Template:Caravan PvP

Caravan PvP in Alpha-1.^[1]

We're trying to create these ways for people who maybe are used to a more solo MMO-like gameplay experience to have easy ways to take that first step into collaborating or competing with each other. So that's really one of the things that we spend a lot of time talking about for this system.^[2] – Nathan Moore

Caravans create an objective-based PvP event in the open-world that players can choose to attack, defend, or ignore via a UI window.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Players that choose to attack or defend the caravan will be flagged as combattants.^[6]
- The proximity that the UI window appears is determined by the player's performance as either a defender or an attacker in previous raids.^[3]
- Once registered as a defender, a player can't switch to attack the caravan.^[7]

There will be visual hints relating to the cargo being transported on caravans, but players will not be able to see the exact contents of the caravan.^[8]
- Cargo is represented in this way even if a cosmetic caravan skin has been applied to the caravan.^[8]

Players can be registered participants in multiple caravan events.^[7]
- Previously it was stated that players can't participate in more than one caravan event at a time.^[9]

Basic attacks will not slow caravans, but certain items, attacks, or status effects can slow or block caravans.^[10]

A caravan will persist in the world for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from the time its owner logs out or is disconnected from the server.^[11]

It's still intended from a design standpoint to be a window that is presented to the player based on proximity; and that proximity it can be greater depending on your performance as either a defender or an attacker in previous raids.^[3] – Steven Sharif

There will be incentives and risks for both caravan attackers and defenders.^[12]^[13] These will be tested and refined during the alpha and beta testing phases.^[14]

There is a level of risk that comes with the attacker. We have progression paths that exist for bandits and that exists for defenders; and if you choose to opt into a caravan attack- you sign up for that attack and you fail that attack- it is detrimental to your path of progression down the bandit area. That's one thing: Two is of course you have gear decay. You have degradation that can be suffered if you die. That is a cost. And then you also have a reputation; and if your reputation precedes you when you want to transit goods across the world; and you see somebody who's doing it and you want to participate as a defender or a participant, they might say hey screw you, you were just murdering my people last week and I saw that you're like on the top of the bandit list for killing caravans. So it has repercussions in the sense that it locks you out of certain player groups. It provides decay to your armor. It has deleterious effects on your progression, and the attacking- and the bandit progression of caravan attacks or defense.^[12] – Steven Sharif

PvP seasons reward performance in the caravan system over the course of the season.^[15]^[16]

Death penalties (mostly) do not apply to objective-based events (such as caravans, guild wars, and node sieges).^[12]^[13]^[17]^[18]
- Gear degradation applies on death during Caravan PvP.^[12]^[13]

A quest system will track a player's successful or failed defenses and attacks. This will provide rewards that scale up over time based on the player's history.^[12]^[13]^[14]

Other incentives and risks are social and are created (informally) between players.^[12]^[14]

The caravan defender role is going to have its own progression questing and rewards associated with it that are going to attract a certain subset of players and then vice-versa wise we're going to have incentives that appeal to the more highway brigand type players; and you might not always be on one side or the other: that might change depending on what your interests are in the at the time. But obviously those types of systems need to have robust consequential type rewards and benefits associated with them in order to compel the player; and that's something obviously we're going to test in alphas and betas and see how performant it is in actually attracting players to participate and make sure it's not just one-sided so-to-speak.^[14] – Steven Sharif