Tailgate

By Khamos on March 25, 2011 in Campaigns — Comments (4)

The High Commanders of the Animators and the Architects have decided to butt in to the battle instead of  just observing their Mage troops from afar. Meet Architect Battle Control and Animator High Command.

These archmages, whose locations are still much of a mystery, have decided to intervene the battle by throwing Super Beacons in the middle of larger areas controlled by the opposing team.  There's a small chance of these Beacons popping up where there is a lot of harvesting going on by the enemy.

Everyone in the team will be able to see these Beacons in their Cloudview. You will also get a separate notification, when a new Beacon has appeared in the middle of enemy action. And it definitely takes more that just a couple of Z-Spells to knock these Beacons down to guard your area from an enemy invasion! The Super Beacons may disappear on their own too, just as suddenly as they appeared in the first place. So be quick with your attack!

Tailgate Campaign brings also focus on Realm values. The Realm levels will be affecting the amount of gained Energy, making the higher level city Gateways the most valuable Realms to battle over.

We are also keeping the last week's area control rules regarding harvesting in the game. This means gained Energy points depend on how many Gateways within the Cloudview belong to your team.

Strong spells and happy hunting Mages!

Comments

  1. Dreammaster
    Dreammaster (Enlightened) on 07/23/2011 1:50 a.m.
    All I can say is, on each of the past two nights, a superbeacon has appeared in my area, which had a grand total of 4 doms surrounded by miles of nothing at all. Pretty much a desert, by city standards. I'm no fan of the superbeacon idea to begin with (basically, it's just a way for people to have gratuitous fights without having to go through the trouble of actually "campaigning"), but they clearly aren't working the way you say they will. To quote your post: "There's a small chance of these Beacons popping up where there is a lot of harvesting going on by the enemy." Two nights in a row is not "small," and 4 doms is not "a lot of harvesting." Why would the "Animator High Command" give a shit about 4 doms surrounded by darkness? Seriously, get it right, or just drop the idea altogether.
  2. WhiteRiverRed
    WhiteRiverRed (Enlightened) on 08/04/2011 2:58 a.m.
    I can't say I'm a fan of the super beacon, either. My 4 dominators are generating LOTS of superbeacons. That disappear and reappear with what seems like great frequency. I don't get it.
  3. Duncanidaho
    Duncanidaho (Awakened) on 08/19/2011 5:11 a.m.
    I can understand the idea to create opportunities for teamfights, but after solo-killing an Animator Battle Control beacon after harvesting two dom's in my home territory, I harvested a 3rd dom. IMMEDIATELY, yet another ABC Beacon popped. Really lame. Somehow this should be fixed so that there's a max frequency of ABC Beacon pops, etc... Anyone know if there's a formula to indicate how frequently they're allowed to occur? Otherwise, it just seems like a means to mess with high level players, which would tick me off.
  4. FeRaLcHiLdE
    FeRaLcHiLdE (Magister) on 10/08/2011 6:32 a.m.
    I like AHC/ABC dynamics when in play, but I believe they are not balanced well to all of the mana gathering missions. Gaining alot of mana at one time bring them - I think that's a good balance to keep players at a limit. However, There are certain missions that cause a player to hit this limit in order to complete those missions: to create a power grid across several gateways which causes the mana harvested from dominators to go up; to harvest 100 mana in a specified time. Considering the fact that completing missions and capturing air spirits also grant large mana awards, an AHC/ABC event can happen all too regularly. The result is to make a choice to either stop pursuing said goals for a while until a mission passes, or prepare to deal with a horde of enemy every time one of these missions is completed. This does NOT encourage game play in these instances. This frustrates mana gatherers of course, but it also is frustrating for hunting players when we show up at a new beacon and find little to nothing there for our efforts. After all, the surest way to keep the enemy from robbing you when one of these beacons appears at your doorstep is to destroy your dominators (etc.) before they do, as soon as a super beacon shows up. I would appreciate seeing the threshold rise considerably on when these super beacons appear. Personally, I had 3 appear today even when I timed my mana gathering to spread out over half an hour or more. I rebuilt 3 times and had alot less fun than I did just the day before. In-game challenges are good, but they should be fun. Thank you, ~ from an experienced game mechanics designer (RPG, tabletop, RTS, boardgame and RL group exercises.)

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