Silver Witch
Strategos
Ok ive had a long think about all the suggestions below and amended the idea slightly.
Proposal:
An Alliance Fortress that can be won through fighting in the middle section of Domination and once held provides ongoing benefits to all members within the alliance.
Reason:
The Dom concept is a fight to win but 6 months (which is a rough minimum time for a Dom world) is a long time to just keep fighting. The addition of a fortress that requires strategy, planning and an effort by the whole alliance would provide an extra dimension to the overall game.
I also think that there are many players who are not online all the time, who want to join in but are not always sure where to help and sometimes dont want to madly attack everyone. This contributes to the need to hug. Giving them a target to attack that helps the team will maintain their interest.
The requirements that I have suggested for capture of the fortress are also designed to minimise pact to win behaviours and once held I believe the benefits will help combat spamming in conquest worlds.
Details:
Capture of the Fortress
Every occupied ocean contains 10 islands with a fortress. These appear as soon as an ocean has a certain number of cities - say 300. The location of these islands is shown on the map below. There are 3 on each border so even when new oceans open for spawning there will always be a close fortress for all players. However the requirement for 300 cities means that running to the rim to build a fortress is pretty much impossible - if any group do try this probably their cities will not be included in the sweep so it becomes pointless.
The location of the fortress islands are known even before they become attackable. The central fortresses islands appear when the world opens - say 54/55/44/45. More open only when the numbers as specified above dictate. This allows for planning.
On a pre agreed date, I suggest 10 days prior to the start of the Dom period ( on a fast world that will mean after c10 weeks play), every alliance may designate their fortress and fight to capture it. Each alliance may only have 1 fortress. However a fortress may be abandoned and a new one designated at any time. Designation of a fortress island is subject to the following:
1. The alliance hold all the cities on the Fortress island. This will mean that alliances will have to plan which island they will designate and clear enemy cities in advance. Empty anchors are fine but will impact later - see below. Islands with a fortress will always be designated as valid for the purposes of Domination regardless of whether they would or would not be included within the sweep.
2. The fortress appears fully built but stacked with enemy troops which must be cleared prior to the alliance taking over. Defence is high - say 15k bir and 30k DLU with a wall. Each alliance must conquer their own fortress without outside assistance (here I suggest the WW alliance rules apply where no one can attack until they have been a member of the alliance for 72 hrs - maybe even longer) .
Fortress Benefits
Other
Once captured alliance founders and leaders have control of the fortress. They can reallocate the def/attack bonus and send troops home if dodged there. Only a founder may choose to abandon the fortress.
Balance:
The fortress islands will need to be valid islands since players are asked to select them prior to the sweep. Other than that I cant think of any other adjustments to the game.
Abuse Prevention:
I dont think this is open to abuse. The ability to dodge myths safely with easy access is a massive benefit on a conquest world. This is why I believe it will help to combat spamming. It doesnt help save a city in the event of a CS but it does provide a safe haven when offline.
Theres VM - I think the fortress island cities will have to be excluded from VM. I hate to say this because it is a serious issue in WW but I cant see any other way to prevent this being abused. With only 20 cities they are easily swappable.
The loss of the attack/def bonus for 72 hrs after jumping out of the alliance will help with players abusing the BP rules.
Abuse of the fortress
It is possible for 2 alliances working together to obtain 2 fortresses and had off cities to provide the main alliance with easy extra bonus. This would entail a serious inv of time and resources but is a potential abuse. To help minimise this I suggest that cities held on the fortress island by a pact member do not count as extra bonus. I also think that all extra bonuses should be deactivated once Last Stand is in progress.
Summary:
Theres been so much talk on these forums about how Dom seems to go on forever and how its still full of hugging. Capture of a Fortress will provide a competitive focus requiring alliance cooperation halfway through the game. Dom is all about city numbers and this will help everyone gain bp at a crucial time in the game. Theres a lot of players even in Dom who dont want to go mad attacking everyone and this adds a bit of fun for everyone.
