Experimental Notoriety Revamp
As of current, NPCs ships always spawning where you are on the sea is seen as an annoyance rather than a challenge, and it doesn’t make much sense for them to always know where you are (even if Radars have been invented given the technological discrepacy, this might not be it player enjoyment, at least not in the sea where the Grand Navy HQ is located).
To give a premise to this idea, the idea takes a lot of inspiration from World of Magic’s threats’ system.
The Changes
First of all, repurpose the current Notoriety stars to visually fill up, just like GTA V in a way.
Each star represents how the Grand Navy perceives you, with the stars being filled faster depending on your Bounty/Leaderboard Title.
There are three (or two to not make it complicated) stages to stars.
The stars will slowly fill up based on what crimes you’ve committed (Just how they currently work).
Once a star has been filled, there will be a grace period for the player to leave the area before the first responders arrive (or just the guards of the island arrive); note that if your Bounty is high enough, then each wave will increase your Notoriety by a set amount to represent the intensity of the Grand Navy’s siege.
The Threat
When the first responders arrive, the player will be able to choose to run away or fight, and if they choose to fight and defeat the first responders, there will be one last grace period (aside from waves) for the player to run away from the island.
Once the grace period is over, the Grand Navy will declare the island under threat and the siege will begin.
Should the island be affiliated to a Kingdom, there will be a different notification which would state “The Grand Navy has declared the island under threat, /the/ [KINGDOM NAME]'s forces will also follow shortly.”
The Assault
The stars represent the Level of the assault, and cap out depending on your Bounty Level.
There will be X waves of NPCs, either by sea or directly spawning on the island.
The amount of waves will never exceed the amount of 5-7, as to not make the player feel too annoyed at the NPCs/take too long to defeat a Siege.
Limits
Each assault will have a final wave, and that will be represented by a golden border on the Notoriety stars and maybe a notification: “The Grand Navy is about to push its final attack, fend them off to receive great rewards!”
If a Kingdom is included then they’ll aid the final assault.
There would also be three systems in place to prevent excessive farming and/or destruction for those who don’t want to constantly deal with sieges:
- After a siege is over, the island and its surroundings would have an elevated Notoriety ‘detection’, ramping up the Notoriety gain and temporarily making the limit go higher.
- After a player defeats a siege, they’ll have a debuff that makes their Notoriety ramp up and temporarily make their limit go higher.
- If too many Sieges are done in a server, the Grand Navy base of said sea will request help from the HQ and Notoriety will be almost at its highest should a subsequent threat be detected.
Anti-Cheese
Following point three, there would be a sub-system that would make NPCs spawn faster and faster to combat players from potentially starting sieges over and over.
The Current System
Players would still be able to use the Notoriety clear feature from the Assassin Syndicate a certain amount of times, before being denied the service due to it being ineffective as the Grand Navy ‘is on high alert’.
(This is similar to the Criminal Notice system from World of Magic, except it would expire much more quickly and also go down, perhaps at a slightly lower rate, even while offline)
Alternatively, running away is also an option as the Grand Navy patrol ships,sent after you if you choose to run away from an island siege, would eventually despawn after a few minutes or if you outspeed them, though running away too often could result into faster ships being sent.
The Last Line of Justice
At 5 stars, the players will be able to fight the standard final wave (which would be difficult); however, Notoriety will not go down after the main forces are defeated, as the player(s) involved in the Siege will receive a notification: “The Grand Navy has sent one of its Admirals to deal with the siege.”
A timer would start before the Admiral arrives; as Admirals are supposed to be the end of all Sieges to ensure that non-criminal players aren’t overwhelmed by the amount of Sieges (or if a really strong one is happening in a low level area), they’d be insanely strong and would be the game’s way of telling the player “go away if you don’t want to be arrested”.
