Reworking localized resources: Authority competition

[Sevenless]

Premise:

Right now I feel a lot of people are frustrated with how localized resources work and have been since they were introduced. Although perhaps they were intended to encourage pvp, they currently encourage timer checking and logged out alts. Making the resource take enough time to collect that a meaningful competition window emerges would frankly suck to collect at all. At this point I think we should abandon making direct pvp competition a target for these. Direct competition is always a very high risk situation, and the rewards are individually not really worth risking a proper pvp character for anyone but the biggest factions anyway. Maybe it's time we look at indirect competition instead.

Suggestion:

Leaving timer/resource distribution as is, let us actually claim the resources but not via the current claiming mechanics. Instead, hearthlings would pick resource spots to dominate (need a term different from claiming since the mechanics are different imo) and would start generating authority via LP generation. I don't see anything wrong with letting someone claim multiple spots if it divided the authority among them. The hearthling with the most authority will be the only one able to collect the resource, and when the resource is collected. all authority totals are reset.

Expected impacts:

The need for throwaway alts checking timers drops. The need to immediately time and collect the resources drops as well. Large villages will gain the ability to control many of the resources in their area, but smart ones already are with alt shenanigans. In general, trying to alt this becomes difficult because you now need constant LP generation and the skills to collect something, instead of a single investment.

Hermits with small LP/hour won't be able to compete, but developed ones should be able to. There are some hermits who minmax the alt timing game who won't be happy with these changes, but I don't think that's avoidable when moving away from this system which I think most people agree is unsatisfying as a mechanic. No one else likes the "sneaker" strategy that is the main reason these players can actually get the resources.

The difficulty in alting this should help smaller villages/some hermits compete at least moderately. You effectively get "1 free resource" from any active player with the appropriate skillset, but each extra resource costs an entire duplication of curiosities. This becomes expensive quickly if you're just making characters to farm resources, while it gives value to any character you were already raising.

Issue:

This does not solve the problem of walling/claiming off the resources. I think Aceb's suggestion of unclaimed walls of any type being hand bashable with zero soak solves that personally, but it's a separate topic imo.

[MagicManICT]

Maybe I'm just missing it, but this doesn't really seem to solve the problem with using alts to gather the resources.

For the palisade discussion: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=54041&p=716820&hilit=palisade%2A+bash%2A#p716720 Seems jorb isn't against the idea, just needs a good way of implementing it that's fair.

[Sevenless]

Maybe I'm just missing it, but this doesn't really seem to solve the problem with using alts to gather the resources.

For the palisade discussion: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=54041&p=716820&hilit=palisade%2A+bash%2A#p716720 Seems jorb isn't against the idea, just needs a good way of implementing it that's fair.

There's a huge difference between getting 40 in masonry to camp a pitclay and needing 40 masonry + fully Curioed/fed alt to camp it. Think about the difference there. Yes, your warrior alt can sit a node, but you can't just spam out 4-5 alts to go time camp the other nodes. You'll run out of experience, curioing them enough to compete with actual cared for characters won't be feasible.

Realistically speaking most players competing for these kinds of resources will have more than one character. However instead of only the alt spammers getting the resources, now every active player can probably get at least one for themselves. Alts get you more, but only with significant effort put into them and likely not able to compete with an actual actively played character. It also eliminates the time camping which annoys the heck out of pretty much every player I know.

[Lunarius_Haberdash]

My recent though on this was simple... Make harvesting resource nodes take a significant amount of XP, and require a minimum amount of XP earned over lifetime to interact with.

The amount of XP required should, of course, vary by resource (given that Brimstone spits out shit a lot faster than a Heartwood Tree or Rock Crystal, for example). But a constant drain on XP to harvest these resources with a sufficient minimum lifetime XP should put a barrier there to at least slow things down. It is, in my experience, difficult to intentionally grind a large amount of XP.

Am I wrong? Thoughts?

[Sevenless]

My recent though on this was simple... Make harvesting resource nodes take a significant amount of XP, and require a minimum amount of XP earned over lifetime to interact with.

The amount of XP required should, of course, vary by resource (given that Brimstone spits out shit a lot faster than a Heartwood Tree or Rock Crystal, for example). But a constant drain on XP to harvest these resources with a sufficient minimum lifetime XP should put a barrier there to at least slow things down. It is, in my experience, difficult to intentionally grind a large amount of XP.

Am I wrong? Thoughts?

The only issue here is once realms are established it trivializes it and heavily slants it towards the nobility. Pre-realm it's a decent idea, but I think it's too unbalanced after that sadly.

[MagicManICT]

There's a huge difference between getting 40 in masonry to camp a pitclay and needing 40 masonry + fully Curioed/fed alt to camp it.

Alright. I probably misread the opening suggestion. I'm still not sure it prevents alt claiming, but this at least forces more work into than i thought.

[Sevenless]

There's a huge difference between getting 40 in masonry to camp a pitclay and needing 40 masonry + fully Curioed/fed alt to camp it.

Alright. I probably misread the opening suggestion. I'm still not sure it prevents alt claiming, but this at least forces more work into than i thought.

Rewarding actively played characters + making afk alts use more expensive is a good goal to work towards for sure, regardless of how it's achieved.

[MagicManICT]

At what point is is just another alt and when does it become a useful character?

[Granger]

I must admit I dislike the 'winner takes all' part of the mechanic, it boils down to being somewhere in the general area of a stronger group (without both being a member and slaughtered by them) getting nothing, ever.

Apart from that... the general idea sounds promising. Possibly a solution where the <whatever> is reset only for the one who wins the draw? All others who drew a blank (and went empty) would bank up their payment over time, till they're the one with the highest bid. This would boil down to the same drain as deleting it for every character every round, the difference would be that the system wouldn't be completely pointless for non-faction characters.

Mechanic wise the winning character could get a whisper in the wind that leads him toward the resource he has conquered, then he has until the next iteration to go there and grab it - failing to meet the deadline voids that chance and the loot is added to the next refill round (spread over all resources of that type).

[Sevenless]

I must admit I dislike the 'winner takes all' part of the mechanic, it boils down to being somewhere in the general area of a stronger group (without both being a member and slaughtered by them) getting nothing, ever.

Apart from that... the general idea sounds promising. Possibly a solution where the <whatever> is reset only for the one who wins the draw? All others who drew a blank (and went empty) would bank up their payment over time, till they're the one with the highest bid. This would boil down to the same drain as deleting it for every character every round, the difference would be that the system wouldn't be completely pointless for non-faction characters.

Mechanic wise the winning character could get a whisper in the wind that leads him toward the resource he has conquered, then he has until the next iteration to go there and grab it - failing to meet the deadline voids that chance and the loot is added to the next refill round (spread over all resources of that type).

I like that modification, no complaints to the concept.

One thought: Should charisma count? No CHA impacts empowers cheap alts being tossed on a claim, but yes to CHA means that a power CHA fed alt could be a very powerful asset. I'm leaning against CHA being involved personally. It would play too heavily into CHA alts.