Conflicting PvP and PvE in the New Death Mechanic

With the new changes to the recent Death Mechanic there are 3 main issues that initially come to mind and have already proven to be an issue after the first couple days.

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  • PvE is pathetic now and super easy when youre in a sizable group.
  • Winning when outnumbered in PvP by more than 2 or 3 is now nearly impossible.
  • The kill fame for kills is no longer going to the correct people.

I’ll begin with the topic of PvE being too easy when in sizable groups. In the past the raid dungeons in black zones were difficult and very punishing if you were to go in there with unexperienced or unskilled players due to gear loss upon death. With the new death mechanic this is no longer the case. The deaths should feel punishing instead of players just accepting death and not trying to survive because meh who cares. Especially since your gear only breaks 10% per death now and we have repair kits. If you are going through PvE content with a group now there is literally no worry if you die.

Now I will speak upon the idea that small groups are having a much harder time fighting groups with more people than them. Outnumbered PvP has always been something I have enjoyed greatly and is something I used to really love about Albion. I can remember many times pre cador me and my stardust squad would be on a map where there would be a zerg v zerg happening for a castle, and we would play gorilla warfare hit and run tactics. Quickly killing and looting people who were caught just slightly out from their group.

With the new execute mechanic this is now nearly impossible as you are literally stuck there on there body for a long enough period of time for the player’s team that you killed to respond. Another situation is when we straight clash with a group that has more members than us. We use kiting mechanics with all of our range to kite back while dealing damage and constantly getting heals from our nature staff. This being said we are very mobile moving very far away from where the fight began and the fights last a long time, but we have always been victorious. Now with the new death mechanic this is no longer possible because we have to stop kiting to execute players giving the enemy a very easy and high chance of catching us, and if we were to decide to not execute and wait till the end to execute players the fights last so long that the players who were downed first would have gotten up and escaped by then.

My last and final point is that the kill fame is no longer going onto the correct players. Many many times now I have killed someone or I have seen somebody else kill someone and then a different player that had nothing to do with the death execute and get the kill fame for it. I understand the developers want killing other players to be a “conscious” choice but in all reality there is no negative effect from killing someone and unless that negative effect is very negative in the future nobody will care anyways.

I will now speak on what changes I think can be made to both implementing the developers idea of being knocked before death to create exciting gameplay and keeping the players happy. If we are going to have a down state before death that gives people a chance to revive that is fine, but lets do it right. Look at other games for example call of duty nazi zombies or gw2. Both different style games but they implement the same idea. You go down before death but are only in the down state for roughly 10 seconds (I do not know the exact time i apologize). To implement this idea into albion lets give players who are downed an amount of time to resurected by a .3 holy staff ONLY. I think a down state of 6 seconds is perfect (the cast on the res spell is 2 seconds). If the downed player is not revived in the alloted time then they die. There is no execute needed and the kill fame can be distributed in one of two ways. Either give the kill fame out like they used to (the player who gets the last hit), or give it out evenly to all of the people who assisted in the kill (like kills and assists in league of legends).

I love this game and will probably continue to play it no matter what the developers decide to do to it, but the current events are driving away many players who wish to help us all with the beta testing. If anyone has anything to add to what i have said I would love to hear all comments. Again this post is meant to give the developers feedback about current changes to the death mechanic, and not just rant. I know Im not the only person who would like to see this fixed.

Best Testers in Albion Online: Playing GMs

I would like to share with you a worry, that I am now having for a while and that is playing GMs, we all saw a number of (GM) postfixed people in game, but not all of us realized that with shiny prefix come certain powers.

With this I would like to bring to your attention Luci (GM) as you can see from screenshots below. while we are testing killing same mobs in same dungeons over and over again, Luci (GM) is testing real stuff – 8.6 Armors and 8.6 Weapons. Those 8.6 staff, bow, scythe and flail are some serious things, unfortunately broader community will hardly see them this test though Luci already tested them. Some might think that Luci is just an active player and thus he reached that stuff by grinding 24×7 since start, but you won’t find Luci anywhere in Fame rankings, but killfame.

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Luci might argue that screenshots are from test server, but we all know that test server gets a copy of production database every so often, so Luci would have same capabilities on production server as he has on the test one, and even if that’s not the case. He already tested what you would never test, so keep grinding necro-dungeons. This rises a pretty obvious question: should there be playing GM’s in Albion Online?

New Weapons and Armor Skills in Albion Online

This is a compilation of the new weapon/armor skills that are currently on the staging server. I’m just adding stuff to the lists as I look them over for my own interest.If they change the skills again on the staging server, I probably won’t see it. This thread was last edited this week.

