Realm Invasion Event Feedback

[Varnarok]

Before I get into the feedback, I just want to mention how much fun this event was. Most fun I've had in DAoC since ToA was current content and I hope all the devs feel proud of what they've accomplished.

Feedback 1: Consider removing the first event where we have to fight for points to decide who gets invaded.
Suggestion 1: Simply have the realm invasions rotate. Midgard lost so we get invaded first, Hibernia finished second so they should be invaded next and since Albion won the first event, they should be invaded last. Then the cycle repeats.

Comment: The event to decide who gets invaded just feels a bit redundant, at least to me. It's essentially just regular RvR.

Feedback 2: Consider making the event shorter, either overall or with time gates.
Suggestion 2: Make each phase last a shorter duration, like 4-6 hours per phase. If phase 1 is completed with 2 hour to spare, then phase 2 will last 6-8, etc.

Comment: 36 hours is a very long time for an event like this, especially when the activity level of the server varies wildly throughout the day. If the event was able to be completed in one long gaming session, then that would be better in my opinion. The starting time could vary to reflect the shorter duration and to make the event more accessible to both EU and NA populations.

Feedback 3: The bottlenecking at Fensalir Faste quickly got quite boring for both invaders and defenders.
Suggestion 3.1: Make it so that in phase 1, taking Arvakr Faste allows for the capture of Vindsaul Faste and taking Fensalir Faste allows for the capture of Svasud Faste. Then allow attackers to spawn in at those keeps. Could keep it as Albion for Vindsaul and Hibernia for Svasud as in the previous event if it is not possible to make it dynamic. Alternatively taking the relic keeps could be the spawn in points.
Suggestion 3.2: Alternatively, if possible, add climbing points to the border keeps to give attackers more points of entry. Holding the single point of entry that is the doors is very easy for the defenders and the 3 people being catapulted in very far apart didn't really do anything.

Comment: I do not know entirely what is possible within the limitations of the engine for the developers to do, so maybe something more advanced could be done to try and alleviate bottlenecks. Breakable walls, adding Battleground style siege giants or NPC helpers to the event, like we saw with the dragons (maybe something that players mainly focused on PvE could contribute with). Also as others have already suggested, having a permanent entrance via DF that both invading realms have to share would also be a possibility.

Feedback 4: Something to address "realm jumping" during major events like this.
Suggestion 4: The simplest way to combat this would obviously be to just disable realm switching during the xx amount of hours that the event is active. Alternatively, realm switching could stay but add harsher punishments while the event is on-going. Like full loss of loyalty or even being kicked down to negative loyalty if possible due to essentially being a "traitor" to your realm.

If you decide to continue with the event that decides who get invaded, perhaps see if you can limit realm choices for the invasion event, i.e. if you played for Hibernia during the points farm, you can only play Hibernia for the invasion event.

Comment: As a general opponent of realm switching (I personally think you should be realm locked for the entire season) I think being able to realm switch during events like these do nothing to foster a sense of community within the realms or help with "realm pride."

Feedback 5: Make defenders able to end the event.
Suggestion 5: This suggestion will be more relevant if the event duration remains (overly) long but defenders should be able end the event through their efforts. Give portal keeps some beefed up guards and a commander that requires a lot of time and effort to kill, like a raid boss. Invaders should still be allowed to portal in during this fight of course. If defenders manage to kill the commander raid boss, then the realm associated with that portal keep is out of the running. If defenders manage this twice, they win, the event ends and the king throws out some rewards.

Comment: I feel that something like this would incentivize defenders to play more aggressively (potentially alleviating the bottleneck issue) and it would encourage invading realms to work together. Their chances of success will be greatly diminished if they are alone against a united defending realm, rather than one that is split putting out two fires at once.

This is my main feedback for what I perceive to be the biggest pain points of the event. What follows will simply be an assortment of suggestions that would be nice but are ultimately not needed.

1. Keep Old Frontiers as areas that people can go to but are inactive for RvR. So Mids would still be able to go out into their OF, but Hibs and Albs wouldn't be able to portal in there, and vice versa for the other 2 realms. I'm purely suggesting this for the nostalgia, but the ability to learn the terrain for future invasions might be handy too. Also it would provide more areas to grind, perhaps also a non-NF alternative to certain epic quests, leaving only the Eye of Arawn in NF in Midgard's case, though this is not really needed.

Again, I am biased here because I would love to see all past and current Live content eventually be available in some shape or form. I do not think limiting what is available to necessarily be a good thing and you guys have clearly shown you have the desire and willpower to rework things to be less disruptive than they were/are on Live.

2. Show the 15 minute town recapture timer in /event. Again, not hugely needed as you can pretty much gauge it by just seeing the level of the town.

3. Allow the use of mounts in the homeland (I'd also support this as being in NF/RvR in general). You can't always rely on speed classes and mounts are already sorely underused.

Again, I hope all the devs feel proud of their event. Despite the hiccups, it was still impressively fun.

[penteles]

Just a few quick comments... (from a person that only plays on BG's at the moment, so i didnt have any toons to participate on the last event)

Firstly: if you make the time short, there might be timezones that cannot participate at all. Or would need to alarm clock at 4am to participate.
Secondly: I think this shouldnt even be an event like this. Instead try to figure how to make it permanent. Meaning that if some difficult circumstances are met, realm could start the invasion event at any time during the season (or even multiple times).

[Saulous]

I think a good fix for invasion is 1) use NF instead of OF and 2) make border keep walls able to be trebbed and entire wall collapses that would be Awesome. Fixed