Realm Stacking
I've been playing for a while in multiple realms and I've noticed whenever a keep siege situation manifests suddenly Mid nf population shrinks(can't speak for this on Alb), and Hib BG jumps by 20% or so. I thought one of the base mechanics of this game with three realms was the random factor that made certain scenario's risky. It seems that randomness is dead which is killing any incentive to do anything. I know they made keep changes and introduced ML's to make taking keeps easier but factor in this realm stacking behavior and its a slam dunk every time. I know when death spam by Warlock bomb squads prompted a patch and nerf why is it that the crazy ratio of green kill spam and the almost routine sacking of keeps with little or no opposition going untouched? knock, knock anyone there?
Comments
With the removal of underpop bonuses, players get a population bonus for playing on the realm with the most people. The only realm that can keep 7 keeps level 5 or higher is Hib. Thus, they get a 10% RP bonus over everyone else, in addition to their other normal bonuses only obtainable due to the constant zerg situation.
Players can play hib with an extra:
+10% RP (Basically a reverse underpop bonus:()
+5-10% power damage
+5-10% melee damage
+40-70% xp/bp/coin
Or they can try to play on Alb/Mid where everything is that much harder, in addition to having to fight against superior numbers and maybe getting 0 rps as a result. If one 8man fights 3 8man they won't get 1/3rd the rps of the other realm, or same rps as any of the other groups, they will collect 0 rps and the other 3 8mans will walk away with probably 5k each. Same goes for zerg play when the disparity is large enough (especially on hib/alb where debuff/stun groups don't need an extra non-dps'ing support toon in the train for stun).
When there are enough hib casters locking down different zones of a keep, even 8mans won't defend- can't get much rps, much more rps had killing the questionable few who do fight, several times. This is backed up by Hibs getting around 2x rps of mids/albs over the last 2 months, and having usually 25 of the top 30 players with rp earned each week.
This is bad for the game because it creates disparity in population, which limits real action.
Suddenly you have things like we saw this morning, where 2 groups of casual mids won't fight hero's 65 man BG (including 2 8mans). So we organize a summoner's hall raid including broadcasting in region and having an open BG, waited for all the hibs to port out of arv (had stealth inside confirmed Jeep's group and Tereben/Kosx's group both ported out). Hibs then started on KM and we ran into POC placing traps outside and inside poc- none popped. Suddenly these same 2 hib 8mans are hitting us at the entrance to summoner's hall 6 minutes later, kill us and both groups port out. It's not something you can really appeal, I mean who knows who had the region chat bot or if they had the guy in the BG anon in spindel or whatnot, but I doubt the 2 groups would have hit our 18 man BG very well timed at the entrance to SH based on a report from a stealth player who didn't even go into/near POC.
Chasing RPS is why players relog to hib to defend when albs/mids (rarely) attack, and why players log off mid to the hib bg when the alternative is dying a lot on mid.
Basically I don't believe there's a way to enforce the above, but its what happens if there's nothing for 8mans to hit, they are going to try to find RPS, and that's the kind of frustrating situation that makes players find something else to do. Broadsword has to develop some way of keeping people willing to play other realms, and all playstyles interesting. 8mans are also more willing to play/fight the underpop realm if they are incentivized to do so.
Solutions:
1) Realm loyalty bonuses, let's call it 15% rp/bp/xp... is not going to keep 8mans from switching realms to get the most rps, but it will probably cause many of the casuals who log back on to hib to defend for the easy rps, stay on hib to begin with. It's frustrating to start a BG only to have half your members log on to the opposing realm as soon as you make intentions of taking a keep known, because they know they will get many more rps from defending. As such i don't see the argument against realm loyalty bonuses as meaningful. It should do no harm and only incentive some people to choose to be loyal to a realm.
2) Underpop bonus. I and everyone else, are much more willing to defend, knowing we very well might get zero rps and several deaths, if when/if we get rps we know we will get an extra percentage. The overpopulated realm would probably be happy for these to return as well, as the #1 complaint by everyone is lack of action. An underpop bonus also counters the natural RP bonus people get from having more keeps consistently theirs (green). An underpop bonus should also factor in the current state of the relics or just keep control (if that's easier).
3) Remove the ability to log back into a keep if you have not been logged in within the past 30 minutes.
Any news on the underpop bonus?
The same guys, and others, have never gotten even close to that on Alb/Mid.
will help all, and who knows hero may stop zerging at rr14 lol