The Many Adventures of Fawngate

[Silverleafeon]

Hello Everyone!

One might ask oneself, "What is Fawn doing posting inside the PVP section?"


That is an excellent question indeed.


A very long time ago, Fawn posted in these threads:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/418331-DDO-Hunger-Games-May-the-odds-be-with-you

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/429902-DDO-Hunger-Games-%E2%80%9CMay-the-odds-be-ever-in-your-favor!%E2%80%9D


If you read the very last post, there is a reference to the "new" enhancement system arriving (along with Epic Destinies and a lot of other things).
The Hunger Games would seem replaced by farming Rusted Blades, wandering the King's Forest, and learning how to play the Druid class.


Time passes...
More Time passes...

Fawngate now has her beloved wings along with all available past lives and is looking around, wondering what to do next?

For her, the Completionist Project is finished, and keeping up with any new past lives will be fairly easy.

The Virus Giveaway allowed me to create a few new accounts.


Perhaps, the way forward is to look backward?


She enjoyed the Munchkin Games as well in the past:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/522493-Munchkin-Summer-Games-2021



So I have been bouncing ideas around with my silent partner and listening to suggestions.


I celebrated Groundhog day with a feast and peeking up from underground and wondering whether winter is over yet?
(Mind you, my version of a feast is going to the grocery store and opening up goodies brought home while stocking up the pantry.)


This thread will introduce and run some interesting events while talking about random DDO thoughts and goals.

And so it begins...

[Silverleafeon]

I have given the DDO PVP system a great deal of thought and would like to revisit the original Hunger Games events that I ran long ago with some improvements.


When the heroine returns in Mockingjay, the Hunger Games becomes a Team Event with goals in the storyline.

I feel that PVP Capture the Flag is a better representation of the 75th Culling.

The heroine also would have leveled up.

DDO has added expansion and favor rewards the Vet level seven option, representing character growth.

(The first event was level four characters in the Death Match arena.)


Max level seven would be fairly easy for new character creation since one can access Vet 7, Vet 4 plus leveling up, or Choosing Iconic and only leveling up to seven.


A team event would be easier for me to run as a single-elimination event via the standard tree format.

Now that I have multiple accounts, I can level up extra judges to multi-box as an organizer.

My internet too has improved, and lag is so much better for me than in years past.


There is usually more population on the weekends, but Friday and Saturday are often devoted to guild raiding.
Sunday afternoon, however, is usually a time to relax and slow down with some amusement and divergence.

[Silverleafeon]

DDO Hunger Games version II




I will create a channel: FawnpVp to communicate over.
/joinchannel Fawnpvp



Start Time: Sunday Afternoons at 4 PM Eastern Standard Time (organizing, battles will start soon after)

Location: Khyber Server - you will join one of my raid group looking for members which will be put up by Fawngate and Fawnpvp (or possibly Fawngale or Fawnglow); there will be a prompt for you to accept a challenge which you will click yes, teleporting you to the arena. After the event is over, finish out which will remove you from the raid group. Winners will start round two in a similar fasion.

Number of Rounds: Single Elimination - Winner goes to next round, typical tree format (four teams = 2 rounds; eight teams = 3 rounds)

Time for Each Round: Ten Minutes

Arena Choice: The First Sunday of the Month will be Menechtarun Desert, The Second Sunday of the Month will Quickfoot Arena, The Third Sunday of the Month will be Menechtarun Desert, The Fourth Sunday of the Month will be Quickfoot Arena, the Possible Fifth Sunday of the Month will be randomly chosen between the two as a surprise. It will always be a Capture the Flag Arena.

Number of Players Allowed on a Team: One to Five players per team, depending upon popularity; There should be a team captain. Each team member should belong to the same guild, if not the Team shall be registered as belonging to the Team Captain's Guild.

Level Limit: A player's toon shall not exceed level seven, but said toon may max out all of their level seven action points.

Class Restrictions: A player may not use a build with access to the Fascinate Ability. (This Currently means you cannot have any Bard levels.) [The rationale behind this limitation is that unable to move is not fun.]

Team Restrictions: Each player on a team must have a different Class Symbol Icon. [The rationale behind this limitation is a variety of roles will force better teamwork and limit everyone from playing four copies of the same build.]

Equipment Restrictions: There are no restrictions on equipped items, potions, scrolls, wands, or even cookies for these events. [The rationale behind this is that I cannot observe and monitor equipment accurately.]

Camping Restrictions: I would ask that players refrain from standing closer than 30 foot of their foes respawn zone. Unfortunately, this is something that I cannot easily enforce unless of course, a Judge starts attacking obvious Spawn Campers.

Judges Each event should have a high-level neutral party member inside the arena. Judges are considered to be "Environmental Hazards" and are present to record scores. Attacking a judge is unwise. Most Judges will have Fawn somewhere in their name.

