Hammerwiki:Realm versus Realm

RvR - Realm versus Realm - is a fully integrated PvP experience in WAR. It is the ongoing struggle between the forces of Order and Destruction. Each zone has sub-zones of both PvE and RvR content. It is estimated that the ratio of PvE to RvR content will be 80:20 at Tier 1 and 20:80 at Tier 4.

Overview
There is much debate over the true intention of RvR. Commonly, RvR is referred to as the combined effort of all players across a realm, hence Realm versus Realm. This includes both elements of PvP and PvE, and is used by the devs. More often however, RvR is used to distinguish "Free For All (FFA) PvP" against realm-based PvP where you are only able to engage in combat against members of the opposite realms. For the purpose of this wiki, however, RvR is taken to mean the latter, i.e. PvP in WAR (is not FFA).

It is possible to play the game and avoid RvR completely. It is also possible to play the game and avoid PvE completely. In other words, both experience and loot is gained in RvR. You cannot, however, lose gear in RvR. When you kill a player, there’s a chance that there will be items or money on the corpse. And as the killer, you will be able to loot the corpse. Said items are generated much in the same way as loot on a NPC would be. You’re not actually taking the person’s gear you just killed, but you can get loot for killing other players.

To engage in RvR, you must enter a designated RvR area. As soon as you enter the area, a warning indicator will flash and a timer will begin counting down. When the timer reaches zero you are flagged for PvP, and can be attacked by enemy players in the area. When you leave an RvR area into a PvE area, a different timer will count down to let you know when the PvP flag is removed, ensuring that players can't hop in and out of RvR areas to pick off enemy players without giving them a chance to retaliate. Occasionally, players will be able to enter the opposite faction's PvE areas, at which point they will be PvP flagged to every enemy player but they will only be able to attack the ones who choose to engage in PvP. It's possible that there will be servers set up with Open RvR rulesets, which will allow RvR in all areas of the game world.

A player who travels to lower tiers to engage in RvR against less experienced opponents will be turned into a Chicken or "Chaos chicken" (with 1HP and one ability "Peck" that does 1 damage) whenever they enter RvR areas.

Types of RvR
RvR comes in a few distinct flavors in WAR:


 * Skirmish RvR is basic open world PvP combat, the foundational function of RvR. It's: "I go into one of those areas where we can RvR. I see a bad guy. We hit each other with our sticks 'til one of us dies." Simple and straightforward, players will be rewarded experience, loot and renown from successful skirmish fights, but will not reward you or your side as much as engaging in other kinds of RvR.


 * Battlefields are open world locations within RvR territories where both sides are trying to capture strategic objectives. As well as gaining skirmish rewards for winning fights, by controlling battlefields players will gain a set amount of victory points for their realm. These are intended to be major conflict points within the world, where groups of players will come together and fight over. Battlefields include Keeps.


 * Scenarios are instanced, objective-based, evenly matched battles located in RvR territories. As players approach a scenario point they will be pulled out of the game world into an instanced lobby. The lobby is used to sort players into evenly matched groups from each realm. In the lobby you will be able to take in the details of the particular scenario, such as the time limit, the winning conditions, the number of players, and so on, before playing out the scenario. Winning a scenario earns the winning side the maximum number of victory points for that scenario, although the losing side will gain a proportionate number of victory points according to how well they did.

By gaining victory points in RvR, players can eventually take control of enemy zones as part of the overall campaign, which runs right through the game leading up to the eventual siege and capture of fortresses and the opposing Realm's capital city.