Campaign discussion

[layte]

2hr campaign attacks while waiting for NPC's to return is funfuckingtastic.

[tessy cat]

Just did Campaign warp to Rolanberry Fields. It was under Beastman control at the time. There was a WHM & a MNK who I noticed would pull 1 Campaign mob over to where the NPC was and would just slowly kill it while turning in their tags periodically.

I started helping them as RDM/WHM. I melee'd a little at first, and then just took a backline role and enfeebled/cured. The MNK died once so I held it until he was unweakened. In about 20 minutes (we never actually killed it--campaign ended when it was at 6%) I made 1400 exp and 733 AN total. I didn't turn in my tags fast enough at first not realizing there was a cap, but then I caught on. Seems like a good strategy for a couple of people to get AN though.

[Narualu]

A Campaign battle lasted like 2+ hours on Hades earlier. In Eldieme, I was waiting for an NPC to appear to finish the map quest... After such a long wait, two GMs (GM Beardomatic [rofl] and GM Alamae) appeared. Suddenly the Demon NM Shadowfang and his legion of Dark Elementals spawned, raped everyone, and left. That finally ended it.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Yes 600 is the max, but you can reach it after like one mob. You can turn in your tags multiple times in a fight and even turn in halfway through a mob for the 600 if you've earned it. It's really weird.

However, being a WHM it sucks. The only effective way to earn points is to melee. So you're forced to be a melee mage if you want to earn comparable points.

Just for clarification, you get points for healing as well. I got 410 EXP / 200 Notes for curing Temple Knights in Eldieme.

[Kidzukai]

So I just spent about an hour running around Batallia kiting mobs and such with people, some NPCs ended up spawning and we fought off some orcs, then both groups warped out of nowhere... Still beastmen fortified etc, kinda weird. x_x

Went from 150 to 149. <_>a

[Rai]

It seems to be same as besieged, any action you do while participating (sword icon above your head) increases your points. Maximum points is 600 exp / 600 AN which you can get easily if you melee. I went RDM/NIN and meleed an orc down to ~50% HP for max reward.

[epigram]

I'm starting to think that maybe getting in jeuno might require a surrounding area to be under a nations control. Still might be a quest/mission thing though.

[oxx2]

campaign is 100% win IMO, its hard for 18+ people for the more serious waves and NMs

there could be a lil balancing as far as mebbe giving the participants items like they did with besieged but that would eliminate the need for the NPC selling them for AN so not sure if that will happen

it happens all the time sometimes only a few mins after the last one just ended, all the while you can get several tags for max exp/AN. i've heard some people getting 2k+ from a 3 wave campaign

ive done citadel and e.ron, saur.champ once... my absolute only complaint would be regarding the outposts that i cant find in the areas like bat/saur/rolan sinec those zones are so huge, but once i find them it shouldnt be so hard so thats not even a big deal!

[Kidzukai]

I've been warping between Vunker and Jugner the past hour or two. Made about 6000 EXP today just from Campaign so it's pretty nice. I guess we win every time, not really sure. The NPC Scarlette, C.A. will warp you between posts for Campaign so if you win over 90 points you're usually profiting from just warping between battles. It's alot of fun if you pick up some people and go with them, actually.

Only thing I don't get are the fortifications, morale, etc. etc. It looks like if you kill all the orcs you can attack their fortifications, not sure though.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...123_212822.png

Action pose Kidz! That SAM AF2 NM did Kaiten in battle, XD!

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...123_202755.png

That's what I mean about the fortifications though, I think the ??? outside of the bases turn into attackable things after you clear the mobs but it's just a hunch; someone confirm? Orcs came and attacked our ???s when we had no guards there, so I dunno.

Another theory I have is that you lose morale if your troops have to run from the enemy, and gain it if they run from you?

[blister1]

It sure as hell beats Besieged in its early stages. These quick, simultaneous battles are pretty nice. The arbiter in Sandy that warps you to the outposts, only has a few locations he can send me to, how do I unlock the rest? (I haven't been to Gusta/Saru/and some other places yet)

[Judai]

I was watching some friendly NPCs beat down a fortification after we killed the Yags, I clicked the ???s but nothing happened. Not really sure~

[Kidzukai]

It sure as hell beats Besieged in its early stages. These quick, simultaneous battles are pretty nice. The arbiter in Sandy that warps you to the outposts, only has a few locations he can send me to, how do I unlock the rest? (I haven't been to Gusta/Saru/and some other places yet)

I think you just go there.