Race Restrictions: You may use a normal or iconic race that you have access to. Yes, you can use an iconic that have only been leveled up to seven.

Past Life Restrictions: Your toon may not have any wings symbol. Your toon cannot have past lives.

Reaper Points: Your toon may have as many reaper points as they desire. [The rationale behind this is that reaper points are restricted by level and almost all of the points do not benefit the PVP arena. It would also be tough to accumulate many reaper points with a level seven toon that cannot earn past lives.]

Magic Restrictions: Unlike the earlier games there will not be restrictions on caster levels. [The rationale behind this is that there are multiple ways to counter magic if you choose to look for this.]

Guild Buffs: Guild Buffs are allowed. Once you have entered the Raid Group to prepare for the event, there will be a two-minute invitation to my guild airship where you can click for high-level guild buffs if you desire. The cargo hold of this airship is likely empty, but you can click on anything down there if you like.

House P and J Buffs: House P and J buffs are allowed.

Rewards: I will be running rewards on buy-in and donation generated. We may have buy-ins such as 10k plat per team, which will go to the winning team captain. I will not be purchasing expensive rewards from the DDO store. [The rationale behind this is to attract players who are interested in the event, not the rewards.]

Shout Out: We will be posting the Winning Team Members and their Guild after each event.

Championship Events: If this becomes popular we may have Winners Only events with a bigger buy-in.

[Silverleafeon]

Instructive Raid Train


Time: ?

Location: Khyber Server - Look for Fawngate's Looking for Members listing ?

Schedule of Raids: Working on this

[b]Might form an unbalanced informal PVP after the raid (pike or leave early if desired)

[Silverleafeon]

Tbd

[Silverleafeon]

reserved 5

[Silverleafeon]

reserved 6

[Silverleafeon]

reserved 7

[Silverleafeon]

reserved 8

[Silverleafeon]

reserved 9

[rabidfox]

Fawngate now has her beloved wings along with all available past lives and is looking around, wondering what to do next?

Keep taking gear off in r10s and see how long it takes until I notice that I'm having trouble healing you...

[Silverleafeon]

...

LOL +1
/salute to healers
/thanks

[Silverleafeon]

And....I forgot what a pain hitting epic levels on a brand new toon is like...blank Epic Destinies all the way around and zero tokens of the twelve...

I wonder if the Epic Destiny Revision will provide some relief?

[Silverleafeon]

I logged in and out on my Fawnpvp toon and was like "Wow, that was instant fast."
I guess my friends were right when they said completionist toons get more lag.

I'm tempted to leave this one as a first lifer, just for the fun of it.


I will not have my Bladeforged very developed for Sunday, so I'm thinking of a simple heroic Tempest Spine.

Thinking long term about the Hunger Games, I'll put up the Looking for Members, but not expecting anyone to join.
It will take a bit of time for word to spread and folks to put some effort into a PVP build.

[Silverleafeon]

I just realized that if I'm making the rules up, I might as well make them benefit my account best.


Instead of Warforged only, swap to human preferred.


Since Fawngate is PDK, human-based (as is Shadar-kai), I could use my main toon for the raids.
That would allow me to set up a raid schedule.

Also, I could go first with humankind then fill the rest of the group up with any other races.

[Silverleafeon]

I saw someone on another server running "training raids" which reminds me of some of the raid trains that I ran awhile back - a bit less than hardest diff with micro phone on talking about the raid.


It struck me as far more interesting than, "Oh, you are not human, I'll let you join in 20 minutes if we don't fill.." and a lot more helpful.

Scrapping the whole warforged/human only plan, but I am leveling up my 2nd best toon as a Deep Gnome Favored Soul (still deciding on final build design).

Scrubbing some earlier posts...


But still going for the whole Hunger Games return thing.

[Silverleafeon]

So far, 3 interested players,

[Silverleafeon]

Several more players are interested in simply trying to capture the flag with level cap toons.


Certainly not the 32 players that my new ideas would need (8 teams of 4 players each), but more interest.


It looks like the original idea of mixing a group into a raid group (red & blue teams) and going from there is much more practical.


The ideal toon levels seem to be:

Level cap (no need to create and equip new toons)
Iconic (15)
Vet 2 (7)
Vet (4)
Beginner (1)

[Silverleafeon]

https://ddosavant.wordpress.com/2021/04/25/why-player-vs-player-in-ddo-could-be-a-good-thing/]Why Player vs Player in DDO could be a GOOD thing?



Dungeons and Dragons Online is an amazing MMORPG to start, I wouldn’t change much about the game; the content in the game alone is enough for someone to endlessly play due to the brilliant reincarnation system that has been put in place. With that being said, the game lacks any form of competitive option; and while most will argue that DDO isn’t the place for player vs player (PvP), I will make a case for the few that say it does have a place in the game.

