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[Tycell]

Hey guys, I know I am new but I had a few suggestions to throw in, not really expecting them to be accepted but as one guy put it "it might spark new ideas".   Also probably some of this has been discussed before, so don't feel bad about telling me to stfu and gtfo.

One:

Everyone starts in the neutral 'loner' faction.

Rather than joining the game and instantly have to pick a side when you know nothing about them, everyone can start in the grey neutral faction, which only has access to limited weapons, armour and in which the merchants aren't good at all (don't sell many types of ammo, etc).

The 'grey' faction can't capture points in the core, but can give basic help to new travelers to the region who have come to seek their fortune in the legendary city. This way new players will have a chance to get a taste of the game before they throw their lot in with one of the bigger factions. Also you would have loner players who dont want to be part of any big faction coming here, opening the game up to a bigger player base.

It should help faction jumping and stabilize the teams a little more. Then once you get to a certain level cap, for example, you then get strong enough to be of interest to the 'Big gang' recruiters who are hanging around in the neutral base courtyard.

Something like a shanty town which has built up on the outskirts of the territory filled with people who either aren't good enough to join a big gang or don't want too. Something like a trading crossroads town. Not big or important enough to be of interest to the larger factions.



Two:

Smaller bases, that are not part of the main faction bases, like outposts which can be captured and held by squads. Not really bringing anything new to the table in the sense that owning a base wont get your much more than bragging rights. But it will draw fighting out of the core sometimes as well. The small bases could have a basic (not very good) mine, workbench and perhaps even a trader, which is only accessible by the people who own the base. Not really giving anyone a large advantage by owning one of these smaller bases, but it gives people something more to fight towards. The bases could be cappable for only 1 hour per day, all at the same time, so no one gang is likely to just take them all, spreading the power and causing a bit more competition.

One thought I had was that if a base was captured by an enemy squad or gang, that just before they get access to it everything inside the base that the previous gang owns gets teleported to a set of lockers which only the previous gang can see, and only for 23 hours. This way if you loose your mini base and you have been operating out of it, you don't loose all your stuff in the base. You could say that loyal servants in the base, seeing that it was about to fall, quickly gathered all the stuff they could find and ran for an emergency rendezvous point in the hills to stop the enemy gang securing all of your equipment.


As I said, probably this has been discussed before, but I though I would throw it down anyway, even if no one likes it.

[John Porno]

1:
The problem here is that we dont want to support the loner playstyle, we are all about teamplay. Similarly, a central and neutral meeting place would be like a new ncr. Instead, we want to make the headquarters the main meeting ground. There wont be any neutral or guarded place outside of the HQs because these are the only safe heavens and there is no need for more.

2:
The flaw in that idea is that we want to draw people into the core, not out of it. Small locations also might lead to grid camping and of course world map jumping, which is something we souhgt to eliminate. What you are suggesting is fairly similar to Zone control, except for being on the WM and not in the core, which is bad.

[Tycell]

Yes I see exactly what you mean about point 2.

But about point 1; It would't be a neutral meeting ground as such. Have it so you can't go back to it once you have joined a bigger gang, such as the people who run the town don't allow bigger gang factions in to make sure that fighting doesn't break out and destroy the city. And the purpose of the place would be very much to encourage people to join a bigger faction. Because you can only go so far in the 'grey' faction.

[John Porno]

In that case, there is not much point to be in it in the first place. It would be like a tutorial which we already have. It is important to build your reputation with your faction from day 1.

[Tycell]

Ahhhh okey dokey. Good stuff.

[Shangalar]

I moved your thread to a new public part, so that everyone can read it.

An addition to answers already given by John:

1:
You will choose your faction at the beginning of your adventure but not before you had the occasion to learn more about them. This process is constituting a step in the tutorial. There are multiple reasons for that, one of them being that factions provide their members with a lot of goods, tasks and global objectives, as well as a general philosophy and intimate enemies. Having a non-aligned group in the game would force us to organize it similarly as players need to have access to the whole game content. And thus, it would basically constitute one more faction at the end. You have to understand that factions are not working the same as gangs used to do in previous FOnline games, or basically as guilds are used to do in other MMO's. Factions in AoP constitute entire communities, with their own principles, rules, inner ways of thinking, struggles for power, influences that will be also brought by their members - the players themselves. A constellation of attitudes and personalities will be present in every faction. That's something we support, and that is already present in factions even before they are influenced by players. Through squads - the AoP term for gangs or guilds - affiliated to those factions, players will play their role in the overall politics of their faction. You just have to find a faction that fits to your taste.

Factions are just as important in AoP as they are in games such as Planet Side, Dark Age of Camelot or even Word of Warcraft. You need to belong to one to be involved in the game world. Note that the reputation system will allow you to change your allegiance, you'll not be stuck within a faction forever or until you remake a new character. Also, remember that your own reputation will allow you take profit of more developed relationships with other factions as well. This is not an idle world: it's permanently evolving.

We already examined the possibility of having loners as a feature in the game. There is yet no conclusion, but in any case, that would be only for advanced players, and with quite big gameplay restrictions to accept. There is no plan for such a feature is the near future.

2:
The Core is a huge location, with many places to discover and guard. Driving people out of it would be counter productive, as John pointed out. If we wanted to add such outposts, we would add them in. But since they would be potentially subject to primary issues such as alting, there is no plan to add anything like that at the moment.