Supply Caravans / Keep Upgrade System - FAQ

Started 19 Sep 2018
by Uthred
in Planned Changes
From now on the frontiers will be a little bit more populated. Let me introduce to you the Supply Caravans. They will be in with the next patch, probably in the next 24 hours.

[attachment=1]sshot664.jpg[/attachment]


What?

We rebuild the Keep-Upgrade-System. Keeps will still upgrade automaticly (no matter if a caravan reaches your keep) after getting claimed, but only to lvl 4. If you want to upgrade your keep any higher, you need to make sure that supply caravans will reach your keep. The higher the keep will be the more supply caravans it will take to reach the next level. Caravan Guards have the wearing the emblem of the claimed guild on cloak and shield and will have a guild tag.
Caravans start from the borderkeeps (Ligen, Cain, Vindsaul, Svasud, Sauvage, Snow) and from the porterkeeps. Caravans are only send to a keep that your realm has under control. Caravans only leave for claimed keeps. If a keep is released, it will be instant lvl 1 again. Caravans that are still on the way to that keep and reach it, will upgrade the keep.

Example: [attachment=0]Unbenannt.JPG[/attachment]


According to this example, there will be Hibernian supply caravans from Cain to Behnn, nGed and Crauchon, from Ligen to Bolg, Crim and Crauchon, alb caravans from Atk to Ailinne and mid caravans from Mtk to Scathaig. If Hibs reraid Ailinne, then there will be no more alb caravans from the Atk to Ailinne, but a hib caravan from Ligen to Ailinne.
Every caravan will be guarded by 2 lvl 60 guards. Caravans are send every 3 mins. Sticking to the above example, the first caravan from DL will travel to Bolg, 3 mins later the next one will go to Crim and the next to Crauchon. The 4th one will be a Bolg one again and so on.

How many caravans are needed to reach the next keeplevel ?

Lvl 2 --> 2 caravans
Lvl 3 --> 3 caravans
Lvl 4 --> 4 caravans
Lvl 5 --> 5 caravans
Lvl 6 --> 6 caravans
Lvl 7 --> 7 caravans
Lvl 8 --> 8 caravans
Lvl 9 --> 9 caravans
Lvl 10 --> 10 caravans

Rewards:
Caravans are worth XP and they count as realm guards (for the "kill realm guards" task). The other reward is that you can stop a keep from upgrading, so it will be easier to raid it.

Additional informations:
Enemy supply caravans are neutral to you. If you dont attack them, they wont attack you. But if you do so, they will try to kill you.

Downgrading a Keep
Caravans now have two functions. The first function is to deliver supplies to a claimed keep. Nothing has changed there. Keeps upgrade automaticlly from 1 to 4. To reach Keeplevl 5 to 10 they need a certain amount of Caravans to reach their gates. See list above.

The second and new function of Caravans is that a Keep downgrades if it is not constantly supplied with goods. A Level 10 Keep has a max of 20 Caravanpoints. Every Caravan is worth 3 Caravanpoints. If a Keep hits Level 10 and after that 7 more Caravans reach it, the max of 20 Caravanpoints (7 Caravans * 3 Caravanpoints per Caravan = 21) is reached. 20 is max, every Caravan that delivers supplies to the Keep after reaching 20 Caravanpoints doenst increase the Caravanpoints any further.

Sticking to this example, the 8th Caravan doesnt reach the Keep because it got killed by enemy forces. The Keep will lose 3 Caravanpoints and now only has 17 Caravanpoints left. If the next 6 Caravans also dont reach the Keep, it will downgrade to Keeplevel 9. From Keeplevel 9 to 4 the Keeplevel is the same as the Caravanpoints. So if the next 3 Caravans also dont reach that Keep, it will downgrade to Keeplevel 8 and so on. If a Caravan reaches the Keep, it will add 1 Caravanpoint to the Caravanpointpool again.

To sum it up, downgrading a Keep by killing Caravans is 3 times faster than upgrading a Keep. Killing or Defending Caravans is now another interesting option in the war between the three realms.

Update #3 :

Spawn: The timer will be changed from 3 mins to 5 mins. That means, every 5 mins will a caravan spawn at a borderkeep and/or a teleporterkeep.

Damaging a keep gate: Caravans, that get killed now damage the outer gate (the first gate) for 5k. The first gate can be damage down to max 25% via killing caravans. It will never have any impact on the second gate.

Repairing a keep gate: Caravans, that reach a keep now repair the gates for 10k. Self-Reparing over time got removed. Gates can only be repaired via the caravans or with the /repair-command (and wood in the players inventory).

Increased Value: Caravans are now worth 250bp that are divided among the players/groups that killed a caravan.

New Drops: Besides coins, caravans now always drop one tinderbox and a new token called Phoenix Claw. There only drops one Phoenix Claw per caravan which is distributed randomly among the attackers. Keeplords now also drop one Phoenix Claw. It is a new currency to buy very helpful potions and time-based buffs.