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Quick reference for armor skills:

Helmet
Heavy
Shared abilities
D1: Emergency Heal – Instantly heals yourself, and allies within 3m, for X
D2: Stoneskin – Increases Armor and Magic Resist by X and healing recieved, for 10s
Soldier line (.1)
D3: Energy Shield – Applies an energy shield on yourself for 10s. Every time you take damage, you restore energy.
Knight line (.2)
D3: Block – Blocks all incoming damage for 2s.
Guardian line (.3)
D3: Sacrifice – Restores 20% health of an ally, and reduces your health by 15%. Can also be cast on yourself.
Medium
Shared abilities
D1: Meditation – Cooldown reduction
D2: Cleanse – Removes CC from you
Mercenary line (.1)
D3: Howl – Slow enemies in a cone in front of you by 30% for Xs, and deal Y magic damage.
Hunter line (.2)
D3: Bear Trap – Places a trap under your feet. First enemy to walk over it is slowed by (90%) and takes (71) damage per second for 4 seconds.
Assassin line (.3)
D3: Smokebomb – Place a smokebomb under your feet. You are invisile inside the smokebomb, and all targets (you, allies, enemies) inside the smoke are silenced. Lasts 5s, 6m radius.
Light
Shared abilities
D1: Energy Regain –
D2: Force Field – Knocks all enemies around you away, damaging them.
Scholar line (.1)
D3: Disruption immunity – Immune to spell pushback for 10s, but can still be hard interrupted.
Cleric line (.2)
D3: Ice Block –
Mage line (.3)
D3: Poison – Coat your weapon with poison. Your next auto attack will poison the enemy, dealing (86) damage per second for 5 seconds.

Armor
Heavy
Shared abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Inferno Shield – You will be covered by a flaming shield, which will increase your resistances by X, and reflect 50% of incoming damage back to the attacker for 8s.
Soldier line (.1)
R3: Bloodlust – Every time you damage an enemy, you heal yourself for X. Lasts for 10s or 15 hits.
Knight line (.2)
R3: Mind Wall – Casts a lasting wind wall in front of you, lasting 4s, which knocks back all enemies hit by it.
Guardian line (.3)
R3: Enfeeble Aura – Reduces all damage done by all enemies within 7m of you by 60%. This aura lasts for 5 seconds.
Medium
Shared abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Fury – 10% damage bonus every time you get damaged (stacks up to 8 times). The buff lasts for 10s.
Mercenary line (.1)
R3: Electric Field – Unleashes an electric field around you, dealing (63) damage twice per second to everu enemy around you. The field lasts 8s.
Hunter line (.2)
R3: Haste – Increases your movement speed by 35% and attack speed by 60%, for 8s.
Assassin line (.3)
R3: Ambush – Turn invisible for 5s, with a 20% reduced move speed. Attacking or casting a spell breaks the invisibility, but that attack or spell willl have increased damage. The longer you were invisible, the stronger the damage buff, up to 50%.
Light
Shared Abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Frost Shield – Your armor and magic resist are increased by (167) for 8s. Enemies that attack you are slowed by 20% for (5) seconds. 10% of incoming damage is reflected back to the attacker.
Scholar line (.1)
D3: Speed Caster – Doubles your cast speed by 8s, but reduces the power of your spells by X.
Cleric line (.2)
D3: Everlasting Spirit – If you get damaged during Everlasting Spirit and your hp drops below 30%, you become invulnerable for 3s, and your damage is increased by 30%.
Mage line (.3)
D3: Berserker – Your damage is increased by 5%. The less health you have upon activation, the larger the increase. Ranges from 5% increase to 100% increase.

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Boots
Heavy
Shared abilities
F1: Flee
F2:Rejuvenating Sprint
Soldier line (.1)
F3: Sprint Shield –
Knight line (.2)
F3: Shield Charge – Charge towards an ally or enemy. After the charge, you apply a shield to yourself and allies in close proximity. Shield lasts 10s.
Guardian line (.3)
F3: Giant – Temporarily increase your max and current hitpoints by 50% for 8s.
Medium
Shared abilities
F1: Flee
F2: Refreshing Sprint
Mercenary line (.1)
F3: Invisibility – Turn invisible, and reveal all invisible targets in a 15m radius around you. You stay invisible for as long as you keep channelling, for up to 20s. Not useable in combat.
Hunter line (.2)
F3: Rush – 120% move speed for 3s.
Assassin line (.3)
F3: Dodge – Dodge roll to the cursor’s position. You are invincible during the roll, and after the roll, your move speed incraeses by 40% for 4s.
Light
Shared Abilities
F1: Flee
F2: Energetic Sprint
Scholar line (.1)
F3: Run – 50% move speed for 7s
Cleric line (.2)
F3: Blink –
Mage line (.3)
F3: Delayed Teleport – Choose a ground target within 15m. 2s after activation, you will be teleported to the desired position

Albion Online: A Heretic Faction

Albion Online is beefing up its PvE game with this month’s Cador update. If you’ve been following this title for any length of time, then no doubt you’ve noticed that its patches are downright huge — and Cador is no exception.

