacking Factions:
- Control points have been highly talked about and have been a focal point for quite a few territory influence posts that have been posted here before. The more control points you control, the more influence you can earn. Tiny battles around the territory that will incentivize any faction to control them and PvP there so they can have an advantage for their push.
Benefits:
Allows for smaller scale battles at multiple locations
Allows a faction to gain an advantage to their push with all locations in their favor granting a major bonus for their push
More PvP xp for PvP track per control point cap (doesnt need to be much if is quick)
More engagement within the PvP missions of a territory
Downsides:
Mega companies and lopsided factions can control all points with ease
Capping the point may be too long to be able to viably go out to cap them and then do missions
Control points may be too far from settlement and be a burden to get to not allowing small companies to control some and do missions (i.e. if its near the fort, looking at you Ebon and Brim for example)
The general consensus for attacking factions is that missions need to be centered around objectives with benefits and being able to control how much you can really push vs. being a static 1 mission = a specific amount. Now this has to be limited obviously so theres a cap to how much more of an advantage you can gain, but there still needs to be that option to allow for engagement and incentive to get those control points or objectives and allow your faction to push quicker. It would also be cool to see players who contributed to the push receive kind of like OPR caches where whoever did the most influence gets a cache with potions, a couple gear pieces, some consumable food maybe as like a pre-war prep box. And as the contribution count scales down from person to person, they receive caches with less and less stuff. Still would be cool to see you get some prep-box type reward when completing the push and maybe a company box for the company who successfully gets the declare with a bit more potions and consumables. Something that adds onto the reward for going out there and pushing influence and helps that company prepare for the war.
PvP Missions for Defending Factions:
- There is no incentive to go out with your faction or company to push the influence down. Sure, maybe theres an argument for well you can keep your territory for longer, but is it really viable or are you just saying it because its something in theory you could do? Reality is any major company will not do this as they want war. That the content theyre looking for which is why most companies who own land actually hold land or push multiple territories on the map, because thats the content they like, wars. Which is why when companies see the bar going up on their territory, they are happy because its war and they can play the content they want. So, what actually makes not pushing a bar down the norm for defending factions?
a. Other companies within the faction dont want to help that company defend the territory because they want them to lose it so they can push and take it
b. Gathering up company members to not allow your company to get content is just the opposite of what they want
c. Doing the same missions you did to get the territory in the first place but again, not getting content after is a pain and has no value.
Some interesting concepts that would make contributing to defending your territory in some fashion also has to do with control points. An example would be a system where the more you contribute to defending your territory, the more benefits you will get come war time. In example, if you contribute nothing to defending your territory, not a single mission, not 1 control point interacted with, come war time, your siege has a reduced effect of up to -50% or a 50% chance of randomly breaking and go inoperable for a certain amount of time. PvP missions for defending faction needs to have effects directly on the war to actually make then viable for every company both casual and competitive. This one is tough overall as a player and im sure as a developer because you dont want to make it too too rewarding/required when big companies will constantly keep the bar down, but there has to be a reason to go out and capture control points or get kills so you can keep the benefits going into that war. Again, changing up the missions and having OPR style objectives will allow for more engagement and make pushing down influence a lot more viable and worthwhile.
I think the specific windows for pushing should be a thing but implemented in a certain way. The way I would implement them would be you can push anytime you want. However, there are windows where control points and specific pushing benefits are unlocked which allow you to push the territory better. During the downtime, when the window is locked/closed, pushing will be the same or worse than it is now. Slow, boring, not engaging, etc. No matter what you should be able to push a territory whenever you want. But, there should be windows where pushing makes more sense and is better to do so. Setting windows so you bar players for potentially getting the content they want is just another bad step. Especially for the territories like Restless, First Light and Weavers where pushing is terrible anyways. Mission changes/more engagement before push windows please.
I know this was long but trying to address this from a Pov of a player thats been here since Alpha and been through everything from being a settler in the weakest company on a server to being on top to managing a company and everything in between. I love that youre talking about this stuff, but change is needed, and its not looking like any change is coming anytime soon. Its always yeah we know its bad but how bad do you think it really is? I’d love to see the dev team get together for a day and push Mourningdale to whatever % theyd get while talking about territory stuff because it does seem like the actual scale of how bad is is isnt on their radar just yet. Hopefully im wrong and changes come soon though 
Thank you for reading this post, feel free to leave any of your ideas below for territory influence changes.