Hey there, I want to start this off by saying, I used to think World of Magic was the best game of all time. I know, didn’t have the best developed critical thinking skills in 2020, did I ? What I at least know for a fact, is that it held a special place in my heart. One feature however, stood above all the others for me, and that’d be the Magius News. I’m not exactly sure why, but I always thought that having an actual in-game newspaper was the greatest idea for immersion, and if you ask me, that translated into AO’s Agora. Despite this, I think it can still be majorly improved, however, this suggestion won’t aim at expanding on the existing feature (Trust me I will get to that in another suggestion), rather, I would like to exploit the mailbox feature even more. As such, I present to you: Faction reports.
Situation:
The main thing I am trying to tackle here is the cohesion of faction systems. While I love the faction feature, I strongly believe that it is largely underexplored, namely because of the limited cooperation, and being too grindy to progress through. While I may not completely solve the latter, I believe that this concept can help out a ton with the former issue.
Idea:
The idea at hand would be to implement faction based newspapers, which for now I’ll call Faction reports (though I’m not wholly satisfied with that name, so don’t hesitate to give me some of your ideas). Faction reports would be a way to, for instance, increase the ease of teamwork within the assassin syndicate, as well as the actual securing of the seas for the Grand Navy. As such, this journal would exclude information such as executions and sea monster sightings. On the other hand, it would include information such as clan ships approaching navy claims, for the Gravy, or the precise location of high value contracts for the assassin syndicate (I will give an exhaustive list later down in the suggestion)
Implementation - Grand Navy:
After joining the Grand Navy, players will start being sent a Grand Navy report every 10 minutes (This report will not create a notification when arriving in your mailbox, to avoid audio clutter) In looks, this report will work much like the agora, its distinctive features being its lighter colour (it would look almost white), the replacement of the title from AGORA to GRAND NAVY, the replacement of the subtitle from “Your source of all important news within the War Seas, written and published by the Juraserva” to ”Maintain safety within the War Seas” (subject to change), and the absence of a headliner. The Grand Navy logo will figure in the top right corner
As said in the intro, the Grand Navy report would:
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Exclude executions
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Excludesea monsters sightings
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Include clan ships approaching navy claims
However it would also:
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Exclude castaway rescuing
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Exclude Battles with Rivals
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Exclude Treasure chart completion
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Include navy NPCs and players’ assassination contracts being completed, as well as where they were defeated
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Include bounties that could not be completed by navy players as well as where the player was defeated
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Include dangerous density of wild animals on populated islands
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Include player’s location when they gain notoriety
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Include player’s location when their location is revealed, and they have 3 or more stars of notoriety
In order to reward players for interacting with this feature, killing notoriety players would reward Grand Navy members with drachmae, as follows
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100 drachmae and 500 fame for 3 stars of notoriety
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150 drachmae and 1000 fame for 4 stars of notoriety
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250 drachmae and 1500 fame for 5 stars of notoriety
After collecting the drachmae and fame from killing a researched player, Navy members are put on a 5 minute cooldown before being able to gaining any again from this method. This cooldown aims at preventing players from farming drachmae with a teamate, as it is not the intent of this feature. (Because of this reason, the values might be balanced, though I do believe that higher drachmae rewards would be too much, though a higher cooldown could be necessary)
When the Grand Navy report includes multiple pieces of information about a singular player, for instance if they gained notoriety in one location and then were sighted in another, this second information will be displayed as a sub-bullet of the first one (This aims at being able to theoretically guess a player’s direction. For instance, if a player as gained notoriety at Ravenna, and was sighted at Sailor’s lodge, a Gravy member hunting them might be able to intercept them between Munera garden and fort Talos)
I want to emphasise that this is not meant to push witch-hunting, and rather emulate the behaviour of Grand Navy NPCs in players.
Implementation - Assassin Syndicate
After Joining the Assassin Syndicate, players will start being sent an Assassin Syndicate bulletin every 15 minutes (This report will not create a notification when arriving in your mailbox, to avoid audio clutter) In looks, this bulletin will work much like the agora, its distinctive features being its dark gray colour and white text, the replacement of the title from AGORA to ASSASSIN, the replacement of the subtitle from “Your source of all important news within the War Seas, written and published by the Juraserva” to ”Do not distribute to any outsider to the syndicate” (very much subject to change), and the absence of a headliner. The Assassin Syndicate logo will figure in the top right corner
As said in the intro, the Assassin Syndicate bulletin would:
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Exclude executions
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Exclude sea monster sightings
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Include precise information of high value contracts: When a player is sighted by criminal NPCs, though that exclude bounty board sponsors, if their fame is above 100,000, their precise position will be published in the bulletin. Precise information implies that, when on large islands, their location will be that of the town they’re the closest to. Such information can only be revealed once per bulletin for each player.
However it would also:
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Exclude castaway rescuing
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Exclude Battles with Rivals
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Exclude Treasure chart completion
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Include Claimed islands under attack: The goal for this feature is to encourage player to profit off of the damage that has already been dealt over the defending clan and overrun the claim for the Syndicate
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Include Information on the Grand Navy’s influence: More detailed info on its influence that encourages fights between the two factions
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Include Precise location of any high level target of the Syndicate: When a syndicate member combat tags someone or an NPC over 1.5x the level cap of the sea they’re in
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Feel free to add more to this list, I’m less sure about what assassin players do than I am Gravy to be fair
Pros:
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This would encourage factions players to act as their factions’ characters do
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This would increase interaction between players and immersion
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This promotes faction play when clans have been made much more appealing in the recent updates, which is also good seeing how much easier it is joining a faction than it is a clan.
Cons:
- This may promote witch hunting and toxicity depending on the range of informations given
Thank you for reading this, I’m open to any and all questions and precisions. If you have criticism, I’m very much open, and looking forward to it, however do make sure to make it constructive, thanks !
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