Yes, at its core, DDO is based off of Dungeons and Dragons, an amazing tabletop game that has lasted decades without fail, entertaining millions of people globally; with that being said, seeing DDO is an MMORPG it needs to add more to compete with other MMORPG’s then staying true to its tabletop roots.

Player vs Player is a system you can find in nearly every other MMORPG in the market, and while DDO DOES ACTUALLY HAVE A PVP SYSTEM; it sadly is a failing one. There is hope however for a revamped system and the ability to drive players back/introduce new players to play competitively in DDO. In my free-time I have thought of multiple options for Dungeons and Dragons Online to really embrace a player vs player environment and allow people to partake in PvP if they’d like. Here are some of my thoughts in how it can be incorporated into the game:

Player vs Players Universal Enhancement Tree:
Similar to the Reaper enhancement tree system, this PvP tree would offer a unique set of enhancements balanced purely around player vs player; active ONLY in player vs player; just like Reaper. Whether its passives or active abilities that benefit your character in PvP, you can find it in that tree. To gain Player vs Player Action Points, you will need to partake in Player vs Player.

Adding a system into the game that allows a player to gain rewards for participating in PvP and empowering them to be even better in PvP combat; insights a competitive and fun environment for the game. Seeing Dungeons and Dragons Online allows players to utilize enhancement trees as a way to customize and empower their characters, a player vs player enhancement tree would fit in effortlessly and be an easy adaptation for players new and old to learn how to use.

An example of some passives/active abilities that could be listed in the Player vs Player enhancement tree could be:
-*Passive Ability* While participating in Player vs Player, you take 80-85% less damage.
-*Active Ability* Disarm: Enemy in melee range cannot utilize their weapon (cannot change weapon sets) for 4 seconds.
-*Active Ability* Silence: Enemy cannot cast spells for 4 seconds.

Examples:
While on paper, these seem incredibly strong, it works for DDO’s scaling system damage wise for all levels. If you have a level 4 Sorcerer, fighting a level 4 Barbarian for instance. Normally the sorcerer can have maximize and empower and do around 200-300 damage, with the passive ability the barbarian will only take 40 damage, in the same regard, normally a barbarian at level 4 can critically strike in combat with a two-handed weapon for 100 damage, now dealing only 20 damage. At level 4 the average barbarian will have around 90-160 health, while the average sorcerer will have around 70-110 health. So while 20 damage from a barbarian doesn’t seem like a lot, it is still around 20% of the sorcerers health in one hit, and while 40 damage from a sorcerer doesn’t seem like a lot, it is still around 20% of the barbarians health. This passive in itself will help balance out how casters feel in player vs player and how melees feel in player vs player.

You can take this same example and use 2 level 30 players on the extreme, if a Wizard at level 30 can hit for 20,000 damage critical, and a fighter can hit for 6000-12000 damage normally, in player vs player combat with the passive mentioned above. The fighter will only hit the wizard for 1200 damage (this doesn’t include PRR), and the wizard will only hit for 4,000 damage (this doesn’t include MRR). I believe this can be balanced however more testing is obviously needed before being put into the game on a percentage that will feel balanced across all levels.

Introduce a reward system for playing the Arena system:
You heard it here first! There is an arena system already in Dungeons and Dragons Online. It is sadly forgotten about by the masses but it still exists none-the-less. If a new currency was added into DDO that was rewarded from participating in PvP, and a vendor was put in place to utilize the currency, offering gear in many forms/maybe even tomes directly benefitting pvp? (i.e. passive damage reduction/healing amplification gain while in PvP combat?) there would be a reason for veteran players to partake in Player vs Player.

Introduce a Rating/Ranked system for competitive in PvP:
Dungeons and Dragons Online does lack a ranked system in which players can thrive, and show off their accomplishments. For example, if the developers implement a system in which you and “x” amount of allies can que into an arena or slaying ground of sort, versus a group of players around the same skill as yourself; and your team wins the match, you should be rewarded with a point/ranking system, along with the PvP currency mentioned above. An example of a solid ranking system is as follows:

You start at 0 rating, every win you gain 50 points until you reach a median ground (names subject to change obviously) i.e.:
Recruit: 0-500 rating
Combatant: 500-1000 rating
Elitist: 1000-1250 rating
Nemesis: 1250-1500 rating
Arch Nemesis: 1500+ rating

In this example the median ground is Elitist at 1000-1250 rating, meaning that wins around this rating will only end up rewarding you 10-20 points per win, instead of the consistent 50 a win. In doing so, making Nemesis and Arch Nemesis incredibly difficult to achieve, while still be possible.

Implementing a system of this sort will allow players to brag about their rank and increase the competitive drive for players to compete to better themselves/their ratings.

