Stygian Rifts

Summary

Stygian Rifts is a rotational PvP event in the same hourly schedule currently consisting of Town Struggles, Corpse Creek Contests, and Dungeon Flashpoints. While an individual Stygian Rifts event is broken down into multiple phases (including multiple "matches" taking place among different teams of players simultaneously), we will refer a single Stygian Rifts event as the entire block of time allocated in the PvP event schedule for the event as a whole.

Participation

In order for a player to participate in a Stygian Rift event:

• They must be in a Guild
• They must have "Participate in PvP Events" enabled in their guild settings
• They must be in a Party of exactly 3 players (they do not all have to be in the same guild, however)

Event Phases

A single Stygian Rifts event is broken down into two phases: Rift Nodes and Rift Matches.

Rift Nodes Phase

The Rift Nodes Phase lasts until either of the following occur:

• 15 minutes has passed
• 8 total Rift Teams have been formed and are now fighting in Rift Matches

Rift Zones

As soon as a Stygian Rifts event starts, Stygian Rift Zones activate within each of our 9 dungeons at preset locations. Stygian Rift Zones, while active, are Grey Zones (Lawless), meaning that all players will flag as Grey to each other inside and may freely perform hostile actions against each other within the zone.

• Murderers will not suffer resurrection penalties if they die inside as Rift Zone while it is active
• Tamed or Summoned creatures will only deal 1 damage to players inside of an active Rift Zone
• Entrances to Rift Zones are marked with large golden flame animations, and players will be notified with overhead text when they enter or leave the region

Rift Nodes

In the center of each dungeon's Rift Zone, players will find a Rift Node formation, which is depicted by a collection of large standing stones, a progress bar, and an animated effect. If a player is in a Guild, has "Participate in PvP Events" in their guild settings enabled, and are in a Party of exactly 3 players, they can double-click any piece of a Rift Node to interact with it.

• Interacting with a Stygian Rift node will Damage the player for 5-10 damage (ignoring armor), but increase overall Progress on the Rift Node by an equal amount
• Players can interact with a Stygian Rift node once every 5 seconds, and will automatically continue to interact with the node every 5 seconds, so long as the player stays within range of it
• Once 250 total points of Progress has been cumulatively made by all players towards an individual Rift Node, it will shatter and reveal a Rift Gate

Whichever individual player did the most total Progress (i.e. took the most Damage from the Rift Node) towards the Rift Node will become what is known as a Riftleader for the resulting Rift Gate and their Party will earn the rights to be a team for a Stygian Rifts Match.

Riftleaders and Rift Gates

• Rift Gates are only visible to and only usable by the Riftleader and their Party
• Any member of the party can walk over or double-click the Rift Gate to receive a menu allowing them to enter the gate
• However, as soon as the Rift Gate appears, the Riftleader and their party will only have 1 minute to enter the gate with all 3 members of their party nearby (they do not all need to be alive, just in the Stygian Rift Zone area)
• Once their party enters the gate, the gate will close and they will not be able to enter it again

Announcements and Notifications

• Each time a Rift Gate is opened, an announcement will go out letting players know how many potential Rift Nodes/Gates (out of 8 total) there are remaining, reflecting how many "teams" potentially can still be formed for Stygian Matches
• Additionally, both the [BattleHotbar and [Battle page will also display how many Rift Gates, i.e. "team slots" are remaining in the event as well
• If 1 minute passes and the Riftleader and their party does not enter their Rift Gate, it will revert back to a Rift Node and will be announced to the entire server, allowing players to compete again over the Rift Node

Stygian Rift Nodes Menu

Players can click the "Dungeons" button in the [Battlebar or the "Open Menu" button next to Stygian Rifts in the Battle page of the Guild Menu to launch a Stygian Rift Nodes menu that shows the status of all Rift Nodes in each dungeon. The Stygian Dungeons Menu shows the status of all Rift Nodes in every dungeon as well as how many "Team Slots" are left remaining in the event. Statuses for Rift Nodes in dungeons are as follows:

