Orange Zone (Edgeville Pking)

After many many years of playing MMORPG’s, beginning with RS classic, I have seen the rise and fall of many titles.

The most successful titles tend to be those that support players of all play styles, while the games focused on a single play style or that rely heavily on p2w cash shops fizzle out and die soon after their launch (e.g. Wildstar / ArchAge / Neverwinter / ect.).

In its current state i would say that Albion falls into the category of focusing on a single play style (the zerg / large alliance pvp focused player) with a slight tinge of p2w through transmuting (that is negligible if the first issue is solved).

In order to encompass a wider audience / increasing your player-base and in-turn revenue and the life of the game i suggest you turn about half of the current red zones into “orange zones”.

I will explain the idea and concept of the orange zone:

• This will be a zone situated between yellow and red zones.

 

• The zones will have the same resources as a red zone (up to t7).

 

• Resource spawn rates can be set at the following ratio. Orange 1x spawn rate / Red 2x spawn rate / Black 4x spawn rate of whatever rates you decide fit the game.
• In an orange zone players can “lock”into 1 v 1 combat by engaging a target.
• When a player attacks or is hit by another player they are locked into combat with that target for 5 seconds, meaning no outside players can interfere with the fight until there is 5 seconds time without the player attacking or taking an attack from their initial target. ( I would only count the first tic of a dot to avoid abuse).
• After a successful execute / kill the player gains a 30 second immunity timer where he cannot be attacked in order to collect loot and heal up slightly.

This system is incredibly similar to Runescapes “Edgeville Pking” which is also a full loot mmorpg. It has proven to be both incredibly popular and successful for the game (more people prefer this style of pvp in RS than their multi-combat zones).
This system will give solo players who are interested in pvp a level playing field and gatherers a solid chance to escape a gank.
Solo pvp players in these zones would most likely build for 1 v 1 combat over mobility while the gatherers here would take full mobility builds as opposed to the current red zones where everyone runs mobility / cc to pile the solo players or smaller groups.

This will offer an alternative to being zerged down and still offer greater rewards to the players and gatherers who decide to go to red or black zones.

Everybody wins with this suggestion.