Faction Expansion Ideas.

Really, what we need is not merely a few changes to TW, but a bunch of stuff that factions can do together other than just TW, boss runs, FBs, and party help. What the game needs is a bunch of tasks that a faction can do together. Although some of the ideas I mention here impact TW in a more creative way, the emphasis is more on giving factions something to do together other than what little they currently do.

Raid formations - The next step up from squads. Essentially, it would allow 9-12 squads to be combined together into one group. The advantage, as opposed to just having squads, is that the raid leader can quickly re-arrange the squads within the raid without having to have people drop group and wait for an invite. Certain squad buffs, like bubble, could also be made to affect everyone in the raid, not merely those within the squad. Members of the raid can also drag out an icon related to people within the raid to act as a healing/buff/assist target without needing to be in the same squad as that person. This could be done in TW as well, to allow for more coordination between members.

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Faction Dungeons - The main purpose for raid formations. There would be two kinds of faction dungeons. Tier dungeons, which are related to TW and will be discussed later, and Boss dungeons, which allow a whole faction to fight together for drops (molds, celestones, gems, chi stones, ect).

Boss dungeons = will be something like how higher FBs currently are, except obviously larger, and more difficult without the advantage of wines, or the complications of tabs. The dungeon can only be opened up once every 5 days, and only by a faction leader/director. All members would need to be of the same faction, with the 100 hour rule being in effect. Upon entering, every member of the raid party will get a quest update depending on the dungeon. These will be timed quests, with rewards based around the difficulty of the dungeon. If the faction takes too long, the quest fails, and no bonus exp/spirit/rep is given. The dungeon can only be entered once, if people leave/spawn in town, they cannot re-enter. Most of these dungeons will have different paths, with each path having a number of bosses that need to be killed in addition to respawning (5-10 mins respawn) mobs. As one path completes (and boss is dead), it opens up the next part of another path, as that path completes (boss is dead), it opens up the next part of another. Meaning that you would have something like this; group A would go down one path, and fight a boss while group B is heading down another path which is blocked until the boss at A dies. Once that boss dies, Group A would need to work toward the next gate, path B would have a gate opened which leads to a boss, and path C could begin. When the boss at B dies, it opens the gate to two bosses at C and A, and B needs to head down toward their gate. When both those bosses are dead, The next gate at B opens where they meet with path C. Those two groups head down further to a harder boss, which opens a gate at A, and all three paths meet for a room that contains 2-3 WB type bosses. When the fight starts, the gate to the room closes, so pulling 1 boss at a time is not possible. At various points along the way, and in the boss room, there will be binding spots that people could return to after dying. Ideally, the lower dungeon would be geared around players level 70+, but there would be higher ones, with better rewards, in the 100+ range. The basic idea is to create something for factions to do together that requires teamwork and provides a means of financing other faction activities. For completing the dungeon, the faction would also receive an amount of faction points which will be discussed later.

Tier Dungeons = Tier dungeons would be a bit more familiar to some. They are essentially versions of the standard level 3, 2, 1 mob territory fights, which can be opened once every 6 days by the leader or director, and remain open for the 2 1/2 hours that they normally would take (essentially, an any-time TW type fight). These work as a means of enabling faction abilities and bonuses for that week. The main purpose of these is to act as a simple means of factions proving themselves worthy of better abilities since level 3 fights require quite a few level 50+, level 2, 70+, and 1, 90+. In addition to unlocking abilities, it would also award a set amount of faction points. These would be handled on a separate timer than Faction dungeons. The tier level would remain in effect until the 6 day timer was over. Although factions could do 2 runs of each dungeon within a single week, it would likely prove a hindrance for TW factions in the long term due to the tier being reset at a bad time (right before TW). Meaning that factions who aren't concerned with TW would be at an advantage.

Faction dungeons need not always be so bland, or combat based, what was explained was merely the easiest example of what they could be. They could easily incorporate some puzzle elements, or random bits of chance/trial, like having a member(s) of the group locked in place, sealed, and hit with a constant and progressing DoT effect while others have to heal, or dig locations looking for a switch, or series of switches.