[Maguspk]

Yes 600 is the max, but you can reach it after like one mob. You can turn in your tags multiple times in a fight and even turn in halfway through a mob for the 600 if you've earned it. It's really weird.

However, being a WHM it sucks. The only effective way to earn points is to melee. So you're forced to be a melee mage if you want to earn comparable points.

Just for clarification, you get points for healing as well. I got 410 EXP / 200 Notes for curing Temple Knights in Eldieme.

Ya you got 410/200 total over the entire campaign that's pathetic.

I'm referring to trying to keep up with the exp/AN gains of melees in my groups I campaign with. After any given mob tehy can all turn in for 600/450 100%. Sometimes on NMs they can turn in midfight and get the 600/450. For me, since we all "cashout" at the same time I was getting aruond 120/50. So my goal was to figure out how to gain points as a WHM. No, healing does not earn you adequate points and is really not great because you only have so much MP and not even using most of your MP will net you 600 points. So I turned to trying to pull hate so I spammed Barspells and Flash; no improvement again. So finally I just decided to try WHM/NIN. To my surprise it actually earns the best exp output so far. Simply meleeing and doing nothing else nets me about 450/150 per mob which is decent I guess. I hope eventually I can earn 600/450 like my campaign mates but until then I'll continue experimenting.

I encourage others to experiment as mages for MP low efficient ways to earn exp/AN. As it is now it's extremely inefficient to do anything besides melee in campaign, so melees like Ninja who can hit fast and alot gain the best exp/AN. I'm thinking about trying /BST and seeing how much a charm and death of a pet will net.

[Marianna]

I got bored and had some fun.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...123_234807.png

There was like 20 more yagudo not in the pic. Maria vs the Yagudo Theomilitary! I lost.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Has anyone else noticed that there is an NPC inside towns that is identical to the ones inside Campaign battle grounds? Seems as if towns are subject to invasion as well.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...123_235018.png

[Kidzukai]

We were doing a Ronfaure campaign and mobs ran towards Sandy (straight past the Garrison) but we peeled them off right at the gate. I think you're right; Sandy is a battlefield.

Also, has anyone found a way to solo pull mobs? It seems like there's nothing we can do, tried pulling with sneak/invis, campaign flagged, non campaign flagged, etc. They don't aggro if you aren't flagged but they sure as shit all link. Some RDM was pulling it, the best theory we have right now is they have a huge link range but if you get a mob WAY outside it you might be good. He was pulling mobs that ran away from a the pack on the bridge in Vunker. :<

[Deegan]

hmmmm after reading this thread, I was interested in trying to get some more AN and some exp to boot.....but found it to be difficult at first till we figured some things out.

First things first. NPC = gods in campaign. Relic weapons etc

Think of campaign as a simple capture the flag type game, cept you capture guard towers.

In any zone that is currently occupied by a nation (I think all the outside city areas, the cities themselves and the bases outside Jeuno (necro, CN and GC) are owned by nations) the npcs are at the guard tower.

Theres a guard tower in every zone that can have campaign that acts as the goal of the campaign. So, for the nation controled regions, there are npcs out there defending it. When a campaign starts, mobs come to the guard tower to try to damage it and take it over (the fortification on the region map), Someone posted earlier that the ??? around said tower turn into targetable objects and this is true. Ive seen them on widescan and when i got there it was dead but showed its name and everything. I think it was called like Shallow Hole or something like that. Either way its a targetable, or at least widescanable thing.

Now, so far, the easiest campaigns that i have found have been the "defending nation" ones in the outsides of the cities. NPCs are there, mobs show up, npcs RAPE mobs, and they help you out big time by you not getting raped by all mobs and this is the key to campaign.

The NPCs are your biggest allies. They will take more dmg, cast big spells, tank, and do more dmg than anyone. Bottom line is if you try to take campaign mobs by yourself or even with a party, you are just gonna get raped. Not because they hit hard but because theres sooo many of them and they all link. So thats what you have to do. you HAVE to wait for the npcs. You can pull them off someone if someone already aggroed them but usually if you pull one thats not aggroed, they will all aggro you and your party (poor waffles lol). You can easily kill one by itself too np but its very hard to get one by itself with no aggro on the others at the towers, Heres whats the biggest problem that i found at the moment to be