Claw Merchant: You will now find in Dun Crauchon, Caer Benowyc and Bledmeer Faste <Claw Merchants>. They are always there and dont spawn/despawn when a keep is taken. They are neutral to all realms and everyone is able to talk to them, even if the keep is not owned by your realm. The merchants sell the following items:

Potion of Wisdom: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 10% more XP for 60 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Boldness: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 5% more RPs for 20 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Mutation: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 5% more BPs for 20 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Savagery: Single-Buff (1 charge) that doubles the damage of a ram for 20 mins. You have to be the leader of the ram. Persists through death.
Potion of Lucidity: Single-Buff that gives you Stealth Lore for 1 mins, 5 charges.
Wed 19 Sep 2018 10:11 PM by Cadebrennus
I love it. Amazing f!!cking idea.

The Drunken Ranger approves
Wed 19 Sep 2018 10:36 PM by skinner904
The only thing I don't like is that keeps will upgrade even if they are not claimed. I think this negates the importance of active guilds wanting to bolster their realms defenses by claiming a keep. Why even claim any keeps at all if they will upgrade anyway?
Thu 20 Sep 2018 2:21 AM by Takii
Interesting concept I guess? I'm a bit worried about having random level 60 guards constantly running into fights since these will go from portal keeps as well. Them being neutral isn't going to change much. Fights in this game are chaotic and I can pretty much guarantee that these guards will get hit accidentally a majority of the time that they run into a fight.
Thu 20 Sep 2018 4:50 AM by Armsmancer
Takii wrote:
Thu 20 Sep 2018 2:21 AM
Interesting concept I guess? I'm a bit worried about having random level 60 guards constantly running into fights since these will go from portal keeps as well. Them being neutral isn't going to change much. Fights in this game are chaotic and I can pretty much guarantee that these guards will get hit accidentally a majority of the time that they run into a fight.

It's only 2 of them so not some lv 10 keep guard melee train, i think if it was anything less 2 stealthers would just duo them all, hell with IP and stuff 2 stealthers probably could get away with kiting/killing these guards, its just 2 guards
Thu 20 Sep 2018 10:54 AM by Uthred
Update #1(edited the first post):
- Unclaimed keeps dont upgrade
- Caravans only leave for claimed keeps
- Caravan guards wear the emblem of the guild that claimed the keep on their cloak & shield and will have a guild tag.
- If a keep is released, it will be instant lvl 1 again. Caravans that are still on the way to that keep and reach it, will upgrade the keep

[attachment=0]Unbenannt.JPG[/attachment]
Thu 20 Sep 2018 3:13 PM by schreon
There will always be off-times when no one stops the caravans. During those times the keeps will grow in strength anyway, so I doubt there will be much motivation to constantly kill off caravans ... unless the XP reward is really massive.

Thus, as you already said in your future work section, keeps should not only be upgraded when enough caravans reach them. They should also be slowly downgraded if they don't get their supplies. Killing the caravans of a keep that is already at level 10 would result in the keep to slowly get weaker. Consider a guild consisting of players who generally enjoy keepraiding. During late-afternoon hours, the first players log in, but they are not enough to raid that level 10 keep. Instead, they begin to attack the caravans. Over the course of an hour, they downgrade the keep from level 10 to level 8 or even 7. Meanwhile, enough players came online and the guild can attack the weakened keep.

At the same time, the enemy realm owning the keep should get a message like: "The forces of Albion have destroyed our caravan heading for Dun Bolg!". Considering that there are many supply-chains at the same time, this might be a perfect measure to split/dodge the zerg during prime times and to attract enemies during off-times.

Also, killing caravans should massively increase your extra efforts rewards as soon as the keep is actually taken.
Thu 20 Sep 2018 10:38 PM by Takii
I actually like the above suggestion. I think without that the caravan system is semi-pointless because as schreon said they will always reach level 10 eventually.

I don't think people are going to blockade a keep to prevent it from upgrading because they have very little incentive to do so, but they will blockade a keep to cause it to downgrade if its too high level to attack while there are defenders inside.
Thu 11 Oct 2018 3:05 PM by Uthred
Update #2 (edited the first post):

Downgrading a Keep
Caravans now have two functions. The first function is to deliver supplies to a claimed keep. Nothing has changed there. Keeps upgrade automaticlly from 1 to 4. To reach Keeplevl 5 to 10 they need a certain amount of Caravans to reach their gates. See list above.

The second and new function of Caravans is that a Keep downgrades if it is not constantly supplied with goods. A Level 10 Keep has a max of 20 Caravanpoints. Every Caravan is worth 3 Caravanpoints. If a Keep hits Level 10 and after that 7 more Caravans reach it, the max of 20 Caravanpoints (7 Caravans * 3 Caravanpoints per Caravan = 21) is reached. 20 is max, every Caravan that delivers supplies to the Keep after reaching 20 Caravanpoints doenst increase the Caravanpoints any further.

