New KotH Variation: Raiders vs Defenders

Jakiro

Okay, so I've been thinking about how some people are willing to try and get involved with army stuff but are discouraged by the fact that they will be outmatched or have no idea what to do because they're too intimidated to just take a plunge straight into it or are too scared to die after having felt they did nothing at all. Understandable, not everyone wants to dive in head first into stuff so with that thought in mind I got a pretty cool idea for a KotH variation - Raiders vs Defenders! Now I'm not that great of thinking up of actual mechanics or balancing them out so feel free to add in comments if you wish.

RAIDERS vs DEFENDERS

This will be a variation of King of the Hill. Instead of Red and Blue teams, there will be Raiders and Defenders. The goal of the Raiders is to PLANT a BOMB in a specific location and defend it for X minutes while the Defender's goal is to either prevent them from planting the bomb until the arena times out or by DISARMing the BOMB.

RAIDERS

At the start of the game, the Raiders shall spawn in the same location randomly inside the arena and be informed of the target location where they will plant the bomb. This location will never move and stay the same throughout the rest of the game and shall only ever be known to the Raiders. The raiders will get a maximum of three bombs (one per player) and only one of those will be the true bomb. The raiders can INSPECT BOMB to know if they have a fake or true bomb. This action takes a few seconds of balance. All three bombs may be planted and defended at the raider's discretion but only the explosion from the true bomb, or the disarming of it, shall count towards a game over. Once a bomb has been succesfully planted it can never be removed from the ground. Fake bombs explode earlier than the true bomb, about twice as fast. If the true bomb explodes in the wrong location, it will be the Raider's loss. If a fake bomb explodes, it shall create rubble and slow movement out of it, similar to a destroyed room in an actual raid. The rubble shall remain until the end of the arena event.

DEFENDERS

The defenders will also spawn in the same location as other defenders, but not in the same location as the raiders. They will be informed when someone is attempting to plant a bomb and where. The defenders will never know who has the true bomb, nor where it is planted however they can, in the presence of the explosive, INSPECT the BOMB to ascertain its authenticity. This shall take a few seconds of balance, nowhere near as long as disarming it. They can also MARK the BOMB, a balanceless action to help them identify fakes or the true bomb, whichever they wish. Both fake and true bombs may be DISARMed. Fake bombs take half as much time to DISARM as a true bomb, however disarming a fake bomb shall enable the defenders to memorize its construction and will result in a quicker DISARM of the true bomb. Explosion of the true bomb shall spell a loss for the Defenders, as will the arena timing out.

ENDING THE GAME

Both planting and disarming would take about as much time as they would outside the arena and would require both planter and disarmer to completely concentrate on the task at hand. If they get distracted, the action fails and they would have to start over again. The bombs' appearance will change depending on how close they are to exploding so spying abilities, SQUINT or GLANCE can be used to gauge them. If a true bomb explodes, Raiders win. If the true bomb gets disarmed, Defenders win. If the arena times out, it's a default win for the Raiders.

In addition to exploding/disarming both teams get a chance to VOTE TO SURRENDER. This shall require a majority vote and will result in the team surrendering and ending the arena event prematurely with the other side winning the event.

Unlike a normal KotH that aims to have both sides even in quantity RvD shall default to have the numbers skewed more into the defensive side in a ratio of 3:5 favoring the Defenders as players join in. Similar to KotH, however, players may switch teams while inside to better customize their arena experience via RVD SWITCH TO <RAIDERS/DEFENDERS>.

The game of RvD aims to get a city's army comfortable with the idea and some mechanics of raiding, and defense, while forcing them to employ strategies and, if they so choose, misdirection to achieve their goals. This is not meant to simulate an actual raid scenario but should provide both a means to train and have fun for the city that holds the event!

Sound fun? I'd be interested to know in what you guys think.

Jakiro

^ Correction to the above as I can't edit anymore: Arena time out may have two results. If the true bomb has not been planted at all, Defenders win. If it has been planted for at least X minutes, Raiders win.

Antonius

I don't really see the point.

Raid mechanics aren't difficult, and most people raiding and defending won't actually need to know about them anyway (activating and disarming are relatively high army rank powers). I'm also not sure what the fake tanks are about.

What people struggle with is the PvP itself, and that can be practiced using existing arena events. No amount of safe practice in the arena is going to make some people open to the loss involved in actual PvP though.

Gallida

Also the arena itself is going to skew people's perceptions of raiders.

No wings, minimal earring usage, no sewers, no urns, no shrines to worldburn, no Underworld doors, no cross-continent fulcrums, a firm sense of when the raiders have been beaten instead of "I guess we're going to spend two hours idling to make sure they're done before we disband this group".

Iocun

And to my experience, people who join arena games tend to be the same ones who defend anyways. People who are generally timid about combat also often shy away from the arena.