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Faction Abilities - For the most part, these are what they sound like. They are things which the faction leader or director can activate to help out their faction. At tier 3, only lower abilities would be available, at Tier 1, all abilities are available. Once a faction has cleared the tier dungeon, they can choose a set number of abilities for that week which will be available until the tier resets. Tier 3 would get 2 abilities, Tier 2, 3 abilities, Tier 1, 4 abilities. Each ability would have associated cooldown times ranging from 30 mins to 8 hours, and would consume faction points. Depending on the ability they would either provide temporary buffs for all members of the faction for a certain duration, or have special effects in TW.

Faction Buffs = Faction buffs (colored green) would be one set of abilities, which can be activated at any time to help faction members level, do bosses, ect. They would range from simple things, like +50 point hp/mp boosts on all members for 1 hour, + defense/attack level for the next 15 minutes, to an extra 15% exp gain for the next 30 minutes, no exp loss on death for the next hour, increased droprate, increased movement speed, free teleport to major cities for 1 hour. Most of these would have fairly low costs, and high cooldown times, or higher costs with lower times. They would be applied to all members of the faction at the time of being triggered, and are meant to be something that gives faction members a bonus for working together.

Territory Effects = These would be a bit different than faction buffs, and broken down into red and blue abilities. These can only be activated during TW, and only take effect on those members who are in the same fight as the leader (director) when it is triggered. Unlike buffs, these would be instantaneous things which are aimed at creating a bit more variety and strategy in TW fights. Red abilities can only be used when attacking, Blue abilities can only be used when defending. These abilities all come with a 8 hour cooldown time, limiting the number of times they can be used on any day during TW. A typical blue ability would be something which is aimed at helping to defend a territory, while a typical red ability is aimed at helping attack. Some examples are below.

-Expel (blue): Gates have a blue light above them for 30 seconds, after 30 seconds, causes all enemy forces inside the defender's base to be kicked back to their respawn point. Does not affect people outside the walls.

-Renew I (blue/red): Allows destroyed turrets to be rebuilt again for full cost. -Renew II (blue): Allows destroyed turrets to be rebuilt again for half cost.
-Renew III (blue): Allows destroyed turrets to be rebuilt again for 1/4 cost.

-Rage (red): Boosts attack levels randomly (1-15) until death, but prevents normal hp/mp regen.

-charm freeze (red/blue): For 2-4 mins, charms on the opposing side will not trigger, until death.

-Windstorm (blue): All persons in the air (both sides) have their movement and evasion reduced by 30-50% for 5 minutes.

-Bombard (red): All persons (both sides) in the air have their damage increased by 50% against ground targets, and 25% against air targets.

-Cleanse (blue): All buffs (including those from faction abilities) are removed from the opposing side, and all negative effects are removed from allies.

-Healing Waves (blue): All allied characters within 15 range of the defender's HQ crystal become sealed and unable to move for 30 seconds. During this time, their natural hp regeneration is applied to restore the health of the HQ stone. The stone getting hit will cancel the effect.

-Waves of pain (red): All allies within 10 range of the defender's HQ crystal become sealed and unable to move for 10 seconds. 25% of the damage taken by these characters is transferred to the HQ crystal as damage.

-Pulse of life (red/blue): All allies within 20 range of the leader or director (depending on who used the skill) are able to revive with full hp/mp at their location. The leader/director must be living to perform this.

-Nuke (red/blue): All players within 20 range of the leader or director (depending on who used the skill) are killed.

Or similar. Nothing too uber, and since it can only be done once every TW day, with any faction only being able to take 2-4 abilities total for that week, a good deal of planning would likely be needed to make the use of it. Some of the abilities, like those which could have different strengths would have variations based on tier. All of the better ones would only be open to Tier 1. All of the abilities would have a fairly high point cost since their usage would be one of the main reasons for gaining faction points.

