.: Strike :.
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 26
Preface: I started Tibia when I was 11. I only had crappy dial-up at home, so I went to Internet Cafés to see people play and to hear the antics of the great guilds of Tibia. And I absolutely loved it, but I came too late. The mercenaries were no longer demanding protection money for hunting in the Fibula dungeon. Satori didn't protect Ab'dendriel anymore and the new legends were mediocre.
Objective: An open Tibia server that actively motivates players to take over cities, defend them with tower defense strategies, giving an incentive to allow neutral players to hunt and for the guilds to war each other.
I'll assume a real tibia map, but the same concepts can be applies to other maps too. I also assume that botting is somehow kept at a minimum. Ship routes between warring cities are out of service.
1. How to ensure a city-ruling guild allows in neutral players?
Each city has varied hunting spawns, which are unsuitable for higher level players (Rotworms/Dwarves/Elves…etc.). Very rarely these monsters drop a rare item. The server keeps tracks of loot in the area of each city and calculates a price for it. The guild gets automatically 10% of all loot in cash every week. The guild might demand extra payments from players, but in general guilds will try to make it easier, not harder, for neutral low level players to hunt.
2. What are the incentives for ruling a city?
Beside the tax on neutral players hunting, the ruling guild might use the shipyard/steamboat/magic carpet whatever to travel from the mainland to less hospitable places with stronger monsters and better loot. They can also allow passage to neutral players, by talking to the NPC on their behalf. Killing neutral players inside their city is punished by skulls, but not by bans, and is broadcasted or displayed on the website to warn neutral players from going there.
3. Safe havens?
Each continent has a safe city that is rules by the Gamemaster guild, which can't be taken over and provide sa safe place for new players. It's more crowded and thus motivates players to form guilds to take over a city they can profit from/hunt in and also motivates neutral players to seek other cities to hunt in.
4. City defence while offline?
The games creates NPCs for players of the ruling guild that man the fortress and watchtowers around the city. They broadcast enemy movements and are able to do distance damage to attackers, as well as heal themselves. They are weaker than the real character though (and dumber of course). When a character dies, they respawn in the temple and have to walk back to their post, so given enough time, the opposing guild could get deep enough into the city. The power and abilities of the NPCs can be improved by the guild. There are quests as well as the possibility to buy abilities (for a lot of money), so the NPCs can deal better damage, have wider range and repel enemies more effectively. The guild channel which is also used by the NPCs will be available over IRC, so even AFK players or tibia-offline ones can monitor whether they need to log in or not.
5. Taking over a city?
At the start of the game, all non-gamemaster ruled cities are ruled by NPCs, who let you hunt. PKing in their domain is punished and will easily get you killed or banned from entering the city. These banned people may band together, form a guild and lead an attack on the city. Each city has a guild house at its very end (See Castle of the Winds in Ab'dendriel), which must be reached and taken over. by killing all the NPC or real player guards and hindering from reaching it again from the temple for a set amount of time. As soon as that happens, the temple of the attacking guild becomes the temple of the city, they just invaded. If they managed to repel all counterattacks and send them off to their temples, the city is finally theirs
6. Spoils of war?
The guild balance for the last week is plundered when the guild house is taken. As payday is on Sunday evening, attacks on Saturdays and Sundays are the most lucrative. This also ensures that attacks happen more frequently on weekends. This is especially important, as the new ruling guild loses all city defenses of the old occupiers and they need to spend a lot of money to make their NPCs able to defend the city.
7. Houses?
Gamemaster-ruled cities have houses available to all players that don't belong to a guild ruling a city. Houses in ruled cities may be auctioned by the rulers or distributed among their members.
8. Shops?
Ruling guilds get a share of NPC sales in the city they rule, so even if a city lacks some hunting spot variety, it can make up for it by having the only NPCs that fix soft boots (see Venore). Some spells are only buyable in specific cities.
