Ideas for cityheads

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barb
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:41 pm

Ideas for cityheads

Post by barb » Tue Sep 13, 2022 3:31 pm

Note to readers: none of these things are implemented, these are just possible ideas I have been brainstorming that I think would be really, really fun. Cityheads have always been some of my favorite things to do, even if they left a bit to be desired. Thematically i find it exhilarating to launch an assault on an enemy city and yet in the past they have always felt a bit like ordinary smobs, and so I a couple of ideas on possible cityhead mechanics with the following goals in mind:

1) to promote pk when the numbers are vastly skewed
2) to prevent the capability of farming them faster than the other side can react
3) to balance the utility of channelers so that they are not completely nerfed and they cant just explode the cityhead and move to the next.

The most important factor, is that no matter how strong the mobs are inside a cityhead, when its 6 vs 1 the 6 will be able to demolish the one person quite easily. Probably half of the kills I have been a part of were inside caemlyn throne room, with seanchan spamming the doors shut. If you want to be able to promote lopsided numbers pk, then the single most important factor is that the small numbers need to be able to group with the npc patrols. This doesnt increase damage output, but increases player survivability so that they dont just die in 3-4 rounds. You can do this by enabling the player to follow the leader of a patrol who then is mobol coded to group them (which makes it only useful at certain points, which can be choke points or patrols holding a key that the invaders need) or a mobol command to make a small patrol follow a player, or to spawn if it has already been killed). Alternatively, a periodic emote of something like "a torrent of soldiers pours in, separating you from your compatriots" simulating the chaos of battle with a hurricane effect can give small numbers a chance to get some even fights in the chaos, which would have the drawback of being extra effective vs newer players who are not good at regrouping or handling city aggro, but gives the benefit of being a solid teaching example of its importance, and good practice for average players. But without a mechanic of some kind to split up the higher numbers damage output, it will always be a matter of the invaders exploding whoever comes, or the defenders gathering a big enough group to trap them in and slaughter everyone.

Time wise, an attack on a capital should last more than a couple minutes. some time spent getting through defenses gives the opposing side time to react, and get to the city in time to defend it, AND it helps balance out channelers. Ideally there are a few patrols that you have to get through, somewhat between Baerlon and Kandori fort, where you have to kill a patrol to gather keys or lift drawbridges (which defending players can drop down again). Each patrol can have healing coding like the old jafar smobs, basking in their glory or something, so that it promotes non-channelers hacking through defenses rather, than channelers nuking every single mob along the way, since a warrior getting healed can chew through masses of mobs faster than a channeler who has to keep regenning sps.

Mhaliah
Posts: 873
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:48 am

Re: Ideas for cityheads

Post by Mhaliah » Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:11 pm

As someone who has jumped into throneroom vs a whole group of DS solo knowing I would die just to keep my QG roleplay straight I strongly support some tweaks in this area. Even when I went grouped with my master mob in full abs it was an exercise in futility cause they had two DL *maybe one DL and one KnownDF* that could just weave target me. So something to balance that sounds great. Not looking for a 1vs6 makes 6 dead though. I mean Mhaliah is epic, but maybe not that epic. But forcing them to flee before they can hit the Queen would be nice.

Also, posting here because the change from TP to QP for Baerlon was mention in the City Head changes announcement thread.

This has been very consistently LS lately. Not much flipping. Would it be possible to make the CtC areas randomly choose alliance on boot? I think now it just loads whatever it was prior to boot right?

Korsik
Posts: 512
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:46 pm

Re: Ideas for cityheads

Post by Korsik » Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:10 pm

Mhaliah wrote:
Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:11 pm

This has been very consistently LS lately. Not much flipping. Would it be possible to make the CtC areas randomly choose alliance on boot? I think now it just loads whatever it was prior to boot right?
Baerlon post boot alliance is now randomized. Please let me know if there are any issues.

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