Goblin Squad Member
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| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
So we had our first large scale tower defense. It was a lot of fun, but we also think the PvP mechanics could be changed to make more sense/be more fun.
Blunt Logic obliged us tonight by trying to take one of our towers, and so we broke off our escalation hunt to engage. Some thoughts:
-At first we outnumbered them--we had 7 and they had 4, and so for a while we had the advantage on them. We were able to blast them out of the tower, and they tried to lure some of us out to even the odds, which was a good tactic on their part.
-They started roaming from tower to tower, which forced us to split into reconnaissance elements. Again that was a good tactic. They called in reinforcements, so for a while they had a numbers advantage and were able to repel us.
-At one point they had 9 characters to our 6, and got up to around 680 or so on one of our core towers. When we had 7 to their 9, we charged in, and were able to dislodge them, although we had several casualties. We got two more, and then when it was 9-9, everytime they came in we dropped them like flies.
-I think there was a decent mix of types. They were mostly bowmen, melee, and wizards. We had a similar mix, but also clerics. So it was nice to see there was more than one way the cat was being skinned.
-The big surprise for us was that enemy flagging worked the opposite of what we expected. In a PvP open hex, if you attack an invading group, all your group members get flagged and turn red. So instead of being able to tab target the aggressors who are invading your tower, you tab and attack on your party members. This is particularly a problem because you then can't heal your party and comrades. So there is a huge mechanical advantage to trying to steal a tower, because they defenders can't heal/buff/help each other. I highly recommend rethinking this.
-It was a lot of fun. It was good content, we are happy we repelled the invaders, getting out Player Killer Achievements, and so on. On the other hand, HAVING to PvP every night to keep your towers seems like it might become work at some point. Not saying that's a problem, just may reflect preferences.
Big thanks to Blunt Logic and Allegiant Gemstone Co. for providing content--you are worthy adversaries!
P.S. Gpunk, Atheory, Memory, Pendragon, Ozack, Doc and the three other dudes, please PM me, I have your missing teeth.
Yeah, that tower was in retrospect a bad choice to attack. Unbeknownst to us before we chose to make that final attack, every time we killed one of OV when they were trying to dislodge us they basically respawned right back next to the tower. It would probably be a pretty tough capture/defense for anyone without a numbers advantage.
What's crazy though, is when I died I respawned half a hex away. I'd be curious in hearing more from the Dev's about how the respawn mechanics works.
Some good PvP experience though for sure. Highlights how fun the game can be, despite it tripping over its feet with a clunky UI and mechanics.
Pretty much mirrored the experiences that I've had running with Golgotha and what they've seen against EBA.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Entertaining for sure. Your math is wrong and you fail to disclose the defenders spawn point is +/- 40m from the tower but that's how it goes. Thanks for the fun! I learned a few new tricks.
1. The math is quite correct :)
2. I forgot about the rez point being farther away for defenders--that does favor defenders.|
Goblin Squad Member
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This was a great time time and great write up MBando. Your account was spot on. Kind of expected you guys would move on to try and hit another settlement's core 6. When you showed up with 9, I thought that could be it.
As for the mechanics of the game, I completely agree with Doc. "Highlights how fun the game can be, despite it tripping over its feet with clunky UI and mechanics" perfectly describes my experience as well.
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Goblin Squad Member
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BTW, we coined a new term in chat tonight--when someone turns tail and flees it's called "gpunking," like "Holy Mackerel did you see how hard he gpunked!"
Yeah, like when I ran up and realized my I was bugged and my attacks weren't working that one time... I gpunked the hell out of there and relogged to fix it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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BTW, we coined a new term in chat tonight--when someone turns tail and flees it's called "gpunking," like "Holy Mackerel did you see how hard he gpunked!"Yeah, like when I ran up and realized my I was bugged and my attacks weren't working that one time... I gpunked the hell out of there and relogged to fix it.
wow, way to poke the bear ;)
Despite the taunting, I'm still pretty pleased. Half of the guys I brought up to reinforce at a moment's notice haven't done PvP before in PFO yet and only had +0 armor, so it was good experience for them and they made a good showing of themselves in my opinion.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I unfortunately missed this event by about an hour-and-a-half, due to the snow storm / family time.
I'm glad it had the desired effect that we were hoping for.
As for the tower rez points, I'm not too sure that closer is better (for either side). I believe defenders should have a slight advantage, but maybe not that one.
@ GW,
With the hopeful influx of new players beginning with EE Month 2, I'm hoping that raid group grouping is something in the works in the not so distant future.
Great job, for both sides!!
Edit: PS -- I would have favorited the OP if it weren't for the unnecessary trash talk in the thread title and OP.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Great to see this report. As for your comment that a constant presence (having to pvp every night) may begin to feel like work... There are some people that want to spend most of their time in this game PvP'ing. I'm encouraged that we can send those type of people to our borders or on escort missions and they will likely not be disappointed. While the rest of the company stays back in the relatively safer territory to PvE.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Great to see this report. As for your comment that a constant presence (having to pvp every night) may begin to feel like work... There are some people that want to spend most of their time in this game PvP'ing. I'm encouraged that we can send those type of people to our borders or on escort missions and they will likely not be disappointed. While the rest of the company stays back in the relatively safer territory to PvE.
Again, that's more my personal take, and not a claim that it's a problem. I think part of it right now is player density. In X months when we have N players, it may be very easy to sort out playstyles and "who's on duty." Right now, we have a pool of about 25 people, spread out over time zones, with significant variation in playtime. So the 7-10 people who might be on during the PvP window are forced by default to be on duty.
This is where the contrast between the offense and the defense is visible. Defense is the strongest in war, but victory lies only in the offense, because the attacker can chose the time and place of their attack. In this sense, a small group that chooses their time and place to strike has an advantage over a larger group, perhaps many times over, because they will always be in the position of having to respond and mass forces.
This is not a problem, and I think it is a good thing in that it makes smaller settlements more relevant than otherwise. But again, it means forcing people to be on duty at lower population densities.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Lets clarify one thing real quick, Allegiant Gemstone Co was not there to embarrass anyone.
A couple of us went up for some pvp fun, after you initially chased the BL group from the tower the first time and funny enough, the numbers just kept escalating, on both sides. And it became a free for all rodeo clown infested dance off. Which we did enjoy.
We were capturing the tower only because AGC outnumbered BL in the group. But AGC could care less about your core six, or your towers in general. But it did bring all the boys to the yard!
My point - keep your attitude focused on the right people.
Have a great day!
