Open RvR Guide

The system currently in use on Return of Reckoning is an iterative attempt to refine 1.4.8 Age of Reckoning RvR mechanics. It is based around controlling Battlefield Objectives, which spawn supplies which can be returned to your keep to improve its rank, allowing you access to siege weapons to take down the opposing realm's keep.

This page will aim to cover gameplay mechanics, and not the reward mechanisms for RvR.

Keeps

In any contestable zone in Tiers 2, 3 and 4, there are two keeps. Each realm controls one keep, and a zone is won by a realm when they capture the enemy's keep.

Keep Doors

The entrance to a keep is barred by doors. These doors are highly resilient and cannot be damaged by attacks from players or creatures. Siege weaponry is required to break them.

If a door receives damage, the keep will enter an "attacked" state. During this time, the keep is considered "unsafe" and no repairs will be made to the door by the keep itself. To repair a door that is under attack, it is necessary to return supplies to the keep, which will be used on repairing the door.

While a keep is unsafe, any damaged door cannot be opened. Thus it is only allowed to enter and exit a keep which is unsafe through the postern doors or an undamaged main door.

If a keep has not been subject to assault for a certain period, the keep will attempt to return to its "safe" state. During this state, the keep will attempt to consume supplies to repair any damage issued to its doors or replace any destroyed doors. If not enough supplies are available, the keep will remain unsafe until there are enough supplies to fully restore the doors.

Keep Rank

Each keep has a rank, which is advanced by returning supplies to that keep or to the warcamp. This rank controls the resilience of the keep door against cannon fire, the number of siege weapons the keep can support on the field, and the delivery rate of replacement siege weapons. A rank requires both a certain level of supplies in reserve (indicated by a yellow bar above the keep) and enough players on either the allied or the enemy realm to satisfy the rank population requirement.

Ranks can be lost as well as gained. If supplies have not been returned to a keep within 10 minutes of the last delivery (or a shorter period if the keep's rank is above 0), or the population of both realms falls too low, the keep will consume reserve supplies to sustain itself at a rate of 10% per minute. If not enough supplies are available in the bar to satisfy the upkeep, the keep's rank will fall.

Battlefield Objectives

Controlling Battlefield Objectives causes supplies to be delivered there for your realm. The supply regeneration state of a Battlefield Objective is indicated on the RvR tracker by an outline.

Locking

The lock timer for a Battlefield Objective depends upon the current population levels and the relative population between the realms. An outnumbered realm has shorter lock timers. If the population is high, lock timers decrease.

Supply Line / Active Pairing

Under this system, only one pairing in a tier will receive supply deliveries. This pairing is the active pairing and is displayed to players on login and when it is determined. To mark a pairing as active, two Battlefield Objectives must be captured. When this happens, the remaining objectives are divided such that each realm holds two objectives, and the objectives will lock for 10 minutes. Supplies will then spawn.

A pairing remains the active pairing until it experiences a zone lock, at which point the next pairing can be determined in the same manner.

Supplies

Supplies may be returned to the keep (or to the return flag outside the warcamp in T4) in order to rank it up. Players pick up supplies from Battlefield Objectives by interacting with them. While carrying supplies, players are indicated by a realm-colored beam of light.

The value of supplies depends upon the following factors:

   Rank of the keep.
   Number of players present in the area, to a limit which depends on the current keep rank. The more players are present, the more deliveries are worth.
   The internal population imbalance scaler (referred to as internal or delayed AAO.)
   Distance of the host Battlefield Objective from the target. Supplies from further away are worth more.
   Destination. Supplies returned via the warcamp have a 35% transportation penalty.

It is permitted to mount while carrying supplies. However, taking supplies out of the RvR area will result in a warning, and the supplies will decay if they are held for too long outside of the area.

Supplies can be dropped when a player is attacked. The base chance to drop supplies is 50%. This value is reduced by 25% if you are Guarded, and is further reduced by 5% for every group member within 100 feet of you. A 6 man group with a Guarded carrier will therefore not drop supplies when hit. A player may interact with dropped supplies to steal them, becoming the new carrier. If dropped supplies are not claimed quickly enough, they will decay.

When supplies decay or are returned, fresh supplies will be available at the Battlefield Objective in 2 minutes.

A player and his group will be rewarded with XP, Renown and Medallions upon delivering supplies. The value is based upon the value of the supplies, and is constant for every group member: a solo player, members of a 2 man group and members of a 6 man group will all receive the same reward.

Siege Weapons

Siege weapons can be bought from your realm's Foreman, located underneath the outer oil deploy point for the keep. A siege weapon need only be bought once; it acts as a requisitioning tool, asking your realm to deliver the weapon in question for you.

In order to deploy a siege weapon, the following conditions must be satisfied:

   You are within a certain radius of an allied keep.
   The keep has a weapon of that type in reserve for you to use. The cap and rate of delivery for siege weapons varies with keep rank.

Towing/Carrying

All siege weapons except oil are movable - either by towing (wheeled) or by carrying (tripod / static). To tow or carry a siege weapon, mount and then right-click it. To deploy it, dismount and then right-click it while on foot.

While towing a siege weapon, you will move more slowly, but you cannot be dismounted.

Types

The following siege weapons are available:

Cannons

Cannons inflict high damage to players and to other siege weapons. They inflict minor damage to doors. They come in two types: single target and line-attack. The Dwarf and Chaos cannons are purely single target, but inflict double damage. The other four cannons and ballistae perform a line attack, striking all targets along the cannon's shot vector.

Artillery

The damage of an artillery weapon increases the more enemies are concentrated around the spot at which it is fired. Artillery weapons inflict a stacking snare (suppression/pin) if enough targets are in the area, and the effectiveness of this snare increases further if the density of players is exceptional.

Artillery weapons cannot hit a target if there is no arc of effect to the target. You must be able to see the attack spot or have an arc of effect to it to fire.

Rams

Rams are the only real means of destroying a door, dealing damage equal to 2.5% of the door's hit points per full swing. A ram must be towed to the enemy keep door, and will automatically align itself when deployed within range.

Rams block player ranged fire and are resistant to artillery, and when deployed, cannon fire as well. They are weak against melee attacks, especially those dealt from great weapons. A ram which is on the move will also suffer more damage from cannon fire.

In order to deploy a ram, you must be in a guild. If in Tier 4, your guild must be at least Rank 20.

Oil

Oil performs in the same manner it did on Age of Reckoning.