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[ZombieR]

Okay, instanced cities seems to be really happening in the next AO update. In the past we have talked about how a city located on the overworld would be better since they have access to shops, which is the preeminent bonus. A non-instanced city that is in debt when the update occurs will be destroyed and become free land. There is enough warning that I think it won't be like stealing a city. I think there's also a warning given when debt accrues and active orgs would see this. So if players are still dedicated to finding a city that way, this maybe is the best time. I doubt there will be many, if any, cities lost that way and also I don't think we are prepared even for it's occurence. Likewise, I'm not sure we are prepared for an instanced city which is why I am posting this topic.

Instanced cities are supposed to be similar to a small-sized city, but they are not located anywhere in particular and they don't have player shops (which sell items through the Global Market Search[GMS]). The cost of running a non-instanced city is often offset by a tax on items sold through the city's player shops.

If one wanted to build a city from a vacant city plot it requires a couple of buildings that are mandatory and then there are other buildings that can also be built. Depending on its size, The city plot may not be able to hold all the different types of buildings and these new plots i hear will be small, and @ the same time likely have a smaller upkeep charge. I don't know exactly how the buildings are created or exactly what buildings are needed or the effect of the buildings quality level on city operations.


Some questions and things of concern to discuss now are ...


Do players still want a city?

I think they probably do!


So, do we need a city?

I don't know, but many have expressed serious concerns before about not having a city.


But how will we pay for it?

This maybe is too soon to ask, since the cities aren't even yet available and we have alot of funds in the org bank and I don't think the upkeep and initial cost would be that expensive. The large cost of cities before was because of players selling and leasing them for whatever price they wanted.


Okay, how will a city effect the org?

There could be restructuring of the ranking system, since higher levels have greater access and responsibility in controlling city operations. Other stuff I'm not totally aware of.. I think a city might boost some stats if have certain buildings and the appropriate expansion (maybe alien invasion), but given the size of these new plots it may not be possible to build such structures, meaning no bonus.


And how will this effect players?

It should be possible soon to have "alien raids" in the cities. For free players, there won't be much effect. It will be a place to go roam about, possibly to have meetings there in the streets or some rooftop that will make fair trade's look like a mole hill. It's speculated that prices for CRU might go up and that prices for some things obtained in alien raids might go down.


This is my own ideas about cities from what I've read and learned. Especially thanks to Urban, Livewirez and Leileena, but this isn't anything verbatim from those players, I likely got what they said mixed up. :S

I hope mostly that players that are interested will find out and procure things such as buildings or find an engineer that can create the city somehow, so we can be ready for the actual process. Also, post any corrections to what I wrote and new information and ideas about cities here.

[ZombieR]

Also, the new update will make Anti-Personnel Turrets (APT's) much more dangerous, so if you thought they were bad before then you haven't seen anything yet. For a really weak player being attacked by one, the effect will be exactly the same as before, quick death. But now others will notice their more powerful effects that should bypass evasion with their increased attack rating, which should also mean more damage.

Only players with the Lost Eden (LE) expansion can enter these, and in the future the only plausible way to destroy them will likely be with mechs or rocket launchers. If you are a free player, these should completely stop you from attacking and if you have LE, they will be great to use against ground soldiers, though they're not totally invincible to enemies with LE.

Players will only run into these APT's in PvP situations like battlestation and @ tower wars and I think a few special "camps" that house bosses.

[Leileena]

I don't think you mixed them up Zombie.

Some more info (from my side) on cities:

I think we will indeed need a restructurising of ranking system. There were talks about this, but when we get an AI city we will certainly need it! (think of this: "Err guys... who deleted our city buildings" whenever somebody leaves in anger with the org (which is not very rare)).

New cities will be accesable by a door in the ICC headquarters. Trough here you will enter a small playfield, based on the Coast of Peace/Coast of Tranquility playfields, with on it a regular small city plot (like the existing ones). Everything on here will be the same, exept for being able to build market buildings (confirmed). This means you can build radar and cloaking buildings to make controlled AI city raids possible.

Fr00bs can enter this playfield, and can do ground raids there as it was usual with normal cities (AI player needs to drop cloak, then fr00bs raid). You can get 25% controler recompiler unit's (you will need 4 to completely charge (100%) the city controller) from an NPC named Sprysi D'Lere near the whompahs in newland. These missions are not particulary hard below level 100. The CRU will be NODROP UNIQUE though, so you will require atleast 4 people to fill the CC. Fr00b charracters can fill the CC by right-clicking the CRU on it.

In order to claim an instanced city (every org automatically has one), a high-ranked player with the alien invasion expantion pack will have to go to the playfield and rent the City Controller. Then it is required to build a city HQ on the plot, other buildings can be added as you wish aslong as there's space to fit them. Depending on what buildings you place, the AI players in the org will gain a skill benefit in certain skills. The org will have to pay upkeep for this city which will be automatically removed from the org bank funds.

All in all I'm not sure weither or not defiant should get a city. Ofcourse, it's nice to have a city, but if you look at gains and costs... It will be a fun place to hang out, and may make the org more attractive to AI players, but Defiant doesn't have much twinks or players in the same level range to do frequent raids (maybe with clone soldiers, but for how much does QL 30 viralbots sell? 100k?). Also players can't sell things in player shops, as we can't have a market building. This would mean defiant won't have a realy steady income, but will have a steady expense for renting a city (they may not be much compared to the buying costs of an existing city, but sure do form a pretty steep moneydrain), is this worth it for a funky hangout place?

Then for the improved APT's:

Fr00b pvp will suck, but then again it always kind of did, so not all that much change exept for encountering more "mech noobs" upon attacking a field.

[ZombieR]

thanks lei, that's very informative about these new cities. i don't know if we should get a city either but many seem to want one, so..! i have to say i don't think a city will effect me as a free player @ all, but i was wondering can these cities be used for orbital strikes by players with, i think, it's lost eden?

and yes, now i'm very concerned that we need to reset org rankings, especially if we get a city. the change would be that there would be less generals and more squad leaders, since generals have the power to destroy the whole city! (SL does not)

[Leileena]

Orbitals can be fired from the city HQ (thus should only require AI expantion), as all buildings are regular ones to the RK cities I suppose it will be possible to use orbital strikes, which are rather nice in towerdefence (remember, those nasty APT's can't run when a light appears in the sky)

For fr00bs it will be fun to do an occasional AI raid, but you will need to be either heavily twinked, or invite alot of out-of-org friends to help out (only people in org and in city will spawn aliens, out of org they won't, atleast not in existing cities).

As there have been some talks about ranks needing a rework, it will probably be done even whitout a city. Even then reworking ranks doesn't have much consequences for players in an org that, atm, doesn't have a city.

[Knight236]

ty  4 ALL THE COOL INFO!!!!!!