9. Weapons of war
While everything you can use against monsters is also usable against players, they deal quite less damage. And the good PvP ammo/runes cost a lot, so taking over a city is a serious financial decision. PvP deathes from an enemy guild (but not as a neutral player) are costly.
10. Backstabbing
Log in you character and go join the attackers. They will remove a NPC from the defender pool and you can attack your old teammates.
11. Trade
As opposing guilds won't risk meeting for trade inside their borders, they will meet somewhere in the open or in neutral cities. Neutral players could also buy and resell items that are only available in another city. This might piss off that city's ruling guild though
12. Other continents
Now you rule a city, or a city's rulers allow you to travel to other continents. These continents lack neutral cities, so in order to get a depot, temple and shops you will have to fight for it. These cities are much smaller than mainland cities though (Think Roshamuul depot) and don't have a sphere of influence where you can freely PK in. So basically it's only useful for fast refilling in a battle or quests.
13. Skilling
No monsters in city. In neutral hunting grounds, you might get pk'ed easier. So your best bet is being allowed to skill in a city ruled by a guild. They may go around and kill skillers who don't make them money though, so make sure you pay in advance.
14. Not all cities are created equal
It's harder to defend two cities with the same guild and the benefit of acquiring new cities decreases, the more cities you conquer. It should be ensured that it's not worth it for Carlin to conquer Northport or for Edron to conquer Stonehome. They rather conquer bigger cities. This leaves smaller towns for smaller guilds to get a foothold.
15. You shall not quest your enemies quests
Neutral players if allowed into a city can do quests and collect items for them. Guild members are restricted to their city and ones they are allowed in
16. Pacts
You may agree on mutual hunting rights with other cities. This allows you to pass NPCs of these cities, but logged in guild members may still kill you without retribution.
17. You shall not be a dick
Guilds may ally to drive you out of a city and choose to leave the city afterwards. This will reinstate the NPC rulers of the city. This avoid a dilemma about who of the rulers will get control of the city. The city will become a puppet city. Both winners may enter the city freely, and get a cut of profits as thanks for their efforts in "liberating" the city.
19. Keeping the population happy
The original inhabitants of a city have their needs too. They will request some luxury resource not available in the city, but probably in an enemy city. Your enemy doesn't want you to succeed. Especially, since his resource is probably at yet another enemy's city. You will have to trade with neutral players to get enough for keeping the population happy.
20. Unhappy population
Less efficient defenses. Less profits. Slower spawns, because the NPCs need to eat too!
21. Trial/Trade by combat
The website allows more involved trade. For example 1kk for the winner of a fight.
22. Abuse
We might want to change the capture-the-flag semantics. e.g. A ruler change requires reaching the guild hall 3 times more than your opponent reached yours. After reach it the first and second time, the guild is teleported out and can't enter again for like a day. This should ensure somewhat that you don't have to be only all the time to defend your city.
23. Secret Agents
A neutral player may ally with a guild, but they could get banned for excessive kills. So it's expected they join the guild they want to fight with
24. Trade Route Plundering
Raids on the main road between cities reduces profit and creates a shortage in ammo/runes/mana pots at the city's NPCs, because it's assumed from a RPG point of view that neutral players are the ones bringing in wares like mana pots and runes. Same goes for attack by enemy guilds.
25. Cityless guild
The gamemaster-ruled City (Lets say Thais) is always open to players. The NPCs attack skulls though, so as a red skull it's better to avoid the city. The outlaw camp (increased in size to become a small town) is a "normal" Tibian city with NPCs minding their own business and player killing unpunished except by other skulls/bans and players.
26. Epic quests
The most epic quests ingame (Thunder hammer, Warlord sword) involve travelling to all cities, which gives neutral players looking for RPG a good boost.
27. Avoiding cities farming all their gold themselves
There's no ruling city boost for loot collected by own guild members. Online guild members also decrease the NPCs manning the walls. So it's preferable to play with higher level characters or with ones that can quickly react if there's an attack (less AFK bots)
28. Creating neutral moneymakers and allowing only them into the city
Anti-bot measures + GM checking players
What do you think? What other dynamics could be added to make it more balanced? Do you see possibilities of abuse that can be fixed? Are you interested in implementing that on your OTServ?