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Cador begins with the addition of the Heretic faction, which will show up in new Heretic-themed dungeons overseen by dark masters. Another big change with the update is Albion Online’s new death mechanic, which allows players who run out of health a chance to get back on their feet before dying for good. An opposing player or mob then needs to move in for an execution, resulting in an additional strategic component in battles. Armor has been recategorized, a fame bonus mechanic has been introduced, and over 25 new abilities have been added to the game.

Sandbox Interactive said that Cador’s progress will allow the team to focus on adding more ability choices to weapons and lays the groundwork for the upcoming PvP reputation system. Good for your improvement?

Albion Online: Content Update Cador

Sandbox Interactive has unleashed the Cador update to Albion Online that brings a number of big changes to the game including a overhauled UI, new bosses and dungeons. Content is available for both single players and groups.

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PvP and PvE players will also be challenged to more strategic game play with the addition of the new death mechanic that brings the “knock down” system on board that gives players the opportunity to revive themselves by slowly regenerating health. Successfully reviving sees a return to battle on the spot, though it is still possible for enemies to slay the player prior to gaining enough hit points to rise.

New Death Mechanic
Cador sees a new Death Mechanic that will have a player knocked down first, when their hit points run out first. An opposing player or mob then needs to move in for an execution, resulting in an additional strategic component in battles.

Mobile Repair Kits
A new furniture item, Repair Kits, get introduced. They are furniture items that you can place practically anywhere in the world that will then serve as a convenient repair station. Their functionality is more limited than that of a full-fledged stationary one, the repair costs are higher and they only have a limited lifetime – but the convenience they offer more than make up for it.

Armor Rework
The armor system has been simplified to improve the readability so our players more easily know what’s what. Cloth Armor will always be light, Leather Armor will always be medium and Plate Armor will always be heavy.

New Dungeons
Two new types of dungeons have been introduced to the game. The Mines and the Shanties are Heretic-themed and offer the gateway dungeon experience to low-tier solo players and small groups. Naturally, they come with new bosses and news mobs.

Albion Online: Guild Alliances

Alliances will serve to strengthen the bonds of trust and loyalty between guilds. Be they firm friends or just on the cusp of a truce following a fierce rivalry, all guilds entering into an alliance can rest assured they will be in peace.

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How do I create an alliance?
Creating an alliance is similar in many ways to creating an individual guild. The leader of an alliance is the leader of the alliance’s founding guild, and they have the power to invite guilds, cancel invitations and dismiss guilds from their alliance. They can also choose to completely disband the alliance.

Alliances will be managed, by guild members who have the necessary rights, via a new tab under the Guild menu. Choosing to create an alliance will bring up a menu asking for the name of the alliance. Alliance founders can also choose a tag, which can be up to five letters, to set their members apart from the rest and reinforce the sense of unity across the alliance.

For each alliance, there will be an alliance founding fee. The founder chooses how to pay this fee, and then the alliance is official! Now the founder can begin inviting guilds to their alliance…

Inviting guilds to an alliance
Inviting a guild to an alliance works through Albion Online’s ingame messaging service. Alliance leaders (or other alliance members with sufficient rights) can send an alliance invitation to any guild simply by entering their name into the correct field, after which their guild leader, and his or her right hand, will receive the invitation in their guild inbox.

What does an alliance mean for me?
Members of allied guilds cannot attack each other, and all scheduled territory or player city battles will be cancelled as soon as the guilds enter the alliance. This means that an alliance can be used as a treaty or truce of sorts between two guilds on the verge of war.

Players in allied guilds will be immediately noticeable, with their nameplates and health bars coloured differently so that you can tell players apart within the alliance. This means you’ll know from afar who’s in your alliance but not in your guild.

Alliance members will get their own special alliance chat channel, so that they can chat amongst themselves if they want to get a message out to even the furthest reaches of the alliance’s empire.

