If you had the option to..

[Divinia]

Design 'New Fronteirs' what would you have done?

Maybe tweaking the old frontiers giving more of everything that already was there but kept the basic concept?
Just like Mythic have done now?
Maybe the current frontiers but with a couple of tweaks?
Or maybe something totally different?

Since there seem to be alot of ppl quitting due NF/hating the game due NF id like to see what you would have done

Personally i hate it and i would have tweaked the old frontiers with some re-designing of terrain, removed MG's, giving keeps towers (3 towers to the ones closest to Relic Keeps, 2 to the ones in the middle of the frontier and one to the keeps furthest out)

Kept the porting system but with instant teleport and not in waves. and made the connection of the three frontiers trough smaller passages with tactical options(NOT FUCKING WATER MATES )

and some other shit

 

[Sendraks]

Well I'dve changed the game to be pretty much like it is under NF, which is a vastly superior and more enjoyable RvR system compared to the old frontiers. Doesn't matter if its solo, 8v8 or zerg, NF does it all very well.

The game is balanced in favour of the casual player, rather than people running in pure FOTM gank groups, though the latter is still very possible if you stop whining and get out there and do it.

My only minor niggles are.

1) The Elyll town was in a much better setting in the old Albion frontiers. Their little houses looked so cute in the little valley.

2) The Ravenclan giants looked much cooler in a village on top of a mountain, rather than a dull grey mound.

3) The Keep design is a bit bland really. I like the overall structural concept, but keeping the distinct designs from the old frontiers would've been nice.

4) Not sure I like the way epic quests are working now on the frontiers. Before it was find mob, kill mob, ride around on a horse a lot. With the porting to keeps facility, this would've made epic quests a lot easier, but noooooooooo, you now have farm for bloody ages to get the named target mob to pop. What fun!

5) I've not much experience of ship combat yet, but it doesn't seem very well realised. The fact that the warmap doesn't show the sea zones between the realms doesn't help either. Perhaps a few small islands would be good, something to create a bit of tactical interest out there.

I think NF will improve though, when they change how relics are stored in enemy territory and the system for porting to enemy keeps, which right now makes it far too easy to get a strangle hold on enemy territory.

 

[Veno]

Would have remade the looks of the old frontiers and added a few more zones to each realm along with more keeps in different sizes and positions. 10-12 keeps per realm would be a good number.
Porting from mainland to frontiers should be instant
No porting to keeps but several location to start out from. 3-4 telekeeps should be enough to avoid it being camped by a zerg at all places.

Lots of other small details but takes to long to write it all up

 

[RaiztliN]

I like ur idea Divinia, specially with the towers and small passages, maybe move the 3 frontiers much closer to each other, and added passages like the bridge/canyon areas are now.. Though i like the current layout, but just to many towers, and to much water

 

[Chronictank]

i would be happy if they added a dueling arena for the 8v8

 

[Killrake]

They should have let the old servers be without NF and open new ones for NF. beacause its IMHO 2 differnet games.

 

[Flimgoblin]

4) Not sure I like the way epic quests are working now on the frontiers. Before it was find mob, kill mob, ride around on a horse a lot. With the porting to keeps facility, this would've made epic quests a lot easier, but noooooooooo, you now have farm for bloody ages to get the named target mob to pop. What fun!

did the epics on my heretic (Guild of shadows) and there was no camping involved - just find the named mob...

 

[Huntingtons]

as i feel now... i'd pressed delete when i was done witht he coding 8(

i really, really, really miss milegates as it is atm. compared to towers mg's 10-100 times better. Then you knew where you had the stealthers.

As i feel now, i miss scouts adding at milegates. I miss it all 8((((((((( givf OF! 8(((

 

[Clipse]

I would make DAOC a 2-realm game.

 

[highland3r]

there r defi 2 much towers and no open spaces anymore for descent fight

 

[rvn]

make duelling arenas (fg vs fg), and option to move your characters to an "challange" server where you could meet other set fg's from other servers.
would also change some classes that need balanceing.

and as divinia said, insta teleport.

removeing relics, adding "flags" that spawn at different locs in the frontier wich you retrive for gold/exp/rps.

 

[rvn]

i would also add a store where you can buy good items for Bounty Points (like a rr6 char would have basicly armor equal to good toa sc from just bounty points)

and an rr8 - 10 char would get a "perfect" toa sc for free.. would be so nice not haveing to do the totally retarded toa thing..
also would have redone ml's to be alot faster to do.

 

[Bracken]

i would be happy if they added a dueling arena for the 8v8

Without realm points. Bountypoints and Experience points only.