Objective: An open Tibia server that actively motivates players to take over cities, defend them with tower defense strategies, giving an incentive to allow neutral players to hunt and for the guilds to war each other.
I'll assume a real tibia map, but the same concepts can be applies to other maps too. I also assume that botting is somehow kept at a minimum. Ship routes between warring cities are out of service.
1. How to ensure a city-ruling guild allows in neutral players?
Each city has varied hunting spawns, which are unsuitable for higher level players (Rotworms/Dwarves/Elves…etc.). Very rarely these monsters drop a rare item. The server keeps tracks of loot in the area of each city and calculates a price for it. The guild gets automatically 10% of all loot in cash every week. The guild might demand extra payments from players, but in general guilds will try to make it easier, not harder, for neutral low level players to hunt.
2. What are the incentives for ruling a city?
Beside the tax on neutral players hunting, the ruling guild might use the shipyard/steamboat/magic carpet whatever to travel from the mainland to less hospitable places with stronger monsters and better loot. They can also allow passage to neutral players, by talking to the NPC on their behalf. Killing neutral players inside their city is punished by skulls, but not by bans, and is broadcasted or displayed on the website to warn neutral players from going there.
3. Safe havens?
Each continent has a safe city that is rules by the Gamemaster guild, which can't be taken over and provide sa safe place for new players. It's more crowded and thus motivates players to form guilds to take over a city they can profit from/hunt in and also motivates neutral players to seek other cities to hunt in.
4. City defence while offline?
The games creates NPCs for players of the ruling guild that man the fortress and watchtowers around the city. They broadcast enemy movements and are able to do distance damage to attackers, as well as heal themselves. They are weaker than the real character though (and dumber of course). When a character dies, they respawn in the temple and have to walk back to their post, so given enough time, the opposing guild could get deep enough into the city. The power and abilities of the NPCs can be improved by the guild. There are quests as well as the possibility to buy abilities (for a lot of money), so the NPCs can deal better damage, have wider range and repel enemies more effectively. The guild channel which is also used by the NPCs will be available over IRC, so even AFK players or tibia-offline ones can monitor whether they need to log in or not.
5. Taking over a city?
At the start of the game, all non-gamemaster ruled cities are ruled by NPCs, who let you hunt. PKing in their domain is punished and will easily get you killed or banned from entering the city. These banned people may band together, form a guild and lead an attack on the city. Each city has a guild house at its very end (See Castle of the Winds in Ab'dendriel), which must be reached and taken over. by killing all the NPC or real player guards and hindering from reaching it again from the temple for a set amount of time. As soon as that happens, the temple of the attacking guild becomes the temple of the city, they just invaded. If they managed to repel all counterattacks and send them off to their temples, the city is finally theirs
6. Spoils of war?
The guild balance for the last week is plundered when the guild house is taken. As payday is on Sunday evening, attacks on Saturdays and Sundays are the most lucrative. This also ensures that attacks happen more frequently on weekends. This is especially important, as the new ruling guild loses all city defenses of the old occupiers and they need to spend a lot of money to make their NPCs able to defend the city.
7. Houses?
Gamemaster-ruled cities have houses available to all players that don't belong to a guild ruling a city. Houses in ruled cities may be auctioned by the rulers or distributed among their members.
8. Shops?
Ruling guilds get a share of NPC sales in the city they rule, so even if a city lacks some hunting spot variety, it can make up for it by having the only NPCs that fix soft boots (see Venore). Some spells are only buyable in specific cities.
9. Weapons of war
While everything you can use against monsters is also usable against players, they deal quite less damage. And the good PvP ammo/runes cost a lot, so taking over a city is a serious financial decision. PvP deathes from an enemy guild (but not as a neutral player) are costly.
