One of the things I want to kick out of the way right of the bat is the potential misconception that I’m promoting Realm PvP, which is not the case. We all know why PvP in general would be broken, with how powerful wizard spell bombs are, how the warrior can zip across the battlefield and dish ridiculous amounts of damage with pixie, etc. But one thing this game lacks is a competitive PvP style option, and I think this may be the way to go.
With all the new dungeons and loot options being released, the game certainly isn’t lacking in PvE content, but what players are lacking nowadays is a nice form of competition that most players crave in any mmo, and that’s a PvP.
Introducing, Realm Faction Zones. These will be newly spawned zones randomly placed around the map, and will be very obvious to passing players so as they don’t accidentally stumble upon these zones, and in it will be very strong monsters and boss enemies that spawn based on enemies killed. These enemies themselves don’t necessarily drop anything, other than some hp potions, maybe an odd stat pot and lower tier items, but the main drop will be Influence Points.
Influence points are specific to each of the faction zones and the GUILD with the highest number of faction points in that zone will gain control over the zone. Each zone you control will grant you a reward, with a maximum of 5 places being rewarded each realm close, however first, second and third place will receive extra rewards upon completion. These rewards could potentially include ST Items, Life Pots, UTs, Top Items, whatever you deem worthy of getting in those rewards.
As for counter-measures against exploiting “dead realms”, a simple requirement of 40-50 players in a realm for Influence Points to be obtainable should suffice. As for equal distribution of drops, maybe a chart can be added for where you obtained influence points, how much you contributed to your factions success, etc. Top contributors of the winning faction should receive among the best loot, while players in the guild who simply didn’t participate at all should either get nothing, or a low amount of stat pots just for being in the winning guild.
Let me know what you think about it, overall this course of action, while entirely new and contrary to what realm has been about until this moment (we don’t talk about arena), can be a wonderful addition to challenge veteran players, incite competition among those bored with running dungeons, and provide new methods of getting the rewards from the dungeons everyone has grown sick of running.