First I would just like to say I think it's really cool that there is a CTF every day. I think I have an idea to make it even more fun and diverse. I do not want to change CTF at all, rather would like to add another form of it. It goes as follows: You sign up with absolutely nothing on your person. When you enter the arena there is a stone you double click to get supplies depending on your skills, so regs, weaps, aids, crafting items, etc. (Whatever your skills are) Mages get leather armor, melee get's studded. NO Potions from outside: Some of you might cringe but spamming refresh pots to run through a crowd kind of takes something away from the game... might as well play in an open field. This also will finally give incentive to have alchemy on a combat character. ENABLE teleport spell - while you might not have refresh pots a skilled teleporter can move around quite quickly with a small sacrifice of mana. Wall of Stone plays a big part in this style, probably more so than it does now. This way everyone has the same gear, making it an even field, and potions are not always relied upon. If you have an alchemist, then you can use potions. If you have a poisoner then you can use poisoning, granted there is an alchemist suppying you with potions, etc. This form of CTF I think would be more skill based, and less item based, making for a fresh CTF experience, even for players that don't have the resources that others have. I played on another server with this ruleset and it was very fun and rewarding for everyone. Again I am not saying we should changed the system, just maybe look into another alternative. Also, has there ever been talk of a CTF league? Having CTF teams/guilds would be a blast!
If I was to use a GM bow or something similar I should just go around punching people on account it would do more damage. People have boded for a long time for Runic weapons and should be able to use them. If I wasn't allowed pots I would have 0 kills every CTF. Also if you take pots/weapons away from dexxers CTF would become a mage event and we already have enough of that in factions.
There has been a lot of talk of all these things. Search forums for the different threads about it. Most of the contention is around ability to choose teams here and packing top end gear. Telamon put a lot of work into the current system so he's not going to undo it but has already stated that he plans to add Random Team/GM Gear Only CTFs in the future. I think that both types are fun but really find the best competition in CTF where you can choose teams and use high end gear. It's no surprise that the only place dexxers really shine is in tournaments and CTF considering the weaponry that exists to balance out armored mages can be used without fear of loss. Perhaps five years from now when valorite is as common as vanq, we'll see people fielding them regularly outside of the arenas. I think it would be cool, when Random Team games are implemented, to remove Free-Use from the original versions. If you want to rock teams where you pick and choose, everyone needs to be able to afford that level of play. Keep it fully free use in the GM level/random matches but make the big boys pay for every match.
That's a sweet map Lightshade! Swift, I clearly stated that the current form of CTF should stay. I only suggest adding another form that takes emphasis off of the bod farmed runics and more emphasis on what skills you choose to have when you enter. I know the staff has worked hard on the current system and it's fantastic! I believe the system I speak of is already done by RunUO and might be a pretty easy addition to the current system. Thanks for pointing out past activity on this topic Blaise. I'm guessing everything I've said has been said before.
Sounds like you're looking for the NASCAR of PvP. Please outline how your proposal would not have an impact on the player driven economy.
Just to throw this out there with what I've already said Mimic, if runic weaponry above Gold is disallowed in any such event, leather armor should all be reduced to plain leather quality only. It's probably still imbalanced in favor of mages that way but at least it won't be completely terrible. wylwrk, I'm not sure what this has to do with the player driven economy. I mean, players are farming up the goods to use in CTF, crafting/selling the potions, trading and filling bods to get proper level weaponry for using against 31AR mages and the like. In short, more CTF = more business for the player economy/community.
My suggestion's impact on the economy would be minimal. It would just add a new style of CTF that is thrown into the rotation of CTF's carried out automatically by the server. I get that dexxers will do less damage without their Valorite Runics, but the armor they are going up against will be on the same level. Being able to 2 hit people is fun but not necessary to win a CTF match. It's not about killing, its about using teamwork and strategy to get the enemy flag to your base while maintaining security in your own base. Overall I think my suggestions would encourage more strategic game play and skill choice. As it is now the few flag runners just hold their finger on their refresh pot macro and run back to their base. There is no use of skill or strategy here, just unlimited potion spamming. Making potions harder to get from within the match (only coming from alchemy skills, and actually being limited) will lessen the dependency on potion spamming tactics and focus the gameplay more on strategies involving teleporting around, blocking line of sight, clearing a path, and passing the flag to other players.