10. Backstabbing
Log in you character and go join the attackers. They will remove a NPC from the defender pool and you can attack your old teammates.
11. Trade
As opposing guilds won't risk meeting for trade inside their borders, they will meet somewhere in the open or in neutral cities. Neutral players could also buy and resell items that are only available in another city. This might piss off that city's ruling guild though
12. Other continents
Now you rule a city, or a city's rulers allow you to travel to other continents. These continents lack neutral cities, so in order to get a depot, temple and shops you will have to fight for it. These cities are much smaller than mainland cities though (Think Roshamuul depot) and don't have a sphere of influence where you can freely PK in. So basically it's only useful for fast refilling in a battle or quests.
13. Skilling
No monsters in city. In neutral hunting grounds, you might get pk'ed easier. So your best bet is being allowed to skill in a city ruled by a guild. They may go around and kill skillers who don't make them money though, so make sure you pay in advance.
14. Not all cities are created equal
It's harder to defend two cities with the same guild and the benefit of acquiring new cities decreases, the more cities you conquer. It should be ensured that it's not worth it for Carlin to conquer Northport or for Edron to conquer Stonehome. They rather conquer bigger cities. This leaves smaller towns for smaller guilds to get a foothold.
15. You shall not quest your enemies quests
Neutral players if allowed into a city can do quests and collect items for them. Guild members are restricted to their city and ones they are allowed in
16. Pacts
You may agree on mutual hunting rights with other cities. This allows you to pass NPCs of these cities, but logged in guild members may still kill you without retribution.
17. You shall not be a dick
Guilds may ally to drive you out of a city and choose to leave the city afterwards. This will reinstate the NPC rulers of the city. This avoid a dilemma about who of the rulers will get control of the city. The city will become a puppet city. Both winners may enter the city freely, and get a cut of profits as thanks for their efforts in "liberating" the city.
19. Keeping the population happy
The original inhabitants of a city have their needs too. They will request some luxury resource not available in the city, but probably in an enemy city. Your enemy doesn't want you to succeed. Especially, since his resource is probably at yet another enemy's city. You will have to trade with neutral players to get enough for keeping the population happy.
20. Unhappy population
Less efficient defenses. Less profits. Slower spawns, because the NPCs need to eat too!
21. Trial/Trade by combat
The website allows more involved trade. For example 1kk for the winner of a fight.
22. Abuse
We might want to change the capture-the-flag semantics. e.g. A ruler change requires reaching the guild hall 3 times more than your opponent reached yours. After reach it the first and second time, the guild is teleported out and can't enter again for like a day. This should ensure somewhat that you don't have to be only all the time to defend your city.
23. Secret Agents
A neutral player may ally with a guild, but they could get banned for excessive kills. So it's expected they join the guild they want to fight with
24. Trade Route Plundering
Raids on the main road between cities reduces profit and creates a shortage in ammo/runes/mana pots at the city's NPCs, because it's assumed from a RPG point of view that neutral players are the ones bringing in wares like mana pots and runes. Same goes for attack by enemy guilds.
25. Cityless guild
The gamemaster-ruled City (Lets say Thais) is always open to players. The NPCs attack skulls though, so as a red skull it's better to avoid the city. The outlaw camp (increased in size to become a small town) is a "normal" Tibian city with NPCs minding their own business and player killing unpunished except by other skulls/bans and players.
26. Epic quests
The most epic quests ingame (Thunder hammer, Warlord sword) involve travelling to all cities, which gives neutral players looking for RPG a good boost.
27. Avoiding cities farming all their gold themselves
There's no ruling city boost for loot collected by own guild members. Online guild members also decrease the NPCs manning the walls. So it's preferable to play with higher level characters or with ones that can quickly react if there's an attack (less AFK bots)
28. Creating neutral moneymakers and allowing only them into the city
Anti-bot measures + GM checking players
What do you think? What other dynamics could be added to make it more balanced? Do you see possibilities of abuse that can be fixed? Are you interested in implementing that on your OTServ?