The Assassin Syndicate’s Hand
Due to its particular stance on wanting to preserve balance (and make money) in the War Seas, there could also be a chance for a wave to only include assassins from the Assassin Syndicate; these waves would always include at least one special NPC and would scale just like the Grand Navy does.
Assassin Syndicate players will be able to choose between aiding the Grand Navy or the criminal, do note that doing so is risky as the Grand Navy could mark you as an accomplice unless a request was sent (Notification while in the current sea’s hideout).
There would also be a chance for the Assassin Syndicate to replace the final wave or the Admiral wave, in which case an Overseer with an invisible name would spawn to kill you as “the Red Council has specifically asked for your erasure”.
Minibosses
Assuming the Player’s Level and Bounty is high enough, the Grand Navy will send special agents to deal with the criminal.
These minibosses could range from stronger than usual NPCs with custom titles or literal set NPCs with a specific rank, avatar and weapon.
The latter would have custom dialogue and defeating them would give special gear.
Rewards for the Siege
Sieges should reward players that have participated in them so that they can enjoy the features and not view them as an annoyance caused by destroying or defeating a few NPCs and having to be punished and be forced to clear their Notoriety all of the time.
Aiding Justice
Players would be able to aid the Grand Navy in its sieges, and depending on the tier of the siege (and maybe wave?), you’d be able to receive rewards if you can defeat the criminal.
Fame Boosts:
- Better Cargo worth in Grand Navy islands for that server
- Merchant cost reduction in Grand Navy islands for that server
- Merchant buy worth buff in Grand Navy islands for that server
- Miniboss items, perhaps exclusive to indulge trading?
- Slight Fame multiplier when mentioned in the Agora for having aided the Grand Navy and defeat the criminal.
- Rewards from banks.
Defeating the Siege
If you manage to fend off the siege, you’ll receive the following buffs, and they’ll be stronger depending on the level of the siege; and if the siege was particularly difficult then even a badge representing the harduous task of defeating the Grand Navy’s forces for that sea.
Bounty Boosts:
- Bounty multiplier when mentioned in the Agora
- Criminal bases have shopkeepers give discounts and buy your stuff for more
- You can do a limited amount of actions in islands with shopkeepers without them tipping the Grand Navy off
- A great amount of items from banks (If they’re added again and you choose to rob them).
Accomplice System
If you aid the criminal in defeating players/grand navy/kingdom forces during a siege, you’ll be marked as an accomplice and receive 85% of the rewards that the main target would get upon winning.
Banks
By adding them back, the players would be able to rob them to obtain rewards that would scale based on the level of the Siege.
These rewards can range from stuff like simple enchantment scrolls to exotic scrolls, and maybe even Dark Sea rewards depending on the tier of the Siege.
Kingdom Alignment
Defeating a criminal raiding a kingdom’s island would also boost your reputation with it and apply the Fame Boosts to that kingdom or that specific Kingdom’s island; vice-versa for the criminal defeating the siege.
Rewards for Grand Navy and Assassin Syndicate players
Completing a siege will award the players of both factions with a badge if the siege was particularly difficult and, possibly, a special set of uniforms/accessories depending on the sea (they would be tied to the badge so that you wouldn’t have to get it for each slot/worry about being demoted).
Sea Combat
Sinking merchant or player ships in the vicinity of civilised islands will have a Grand Navy patrol ship sent to investigate; during this period your Notoriety will passively increase, following the same logic of land threats; except in this case it’ll just start automatically even if you don’t sink the patrol ship.
The waves would work in a similar fashion to the land combat, except in a more limited way by using a reduced amount of ships with decently strong NPCs.
In this case, the area that would be declared under threat is the site around
the ship wreckage.
Final Notes
Some parts of this suggestion are mostly what-ifs and might be confusing or outright useless, like the first responders since they might just be unneeded.
tl;dr this suggestion is basically World of Magic’s Threats with limited waves and rewards for all players should they choose to participate in them, hopefully increasing player interaction in a positive manner along with a positive view of Notoriety.