• Available: Indicates no progress has been made on the Rift Node so far
• Contested: Some progress has been made on the Rift Node by one or more parties
• Rift Gate: A party has won this Rift Node, but has not yet gone in the gate (it will revert to a Rift Node if 60 seconds pass without them entering the gate)
• Closed: The party that won this Rift Node has gone in the gate and the gate is now closed

Rift Cells

• Once a party enters a Rift Gate, all members will be transported to a Rift Cell, where they will wait for matchmaking to occur
• Each Rift Cell has a Banker that players may use to restock, an Exit Moongate they may use to leave the event in the case of an emergency, and a Respawn Brazier that will be used during matches for players to respawn
• Warning: If players chose to to use the Exit Moongate to exit the Rift Cells area, they will forfeit participation in the Match and will NOT be able to rejoin the event
  • Players who use an Exit Moongate will be teleported to the Arena

Matchmaking

• Every 5 minutes during the Rift Nodes phase, the system will attempt to perform matchmaking and pair "Ready" teams of a similar ELO Rating against each other for a Rift Match
• Each player has an individual ELO Rating that represents their cumulative Win/Tie/Loss history relative to the opponents they face
• Players can view their own ELO Rating in the Battle Records page of the Guild Battle Menu by clicking the "View Records" button
• Each team has a derived ELO Rating, which is based on the average of the ELO Scores of all of its players

In order for a team to be considered Ready for matchmaking, all players on the team must first meet the following Match Restrictions:

• They must be inside the Rift Cells area
• They must be in a party of 3 Players
• They must be in a Guild and have "Participate in PvP Events" enabled in their guild settings
• They must be alive
• They must be online
• They cannot have any Followers or Mounts active in the game world
• They cannot be Disguised
• They cannot be Incognito
• They cannot be Polymorphed

Teams will not be considered Ready for Matchmaking if they have arrived in their cell within the last 15 seconds (this is to ensure teams have at least a short period to restock from the banker before being thrust into a match). This 15 second delay is ignored, however, for the last Matchmaking attempt that occurs at the expiration of the Rift Node phase (15 minutes duration).

During Matchmaking, any Ready teams will first be randomly paired up with any other Ready teams that have an ELO score within 250 points of each other. Afterwards, any remaining Ready teams will be randomly paired with each other regardless of ELO difference.

By default teams will NOT match up with each other if there is a common Guild shared between players on both teams UNLESS time is about to expire in the Rift Nodes phase (15 minute duration) and they are the only possible matchup. Guilds that field multiple teams may potentially have to wait longer than normal in some instances to find a valid opponent.

Additionally, on the last Matchmaking attempt at the expiration of the Rift Node phase (15 minutes duration), if a team has any players that are Not Online or Outside of the Rift Cells Area, those restrictions will be waived and matchmaking will still occur, and that team will simply have to compete with less than 3 players.

Rift Nodes Phase Completion

Once 15 minutes have passed since the start of the Stygian Rifts events, any Rift Gates or Rift Nodes still in the game world will automatically be removed and any players waiting in the Rift Cells area for an opposing team will be ejected to the Arena. Effectively, players have a maximum of 15 minutes to find themselves inside of a Rifts Match otherwise will be left out.

Rift Matches

• Rift Matches for players will last 15 minutes, regardless of when they were started
• At the start of each match, opposing teams will be placed in rooms on opposite sides of the Rift Arena

Mechanics

• Players will always be treated as being "Recently in PvP" throughout the entirety of a Stygian Match (meaning they will not receive Aspect or Mastery Chain bonuses to damage against creatures nor trigger Aspect Weapon/Spellbook Specials against them)
• Players will not be able to cast any Summon spells or the Invisibility spell while inside a Rift Match
• Players will not be able to use the Hiding or Stealing skills while inside a Rift Match

Scoring

Individual Scoring

Players will want to increase their Individual Score as much as possible during a Stygian Rifts event, because their final individual score compared to other players in their patch will determine many Guild Reward Points and Battle Commendations they earn as rewards for the event.

