Defender/attacker balance in clan rooms
Posted: Thu Feb 29, 2024 12:38 pm
Roberto's (un)timely demise in his clan rooms got me thinking about balance in clan rooms. Personally, I think clan rooms should not be a dt for attackers, but should favor defenders much more than they do. As it is, they often favor defenders about as much as a ctf with a mobol operated door.
From my perspective, you have open fights in a neutral zone, which should be evenly balanced and are useful for evenly balanced parties, mobs and zones that favor one side, cities or bases that heavily favor defenders, and clan rooms, which should dramatically favor defenders. There should be an option for an intrepid attacker to try to finish someone in clan rooms, but it should come with more risk than it does to a raiding party. As it is, if you are substantially outnumbered in a zone, engaging even a single attacker in your own clan room is almost certainly going to result in death for a defender, provided the attacker knows they can let as many of their side in as they'd like. That seems to be just as bad as certain death for attackers.
I think it is useful to allow them to be used for defending in situations where you're outnumbered and low in your home zone. It provides an opportunity for pk to continue despite unbalanced numbers, and seems to be RP appropriate. Some options here might include increasing the level and/or number of mobs, adding autorescue or a rescue command, and adding emote damage.
If you wanted to further increase the risk for the attacker, you could also adjust the inside door so that for unclanned, being able to open the door from the inside fail on a percent, or in clan areas with more than one room, don't allow them to open while engaged, as with entering the ways (where pull leaf often requires many tries before it works, and doesn't work when engaged). This both makes it harder for attackers to escape and makes it harder for them to let in a large group (which is what happened in the Roberto example).
Attacking and killing someone in the heart of their base should be a bold and impressive move. Right now it's not. It's a demonstration that you know and can exploit a quirk in game mechanics. In the Roberto example, it was a good move by the attackers, but only because of Roberto's ignorance.
Log that inspired this balance suggestion: https://forums.wotmud.info/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=18814
From my perspective, you have open fights in a neutral zone, which should be evenly balanced and are useful for evenly balanced parties, mobs and zones that favor one side, cities or bases that heavily favor defenders, and clan rooms, which should dramatically favor defenders. There should be an option for an intrepid attacker to try to finish someone in clan rooms, but it should come with more risk than it does to a raiding party. As it is, if you are substantially outnumbered in a zone, engaging even a single attacker in your own clan room is almost certainly going to result in death for a defender, provided the attacker knows they can let as many of their side in as they'd like. That seems to be just as bad as certain death for attackers.
I think it is useful to allow them to be used for defending in situations where you're outnumbered and low in your home zone. It provides an opportunity for pk to continue despite unbalanced numbers, and seems to be RP appropriate. Some options here might include increasing the level and/or number of mobs, adding autorescue or a rescue command, and adding emote damage.
If you wanted to further increase the risk for the attacker, you could also adjust the inside door so that for unclanned, being able to open the door from the inside fail on a percent, or in clan areas with more than one room, don't allow them to open while engaged, as with entering the ways (where pull leaf often requires many tries before it works, and doesn't work when engaged). This both makes it harder for attackers to escape and makes it harder for them to let in a large group (which is what happened in the Roberto example).
Attacking and killing someone in the heart of their base should be a bold and impressive move. Right now it's not. It's a demonstration that you know and can exploit a quirk in game mechanics. In the Roberto example, it was a good move by the attackers, but only because of Roberto's ignorance.
Log that inspired this balance suggestion: https://forums.wotmud.info/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=18814
Its an exciting NE part of inside the FD keep.