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Another issue will be having thieves available to steal sigils. Eight years ago you could fit stealing on your PVP character. Today that is impossible. We would probably have no thieves online most of the day, greatly discouraging trying to go after any sigils.
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JC, no disrespect intended here, but it sounds like your guild is large and your comment above also makes me think it consists almost entirely of people living on the U.S. east coast.
If this event draws people from Europe and the U.S. west coast and they join the other factions with their thieves, don't you think that's going to give your guild some excitement to log on after work and find out that there's a battle waiting for them? "Time to go get the sigils, folks!!"
Also, if you're worried that one particular faction is going to be able to grab those sigils mid-day on a weekday and hold them successfully for ten hours, I can tell you now that is NOT going to happen. Those sigils will be bouncing back and forth all day long, with the thieves from the various factions laughing at each other as they constantly keep them refreshed and as they pass each other running in and out of the bases. All they want to do is keep those things refreshed until their group can get on and try to defend, which is most likely to occur in the evening.
Also, I would be truly surprised if you don't have at least a handful of people in your guild who would be willing to make thieves and even a few of them that don't work the typical 8-4, 9-5 M-F schedule.
Yes, it does occasionally happen that some faction actually manages to pull off a mid-week 10-hour guarding session during the day, but if we get that many people playing in factions on Atlantic, anyone who does try it isn't going to have an easy time of it. I suspect some of the players from Siege and Great Lakes who've been making characters on Atlantic may have work schedules that might let them make an attempt at a mid-week, mid-day grab for sigils, but I also think this event will draw in a lot of the extremely talented and persistent thieves that I know play in factions and who absolutely delight in mucking up those kinds of plans.
JC, you guys should just make the decision to create an allied faction guild and encourage those who are interested to join it, even if the characters aren't their very best characters. Yes, maybe let's delay this a little bit longer if you think it's necessary....I sure wouldn't argue with waiting another month for this. Let's play this up some more in U.Hall, advise people about the 30 day wait to get in, and let's just go for it. Set a date or something....maybe May 15th or something like that. Then promote the heck out of it and let's do it. If we happen to get some faction-related changes by then, we just roll with it. As others have pointed out, GL has a very active factions scene in spite of the existing rules. I think Atlantic did too not so long ago. So yes, I think it's very doable for this to happen on Atlantic. Just don't expect it to be neat, clean, tidy, and orderly and for things to happen every day on a schedule. The thieves will guarantee that won't happen and everyone will end up having a crazy good time.
Edited to add the following:
JC, something else that I think has been on your mind is the situation with the TB and COM bases, i.e., reluctance for folks to cross-heal their red mates, pulling the town guards into the fight, funky trap arrangements, etc. I won't argue that those aren't issues. But I would like to point out that there are still people in the game who just see these as extra challenges to overcome on the path to having a good time. So what if we end up with a situation where a strong guild takes control of TB or COM and also manages to steal those towns? There's absolutely nothing that says the other factions can't make a temporary truce and trounce the heck out of the TB or COM guys. I distinctly remember that happening to my guild on GL a year ago....I think we got a bit ****y about defending that TB base and one Sunday SL and Minax joined forces and pretty soon we were locked out of our base. No one got mad, no one stomped off in a huff. We were laughing about it in Vent and I'm sure the other guys were having a good time of it too. I still have screenshots of it and smile every time I look at them.
