Goblin Squad Member
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I think it would be nice if people could create campsites out in the wilderness, somewhere you can rest and recouperate alone or with a group. plan strategies, divvy up loot and do some basic crafting, or just sit around the fire telling stories.
The idea is something that gets set up in an open area, creating a small "zone" that is the campsite. They'd be something you could pack up (and only have one of active at a time)or others could destroy it if they don't like that you've put it there, or while attacking you they might.
Here's the twist: different abilities give you different things to add to the campsite, cooking implements and cauldrons for crafting food and potions, bigger tents for soldiering (campaign tents and the like), tables with maps (cartography?), a small carpentry or fletching table, makeshif anvil by the fire (do some basic crafting or repair work, but not the full selection you'd get at a real forge), pallisades, or, for magic users, magical barriers, or druids, turn it into a grove, surrounded by trees that will attack foes on command. Useful for everything from a lone druid out in the forest, or a whole army waiting for a siege or reinforcements (which would be lots of smaller camps) even, perhaps, ritual or magic circles for magic users that enhance their magical abilities while standing on them (defensive/offensive bonuses if your camp is attacked) The zone being the extent to which you can place items in it (eg, you can't use it to spawn a line of tables creating a wall from one town to the next). There would of course also be various logs, boulders and stools for sitting on (or someone might just bring their own chair if they're that fussy)
Anyone could use your camp that was in it, so if they kill you, they could still use your fletching table to make new arrows (until you pack up the camp, which will have to be able to be done remotely in case you can't find your way back), but only members of the group can add items, and only a certain number each, more powerful ones requiring more people in the camp to construct. (so having a bunch of smaller, coordinated groups to make more camps won't make them very effective, a druid grove without a druid won't do much, and a magic circle without the creator around won't help much, you still have pallisades, but you'd need resources to construct those, and they'll still burn just as easily.)
exact mechanics and resources to make and set them up? entirely up for debate.
I think it would just be something that adds a bit of flavour and a bit of strategy. Been at a resource for a while? your group might set up a camp next to it, now if you get attacked by a group coming to take it from you, you've prepared a more defensible position.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like the idea, its success will be totally dependent though on how fast people will actually be able to travel back to safety/their settlement. I thought the read about (fast) travel in one of their blogs was interesting, but it still seemed to me that you could get back to any hub fairly quickly.
Campsites always intrigued me, unfortunately in many games they have become a gimmick that nobody uses. In Rift they have Campsites that will regenerate your "rest" xp, however since there is zero downtime in both combat and travel, nobody ever sets up a tent like that and sits there in the woods. The whole pace of the game simply does not allow it.
In Everquest they implemented a rather extensive Campsite feature that is mostly used for the fact that your fellowship(up to 10 people) could quickly gather by teleporting to the campsite that had to have been setup by at least 2 people of the fellowship. It also can give a whole array of buffs, depending on the more or less expensive materials you use. Not sure if anbody uses them for that though. The teleport feature is used a lot though.
I think the most use I have seen for campsites was in SWG.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think the most use I have seen for campsites was in SWG.
Campsites had a buff use in TERA too xD
But here also, we have various abilities you have to set up in advance, this would give you somewhere to do that, also somewhere for basic repairs, making new arrows if you need them, without having to go all the way back to a town. Just because there's a town nearby doesn't mean you'll be welcome there after all, and if you just need to do some preparations and planning for a dungeon you just found, or a resource node you just discovered, you wouldn't want to be running all the way back to town and potentially losing it. Or maybe you're just in hostile territory and need some relative safety.
There could be other benefits too, but it all depends on the mechanics of the game.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yes, I just read the part about fast travel again and there are a few drawbacks. You need to hoof it to the first known point of fast travel anyway, and then you can use the map to make a large hop and then smaller hops to your destination. This is dependant on the travel locations you actually discovered, but I am approaching this from the viewpoint of a player who has been around already.
The first part, walking to the first travel point, could actually bequit a hurdle. So could the ambushes that you can randomly expect during fast travel.
I was also thinking about what you said about losing your newly gathered mats. This can workd both ways, depending on how much protection your camp gives. I would expect players that are loaded on mats, to want to return to their settlement/safety asap, so not linger around in a camp. But if the camp gives some protection, if only by being able to process raw mats into crafting parts that you can then "thread", then I could see people setting up camps. But if their newly processed mats are just as vulnerable to looting by players attacking the camp then I just do not see people lingering in the woods for any longer that they have to.
This is just from the viewpoint of someone using the camp for a gather sessions, I can see more uses for it as you are pointing out in your post.
The 2 most important questions in this matter probably are, how dangerous is it to linger in the woods, and how fast can you on average reach safety in the River Kingdoms. I guess I am expecting a PK or Criminal behind every tree, I should probably lighten up. :D
Travel is probably something that will need a LOT of tweaking during early enrollment, it is a key feature in a MMO like this.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yes, I just read the part about fast travel again and there are a few drawbacks. You need to hoof it to the first known point of fast travel anyway, and then you can use the map to make a large hop and then smaller hops to your destination. This is dependant on the travel locations you actually discovered, but I am approaching this from the viewpoint of a player who has been around already.
The first part, walking to the first travel point, could actually bequit a hurdle. So could the ambushes that you can randomly expect during fast travel.
I was also thinking about what you said about losing your newly gathered mats. This can workd both ways, depending on how much protection your camp gives. I would expect players that are loaded on mats, to want to return to their settlement/safety asap, so not linger around in a camp. But if the camp gives some protection, if only by being able to process raw mats into crafting parts that you can then "thread", then I could see people setting up camps. But if there newly processed mats are just as vulnerable to looting by players attacking the camp then I jjst do not see people lingering in the woods for any longer that they have to.
This is just from the viewpoint of someone using the camp for a gather sessions, I can see more uses for it as you are pointing out in your post.
The 2 most important questions in this matter probably are, how dangerous is it to linger in the woods, and how fast can you on average reach safety in the River Kingdoms.
Travel is probably something that will need a LOT of tweaking during early enrollment, it is a key feature in a MMO like this.
But also if you set up a camp while resource harvesting, it gives you somewhere to run to if you're attacked by other players, you may not even have many resources yet, but if you have a defensive position set up, you can run in there, your attackers have three choices: they can attack you in camp and see if they can overpower you (or the fighters might stay behind while the miners sneak out the back of the camp and run for town), they can go take the resource node and risk you attacking THEM, or they can leave.
There's not just brigands and monsters to worry about, but also rival factions that might be patrolling or resource hunting.
Also if you have a camp just outside a dungeon, it might give you somewhere to go if you need to prepare and don't want to risk someoen else taking over (from that entrance) or it despawning by you going to far from it to get back in time.