Divinia's ideas sound reasonable

 

[Jaem-]

War map, becon for the zerg, so everyone heads to the keep under siege, in some situations theres limited places to find players, 1 place is the docks, altho you'll find about 1000 other stealthers camping there, another is supply routes but, as I said in a few situations its not posible really.

 

[Chronictank]

Without realm points. Bountypoints and Experience points only.

Wouldnt mind it tbh

 

[Tigersans]

I love NF but the servers should be clamped to, so many of each realm so the realm balances out evenly. If alb realm is full peeps play alb on another server or choose hib/mid on excaliber.. ie if server has 1500 capacity only 500 peeps allowed in alb on that server etc etc

That way with EVEN numbers NF would rock, its gr8 now i love it compared to old NF but lack of hibs is making it cr**p to play ;-( and im off to WOW because of lack of hibs, Real shame as DAOC is a gr8 game

 

[Sendraks]

did the epics on my heretic (Guild of shadows) and there was no camping involved - just find the named mob...

Had to camp the Isolationists for about an hour to get the courier to pop.

Camped Ravenlcans for an hour and Belgrik didn't pop.


You've been sneaking off with the named mobs haven't you?

 

[Flimgoblin]

Had to camp the Isolationists for about an hour to get the courier to pop.

Camped Ravenlcans for an hour and Belgrik didn't pop.


You've been sneaking off with the named mobs haven't you?

yeah

courier was at the camp in the middle for me

belgrik was standing around chatting to the blue man

 

[Sendraks]

courier was at the camp in the middle for me

belgrik was standing around chatting to the blue man

I expected to find Mr Courier by the tent in the camp, but he wasn't. Killed for about an hour until he popped.

Belgrik there was no sign at the blue man and with the other Ravenclans. Though I admit I didn't go back to the Blue Man to check if he'd spawned there. I'll try looking there again.

 

[Glottis]

I would make it so that surrounding towers would be tied to the main keep (in the sense that GoL claims Nott will also mean they claim all the surrounding towers) Too few guilds around really to be able to claim sooo many towers.
Maybe make it so that claimed towers by individual guilds could be lvl'd higher though.
And I would offer the option to players to move realms, so as to balance population. A lot of people would not mind moving to Hibernia if their arti's and rp's would be kept (along with lvl).
Regards, Glottis

 

[Vaar]

Heh, My favorite topic

IF I had the power and resouces to change the game I personally would suggest a number of things. Then run them by ppl I trust and with insights in the game, to figure out what would be good and which idea to forfit. Most of "my" ideas have been suggested time and time again on VN-boards. Well time for a recap

1. Siegetowers and ladders. Siegtower and ladders on outerwall only. Ladder: personal climbpoint used by anyone /controlling it, Very few "hp". A trebshot would take it down. One time use.
Siegetower as a durable variant of ladder. Buildable and movable aka Ram, with 3 lvl's. lvl 1 sufficient for passing a keep lvl 1 wall (or a lvl 10 tower), then lvl 5 and lvl 10 respectivly. High hp. Will take very active palatione work to stop Siegetower from beeing placed by wall.

2. Central Island determing DF access. 3 openfield "realmsplatform". Each has a stone that control entrance to DF. The last realm which controls all three claimable "spots" (or stones) holds df. You need to have a FG on platform to hold claim to a spot. "Spots" initially have some non repopable guard aggro, but doable with a FG. Once third spot has been claimed by same realm, a token pops into the inventory of GL of last "claim-group". When this token is delivered to the "darknessmaster". DF gets open to the realm. SIze of island: Medium. Terrain: varied island divided to reflect the 3 realms, connected by a "neutral-looking" central part. Forrest and lakes included.Easy on Mobs. Transport: To get to island you have to take boat. NOTE. Not one single dropoff point. Boat /randoms to one of say 10 spots on "your" realms side of island. NO telekeep, and no truly safespots on island for buffbots. Sea around in filled with roaming aggressive sharks

3. Teleport solution from 1.71 looks good for me. Personally I think the 1.72 restriction is a bit too much.

4. Keep hp adjusted down. That is.. Lvl 1 is fine, but the increase is a bit too much pr lvl. Towers hp as such can stay the same, or possibly be adjusted a tad down. I also feel that the Doors today is a bit too though. When it often is better to go through the wall, that has to mean something is wrong. Since the oil is there I think that as much as a halving of OUTER door hp could wise to speed up keeptakes, and stop the ping pong routine.

