How are the Invasions going for you?

[Corvus Raaf]

I know its early in the threads but we'd be keen to hear what you think's going well (so we can do more of it) and what's not going so well (and ideally be given a steer as to what we should do instead). Better to ask now than wait until it's nearly over.

I'll start with a thought of my own. It's a confession, so I hope you'll be charitable.

You see I love to RP. When it comes to Invasions, I tend to focus on the PvP. Actually, I'll go further, I tend to twiddle my thumbs until the PvP aspect kicks in. Meanwhile, the person I agreed to face causes havoc for days on end before they get to me.

You see I don't/can't/won't do NPC stuff. Or mess with other people's plans. That to me feels like wargaming not role-playing. And do I get any credit for sitting around? Does this count in any way towards a victory? Well, you know the answer. So, if there are things I could/should be doing to help out, point me in the right direction.

I know we have a Master that is new to our Faction that has volunteered to help out in this regard going forward. I can't wait to see what he can do to help next time around. But over the next two weeks, it's down to us. Or rather me. So - advise, cajole or just plain tell me. I won't bite.

Now, over to you...

 

[Writer]

Hmm...

I wouldn't mind being a Jedi General figure but I thought the concept was to move away from that which is why I never tried.

I will get with him and work on this too.

On invasions I haven't joined one and the other I'm just giving y'all a boost.

 

[Veino Garn]

Veino's been chilling. Looks like he might find himself in the middle of things on Prakith very quickly though.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

My #1 suggestion: Never run simultaneous invasions again. Prakith is getting almost no love, and the reason is because everyone is too focused on Kashyyyk and whatever else they have going on. This weekend was a nightmare for me and I didn't even get Sera in to Prakith until late last night when I finally had the time to sit down and think of a few sentences to write.

That is really my only gripe. Two simultaneous invasions = painful. I love them, and so I've forced Sera into both, and I've added Kayleigh to Prakith as well, but my attention is divided, so catching up on the 80+ notifications when I log in is a daunting task.

Edit: Literally how I've looked the past three days when I've logged in and seen that little red bell next to my name:

 

[Bubák]

I completely agree with [member="Corvus Raaf"] and [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"].

Big battles are fun, spamming dozens of thousands of NPCs and commanding them around is fun for some people as well, for me it is always about characters, first and foremost. I like to focus on individuals, encountering new player characters and fighting them. Soon, Elizie will get her butt kicked by 2 Sith Knights and about 3 Acolytes, but it is alright, it will make a nice story.

And yeah, two invasions at the same time... eh. I initially liked the idea, but now I focus mostly on the one on Kashyyk where I already have an opponent.

Some other thing I noticed.

Dat strategy. Take 10 000 soldiers, send them to point X. The other side will do the same, no additional tactic, resulting in a giant murderblob. Player characters focus on slaying thousands of pointless NPCs and do not fight each other. lol

 

[Ayden Quell]

The invasions so far...

 

[Mr. OOC]

My main gripe is my opponent not posting... Otherwise it hasn't been bad for me.

 

[Avalore Eden]

I've been hearing some very good feedback from people on a lot of our new members in the invasions, and that overall people are having fun. This is a good thing to hear, and I can't tell you how happy I am that we haven't had an official Report on either side for either invasion.



Proud of you guys.

<3

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

I'm hungry.

No one has brought me dinner, getting a bit cranky.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

the Kashyyyk is going okay it seemed slow for things to start but okay now.

as for the counter invasion what's happening with that it's like 1 post an hour, and I know I've been sat on my phone all day so I don't get left behind, but it gives me a chance to try out Npc's for a change.

 

[Keanu Shan]

PC enemies is what i need. I have actually never been able to engage in PvP in the months ive been here. But im also a pilot and there arent alot of PC pilots.

 

[Mother Askani]

Well invasions seem to be a little different now from before I left the order. Then it was more PVP based with NPCs here nd there for added affects...but now it seems thats all a good majority seem to talk about. I for one am not so much against using npcs for things such as blowing those bridges for example, but when ppl get ridiculous with them it can kinda take away from the invasion. In my opinion.

Though so far things seem to be going fine.

 

[Avalore Eden]

I come from a generation of RPers that valued PvP in invasions much more over NPCs. NPCs were always background to the main fights.

