Screw The Bugs...I Want Player Encampments...

ok, bear with me here...i play this game, so i know all about the balance issues/bugs, so no need to scathingly remind me that they need to fix broken sh*t before they add new sh*t....

Telon is a vast world. Lotsa wilderness and empty spaces out there. Some people think too much space even...By the time you get to where yer goin, yer buffs have faded, the dog needs a walk, it's time to go to work, or it's time to go to bed, or depending on what you do, it's time to go to work in bed.

So i'm thinking camps. Player created camps that you can drop in certain areas. Kinda like what you had in SWG, except these camps would actually be USEFUL.

For the sake of understanding what i'm talking about, let's imagine these camps look and behave alot like the ones from SWG, but less "star-warsy" (good god, that game ended up sucking.)

camps would have a few basic functions, such as...


(these are not all MY ideas, i'm just adding to the list)


1. gear repair stations (they accept coin, it magically gets sent to the Gear Repairer's Union #420)

2. summoning altar (they're talking about the need for overland teleports, so why not have it make more sense in terms of "realism"..clerics can do CoH at the altar in the camp)

3. 1 hour duration stat buffs (+con or vitality, nothing major)

4. minor crafting stations (arrows and other consumables)

5. homing pigeons to take mail back to the home front (falcons would be cooler)

6. limited food/consumables storage (hey if you can put a boat in yer pocket, why not an icebox?)

7. diplomacy quests (go set up a camp at X location and X NPC will appear to discuss issues, or whatever it is you diplomats do)

8. buffs/effects when within range of the camp

9. campfire repels/debuffs mobs (fear spell without the aggro generation)...which leads into....

10. safe spot to go afk/logout (no such thing on pvp server, muahaha.)

11. NPC henchmen/vendors generated (over time in a high lvl camp, based on player usage, would despawn after a set time)

12. there is no twelve. that's all we got right now.


Of course, there would have to be pretty good location restrictions, ie: you have to be pretty far out to drop camp, and some limits on how long the camp stays up, and how often one can drop them. Kits would be a one-time use item, maybe in stacks of five. Having them be non-stackable might be more interesting, and help keep them from being overused.

Only one active camp per player, single player camps cannot be placed in the effect range of another camp (no overlapping). Higher level camps can only be activated with a full group, and that camp counts as the active camp for all group members. You could additionally have multi-player kits for every possible group size, and maybe someday, a raid camp.

I don't think this should be a class specific perk, so not only Rangers can drop camps, for instance. Kits should be a craftable item made by outfitters, using components made by other crafting classes, and any class can actually drop a camp, within the limits of the equipment expertise system. (yay for the economy and useful money sinks!)

Perhaps higher level crafted camps would be more semi-permanent, nowhere near the permanence of a house, it would last a couple days or a week while yer guild used it as a remote base in a certain area. Most likely in terms of game logistics, camps would get dropped at the end of the night, unless you split the functionality of camps between "prep" and "recoup" categories, and crafters could provide you with either type. Having the two functionally different types of camps will also help keep them from becoming "overpowered", and ensure the usefullness of the entire range of camp benefits.

I think there is a NEED for a concept like this, i think EVERYONE could benefit from it, and i think the players would find setting up camps fun, useful, and immersive. In fact, i think this is the best post-launch idea i've ever heard in the history of post-launches everywhere.

Except for fixing that damn lev/invis bug on the pvp servers.