5. Elevationbonuses for archers is to high. This will get fixed later iirc.. 1.72?

6. Remove /assist for RvR. Keep it in PvE.

7. Bigger stealther nodes around docks and dropoff points.

8. Allowing to combine field siege same way as rams. 3 trebs for a Wartreb doing 5 times the dmg of one.

9. Removing of ONE tower to each keep, with a "open" platform instead. Excellent idea posted several times on VN boards in detail.

10. Reducing the %bonus from relics from 10 to 5%. Still a bonus worth battling for, but not giving a impossible advantage.

My 2 coppers

 

[Sendraks]

I like those suggestions Vaar!

 

[Khale]

I haven't played a single minute in frontiers but one thing I wanna mention is maybe some sort of claiming an enemy (like hitting/nukeing an enemy first makes it tagged for you or your group). This way soloers, leechers and zergs have no use if they didn't attack first. People wouldn't bother too much unless they are really a friend or rather wait and see who wins so they can get RPS themselves (or not). This system is implemented on WoW and I must say it's a very nice system. It makes you wanna move away from others as you wanna avoid conflicts. Ofcourse it needs more working out with certain situations that occur but it's a start. (Like what if someone AEs, would he/she get all the rps then etc. etc.)

 

[Skilgannon]

I haven't played a single minute in frontiers but one thing I wanna mention is maybe some sort of claiming an enemy (like hitting/nukeing an enemy first makes it tagged for you or your group). This way soloers, leechers and zergs have no use if they didn't attack first. People wouldn't bother too much unless they are really a friend or rather wait and see who wins so they can get RPS themselves (or not). This system is implemented on WoW and I must say it's a very nice system. It makes you wanna move away from others as you wanna avoid conflicts. Ofcourse it needs more working out with certain situations that occur but it's a start. (Like what if someone AEs, would he/she get all the rps then etc. etc.)

Problem with this is that this is an RvR game, not a PvP game. It has never, and will never, cater for PvP. There is a special server for that. I think people need to read the blurb on the box before they buy.

 

[Kagato]

Personally I think one major problem with NF and the reason 8 v 8 is dead is that there is no longer a common clashing area (ala Emain).

Now people just port or boat so only bottleneck as such is water camping at drop of points to be garunteed a fight and thats pretty lame anyway.

Milegates were a nightmare im glad they are gone but now theres no 'travel' to fights just porting, what it is needed I think is a slight redesign of the maps so that the keeps are more spread out and perhaps limiting it to 2 towers per keep rather then 4 allowing groups and soloers to pass by a bit easier.

Also i'd consider the removal of the teleporting system completely, at least this way groups will travel to the docks over greater distances giving greater chance for 8 v 8 combat if you patrol the common routes, soloers can take the lesser travelled long ways round like in old frontiers and zergers can still storm through as they will.

And for gods sake remove those stupid one-way hills you cannot climb its pathetic having to walk all the way round a zone to get to a keep thats a few feet away.

And last but not least i'd introduce another battleground 45-50 for soloers with a few special restrictions:

Grouping would be disabled, you cannot group.

You cannot buff other players (i.e no BB's) so buff classes can still buff themselves but not other players.

If a 3rd party interferes from your realm interferes with your fight, no rps are given to anyone. Which would encourage people to seek out their own fights and not add.

 

[Vaar]

And last but not least i'd introduce another battleground 45-50 for soloers with a few special restrictions:

Grouping would be disabled, you cannot group.

You cannot buff other players (i.e no BB's) so buff classes can still buff themselves but not other players.

Etc.

That was a variant I havn't heard before Would be fun I think. Ofc the offensive "selfbuffers" ala Thane and Friar would be overpowered. Heh, I managed the 1000 Euro challenge of using thane and overpowered in the same setence...

Feedback sent to Mythic already (I'm the one who does that)

 

[Sendraks]

Also i'd consider the removal of the teleporting system completely, at least this way groups will travel to the docks over greater distances giving greater chance for 8 v 8 combat if you patrol the common routes, soloers can take the lesser travelled long ways round like in old frontiers and zergers can still storm through as they will.

Part of the reason the old frontiers sucked was because of travelling time within a given zone. Without speed you could spend quite a while running to a fight, only to get ganked. Then repeat the process all over again.

That is not fun.

However I think that if you combine the idea of more space between the keeps (enlarge the zones or add extra ones), then you fine tune the balance between ease of travel and fun.

And for gods sake remove those stupid one-way hills you cannot climb its pathetic having to walk all the way round a zone to get to a keep thats a few feet away.

I think the hills are fine in most cases. If a hill really does look too steep to climb then it should only be climbable by classes with a climb ability, or employ the use of Vaar's siege ladder idea.

