I’ve played Full Loot Hardcore PvP games for a really long time and I really really love the genre. I’ve played Albion since a very early alpha when it was terrible but showed promise. The game has come an extremely long way from the tedium and restrictive game I remember and I really love what I’m seeing here.
Please keep in mind, these suggestions are to remove some of the tedium from the game and help attract a larger casual player base.
Enough about that, now Let’s turn to the point.
Recall
Description: A common skill usable even when you’re naked. This spell gives the player an opportunity to teleport from the wilderness back to safety, however it takes a very long time to cast and makes a lot of noise. If the player takes any damage during the Recall, it cancels the channeling. Recall should be able to be heard from an extremely long distance away, potentially across the entire zone (just more faintly when its further). It should also take somewhere from 2-5 minutes to cast, depending on balance. The entire point of this system is to remove some of the tedium of the game and help attract a larger casual player base.
Destinations: Players should be able to choose to recall to the nearest NPC City and nearest Clan City. You could likely even use the same GUI window for when a player dies.
Cooldown Duration: This is up to debate. It definitely should be at a minimum of 1 hour to prevent abuse. The cooldown could also be scaled with the character’s base weight on their last cast. Meaning, if normally we have a 1 hour cooldown, recalling with 200% weight would result in a 2 hour cooldown before the next cast is available. Also, obviously, this cooldown should persist through server maintenance and the character relogging.
Cast Duration: The more a player is encumbered, the longer the casting time should be. To clear things up, the spell CANNOT be cast while mounted, and it should be based off your character’s UNMODIFIED WEIGHT. This means that Food, Bags, etc all do not change the cast time.
- 0-100% Weight = 100% Cast Duration
- >100% Weight = %weight Cast Duration (i.e. 150% Weight = 150% Cast Duration)
Restrictions: Recall cannot be used from within dungeons. This prevents players from entering dungeons and escaping from within to avoid PvP while fighting out with their loot. We also don’t want players to be able to recall from within the safety of their guild/ally territory squares. If they want to recall, they need to go into hostile territory, at least 100m or so, then start recalling. Recalling from the safe zones should not be restricted. This also applies to Castles, we wouldn’t want people being able to teleport right on top of a castle chest where people cannot get to him without breaking down walls. This could simply be fixed with a restriction radius placed on each type of area you don’t want players to be able to recall or mark runes.
Benefits: This enables more casual players to get into Albion and enjoy the game without added tedium of running back to town. If players are in a group and someone has to log out, recalling back would be very beneficial instead of having to solo your way back at a later time.
Sound Effect: The sound effect of “Recalling” should be distinctly different from “Marking” a Rune Stone. This is so players don’t confuse it with marking a rune stone.
Rune Stones
Description: Rune Stones are super rare and expensive items that are used to mark locations in the world for fast travel. After a Rune Stone is marked, it can be etched into a Rune Book from a Clan City or NPC City. They should cost millions of silver each. Their materials should be farmed through PvE loot of end game content.
Obtaining Materials: The materials to craft a Rune Stone are dropped from some of the highest tier monsters in the game, preferably end game bosses. Players will still need to take these materials and then craft them into usable rune stones (maybe through a Rune Etching system or something on the skill tree, again this should be super expensive). Only the richest players in the game will be able to afford leveling up rune etching.
Rune Marking: Players take a crafted Rune Stone out into the world and “mark” it at any location in any tile they choose. Double clicking on the Rune Stone will start the Marking process, which is a channeled spell just like everything else here. It should take from 2-5 minutes to mark and again it should make a lot of noise. Once a rune is Marked, the player must haul it back to a Clan City or a NPC City to Etch it.
Sound Effect: The sound effect of “Marking” a Rune Stone should be distinctively different from the sound effect of someone performing a “Recall”. Players who mark a stone should realize that this is an extremely risky task, as enemies who hear someone marking a stone can “blow the zerg horn” and try to kill the player or group of players marking runes before they transport them back to town. Rune Stones should be lootable (maybe not destroyable) for this purpose. This could create new PvP dynamics for players protecting zones from having others mark runes in them, etc.
Rune Books
Description: Rune Books store permanent teleport locations throughout the world, enabling players to fast travel to them for a large price, which MUST be based on their weight just like the city to city fast travel system. Rune Books store 15 or 20 “etched” Rune Stones. The Rune Book is a GUI Window, not an item able to be looted or destroyed.
Rune Etching: After a player “marks” a Rune Stone, it’s able to be etched only in the safety of a Clan City or NPC City (maybe at a vendor or a bench or something?). The player chooses a slot in their Rune Book to etch their Marked Rune Stone into, and preferably the character can type a name into it as well to give it a description. The rune is then consumed and they can now fast travel from anywhere in the world to that location for a very hefty price. This price should scale based on their inventory weight to prevent players from fast traveling with entire stockpiles of clan resources.
Rune Removal: Players should have the option to DESTROY a rune in their Rune Book, so they can always keep their book updated with their favorite hunting locations.
Teleporting: After a player has etched a marked Rune Stone into their Rune Book, they can now teleport from anywhere to that location. The teleport spell will work much like the Recall spell, being 2-5 minutes channeled, making a TON of noise and having the same restrictions applied so it can’t be exploitative. Teleporting using Rune Stones should be an EXTREME gold or silver sink, making your company more money.