Player Kills

When a player is killed, members of the opposing team will each earn (100 x Damage %) points for their individual score, where Damage % is how much of the total player damage dealt against that killed player came from them (i.e. a player doing 81% of the damage towards another player will yield 81 points when they die).

Additionally, the player who did the highest total Damage % will be credited with the Kill for the purposes of stats tracking

Stygian Servitors

• Every 60 seconds, a Stygian Servitor will spawn in the arena if one does not currently exist
• Anytime a player damages a Stygian Servitor, they will earn ((Damage Amount / Creature Max Hit Points) * 200) points towards their Individual Score

Team Scoring

• Each team will also have a Team Score, which is the combined total of all Individual Scores of each member of their team
• Whichever team ends the Rift Match with the highest Team Score will win the match

While players are rewarded with Guild Reward Points and Battle Commendations based on their individual scores, any Guild that has a member whose team wins a Rift Match will earn 3 Guild Prestige, and any Guild that has a member whose team loses a Rift Match will earn 1 Guild Prestige (guilds can only earn a max of 3 Guild Prestige from any one Stygian Event though).

Additionally, the result of the match (Win/Tie/Loss) will affect the ELO Rating of all members of each team (with ELO Ratings changing more depending on the difference in ELO Ratings of each team).

Player Death

• When players die during a Rifts Match, they will be teleported back to the Rift Cells area and resurrected with full Health, Stamina, and Mana
• Once 30 seconds have passed, players will be able to use the Respawn Brazier in the center of their cell to choose a Respawn location and rejoin the match
• During this 30 second downtime, players should take advantage of the Banker in the Rift Cells area to restock any needed items (such as Cure Potions / Trap Pouches / etc)
• Once 30 seconds have passed, players can double-click the Respawn Brazier to launch a map of the Rift Arena and click any button depicting a room on the map to teleport to that room of the Rift Arena

Strategically, players who die should coordinate with their team to choose a respawn location where they can re-enter the fray with the least amount of resistance possible (i.e. the living players should probably retreat to that location to meet the respawning player and reform their team).

Equipment Handling

Item Consumption

• Players will not consume Reagents, Bandages, Arrows/Bolts, Refresh Potions while participating in Town Struggles and Stygian Rifts
• Every player gets one free Cure Potion consumption every 30 seconds

Looting / Death

• All equipped and backpack items on a player will be treated as Blessed and stay with them on death UNLESS they are Magical or Crafted with a Colored Material
• Poisoned weapons will lose any poison charges on death (poisoners should bring Poison potions with them in their pack to re-poison weapons post-spawn)

Doorways Each Stygian Arena is separated by a large number of Doorways, which are impassable when lowered

Every 5 seconds, 20% of the currently raised Doorways will lower themselves, and 80% of the currently lowered Doorways will be raised, resulting in a constantly shifting battlefield

Additionally, players who are standing in the location of a Doorway that is attempting to lower itself will continuously take a large amount of damage until they move out of the way

Mana Nodes Inside of each Respawn Room players will find a Mana Node

If a player stands on a Mana Node and actively Meditates (using the Meditation skill) they will receive double the normal amount of mana restored, so long they are not interrupted

Traps Stygian Arenas are deadly locations, and throughout every Rift Match a continuing wave of different traps will appear for players to navigate around and avoid taking damage from

Stygian Rifts Event Completion Because there will be up to 4 different matches ongoing simultaneously, the Stygian Rift event itself is not considered completed until all matches have been completed

Once all matches have been resolved, players will be ranked from highest to lowest in terms of Individual Score and rewards will be distributed to players

ELO Rating Additionally, the result of each player's match (Win, Tie, Loss) will recalculate that player's ELO Rating based on the initial ELO Rating for the opposing team

Exiting At the end of the each Match, all players in the match will be ejected to the Arena