Frontier keep camping

[Zill]

One of the gaming aspects I enjoy about DAoC is frontier keep camping. Whether it's searching for enemy players in Uppland/Yggdra or camping myself in Sauvage/Gorge, overall this has taken up a fair chunk of playing time for me. However I can see this little excursion becoming more redundant now that players can bind and gain speed buffs in their respective frontier keeps. And as a result I fear these introductions will become a major deficit for enemy players and will lower their enthusiasm to camp frontier keeps for the following reasons:-

1. Soloists or groups could potentially become overrun easily from defending players that have all spawned together having just died and released i.e. in Emain.

2. A high percentage of defending players will have rez effects and therefore yield no realm points, so even if the attackers gain advantage of reason 1 they will receive no reward as a result.

3. Defending players with rez effects will care less about surviving and take more risks safely in the knowledge they will spawn feet away and give away no rlm pts, and go back for some more knowing that they can only gain from it.

4. Players will find it harder to get away due to being pursued by all and sundry with speed buffs.

Last night for example I decided to solo around Gorge due to the high influx of Hibs traveling to Emain. The first Hib I saw coming towards me was Envenom - always a nice target and one I seldom to see running alone. So after a brief struggle he died and I received no rlm pts. Then later on during the course of the next hour or so more Hibs come down from Gorge entrance, alone and each one falls after the other and again no rlm pts. In fact all of the rlm pts that I gained during my spell in Gorge came from Albs in the area. I'm not sure if they benefited anything from the expereince, but I'd hazzard a guess and say they didn't.

Then later on I found out that there was a small group of Hibs camping in Uppland so I went outside to see what I could do. There were an equal number of Mids at hand to assist and after a short while all the Hibs were dead including one Celt that had risked dying by chasing a SB close to the gates. I spoke to the SB after and he said he wasn't bothered about dying as he had rez effects. This sums up my fears that players will fail to see anymore significance in frontier keep camping as a honey pot for rlm pts and as a consequence this gaming aspect will slowly die away.

 

[err0r]

Very true. Although, the majority of your prey propably don't think it's an bad thing at all ^^

 

[skile]

More action, harder in fronteir. These aspects seem like something positive to me.

 

[old.Xanthian]

Maybe i'll be able to get out into my own sodding frontier soon without getting killed

 

[dexa]

i see u point and to many play like that.
for me a kill is a kill rps or not, but for some its so importent
not to die but not give rps so they run to gaurds, it like playing
cs and u are low on healht so u rather jump and die then getting killed by enemy.

ps the speedbuffs could be faster

 

[-yoda-]

another way to look at it is people wont get pissed of with running to suavage everytime afterthey die, hence back in emain faster .

sure you might not get rps all the time due to the speed they get back but rp's aint everything . you play the game for rps or to have fun fighting enemys? i personally prefer to have a good fight and get no rps "although sometimes anoyying" than die run miles from pk/cots/ or further away to get back into the action . my idea of the game is to have fun and albeit farming rps or not getting rps as long as i have fun in battle im happy

 

[Whandall]

I agree yoda - and with ress sickness they drop down much faster *eg*

 

[old.Eeek]

Ooo, you mean I can get ganked on excal road, /rel and appear at Sauvage, run down excal road again and if I get ganked again you gain no RPs, FANTASTIC

In the normal course of events - keep takes etc, as a caster I am usually quite happy that everyone singles me out after my first death No RPs and half the time its a suicide run from a stealther - gives RPs to my realm mates Ok, I would rather ppl left me alone, but ppl are so greedy I can at least get a good laugh on occasion

 

[Cowled]

I know exactly what u mean, zilly.

Therefore it should take a few more ppl .. like .. 20+ to take a keep, therefore more challange in taking it, and hopefully the guards can be usefull (for once) in defending aswell.

.. /cowled

 

[Flimgoblin]

cowled - 1.54 the keep guards get a boost.

next patch we get warning when the guards die too

 

[Garnet]

they should put magic guards on the roofs too Nothing like seeing a spaming fireball wizzard on the roof

 

[Kagato.]

Realm Points or not, its the thrill of the kill I play for, and its all the more rewarding when its in solo or small group battles, personally I love the skirmishes outside sauvage, soon as you get there its sods law that you've just missed the next portal to odins or emain, but fear not, just step outside the gates and 9 times out of 10 theres going to be a mid or two there to fight with.
Only now with the free speed buff I stand much better chance of catching the more fleet of foot ones

Good point though about the giving away no realm points thing, but to be honest most players want to survive anyway wether they give points away or not, and with a bind stone so close there more likely to dash back out again with ress sickness still on making them less dangerous and easier to kill as a result.

 

[quinthar]

Good init Zilly

 

[PJS]

So the Aussie types will have to go somewhere else. Now ask me if I care.

 

[Tigerius]

Thrill of the kill goes away the moment you realise that your opponent was rez sick, likely without any timered spells/RAs and possibly low on power.

Getting RP for a kill is a reward for defeating a fair opponent, getting no RP for a rez-kill is no reward because it wasn't a fair opponent. Even more so, very much more so, if you also realise that said player had no regards for his own life or death whatsoever.

As a player I care about not dying at the hands of others, Emain trips excluded (where everyone is farmed and farms) but elsewhere I take pride in not dropping easily or too often. When I'm rez sick I care far less, I know that the rez sickness sends a message to the other side that it wasn't a fair kill.

Lastly, RPs do matter and are fun to get, I won't deny this.

I guess this effectively ends any real form of combat in border keep zones, I know and understand why some people are relieved of this but I find it removes an interesting aspect of the game.

 

[old.Nol]

Less zone abusing campers wanking about DL is pretty fine by me.

 

[Wuren]

Originally posted by PJS
So the Aussie types will have to go somewhere else. Now ask me if I care.

sums it up

 

[Zill]

Originally posted by PJS
So the Aussie types will have to go somewhere else. Now ask me if I care.

It's not just stealth classes that will be effected, it will be a cross section of all those that like to camp the fk gates and that includes tanks and casters a like.

 

[Tigerius]

Encountered the full effects of it last night, fighting with a FG outside Svasud. Was getting late and we decided to go out with a bang, the mid zerg just released and kept coming, most not being worth RP, eventually we ran out of power and abilities and started succumbing to the onslaught.

I won't say it doesn't have it's amusement chain killing that many, but as I said before the emotional reward is very much hollowed out by seeing the "XXX has been killed recently..." message and realising the guy wasn't even trying to survive.