This idea does also work in the WW scenario - I've specified Dom because I just think it needs something to liven up the middle few months.
Additional notes
Dom timing and how the fortress fits in ( based on the timing for a fast Dom)
The initial time from world start to Dom era is 90 days. During this time alliances build their base and put their strategy in place. There is plenty to do and all to play for. I am suggesting that the fortress island locations are known throughout this period - those in 45/44/55/54 are known from the start and outer oceans are known once their population hits 300 cities. This enables an alliance to include the fortress in their planning process.
The fortress islands may be designated and the fighting started 10 days before the start of the next era so 80 days after the world start. The idea is that they take at least a week to actually capture - a kind of mini comp halfway through.
Then after that first 90 days the Dom era begins, the sweep happens so the valid islands are known but there is another 90 days where nothing much happens exept fighting. One alliance has to get 40% of cities. I would expect many alliances to still be capturing their fortresses at the start of the Dom era and then while they increase their city base they are able to use the bonuses and capture a few extra cities on other islands. The fortress capture is therefore approximately halfway through.
Thank you to the following players for your suggestions:
@Rachel.L
@monkey trouble
@molinillo
@TJ Kaniben
@MAC-9 who also provided the map
@1saaa
@Geminius
@Grandaizer
@Dementivs
@Skuduish
@Witchbane
Proposal:
An Alliance Fortress that can be won through fighting in the middle section of Domination and once held provides ongoing benefits to all members within the alliance.
Reason:
The Dom concept is a fight to win but 6 months (which is a rough minimum time for a Dom world) is a long time to just keep fighting. The addition of a fortress that requires strategy, planning and an effort by the whole alliance would provide an extra dimension to the overall game.
I also think that there are many players who are not online all the time, who want to join in but are not always sure where to help and sometimes dont want to madly attack everyone. This contributes to the need to hug. Giving them a target to attack that helps the team will maintain their interest.
The requirements that I have suggested for capture of the fortress are also designed to minimise pact to win behaviours and once held I believe the benefits will help combat spamming in conquest worlds.
Details:
Capture of the Fortress
Every occupied ocean contains 10 islands with a fortress. These appear as soon as an ocean has a certain number of cities - say 300. The location of these islands is shown on the map below. There are 3 on each border so even when new oceans open for spawning there will always be a close fortress for all players. However the requirement for 300 cities means that running to the rim to build a fortress is pretty much impossible - if any group do try this probably their cities will not be included in the sweep so it becomes pointless.
The location of the fortress islands are known even before they become attackable. The central fortresses islands appear when the world opens - say 54/55/44/45. More open only when the numbers as specified above dictate. This allows for planning.
On a pre agreed date, I suggest 10 days prior to the start of the Dom period ( on a fast world that will mean after c10 weeks play), every alliance may designate their fortress and fight to capture it. Each alliance may only have 1 fortress. However a fortress may be abandoned and a new one designated at any time. Designation of a fortress island is subject to the following:
1. The alliance hold all the cities on the Fortress island. This will mean that alliances will have to plan which island they will designate and clear enemy cities in advance. Empty anchors are fine but will impact later - see below. Islands with a fortress will always be designated as valid for the purposes of Domination regardless of whether they would or would not be included within the sweep.
2. The fortress appears fully built but stacked with enemy troops which must be cleared prior to the alliance taking over. Defence is high - say 15k bir and 30k DLU with a wall. Each alliance must conquer their own fortress without outside assistance (here I suggest the WW alliance rules apply where no one can attack until they have been a member of the alliance for 72 hrs - maybe even longer) .
Fortress Benefits
- On completion of the fortress all members of an alliance who contributed to its capture receive a set of bonus tokens. I believe speed should also be rewarded here since that would indicate improved planning - say some extra tokens for 1st, 2nd and 3rd but everyone receives some tokens.
- The fortress provides a defence or attack bonus to the alliance commensurate to the number of cities held on the island. So if all 20 anchors are filled then the alliance receives a 20% bonus. Once captured a fortress can never be lost but loss of a city on the island results in a 1% loss to the bonus, 2 city losses results in a 2% loss and so on. Cities on the island can never be less than 100% morale as a defender or under siege.