To Conclude:
While I agree, yes, Dungeons and Dragons Online is based off of the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons; it still is an MMORPG and still deserves to be as competitive as competing MMORPGs on the market. Player vs player is something nearly every MMORPG offers, including DDO, I believe the system DDO has in place is more of an after thought and deserves to be renovated to allow new/old players experiencing the game to take a break from the instanced dungeons and have some fun with their friends casually OR competitively. Implementing a system that works for DDO will take a very long time, and will have a lot of balancing revolving around it to make it feel fair for every class/multiclass combination. If anyone wants to pitch ideas, or ask questions – Feel free to do so in the comments of this blog post OR message me directly on Twitter (@BehemothTwitch)!!

I will be talking more about this in future blog posts as since I was a teen playing DDO, I’ve always imagined what the game could be if it had a competitive side. I was a very high rated player in World of Warcraft for a long period of time and love the competitive side of many games, I’m sure I’m not the only one out there believing in a system like this. I know Dungeons and Dragons Online can implement this, it will take time but I would gladly help in any way I can.

Dan, DDO Savant


Interesting...

A few added thoughts"

My players during the Hunger Games event complained often about lagging while loading into the game during a respawn in-game.

Would it possible for the devs to create a safe zone for respawning players?
A place where the other team cannot range or melee said players?
Such as a tower or shielded room with a one-way outdoor?


Clan Vs Clan team events of some sort?


Would it be possible to restrict entry by one per each class symbol?


Would it be possible to have an upper-level restriction?


Could we have a few more Capture the Flag arena?


Could we have some sort of tournament queue>?





Other thoughts:

I have a hunch that most of the players who would enjoy PVP also are enjoying Hardcore League, therefore Hardcore League is more brilliant than I previously thought.


Also, there is more and more to do in DDO, and I think that competes with PVP for time.

[Silverleafeon]

If I made a wish list for Devs:

PVP Tree - while it sounds nice that is a lot of work (I understand there are many other priorities).

New Capture the Flag arena with all damage cut to 1/10 normal, protected spawn points, lots of cover to hide in, maybe two sets of flag points?

Some sort of season for PVP with some sort of leader board, maybe to run in between hardcore seasons?
Maybe with some sort of attack another clan boat's monster/hire defenses?
Thinking variation on Clash Royale boat race?

Any thoughts of daily challenges like so many other games have with rewards?
EI: do one dungeon, do one PVP, do one Raid, kill 100 wilderness monsters, drink a potion = get plat and?


For myself, I don't think I can do the organized team events that I want without some Dev support/coding.

So, I either go back to rewards and the kick worst two players from losing team out each round or preferably some sort of sign up to red or blue team and have a best of three event for fun (duration about 40 minutes total) with extras randomly assigned.

[Silverleafeon]

The two possible immediate goals of this thread were to try to figure out a PVP-type event and maybe race-restricted raiding events.


I have just realized a flaw in the latter project.

There are several good things about a race (or class) restricted raiding event: it is fun, you can schedule all sorts of obscure raids, and provides variety for DDO play.

The flaw is that not all races (or classes) are suitable for creating a tank class.
In the old days, tanking was all about equipment and builds (or simply running an unhittable monk).

Today, Past-Life feats are an essential part of any superior Tank build.
Past-Life feats generate a dozen or more racial action points which are best spent in certain racial trees.

By restricting to certain races, one can accidentally exclude tank builds from your event.
This is something that I failed to consider.

Most raids require a tank or at least one or two high survivability toons.
Even DoJ (considered a DPS raid) has moments where someone needs to step up and take the brunt of the assault on the chin.
This role bottleneck will affect an event, so plan accordingly.


I am in no way criticizing anyone running restricted events because I think they are grand fun.

[Silverleafeon]

I am becoming more convinced that seasonal Hardcore League is DDO's PVP.

If so, then creating a permanent Harcore Server would actually remove most PVP from DDO.

[Silverleafeon]

I put up an LFM today at about 3 pm (Sunday) and left it up for about an hour.
"PVP Raid Capture the Flag Quickfoot 10 min"

No bites, no tells, no interest.


After a break, I put up another LFM.
"Von 5 +6 Raid All Welcome"


Within a minute, someone joined and I converted the party to a raid group and enter the dungeon.
I took the Voice, helped clear the path to the puzzle.
Someone took over puzzle-solving, and someone else passed me the ring.
People actually were waiting at the lava switch while I reset the East Side.
Super smooth and super quick.
Von 6 went well, and everyone was happy.
I ended up with a Red Dragon Scale which long ago was a form of currency in DDO.



I do feel Hardcore Seasons has replaced any organized PVP, and I hope Hardcore Seasons continue.
There is a lot to do in DDO, even some of the older raids are popular again.
I sit here typing this right after a DQ2 EE raid with seven players.