It takes soooo long for anything to start happening in campaign. You can literally be out in an area, campaign start, but you wont see anything for like 10-20 minutes. Sure the mobs will be there at the guard tower, but you wont stand a chance against them without the npcs. So in a beastmen controlled area, its the exact opposite of the nation controled areas. At the guard towers, the group of beastmen will be there. Waiting and wandering and will aggro anyone that comes remotly close to their tower. So you wait....and wait and wait till eventually the NPCs will show up. They will rush the tower and aggro all the beastmen. Trust me, campaign NPCs > Aegis PLD. Ive seen these npcs take tier 4 and lose like 2% health but they serve the purpose of spliting up the horde of mobs so that you can start picking them off one by one. If you kill them all off, the tower becomes targetable and you can start dmging it. Dmging it breaks their fortification and they lose influence in the region. Then when the tally results are in, the nation attacking will win the region and then it becomes a defending region. (in theory)

I also saw something like, if you kill beastmen, and campaign ends, more beastmen dont show up, you eventually kill them all down to none then they have to summon more from a zoneline. I saw a campaign start in Grueberg and there were no npcs or mobs at the tower, then a while later, a npc named Maximillion came up and just raped the tower. I couldnt target the tower cuz i wasnt active in campaign but he was killing it then it broke, and campaign was over. As soon as he broke it, the beastmen mobs showed up and reclaimed thier tower and the next campaign the npcs had to attack the mobs first. Seems odd but thats just what i saw.

Now the reason i think it takes so long for the npcs to show up in beastmen controlled areas, and beastmen in nation controlled areas, is to allow time for ppl to see, "oh campaign is going on in North gusta" and have enough time to warp out and participate. Waiting for the npcs to meet the beastmen takes far too long. Think like besieged mobs advancing. This, plus i dont think alot of ppl know whats going on with campaign, is making it hard to participate in this in harder areas. I loled at the amount of mobs (40+) guarding the tower in rolan. They do dynamis mobs moves too lol.

So recap

Nation controlled:
1. NPCs guard tower
2. campaign starts
3. wait 30 minutes
4. mobs show up
5. kill mobs with npcs
6. profit

Beastmen controlled:
1. beastmen guard tower
2. Campaign starts
3. wait 30 minutes
4. npcs show up
5. npcs engage mobs allowing you to take some as well
6. kill mobs in time then dmg tower
7. profit

all in all its fun as hell, outside the waiting for npcs/beastmen to show up or ppl aggroing the beastmen and having them train them right to you

just for the record this is just what wafik and i have been goofing around and messing with for the past few hours. In no means does this count as how campaign actually works but just some things we saw and put together.

[Varg]

The Towns are setup like Al Zahbi which is irritating because I can't mazurka around town

[Tsuko_Asura]

Hunch: Confirmed :D

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...124_012423.png

Towns are subject to campaign raids.

[Kidzukai]

So we just got finished with a Campaign in Vunkerl, here's how it went:

1: We warped in with a group of three or so people and peeled two or so mobs off of the others (you can pull on the Vunkerl bridge and safely get no links; haven't seen this anywhere else).

2: Had nothing else to pull, so I dropped party. I aggroed everything without engaging and kiting, the other eleven or so people in our alliance peeled off the NM and killed it. I got lucky because I was kiting a bunch of rangers around, Sprite kept Cure Ving me so I pretty much was invincible.

3: Killed the NM and a few more mobs, they respawned at the tower. At this point some guards came and helped us weaken the first wave of mobs; after they respawned all hell broke loose, and another force joined us as well.

4: We kept fighting and eventually the orcs decided they wanted to run, the NPCs started attacking the tower a little bit but we could do nothing. Our campaign flags wore off at this point, too.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...124_003510.png

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l1...124_003839.png

Fortifications went from 150 to the 131, and we gained a tiny bit of influence in the area. I'm really not sure what to do beside keep going back. I think this is still built for larger scale parties like besieged, but little groups can join in and benefit just as well. Also, if NPCs have aggro and you attack it seems like you get hate immediately, so be ready to tank. Not sure if you draw aggro from healing the NPCs, so if you're solo that might be a safer route. I'll update as I find more.

Things I don't know:
1: What makes NPCs warp?
2: What makes NPCs attack the towers?
3: What makes NPCs come in the first place?
4: Why do the fkn NMs just respawn? >|
5: How do we lower resources?
6: What does morale/prosperity do?
7: How do I raise/lower morale and prosperity?

• -I have a feeling that having our NPCs run lowers morale, and winning battles raises it. I think our morale went way up when we "won" that last battle.