- The alliance leaders/founders allocate the bonus as they wish to defence or attack but this cannot be changed more than once every 3 days and cannot exceed 20% for either defence or attack.
- The bonus 1% can be taken by the enemy if an island city is captured provided the enemy also owns a fortress. This will mean it is possible for an alliance to have a 21% bonus with one extra city, 22% with 2 extra cities etc to allocate as they wish between def and attack.
- If a city is lost the bonus reduces so there is an automatic reset and the leaders/founders have to reallocate their attack/support %.
- Players must be in the alliance for 72 hours before they can benefit from the bonus. This will help the jump in jump out for avoiding the BP restrictions.
- The fortress cannot be attacked but can be used by members of the alliance to dodge troops including myth units. Once dodged all troops can hide in the fortress. The tt from any alliance city to the fortress will be standardised - say 10minutes. The fortress has access to all temples on the island so as long as all 6 gods are represented in the island cities then all myths can be dodged there.
Other
Once captured alliance founders and leaders have control of the fortress. They can reallocate the def/attack bonus and send troops home if dodged there. Only a founder may choose to abandon the fortress.
Balance:
The fortress islands will need to be valid islands since players are asked to select them prior to the sweep. Other than that I cant think of any other adjustments to the game.
Abuse Prevention:
I dont think this is open to abuse. The ability to dodge myths safely with easy access is a massive benefit on a conquest world. This is why I believe it will help to combat spamming. It doesnt help save a city in the event of a CS but it does provide a safe haven when offline.
Theres VM - I think the fortress island cities will have to be excluded from VM. I hate to say this because it is a serious issue in WW but I cant see any other way to prevent this being abused. With only 20 cities they are easily swappable.
The loss of the attack/def bonus for 72 hrs after jumping out of the alliance will help with players abusing the BP rules.
Abuse of the fortress
It is possible for 2 alliances working together to obtain 2 fortresses and had off cities to provide the main alliance with easy extra bonus. This would entail a serious inv of time and resources but is a potential abuse. To help minimise this I suggest that cities held on the fortress island by a pact member do not count as extra bonus. I also think that all extra bonuses should be deactivated once Last Stand is in progress.
Summary:
Theres been so much talk on these forums about how Dom seems to go on forever and how its still full of hugging. Capture of a Fortress will provide a competitive focus requiring alliance cooperation halfway through the game. Dom is all about city numbers and this will help everyone gain bp at a crucial time in the game. Theres a lot of players even in Dom who dont want to go mad attacking everyone and this adds a bit of fun for everyone.
This idea does also work in the WW scenario - I've specified Dom because I just think it needs something to liven up the middle few months.
Additional notes
Dom timing and how the fortress fits in ( based on the timing for a fast Dom)
The initial time from world start to Dom era is 90 days. During this time alliances build their base and put their strategy in place. There is plenty to do and all to play for. I am suggesting that the fortress island locations are known throughout this period - those in 45/44/55/54 are known from the start and outer oceans are known once their population hits 300 cities. This enables an alliance to include the fortress in their planning process.
The fortress islands may be designated and the fighting started 10 days before the start of the next era so 80 days after the world start. The idea is that they take at least a week to actually capture - a kind of mini comp halfway through.
Then after that first 90 days the Dom era begins, the sweep happens so the valid islands are known but there is another 90 days where nothing much happens exept fighting. One alliance has to get 40% of cities. I would expect many alliances to still be capturing their fortresses at the start of the Dom era and then while they increase their city base they are able to use the bonuses and capture a few extra cities on other islands. The fortress capture is therefore approximately halfway through.
Thank you to the following players for your suggestions:
@Rachel.L
@monkey trouble
@molinillo
@TJ Kaniben
@MAC-9 who also provided the map
@1saaa
@Geminius
@Grandaizer
@Dementivs
@Skuduish
@Witchbane
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