I am not sure how the armor balance is here but that is kind of a different issue. I know it would effect the suggestions I'm talking about and maybe using regular armor would be more fair. That is an option. As long as everyone has access to the same gear, gear becomes less of an issue. Again Im not saying that the current system is flawed. I'm saying it is very one sided, and offering games that swing the other way would add variety to our beloved UOR. Edited to add: And I think that the system I speak of has been implemented by RunUO and may be very easy to implement here. This relating to the concern that the staff is busy and lacks the resources to code a ton of new content.
Runic weaponry via bulk order deeds came out in Publish 14, November 2001 (about half way through Renaissance era). The additional hide types were added in July of 2002 with Publish 16, which was the last update before the AoS launch. In consideration of how long it takes to get high end runic weaponry from BoDs, by the time folks had them, mages were rocking higher level leather armor (31.2 for Exceptional Barbed suits). I think this was likely an intended result in the design and addition of these things. Allowing mages to med through leather changed the game quite a bit and I imagine it was highly relevant with the special hits and LJ bonuses that came along in this era as well. Long story short, runics and top level crafted armor are pretty well balanced with each other. I'll be happy to stow the valorite if the opponents I'm fighting only wear plain leather or iron. This kind of brings me back to the thread I made suggesting normalization of armor values across resources types. No one is going to rock leather weaker than barbed, outside of RP or laziness. With the ease of resource farming the only real use for shittier resource types are in BoDs. Normalizing the AR values so all hide types and ore types have the same AR values, would bolster the crafted armor market and give the players some flavor instead of getting shoehorned into one color because there's no other sensible option.
I believe on other servers with the resource stones in their ctf arenas use exceptional leather amor made from normal leather.
Sounds fine to me, if that's how they designed it for their server. If there were CTFs with resource stones here, I'd expect iron GM weaponry along with plain leather or iron armor. If it's designed for the mechanics of this shard however, barbed with runics would be equally balanced.
Yeah, the armor and weapons would be all exceptional leather and iron. Alchemists can make potions and give them out to their team. Carpenters can make boxes and create road blocks. (Might be ok to allow lol). Poisoners can poison their team's weapons. I'm sure there are tons more of little things that would happen that are never thought of as it is now. I would never want to get rid or change the system we have now as far as being able to use gear you farm. I think that is great incentive to have the best stuff and it's super fun to use! Can't wait to get my own Valorite Axe! Might take a few months.
I still believe that your proposal (while awesome) will impact crafting/crafters in a negative way. Good luck.
swiftfeet: Wtf are you even talking about? Nothing you said makes sense at all and you didn't even suggest anything. GM bow > wrestling in every scenario you could come up with. Runic/magic armor and weapons cause imbalnces between players leaning more towards item based like OP said than skill based. Pots should all be on cooldowns in the arena ESPECIALLY refresh potions; 10-20 second cooldowns, the ability to just push through everybody is stupid as hell. Blaise: You and I have already gone back and forth in my own thread, but you are definitely more in the mindset of true CtF guilds going at it. I don't see that as something that can be discussed for the general masses as no rag-tag crew is as in-tune as a CtF guild. Also, I agree that everyone should be wearing GM regular leather armor if GM weapons are implimented - which is exactly how it should be. No runics or barbed leather in the CtF. Lightshade: That map looks pretty nice, but it looks like there are no pinch points. It would just result in nobody able to ever cap due to how hard it would be to defend the flag itself. Ultimately the CtF is its own entity and should be treated as such. You guys can't keep saying you want all these super great items that you would never use outside of it because you're so scared of losing it. Why even have the damn things in the first place? That's where the items vs skill debate easily tips in the items category. If you want a skill based CtF game, then nobody should have an edge over anybody when it comes to armor and weapons.
Hey guys. Here is a past post by Coffee in regards to the same subject: http://uorforum.com/threads/ctf-suggestions.12453/ I posted the link because Coffee has laid out exactly 100% what I am suggesting in a very clear way, with pictures. Check it out. Adding this to the current system while subtracting nothing would have minimal effects to the balance of the server while simultaneously promoting new, diverse, character builds and CTF strategies.
Hi, I don't do CTF myself, but love it when players come up with creative ideas. thanks for this thread. Marjo Governess of Wispfelt Westra on irc
We should let players use ANY items they want to use for CTF. However, items should drop on corpses and there should be a banker in the respawn room. As for location, LightShade's garden/forest map concept looks sweet. Am I understanding this correctly? You want hide from a goat to provide the same protection as hides from a dragon?