Anymore, the value placed on NPCs due to the value placed on the Codex and Factory have really put things upsidedown. I personally feel that a lot of the story of the characters are getting lost in all the NPC noise, which is a shame.

 

[Mr. OOC]

It requires a delicate balance, RPing PvP in an NPC world. That delicate balance is being lost in favor of winning, which is why there are absolutely massive numbers of NPC's being thrown down by the OS.

You have to just focus on what you want to do. In the end, the PC's win the day or lose it, after all.

 

[Varus Shatterstar]

I feel like things are a little hectic and hard to follow, so I'm just trying to keep up. I know I'm missing things by not reading every last word of every post, but every time I turn around there's twenty more to read and it makes what should take about 10 or so minutes to post take about 30-45 minutes, lol.

 

[Kian Karr]

I believe that there should be an agreed to number of NPCs brought into a fight as part of the invasion terms. For example, I start with 500 NPC soldiers, they start with 500. Then they bring in 10,000. I panic and bring in 10,000....and so forth, and so forth.

Do we think it would be feasible if in invasion discussions, actual numbers were brought to the table? You know, you have access to 25,000 soldiers in this invasion, divide them accordingly! For one thing, It would set a cap on the use of NPCs and it would allow us to know where we stand.

EDIT: Do allow me to say though that this is perhaps the first invasion in a while that I didn't feel we were immediately being overwhelmed. I feel like we are coordinating better and responding better to enemy posts. They aren't sneaking in as much NPC surprises as before and I think it is a testimony to the work we did initially. Great job all!!

 

[Slate Estrada]

The only thing I would say that needs improving is the Invasion system altogether. In my opinion having 3 objectives crammed into 1 thread is way too confusing and time consuming for those who are just joining the thread.

I reckon it would be a lot easier to have a seperate OOC and IC threads for each objective. Yes this would mean we'd need 6 threads for each invasion and that would probably fill up the Open Role-playing and OOC discussion areas but there are always solutions to this. For instance, why not have an entirely new RP area for Invasion threads?

I don't even know if this a relevant place to suggest these changes, but this is coming from someone who has been reading through the entirety of the invasion of Kashyyyk thread for the whole night just to try and get an idea of what is happening. Therefore I, and most probably many others, would very much appreciate adjustments such as these.

 

[Kiyron]

I'd agree with an NPC cap limit.

I'm beginning to run out of regiments and I'll have to start calling in entire corps to keep things only slightly imbalanced.

 

[Kotkas Adelaar]

its seems everyone is enjoying themselves, but it did get to far ahead of me. Like 9 pages before I even got a chance to post.

 

[Relit Vandal]

I believe that there should be an agreed to number of NPCs brought into a fight as part of the invasion terms. For example, I start with 500 NPC soldiers, they start with 500. Then they bring in 10,000. I panic and bring in 10,000....and so forth, and so forth.

Do we think it would be feasible if in invasion discussions, actual numbers were brought to the table? You know, you have access to 25,000 soldiers in this invasion, divide them accordingly! For one thing, It would set a cap on the use of NPCs and it would allow us to know where we stand.

EDIT: Do allow me to say though that this is perhaps the first invasion in a while that I didn't feel we were immediately being overwhelmed. I feel like we are coordinating better and responding better to enemy posts. They aren't sneaking in as much NPC surprises as before and I think it is a testimony to the work we did initially. Great job all!!

Mmm, it's a tightrope balance for sure. I'm for the idea of it, but you have to consider the consequences (this is from years of experience with an extremely regimented NPC war type arena for star wars). You give someone 500 or 1000 or whatever is deemed reasonable, they will fill that up with the very best npcs they can come up with. It'll create an arms race type scenario, where people are running back and forth to the codex and factory trying to get the best of the best. And with npcs, are you going to limit siege weapons and ships and vehicles and what not?

Not that the idea isn't sound, I think it is and it moves in the right direction. But first we need to consider the idea of trying to quantify something that is very difficult to quantify. For instance, is an EMBU equivalent to a regular vong or perhaps a vong on a mount? There is a lot more complexity to NPCing then just numbers. And of course, I'm not presenting this question to you specifically Kian. I'm presenting it to really myself, because I do think there needs to be some sort of NPC terms of engagement. It doesn't make sense to limit fleets but then allow NPC ground forces to run rampant. And I've pondered over the idea quite a bit, with no really good solution.