[RP-BGPvP] Arathi Basin: The Resource Wars

Good evening folks. In a quick summary, this RP-PvP event will take place in the Arathi Highlands with the premise of fighting the lack of supplies and food back home in Stormwind. The Alliance will attempt to gain a foothold on Arathi's resources, and the Horde, keen as ever, will try their hand at stopping such from happening in an effort to keep the Alliance in a weak state.
The objective of each side is to hoard as many Resources as possible, by confronting eachother in the field of Arathi Basin. As more resources are gathered, the armies will grow stronger and more capable, and gain a steady presence in the region from their bases, Stromgarde Keep (Alliance) and Hammerfall (Horde).

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Who can join?
Alliance guilds and Horde guilds alike, so long as there is a willingness to RP and have fun. Lone wolves and mercenaries are free to join too.

How will this work?
Normal war-themed RP occurs on each base at the participants' discretion, although there will be a Mood that players are expected to take into consideration.
At predefined times, raid groups will be formed on each side and a war game will be started, which will take the raids to an Arathi Basin Battleground, where we'll duke it out with certain Handicaps we'll impose on ourselves (more on that below).
Patrols, skirmishes to eachothers' bases, scouting trips and any smaller scale RP-PvP activity associated with the war is very much allowed so long as the other side is given a heads up.

What are you talking about with your coloured text?
There are essentially three mechanics to this campaign to make it more interesting and to aid in fully immersing ourselves into the Arathi Basin spirit:
Handicaps are self-imposed restrictions on each army. In roleplay, they take the form of an ill-equipped, hungry army that is worn out by travel. In PvP, they take the form of restricting the number of buffs per class, not equipping certain items, etc. Initially, both sides start with the same handicaps, which can be bought away with resource points.

Resources, in the shape of points, are the overall measure of how much each side has managed to hoard from the basin, by capturing bases. At the end of each Arathi Basin battle, win or lose, each army wins resource points respective to the base they own by that time. A win only increases the amount of points won. When said points reach a certain threshold for an army, they "buy off" a handicap associated with the type of point (blacksmith, stables, or farm). Capturing a gold mine or the lumber mill only further increases the amount of points won at the end of the Arathi Basin.

Mood is the zeitgeist feeling looming over the army of their respective faction at the time, and is fuelled by the presence or absence of a certain resource, motivating the soldiers to focus on capturing specific bases. It is the general directive of what is happening on the base camp, be it lack of food (hunger), faulty or degraded equipment, lower payment, and so on. Mood only truly affects (or should affect) base roleplay and can be influenced by the current amount of resource points the army has.

What are the specific Handicaps and their respective points?
Thank you for asking, IncrediblySpecificQuestionMan.

Equipment Handicaps (Bought with Blacksmith Points)

• Rank 1 - Unlock Rings.
  
• Rank 2 - Unlock Necklace.
  
• Rank 3 - Unlock Belt or Bracers.
  Food Handicaps (Bought with Farm Points)
  
• Rank 1 - Only one Buff per class.
  
• Rank 2 - Only two Buffs per class.
  
• Rank 3 - Buffs free.
  Beast Handicaps (Bought with Stables Points)
  
• Rank 1 - Unlock mounts.
  
• Rank 2 - Unlock pets (warlock/hunter/mage/shaman)
  
• Rank 3 - Unlock worgen.
  

Both armies start with all these handicaps, and they can be bought off one by one starting from rank 1.

What constitutes a buff then?
I consider buffs, in this context, any effect that increases statistics either primary or secondary, for more than 5 minutes. A Battle Shout is fine, but not Blessing of Might.
Shaman enhancements to weapons and paladin seals are NOT BUFFS.
Talent-given auras (like Arcane Tactics), paladin auras, death knight presences, hunter aspects, etc. are NOT BUFFS.
Totems like earthgrab, grounding, tremor, etc. are NOT BUFFS.
Procs from talents, spells and abilities are NOT BUFFS.
Dispersion, Chakra, Presence of Mind, etc. and any ability that has some sort of immediate battle effect is NOT A BUFF.
Well Fed, flasks, elixirs, cauldrons are BUFFS.
Warlock Pet stat increases, such as imp and felhunter, are BUFFS.
Blessings are BUFFS, but Hands are NOT BUFFS.
Fortitude, Shadow Protection, Fear Ward, Arcane Brilliance, Shaman Shields (except Earth), Mark of the Wild, Horn of Winter are BUFFS.

