Changes to WoE

[azurerogue]

Note: I'm aware this is a wall of text.??Feel free to just read at your leisure - but please don't comment unless you've read each point, because they do have connections that support each other.

There have been a lot of threads about how to improve WoE on this server.??Rather than writing an overly long and somewhat off-topic response in one of those threads, I thought I'd start my own.??This post may deal with some of the points discussed in other threads, but the end conclusions are radically different from what other threads ask for.??This thread is specifically about trans WoE, so anytime I talk about WoE in general it does not include non-trans WoE.??

First, let's go over a few changes to WoE that heRO has implemented:

• There are only 2 castles open during WoE as opposed to the 20 castles normally open.
  
• There are no castle-specific treasure chest spawns.??Each castle spawns a random selection from all available chests each day.
  
• Chest drops are customized on heRO.
  
• Chest spawn:Economy formula is customized on heRO.
  
• Each castle allows access to all guild dungeons, rather than just the dungeon corresponding to the castle owned.
  
• Indirect change: the God Item quest is disabled on heRO (God Items still obtainable through gathering the appropriate pieces).
  

Now, to go through these changes and explain how I feel they impact the procedure/participation/rewards of WoE:

There are only 2 castles open during WoE as opposed to the 20 castles normally open.

Our current system involves two castles.??This was done because, for the most part, when there were three castles open the public opinion was that there was not enough competition.??Now that their are two castles, the same complaint seems to be prevalent.??The occasion of a castle being conquered during WoE has become a rare event again (rare meaning, in this case, that it doesn't even regularly happen 1x/WoE).??

Some people think lowering the castles to one castle open would help solve this problem.??It will not.??Leaving only one castle open means that the two large guilds currently holding castles will fight with each other and smaller guilds will still generally be excluded.??In the meantime, rather than allowing a new alliance to form and gather items from a secondary (or more) castle we are allowing the one dominant guild to gain more and more treasure basically unchallenged.

I would suggest that opening more castles is actually a better solution.??Yes, it would mean that some castles would remain virtually untouched for most of WoE (because our WoE population does not support 20 castles), but it would also allow small guilds to run in and break low-priority castles to "get in on the action."??It would allow new, skilled, guilds to join in on WoE without requiring a ton of top-tier gear (they would essentially only need a breaker and the ability to defend for 1-3 minutes at the end of WoE).??Opening more castles would, in my opinion, encourage more participation in WoE.??

Closing castles forces the big guilds to compete more, that is true, but it also basically precludes any new guilds from "getting their feet wet" while trying out WoE on our server.??If you through a new guild into a one-castle environment - even if they farm endlessly - most members will quit once they see weeks, months, or even longer with never a single castle taken.??Open more castles, and you'll have the two dominant guilds each holding more than one castle, this is also true, but there is a limit to how many castles a guild can successfully hold (especially when there is more than one big guild out there, looking to gank your castles).??The extended defenses would make it easier for new guilds to slip in and break an emperium - rewarding their efforts in WoE significantly more than just dying in the exact same precast week after week until the GMs rotate for a change of scene so that the small guild can continue dying (but at least see a new map while they do it).??

There are no castle-specific treasure chest spawns.??Each castle spawns a random selection from all available chests each day.

Now, the obvious problem with opening all the castles (if such a thing were done) is that even if the small guilds got a castle or two, the big guilds could just hole up in their already built-up castles and occasionally break the small guilds to get their treasures.??Why???Because heRO's WoE system does not reward changing castles.??With random treasure chest spawns, the odds of getting any god item component are the same no matter what castle you hold.??So if you only need one more god item component, there is still no need to change castle any more than if you have no god item components.??

There are, in my opinion, two problems with random treasure chest spawns.??The first is, as briefly stated above, that it allows a guild to endlessly "turtle" inside one castle and, with enough patience and luck, make a god item.??The second is that it makes the creation of a god item an even slower, even more random, event that it already is (and it's already very time-intensive).??With predetermined chest spawns, making a god item is about strategically taking and holding the right castles and THEN hoping to get lucky.??On heRO, it's ALL about getting lucky.??This removes a huge part of the strategy involved in holding castles in WoE.

It also removes a huge part of the strategy in which castles to keep your opponent from getting.??It essentially simultaneously simplifies WoE (in a way such as to make it less interesting) and complicates making a god item (in a way such as to make it more frustrating).??If all castles were open, and chest spawns were no longer random - guilds big and small would WANT to take different castles eventually, rather than turtling behind a boring (even if very strong) precast because they would need to rotate castles to get the appropriate god item pieces.??This is an essential part of the WoE metagame and I wish it existed on heRO.??

Chest drops are customized on heRO.

As long as the god item pieces remain in the appropriate chest this is totally fine though, in my opinion, unnecessary.??The chest drops were made better in an attempt to better reward castle owners (I presume).??However, the end goals of WoE have always been, and will always be, to make a god item.??The other drops are extra bonuses, in my opinion.??Again, the custom drops are nice and can stay, but are not necessary additions.

Chest spawn:Economy formula is customized on heRO.

This may not be entirely true.??The non-trans formula is certainly customized.??I am not 100% certain of what the default formula is.??I have no idea why it would have been changed, but as long as it's even for all castles it's okay.??

Each castle allows access to all guild dungeons, rather than just the dungeon corresponding to the castle owned.

This is not nearly as major a change as the random chests, but the fact that you can get to any guild dungeon from any castle basically removes what little extra motivation a guild might have had to take another castle.??Again, the removal of access to all guild dungeons from each castle would further motivate a guild to change castles if they wanted access to a new dungeon.??It would also motivate an enemy guild to try to specifically force a rival guild out of a map of castles to keep dungeon access from them.??

Indirect change: the God Item quest is disabled on heRO (God Items still obtainable through gathering the appropriate pieces).

This isn't the end of the world (especially if heRO uses iRO Emperium stats in the future), but ice picks are very hard for a new guild to get.??While it is possible to break without an ice pick - it is generally less likely to succeed and the removal of the god items quest makes it that much harder for a new guild to take a castle.??Again, not nearly as big as points one and two, but still a factor.??

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Finale: Open more castles, de-randomize chests (or somewhat de-randomize chests - Alde chests spawn in Alde, etc - if you only want to open a few castles per map), limit guild dungeon access to appropriate castles.

Again, these are all just my opinions.??Feel free to disagree. But I have presented my thoughts fully and unless asked to clarify one of my points I will probably not respond to anything less than well-structured responses.