Sticking to this example, the 8th Caravan doesnt reach the Keep because it got killed by enemy forces. The Keep will lose 3 Caravanpoints and now only has 17 Caravanpoints left. If the next 6 Caravans also dont reach the Keep, it will downgrade to Keeplevel 9. From Keeplevel 9 to 4 the Keeplevel is the same as the Caravanpoints. So if the next 3 Caravans also dont reach that Keep, it will downgrade to Keeplevel 8 and so on. If a Caravan reaches the Keep, it will add 1 Caravanpoint to the Caravanpointpool again.

To sum it up, downgrading a Keep by killing Caravans is 3 times faster than upgrading a Keep. Killing or Defending Caravans is now another interesting option in the war between the three realms.
Mon 15 Oct 2018 9:35 PM by Brokenstring
This is good stuff. Stuff that we should be seeing by a game development team that actually wants to create a great game experience using game design principles. Curious to see how this affects the game and makes me excited to get out into RvR again!
Wed 17 Oct 2018 10:59 AM by Sepplord
Sounds like an awesome addition, just two things that are confusing me atm (not sure if positively or negatively though)

a) having only one keep in the supplychain of a starting point makes upgrading (but also downgrading) much faster. Especially a realm pushing into another ones territory will have it increasingly hard to upgrade it's keeps since all their caravans share the spawntimers. Did i understand that correctly? I am intrested to see how that plays out...maybe the spawntimer could be a bit dynamic according to the number of keeps that are being supplied (not necessarily linear).
A guild wanting to claim and upgrade a keep has their speed halved by another guild claiming a keep nearby, that seems counterintuitive, and might even lead to situations where players do not assist in a keepraid/let the enemy take another keep, so that their guildkeep upgrades faster.

b) If a keep is upgraded it has no caravanpoints. So if the next caravan is intercepted it will immediatly downgrade again? Maybe a small "puffer" could exist after a keep upgrades already giving it a few caravanpoints. (ofcourse with an increase in points needed for upgrading, so without changing the overall upgrade time/cravans needed for upgrading). Not sure if that really is an issue though.
Sun 28 Oct 2018 3:33 PM by Uthred
Update #3 (edited the first post):

Spawn: The timer will be changed from 3 mins to 5 mins. That means, every 5 mins will a caravan spawn at a borderkeep and/or a teleporterkeep.

Damaging a keep gate: Caravans, that get killed now damage the outer gate (the first gate) for 5k. The first gate can be damage down to max 25% via killing caravans. It will never have any impact on the second gate.

Repairing a keep gate: Caravans, that reach a keep now repair the gates for 10k. Self-Reparing over time got removed. Gates can only be repaired via the caravans or with the /repair-command (and wood in the players inventory).

Increased Value: Caravans are now worth 250bp that are divided among the players/groups that killed a caravan.

New Drops: Besides coins, caravans now always drop one tinderbox and a new token called Phoenix Claw. There only drops one Phoenix Claw per caravan which is distributed randomly among the attackers. Keeplords now also drop one Phoenix Claw. It is a new currency to buy very helpful potions and time-based buffs.



[attachment=0]ClawMerchants.jpg[/attachment]


Claw Merchant: You will now find in Dun Crauchon, Caer Benowyc and Bledmeer Faste <Claw Merchants>. They are always there and dont spawn/despawn when a keep is taken. They are neutral to all realms and everyone is able to talk to them, even if the keep is not owned by your realm. The merchants sell the following items:

Potion of Wisdom: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 10% more XP for 60 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Boldness: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 5% more RPs for 20 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Mutation: Group-Buff (1 charge) that gives every member of your group 5% more BPs for 20 mins. Persists through death.
Potion of Savagery: Single-Buff (1 charge) that doubles the damage of a ram for 20 mins. You have to be the leader of the ram. Persists through death.
Potion of Lucidity: Single-Buff that gives you Stealth Lore for 1 mins, 5 charges.
Wed 31 Oct 2018 11:59 AM by Uthred
As you can see, i cleared this thread. Let me tell you some things:

1. It is a FAQ-thread. It is for people who dont know what caravans do and/or would like to get more infos about them. This is the only reason why this thread was made for. This thread is not about stealthers or any other subject of this server except caravans.

2. If you have a question about any mechanics or about the potions or whatever, feel free to ask it in here.

3. We are also interested in your feedback, in your experiences that you had with caravans, the pots, etc. There is already a disccusion thread about caravans & their rewards. Use it and let us know.
---> https://forum.playphoenix.online/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2759

4. Instantly starting to flame and telling lies without even having any of the new changes tested, doesnt help at all. It is also very disrespectful. We are aware of the situation that we cant make everyone happy. But one and for all: We are building a server for every playstyle and only because we think that your idea doesnt fit our vision of the server, doesnt mean that we are prefering one playstyle over the other.
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