If by force of habit you accidentally buff yourself and all around you, in violation of a possible handicap at the time, shoot yourself just calmly ask in /raid for people to right-click the buff you've given them.

When will the PvPings happen?
During the course of this event there will be certain days known as Battle Days. It is during these days that a number of AB War Games will take place, in sets of 3 matches in a row with a few minutes break between sets. This is to ensure that if both/either sides have more than 15 players online (the maximum raid limit for an AB is 15) then all can still play and partake, through rotation.
As for small-scale warfare (such as scouting trips, patrols, ambushes, small skirmishes), those can be done at anytime so long as the purpose is to provide RP. Also, give the opposing faction a heads-up, like "We're sending a patrol, be careful!", or "We might send a small squad of rogues to sabotage Hammerfall anytime in the next 30 minutes.". You can alert your respective opposing army by just making a level 1 character, which I strongly advise to be called "Euros2Gold".

Any other important information?
Yes. There will be a list of achievements that can be won by each army, fomenting some healthy competition. When the event kicks off, this thread will be used to keep track of points, announce each day's mood for each side, and other relevant information.
There will be a PA channel for each side(ABalliance and ABhorde or something), that everyone will need to join, but cannot use, except when to warn people of opposing army skirmishes (W-PvP), or to suit up for the AB War Game. I think this is more reasonable than having everyone in a raid at all times, which is both an invasion of ERP privacy and not practical.
Any guilds interested and that have not been harassed by me already please PM me, post here, or shoot an arrow with your message attached to the shaft (hihi, shaft).
Also, I'll ask anyone that is remotely interested to post their feedback. My plan is for everyone to enjoy this event.
Thank you for reading.

GUILDS ENLISTED

Alliance
Three Hammers (aka the Dwarves)
The Shining Strand
Kingdom of Stromgarde
The Disciples of Light (aka the Homies)
Lordaeron Alliance
Ebon Shroud
Stormwind Regiment

Horde
Orcs of the Red Blade
Sin'Belore(1)
Vile Thorn(1)

(1) In, if Cult of Shadow in.

I'm tracking the shit out of this thread. This sounds amazing.

...Interesting, KoS being the dead Dodo that it is, i can hardly say no. looking forward to it!

The Circle shall ride! (yes interested)

I think Vile Thorn would be up for this, if we can join up with another guild that has more than just rogues, perhaps?

I know Orcs of the Red Blade is interested, so if you'd fancy nudging them, I bet you could work something out.

Would be awesome too if the Cult of Shadows wanted to partake, since it's Defilers vs. Arathor gamewise ;D

arli wrote:I think Vile Thorn would be up for this, if we can join up with another guild that has more than just rogues, perhaps?

I know your pain. Mind you all we need is unholy to become a healing spec and we can wave good bye to the living and sit in the acherus all day for full DK instances. That is the day we say "death to the living"

Sin Belore will take part in this if we can come up with a good enough IC reason to do so. I'll poke the corpses (Cult of Shawow) to see if they're going and want us to assist them.

Cult of the Shadow would be a great fit for us to work with since lore wise, we are forsaken based and led.

Annie wrote:I know Orcs of the Red Blade is interested, so if you'd fancy nudging them, I bet you could work something out.

Would be awesome too if the Cult of Shadows wanted to partake, since it's Defilers vs. Arathor gamewise ;D

Seiken and Kozgugore? in close proximity to each other? With Army's at their back? And a plot?

I smell... WAR

Glorious, Bloody, Chaotic War.

TSS will show up for some wpvp.

But! regarding handicaps, what you're saying is: If you win, you have a higher chance of winning the next one, and then you have an even bigger chance of winning the next one, and then you have an even bigger chance of winning the next one, and then, the other team has no chance of winning any-more.

Is it realistic? Yes.
Is it fun? Not particularly.

and if i'm reading this correctly, at the start of the game, Alliance worgen players aren't allowed to participate until the handicap is bought off? (or do you buy handicaps for the opposing team? )

Dwarves will be there. One thing I wonder, when will this event occur or is it not known yet?

I don't know yet, as I'm waiting for events that are ongoing to end first, and I'm still enlisting the meat-guilds.

