I dont mean you look for days until the first hostile encounter. You just make it sound like anything that comes before the castle siege is best shortened to a day or less, and I think that would be less interesting in the long run.
The 'whole learn the map, find spots to build keeps and get the resources you need' is filled with pvp, just a different kind. At first you have skirmishes over promising locations, then raids on supplies (and dolyak caravans) and establish who the contenders will be for that campaign by vanquishing unorganized or smaller opposition. Given at least partial loot and equipment wearing down, you can technically "win" at this stage without any opponent ever getting a secure settlement running. Big siege gameplay would come into play once the strongest guilds/teams/factions have established their respective domains. How soon you do that could even be one of the strategic choices: Do you try to disrupt others to be point of neglecting the advancement of your own bases in the hopes of stifling opposition early, or do you try to get an edge by establishing fortifications at key points first? I think if they compress the early part of the campaign too much they lose out on interesting gameplay.
@Flex: good to hear that campaigns are usually longer then a couple of weeks.
Ok. I agree totally and I don't think they will compress that stage since that stage is the whole point of the multiple campaigns (to an extent).
Here's how an ideal campaign start would look like to me with a basic ruleset on Dregs:
Day1:
Hour0: Everyone spawns completely randomly all around the map, mass chaos ensues when PRX members spawn next to CC members.
Hour2: The organized groups have mapped out a few high-value resource areas (this part will be especially interesting if there is no ingame map). Different groups begin fighting over these resources as they have scouts continuing to scout other areas that may be less contested / out of the way.
Hour4: The first few battles are over, half the organized forces have settled into a farming area, the other half are still fighting. That ratio is decreasing in favor of organized farming. This continues for the rest of the day with skirmishes, scouting etc.
Day 2: Farming continues, the map is basically scouted at this point. Discussion begins for the different guilds on where to place the base as people continue to accrue resources to build the initial base.
Day 3: The initial base is placed. It's a shack. This gives a base of operations, respawn points, areas to store resources and a plan begins to start making it into a fortress. Some groups have big dicks and put their base in the middle of the resources and have to continuously fight and defend their base. It's not destructable unless someone banes them with resources nobody has yet.
Day 4: Groups with bases begin teching up, building t1 of their blacksmiths, alchemists, tailors, husbrandries etc. Those groups with lots of players and/or organization start to pull ahead as they start improving their gear with tier 1 gear.
Day 5: Groups now have t1 gear and the game is set and somewhat stable. Now groups are at the point where they have to make the choice of resource generation and conquering. The resource areas are set up where if you are organized/skilled/geared you can make a higher profit from PKing players and raiding their mine, or by capturing their dolyak. This continues into the next week.
Week 2: The top groups now are getting to t2 gear, have horses etc and are expanding their base into more of a fortification to prepare for being baned. They continue to generate their own resource in areas close to their base that are easier to defend (with NPC guards maybe?) and go out and hit their competitors and/or weaker opponents for resources.
Week 3: Someone makes a T5 alchemist shop (or something) that can produce a bane weapon at a high cost. An organized force banes an enemy stronghold and brings a bunch of siege weapons from their T4 lumberyard and loses, losing a ton of resources in the process. The defending force gets to loot the bane weapon, salvage the siege weapons, loot the enemy and get a huge boost. Another organized force banes an enemy stronghold and wins, they get to loot the enemy stronghold, decimate it. The losers ragequit and go play WoW.
Week 4: The top groups are now at the top of their tech tree and are starting to run wild on everyone else. People start pledging fealty to them and a few solid groups emerge. These groups, probably located away from each other start to focus on each other and the prolonged war starts to begin. There is some mechanism to destroy enemy fortifications outside banes and the top couple groups start to destroy the enemy fortifications then bane them.
Week 5: The campaign coalesces into basically two opponents. One opponent gets the advantage and wins. They are the Uncle Tom. Some condition in the campaign begins to accelerate the seasons and Uncle Tom gets to extract all the resources and trophies before the campaign ends.
