Caravan PvP

Caravan PvP in Alpha-1.

You won't be able to see inside specifically but as part of the caravan structure itself there will be little hints as to what the the cargo is. So for example if you've seen some of our recent footage with caravans you kind of see sitting on top of the caravan there's some gold or some silver or some iron. – Steven Sharif

Caravans create an open PvP zone that flags players for combat (purple).

• Players will not be able to see the exact contents of a caravan before they decide to attack or defend, however there will be some visual hints to the cargo of the caravan, such as gold, silver, or iron visible on top of the caravan.
  • Cargo is represented in this way even if a cosmetic caravan skin has been applied to the caravan.
• Players will be able to state their intentions to attack, defend or ignore via a user interface window.
  • The proximity that the UI window appears is determined by the player's performance as either a defender or an attacker in previous raids.
• A group will be required to successfully attack a caravan.
• Basic attacks will not slow caravans, but certain items, attacks, or status effects can slow or block caravans.
• A caravan will persist in the world for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from the time its owner logs out or is disconnected from the server.
• Each caravan is its own bespoke event. Players can't participate in more than one caravan event at a time, but running decoy caravans is a valid tactic.

It's still intended from a design standpoint to be a window that is presented to the player based on proximity; and that proximity it can be greater depending on your performance as either a defender or an attacker in previous raids. – Steven Sharif

There will be incentives and risks for both caravan attackers and defenders. These will be tested and refined during the alpha and beta testing phases.

• Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events (such as caravans, guild wars, and node sieges).
  • Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.

There is a level of risk that comes with the attacker. We have progression paths that exist for bandits and that exists for defenders; and if you choose to opt into a caravan attack- you sign up for that attack and you fail that attack- it is detrimental to your path of progression down the bandit area. That's one thing: Two is of course you have gear decay. You have degradation that can be suffered if you die. That is a cost. And then you also have a reputation; and if your reputation precedes you when you want to transit goods across the world; and you see somebody who's doing it and you want to participate as a defender or a participant, they might say hey screw you, you were just murdering my people last week and I saw that you're like on the top of the bandit list for killing caravans. So it has repercussions in the sense that it locks you out of certain player groups. It provides decay to your armor. It has deleterious effects on your progression, and the attacking- and the bandit progression of caravan attacks or defense. – Steven Sharif

• A quest system will track a player's successful or failed defenses and attacks. This will provide rewards that scale up over time based on the player's history.

• Other incentives and risks are social and are created (informally) between players.

The caravan defender role is going to have its own progression questing and rewards associated with it that are going to attract a certain subset of players and then you know vice-versa wise we're going to have incentives that appeal to the more highway brigand type players; and you know you might not always be on one side or the other: that might change depending on what your interests are in the at the time. But obviously you know those types of systems need to have robust you know consequential type rewards and benefits associated with them in order to compel the player; and that's something obviously we're going to test in alphas and betas and see how performant it is in actually attracting players to participate and make sure it's not just one-sided so-to-speak. – Steven Sharif

Caravans

Alpha-1 caravan 3D render. Modelled by Adam Will.

Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

Mayoral Caravan system - Work in Progress.

The caravan system is an open world PvP system that revolves around opportunity and risk. Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

• Caravans are for the transfer of personal goods, supplies for castles and nodes, as well as quests.
  • Caravans can transport goods for one or more players.

• Caravans are initiated from and arrive at caravanserai node buildings within Village (stage 3) nodes and above.

Caravan destruction

If a caravan is destroyed (becomes a wreckage) it will drop a portion of the goods it was transporting. The remainder of the caravan's goods are sunk (lost) when the caravan is destroyed.

The caravan becomes a wreckage upon destruction and that wreckage is an interfaceable item that players can come up to and they can receive certificates for a portion of the goods inside the caravan. Now the idea with that certificate is that it must be taken back to the point of origin, or at least a region within that point of origin. We'll see about that last part because there's a few things I want to test in the Alpha from a gameability standpoint. The reason why for this is because what might happen is you may have some type of collaboration within a guild to kind of game that system. Hey I'm gonna reach this caravan just to the border of the region and then we're all destroy it, collect the goods and take it to you know that region's warehouse; and have to skip out on the last half of the way. So it must successfully reach its destination before the goods can be considered a part of that region. – Steven Sharif

• Anyone may loot the caravan's wreckage.
• Caravan components may also drop when a caravan is destroyed. These components may be salvageable by the caravan owner or by other players, in the case of high grade components.
• Caravans drop certificates for heavy goods that are redeemable at the origin node for a portion of the goods.

Q: What is the reason for requiring the destruction of a caravan by the attackers as opposed to the attackers gaining possession of the caravan?

A: With caravans we really want to emphasize this idea of not necessarily stealing the vehicle, but being forced to achieve victory through destruction; and when you do you then have the logistical issue of how you're going to transport those goods on your own rather than servicing the transport of that by just hijacking. – Steven Sharif

Battlegrounds

The Event system will also create a variety of PvP situations in the open world. From small skirmishes that lead into sieges to battles over capture points during a node or castle siege, PvP objectives will play a crucial role in determining the tide of battle.

The majority of players will experience PvP through opt-in objective-based battlegrounds. These are high risk and high reward encounters that do not utilize the corruption system.

The majority of PvP that players will encounter- the vast majority- will be through consensual systems, meaning opt-in systems like sieges, like caravans, like wars, or going out into the open sea. These are conscious decisions that players will make knowing the risk profile- assessing that- and they will opt-in to those things.. – Steven Sharif

• These events will flag participating players as Combatants (purple) and players will remain flagged for a period of time after leaving that battleground. Corrupted (red) players will remain red during PvP events.
  • Node sieges.
  • Castle sieges (potentially).
  • Caravans.
  • Guild wars.
  • Naval PvP in the open sea.

• Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events (also called sanctioned events).
  • Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.

In a sanctioned event- sanctioned meaning that this is something you have the option to opt-out of. That's a castle siege, that's a node siege, that's a caravan, that's a guild war, that's a node war. You can drop your citizenship. You can drop your guild tag. You can drop participating in one of those things. In any of those types of opt-in and opt-out events, the death penalties do not exist. These are sanctioned. They're intended to allow people to engage in PvP. Now if I die to an NPC while I'm out hunting, or if I die to another player through the flagging system, those are where death penalties come into play; and that's where debt experience can be earned; and that's where corruption can be had. So it's important to separate those two realms. – Steven Sharif

• Outside of these events, normal PvP flagging and corruption rules apply.

During PvP events such as caravans, guild wars, and sieges, the death penalties are disabled between participating characters on opposing sides. Attacking and killing players on the opposing side doesn't trigger the purple and red flags, nor does dying drop any resources or loot. However, you can't hide in this state as a Red corrupted player either. If you are Red, you'll still be Red in the siege or caravan and open to anyone to kill you and drop your loot, regardless of the side you are on. Being Red trumps everything.

• There will be limited functionality for spectating battlefields and potentially castle sieges from ghost cameras at fixed positions.

We will have limited functionality where players can spectate from either ghost camera from fixed positions at certain battlefields; some of which might include castles.

• Open-world skirmishes may lead into sieges or other battles.

Our castle system, our sieges against nodes, the caravan system, battlegrounds that exist, guild wars: We want there to be a meaning to this conflict. We want players to actually have some skin in the game when it comes to participating in PvP. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Caravans
• PvP