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Faction Points (additional) - In addition to being able to use abilities, there would also be special cards, again unlocked by tier, which could be purchased with faction points and used before TW to give a certain edge to the faction throughout the fight. These cards would have fairly high costs with the more dramatic ones being more than can be gained in 2-3 weeks of dungeons, and could only be applied to any fight 30 minutes before it is set to begin, and cannot be done once it starts. The cards could be purchased at any time after bidding, but need to be turned into the officer located in the territory which will be the scene of the fight. The cards are notrade, nodrop, only purchasable by the faction leader, and expire in 24 hours. The purpose of these cards is to create a certain amount of uncertainty within any fight. They are separated by color, red, blue, green. Red for attackers, Blue for defenders, and green for anyone else (you'll understand in a bit). Only the attacker can turn in a red card, only the defender can turn in a green card, and only a faction which is not fighting can turn in a green card. Which cards are turned in will not be made known to any of the other parties. The cards would create an effect, or add in an element to the TW which would persist throughout the fight. Red cards would be those which aid attackers, blue cards would be those which aid defenders, green cards don't necessarily help either one. Some examples are as follows;

- Improved defenses (red/blue): increases turret damage or fire rate.

- Burning catapults (red): Causes catapults to apply a short duration fire effect on what they hit.

- Shrapnel catapults (blue): Damage is reduced slightly, but is treated as a small AoE effect which damages enemies which are near the tower/crystal.

- Hasted Catapults (red/blue): catapults move faster when being pulled.

- Chi Fountain (red/blue): creates two objects located in the base, near the wall, which gives 5 chi a second to friendly units, but can be destroyed.

- Militia (red/blue): creates NPC archers (fixed positions) who attack from walls, decent range, deal damage equal to about half that of rapid fire turret, but die in 1 hit from anything, respawn after 15 minutes.

- Fortify (red/blue): increases health of HQ stone by 50%

Again, nothing that would really decide a battle outright, but might help for those closer fights. But, green cards are a bit different since their goal is not to aid either group, but affect both;

- quagmire: movement speed along ground is reduced 15% for both sides, jump height is reduced.

- Air Ban: flying is disabled (old school style TW).

- Tamer's Curse: No mounts, veno pets, or all class pets can be summoned during the battle.

- Healer's Curse: All heal spells are 50% effective.

- Stunproof: All stun/seal/silence skills have their chance to stun reduced 50%.

- Rust: all equipment loses durability 100% faster.

- Call of the Wraith: The field between the HQs will be populated with level 70-90 spawns (similar to how they are setup for a level 2 NPC TW) with a chance for a boss class mob to be spawned outside any of the the gates.

- 80/60: The attacking faction can only bring 60 members into the TW instead of 80. As in, first 60 get in, last 20 are locked out until someone leaves.
- 60/80: The defending faction can only bring 60 members into the TW instead of 60. Same as above.
*name is purposely misleading.

- Fresh Start: All persons spawning in (both sides) are stripped of buffs, and are spawned in sealed for 60 seconds, with 10% hp and mp.

- Mercenary: Faction which turns in this card can bring 6-20 people into the TW as a 3rd force, green name, who can attack either side. They can enter no sooner than 5 minutes after the fight starts, will spawn in at random locations within those two strips between A and B, B and C. When they die, they are kicked out to town, but can enter again at a teleporter for as long as the fight goes on. They are treated as hostile for either side's turrets, and having no HQ/catapults cannot damage turrets or HQ stone. For every kill they score against the losing faction, the winning faction recieves 10k less coin pay, with that money instead going to the mercenary faction. Essentially, this is a way for a faction to get help from an outside source, go above the 80 person limit (by means of a sub faction), or allow those factions who did not win bidding to interfere directly.

- Costly Venture: makes all turrets and catapults cost double for both sides.

- Arms Dealer: Faction which turns in the card gains 10% the cost for any potions, repairs, catapults, or turrets bought during the fight as weekly pay.

- Wager: Faction which turns in the card gets to make a bet on the winning faction in multiples of 100k, max 2.5m. If they bet correctly, they receive double, and it comes out of the reward for the territory. If they bet incorrectly, the losing faction gets their bet.