@Amaryl. We're talking coordinated AB battles (I hope). The idea is to strategize and go for specific bases. Even if one of the sides is lagging behind, all it takes is to capture the base they need, maybe another more, and furiously defend. Or whatever tactic you want to go for, I'm not a general!
Also the worgen thing is a joke.

The Lordaeron Alliance would like to take part sounds like fun.

We will go with you Cela and Represent Alterac!

Rentarn wrote:I don't know yet, as I'm waiting for events that are ongoing to end first, and I'm still enlisting the meat-guilds.

@Amaryl. We're talking coordinated AB battles (I hope). The idea is to strategize and go for specific bases. Even if one of the sides is lagging behind, all it takes is to capture the base they need, maybe another more, and furiously defend. Or whatever tactic you want to go for, I'm not a general!
Also the worgen thing is a joke.

So can you explain to me the resource allocations, per win and losing while holding key structures and how one goes about buying off handicaps. since it isn't clear as of yet. considering the fact that for resources, it's an increasing scale of weakness. while for buffs its a decreasing scale of weakness.

additionally, what consists of a buff and what doesn't.

and also the potential horde favouratism should be handled considering the farm with 3 bonuses lies closer to the horde controlling point then the stable with only 2

Well they are Orcs, cows...rotbrains... goblins and "Dedicated followers of fasion". Where as we on the blue side have generals and stuff to plan our wars. Tactics and such. IC The Horde shoul run about going Waaaaaah as we nod and take the bases.

Amaryl wrote:

Rentarn wrote:I don't know yet, as I'm waiting for events that are ongoing to end first, and I'm still enlisting the meat-guilds.

@Amaryl. We're talking coordinated AB battles (I hope). The idea is to strategize and go for specific bases. Even if one of the sides is lagging behind, all it takes is to capture the base they need, maybe another more, and furiously defend. Or whatever tactic you want to go for, I'm not a general!
Also the worgen thing is a joke.

So can you explain to me the resource allocations, per win and losing while holding key structures and how one goes about buying off handicaps. since it isn't clear as of yet. considering the fact that for resources, it's an increasing scale of weakness. while for buffs its a decreasing scale of weakness.

additionally, what consists of a buff and what doesn't.

and also the potential horde favouratism should be handled considering the farm with 3 bonuses lies closer to the horde controlling point then the stable with only 2

The three key bases (stables, blacksmith, farm) grant points for the three types of handicap (beast, equipment, buffs respectively). Losing a match, but having any and/or all of these bases by the time the AB ends grants points. Winning a match, and having any and/or all of these bases grants double (or 1.5x, still workshopping) the points. Having either/both the goldmine and the lumbermill grants further multipliers to the total.
Once you have reached a threshold in the points, the upgrade is automatically unlocked, although it could (and honestly should) be RPed out in the base.
I don't know what you mean with the scales.

A buff, in this context, is any spell effect that increases statistics both primary and secondary, that lasts more than 5 min. Procs, PW: Shield, Paladin Seals, talent-originated auras (like Arcane Tactics, etc), and paladin auras, and so forth, aren't covered.

Yes, there is a heavy favouritism for the Horde because I've bet 20 grand on the Orcs, and I expect to win.

Sign me up.

Geldar wrote:Sign me up.

Hell, We'll just bring the Vanguard if Ren wants, and make him Force commander.

Rentarn wrote:
A buff, in this context, is any spell effect that increases statistics both primary and secondary, that lasts more than 5 min. Procs, PW: Shield, Paladin Seals, talent-originated auras (like Arcane Tactics, etc), and paladin auras, and so forth, aren't covered.

Would shaman weapon ehancements be counted as a buff, and what totems would a shaman be allowed to use overall?
(would fire elementals and earth elementals be allowed for example)

regarding the scales:

rank 1 of buffs is 1 buff
rank 2 is 2 buffs
rank 3 is all buffs.

this increases your ability to fight

regarding equipment

rank 1= is no rings.
rank 2= no rings and no necklace
rank 3= no rings no necklace and no belt/braces

this decreases your ability to fight.

so how do you unlock them? rank 1 first then rank 2 then rank 3?

Lexgrad wrote:We will go with you Cela and Represent Alterac!

Ah-hoom The Might of Alterec!

The Disciples will support you in this, Rentarn. As Military Commander, Chaplain Ishap Balancer will be primary contact, but you can contact me too if you wish.