For hills that are less steep, simply employ a movement penalty as per swamps so you climb less steeps hills slowly, with the speed decreasing to match the incline.

But I like the hills. I like having the capacity to take potshots at people in open field combat through the use of terrain.

 

[Kagato]

Etc.

That was a variant I havn't heard before Would be fun I think. Ofc the offensive "selfbuffers" ala Thane and Friar would be overpowered. Heh, I managed the 1000 Euro challenge of using thane and overpowered in the same setence...

Feedback sent to Mythic already (I'm the one who does that)

Would be fair, they rely on buffs to bring them up to par, hence the friars inherently low weaponskill etc it would be more even and it would not be fair to not allow buff classes to buff themselves I think.

 

[Kagato]

Part of the reason the old frontiers sucked was because of travelling time within a given zone. Without speed you could spend quite a while running to a fight, only to get ganked. Then repeat the process all over again.

That is not fun.

However I think that if you combine the idea of more space between the keeps (enlarge the zones or add extra ones), then you fine tune the balance between ease of travel and fun.



I think the hills are fine in most cases. If a hill really does look too steep to climb then it should only be climbable by classes with a climb ability, or employ the use of Vaar's siege ladder idea.

For hills that are less steep, simply employ a movement penalty as per swamps so you climb less steeps hills slowly, with the speed decreasing to match the incline.

But I like the hills. I like having the capacity to take potshots at people in open field combat through the use of terrain.

Granted, a nice inbetween would be the odd 'break' in those too steep hills that could be climable at a penalty.

With the increased length of hastener speed too I don't think travel is such an issue anymore over long distances, its not like old frontier where we had TK's with no hasteners, now all keeps can have them and towers if you buy them so I don't think it would be to frustrating, though perhaps a limited form of teleport would help.

 

[Ilienwyn]

Heh, My favorite topic

IF I had the power and resouces to change the game I personally would suggest a number of things. Then run them by ppl I trust and with insights in the game, to figure out what would be good and which idea to forfit. Most of "my" ideas have been suggested time and time again on VN-boards. Well time for a recap

1. Siegetowers and ladders. Siegtower and ladders on outerwall only. Ladder: personal climbpoint used by anyone /controlling it, Very few "hp". A trebshot would take it down. One time use.
Siegetower as a durable variant of ladder. Buildable and movable aka Ram, with 3 lvl's. lvl 1 sufficient for passing a keep lvl 1 wall (or a lvl 10 tower), then lvl 5 and lvl 10 respectivly. High hp. Will take very active palatione work to stop Siegetower from beeing placed by wall.

2. Central Island determing DF access. 3 openfield "realmsplatform". Each has a stone that control entrance to DF. The last realm which controls all three claimable "spots" (or stones) holds df. You need to have a FG on platform to hold claim to a spot. "Spots" initially have some non repopable guard aggro, but doable with a FG. Once third spot has been claimed by same realm, a token pops into the inventory of GL of last "claim-group". When this token is delivered to the "darknessmaster". DF gets open to the realm. SIze of island: Medium. Terrain: varied island divided to reflect the 3 realms, connected by a "neutral-looking" central part. Forrest and lakes included.Easy on Mobs. Transport: To get to island you have to take boat. NOTE. Not one single dropoff point. Boat /randoms to one of say 10 spots on "your" realms side of island. NO telekeep, and no truly safespots on island for buffbots. Sea around in filled with roaming aggressive sharks

3. Teleport solution from 1.71 looks good for me. Personally I think the 1.72 restriction is a bit too much.

4. Keep hp adjusted down. That is.. Lvl 1 is fine, but the increase is a bit too much pr lvl. Towers hp as such can stay the same, or possibly be adjusted a tad down. I also feel that the Doors today is a bit too though. When it often is better to go through the wall, that has to mean something is wrong. Since the oil is there I think that as much as a halving of OUTER door hp could wise to speed up keeptakes, and stop the ping pong routine.

5. Elevationbonuses for archers is to high. This will get fixed later iirc.. 1.72?

6. Remove /assist for RvR. Keep it in PvE.

7. Bigger stealther nodes around docks and dropoff points.

8. Allowing to combine field siege same way as rams. 3 trebs for a Wartreb doing 5 times the dmg of one.

9. Removing of ONE tower to each keep, with a "open" platform instead. Excellent idea posted several times on VN boards in detail.

10. Reducing the %bonus from relics from 10 to 5%. Still a bonus worth battling for, but not giving a impossible advantage.

My 2 coppers

Interesting ideas. Maybe a fourth border zone or "island" with less keeps for more fg fights