We want guild alliances to pull guilds together and give a feeling of strength and unity, but we also want guilds to still keep their bonds special. Distinguishing alliance members from guild members allows this.

Alliances will be subject to an alliance tax – this is paid in a similar way to territory or player plot upkeep, and is taken from the guild leader’s guild account. The members of the alliance can agree amongst themselves how much of this tax is paid by each guild, so smaller guilds won’t have to generate as much money as larger guilds to remain in the alliance.

Alliances will be indicated in a player’s profile in-game, with the alliance tag also appearing before their guild name.

So there’s a short introduction to alliances! What do you think of our plans so far?

Ideas for Guild vs Guild Warfare in Albion Online

Albion Online is a very great game.Today I will share some ideas for Guild Vs Guild Warfare.

Guild Size
How guild size impacts how you play should be scalable. This means a larger guild just has more of the same thing, not access to more content. This scaling can be introduced in the form of Influence.

Influence
Guilds gain 1 Influence per member. Multiple members from the same account (alts) do not increase Influence.

Influence is used to attack and hold territory. You need the available influence to initiate an attack, at which point that influence is locked until the attack is finished.This means how many simultaneous attacks you can perform are limited by your influence.

Territory
These can vary in size and efficiency. Larger Territory requires more influence and the zone determines the efficiency. Red Zone territories are less efficient than their Black Zone counterparts, meaning they cost more influence for what they are.

For example, a Red Zone Small Territory might require 20 Influence; however, the same Territory in a Black Zone would only require 10. This makes Red Zone territory less desirable to larger guilds looking to maximize their Territory capacity, but a 20-man guild might find this ideal.

Territory can be used as Influence when declaring an attack on another Territory. This allows a guild to fight for an “Upgrade”. If you own a 20-Influence Territory and have 10 Influence remaining, you can attack a 30-Influence Territory by using both the available 10 and the 20 Influence Territory. If you claim the new Territory, the 20-Influence Territory is lost and up for grabs by other guilds.

Attacking
As described in the possible new system there will be Nodes with structures that can be captured. The size of the Territory will determine how many of these structures are available for capture and the Influence of the Territory will determine the diminishing returns of attacking forces.While attacking or defending a Territory the zone grants a combat buff to both sides granting 100% combat effectiveness against the enemy. However, for each additional guild member in the combat zone above the Influence Value of the territory, this buff loses 10% effectiveness.

e.g. A 30-Influence Territory:
1-30 members – 100% Combat Effectiveness
31 members – 90% Combat Effectiveness
32 members – 81% Combat Effectiveness
33 members – 73% Combat Effectiveness
50 members – 12% Combat Effectiveness

This means it becomes very detrimental to commit more combatants than the Territory Influence suggests. Combat Influence directly impacts your damage and your capture time for Nodes. Alliance members will not incur the combat penalty, but will count towards the buff values. This means Alliance members, while remaining competent fighters, will seriously slow any capture attempt while being unable to aid in capture themselves. A guild can only attempt to capture one Node in a Territory every 24 hours. Once captured, it cannot be re-taken by the defenders for 48 hours. This presents the following combat scenarios:

Small Territory – 2 Nodes
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is attacked 24 Hours later by Attackers – Successfully Defended
Node 2 is attacked again 24 Hours later – Successfully Defended
Node 1 is also Re-Captured by Defenders
OR
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is Captured 24 Hours later by Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Attackers own all Nodes and can attack the Territory – Total time of initial attack, 48 Hours

Medium Territory – 3 Nodes
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is Captured 24 Hours later by Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Node 1 is Attacked by Defenders 24 Hours later – Successfully Defended by Attackers
Node 3 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Attackers own all Nodes and can attack the Territory – Total time of initial attack, 72 Hours

Multiple parties who have declared war can attempt to take Nodes, but must own all the Nodes to attack the Territory. Defenders can also only Attack one Node in the Territory every 24 hours, the same as the Attackers. The 48 Hour protection allows for an initial advance with larger territories being harder to maintain Node control of during an attack. The defenders would then have the added advantage of simply winning the Territory 5v5 while an Attacker controls all Nodes and wasting their opportunity.

Larger Black Zone Territories could cost upwards of 200 Influence to encourage large-scale PvP. These larger Territories could even use smaller surrounding Territories as their “Nodes”, making their Attack and Defence more intricate.

If you own a Territory and your guild loses members to the point where you cannot afford the territory, you will not lose the territory, but any defending members class as 2 members when it comes to the Combat Effectiveness buff, essentially crippling your defence until your Influence is balanced (either by gaining members or losing territory).