- Infestation: Doubles the rate that catapults lose health, and reduces turret health 25%.

- Warrior Creed: All physical damage is increased 20% All magic damage is decreased 20%
- Wizard Creed: All magic damage is increased 20% all physical damage is reduced 20%

Essentially, Green cards are something that have the potential to totally throw all previous strategies off, or create chaos for one, or both factions. Although this also means that sub guilds can be putting these in for their main guild, it means that sub guilds will be having to fight with eachother, or other factions to be the first ones to turn it in. As all green cards are things which would prove problematic to both sides equally, or be very costly, it may not always be wise to turn in one of the lesser ones in an effort to lock out someone else. The way these are setup, and with what is required to get them, it would be usually done by a 3rd party who simply dislikes one or both factions, or wants to pop in and get their own piece of the action.

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With all this, the result is something which makes factions mean more than just TW, boss runs, FBs, or other kinds of help. Lower factions can do stuff as a team to earn themselves bonuses for that week to help with getting stronger. Higher factions can do stuff which alters how TW is being done, creates a bit of chaos, unpredictability, and allows factions to adopt new tools which can be used to their advantage.

To recap for those who are going to complain, or didn't read.

Dungeons and raids are designed to be something which requires more than 20-30 people of any level. While higher levels need fewer people to do lower dungeons, they also get less, and lock out their faction from running another dungeon for 5 (6) days, so higher is usually always better. Faction point costs for abilities and cards will likely require a few weeks of saving up to afford any of the really good stuff.

Abilities all have timers which prevent being used repeatedly, or as a sole means of achieving some end. They will not win a TW, they will merely provide a chance for factions to get by for a few extra moments. They have costs which can only be paid for by that faction being active and able to do faction dungeons. A faction can only have 2-4 abilities FOR THAT WEEK, so they will need to make decisions on which are best suited for helping their faction. Green abilities, which could be used any time, and have shorter recharges would probably end up being more useful in long TW fights than red/blue ones.

Cards require coordination and a bit of leg work by leaders (who are usually more concerned with getting their faction in squads) to buy the card, and deliver it to the right place in time, cost more than abilities, can only be turned no sooner than 30 minutes before a fight, and no later than 10 minutes before a fight. Only 1 card of any color can be turned in, and the cards vanish 24 hours after being picked up at a battle coordinator, making green cards quite a bit of a gamble since the points are spent, but someone might beat you to turning one in.

Regardless of what is used, if there was a significant difference in strength between fighters, use of any of these won't necessarily change the outcome of the fight. What it does is merely allow those cases of close fights to be a bit less predictable. Use of the right abilities at the right time, or choice of the right cards just provides a slight edge. It also allows other factions to participate in TW, and either gaining something, or causing problems for others without being combatants.

Outside the bounds of TW, and as it pertains to 99% of factions, this all has value as well, it gives factions a means of earning money from the drops in the faction dungeon, and gives them faction abilities which can aid with leveling, boss runs, FBs, or just to make life easier.

In both cases, it places more pressure on the faction leadership to be an active role within a faction, and to make choices which affect their entire faction. In all cases, it provides a good deal of variety for all levels to an aspect of the game which is in need of it. It may require quite alot of work to do it, but at the same time provides additional content for both all levels and endgame to keep people interested. Due to the dungeons requiring more effort than your typical FB, and can't be soloed by a veno with a pet, or even a single squad, more people would be spending money on charms, angels, and the like. As the dungeons are instanced, and provide access to good drops, non-TW factions still have a means of affording good equipment, or paying their members for participation. It also allows factions to plan more activities that don't outright shaft their resident tank/cleric (since all most factions do are boss/fb runs, which only affect a small number of members (usually the lower level ones who leave a week later, their bosses done)). By having something that all members of a faction can participate in, you allow for more cooperation between faction members, and create more meaning to those we associate with than "boss help". Although imperfect, these ideas would be a good starting point for features which might accomplish the same goals.

Kudos for those who managed to survive this wall of text and actually read. Those that did not probably won't know what is being said, so aren't really able to comment intelligently.