Dominion Overview

Oct.29.2021 BY WC:RA

We’re proud to announce Dominion will be arriving in the War Zone. Dominion brings significant changes to the War Zone. 

Dominion rewards competitive team-based gameplay requiring both strategy and individual skill. This new game mode replaces one-vs-one alliance Control Point Wars with multi-target King of the Hill style wars where many alliances can fight many alliances at the same time to capture Battle Zones for their own alliance. 

Battle Zones give exclusive movement access to Battle Zones and battle buffs for your entire Alliance. Capture Battle Zones by moving your alliance headquarters to the battle zone to claim the battle zone countdown timer. Your timer starts at 15 minutes and when your countdown timer reaches zero, the battle zone is your entire alliances! Congrats! 

But be careful! 

If you’re defeated, your headquarters is moved outside of the zone. If your alliance doesn’t have enough member headquarters in the battle zone, your timer stops! If your entire alliance is kicked out of the zone, your alliance loses the timer altogether and another alliance gets the countdown timer for themselves! Defeat their headquarters and reclaim the timer for your own alliance victory! When you win, the battle zone is your alliance’s battle zone for 36 hours. Only your alliance can enter and your entire alliance gets the buff from this battle zone.

Did we mention that battle zone buffs have been updated to help you in battle? FOBs aren’t allowed in battle zones so only the most skilled players succeed? That we’ve expanded the number of battle zones for end-game players? That battle zones have maximum player level requirements to let all stages of the game participate? Movement tokens have been removed and replaced with oil? That a new tech tree node is being added to enable thorium to be stolen from any base, enemy or not? 

We’re extremely excited to bring you the latest in competitive team-based RTS gameplay. Join us in November.

Dominion is tentatively planned to arrive on Monday, November 22nd at 11AM PST

Please note the following maintenance periods required for Dominion’s release, coinciding with the 5.11 server update and 5.11.1 data deployment, respectively:

2-Hour Maintenance: Wednesday 11/17 at 9am pst (4pm utc)

Control Points and Contestable Zones will be disabled at this time.

2-Hour Maintenance: Monday, 11/22 at 9am pst (4pm utc)

Bases located in a Contestable Zone will be moved to a different area and FOBs will be scrapped.

While two hours of maintenance have been scheduled, the entire duration may not be used. Join the official WC:RA Discord server at https://wcra.io/discord for the most up to date information!

THREE PHASES

  • Open: Unclaimed Battle Zones are Open. Once anyone in an alliance moves into an Open Battle Zone, it becomes Contested.
  • Contested: The first alliance to enter the Battle Zone will trigger a 15 minute timer that will continue to count down as long as that Alliance maintains more players in the Battle Zone than any other alliance. If another alliance gains the upper hand, the timer will be paused, and if the first alliance is kicked out of the Battle Zone entirely, their progress will be lost, and a new timer will be triggered for the alliance with the most members at that time.
  • Protected: The alliance that manages to hold off the enemy for the full 15 minutes will conquer the Battle Zone, and it will enter the Protected State for 36 hours. Only members of the winning alliance can enter a protected zone – meaning they are safe from outside attack – and they will earn combat and oil buffs, wherever they are on the map. 


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Alliance Questions

Question 1: What types of tools can my Alliance use to coordinate members? It’s currently difficult to determine who in my alliance is doing what – will there be a list of currently-active dominion participants for my alliance?

Answer: We are building a Battle Feed screen you can use to find out where your alliance is fighting and who needs the most help. This is set to be released in the first few months after Dominion goes live. In the meantime, you can coordinate with your alliance through in-game chat by dropping a pin of your coordinates and discord to decide which Battle Zones to go after. 

 

Question 2: With timezone differences, it can be difficult to find a worthy opponent and coordinate with them to battle for a CP. How does Dominion address this?

Answer: Dominion is a free for all where any number of alliances can fight over a Battle Zone. Therefore there’s no need to coordinate a battle with another alliance – just search for a valuable Battle Zone and fight off everyone else vying for it. 

 

Question 3: It’s really annoying to see someone in my alliance repeatedly mark and unmark another alliance as an enemy due to the pop-ups. Is this being fixed? Are more enemy slots being added?

Answer: If marking/unmarking is primarily used to enable thorium steals, our newest Alliance Tech tree node update will alleviate much of this frustration. Once unlocked, you will be able to steal thorium from anyone on the World Map. We have it in our backlog to consider adding more information to alliance notifications in the alliance log in the future.

 

Question 4: With the new player level requirements I can’t help my lower level alliance members – why is that?

Answer: Dominion creates space for players of all levels to contribute to the success of their alliance. Player level caps mean that lower level players will not be bullied by top level players from other alliances, and can take on a fair fight against opponents at a similar place in the game to conquer Battle Zones and earn buffs for their alliances. In addition, lower level players can help capture high level Battle Zones by just showing up – every allied base in a Battle Zone counts towards your alliance’s total, regardless of their level.  

As a top level player, you can still help your lower level alliance members by conquering top level Battle Zones and earning them top level buffs.

 

Question 5: Will alliances be encouraged to recruit in a certain level range, based on the Battle Zone level range restrictions?

Answer: We want to reward skill and strategy. You’re free to choose the best strategy that works for your own alliance goals – whether that means attempting to capture a bunch of zones within a small level range or spreading your membership across multiple level brackets. 

Resource & Reward Questions

Question 6: I have a lot of difficulty making progress and already spend most of my time trying to grind out upgrades/promotions, how am I expected to have time to do this?

Answer: The buffs available in Dominion are juicy and not to be missed – oil buffs, better resource steal rates and boosted attack potential will give you a leg up on other game modes you already play. Plus, while you are inside a protected battle zone, your base is protected from outside attack on the World Map, so you can keep your resources safe while you work towards your next goal.  

 

Question 7: Are there rewards for claiming a Battle Zone, and if so, what types of rewards? 

Answer: Oil buffs, improved PvP steal rates, defensive and offensive buffs are all available as rewards for conquering Battle Zones. There are also three qualities of reward – Gold are the best and most rare, followed by silver and bronze. So keep your eyes peeled for those Gold buffs – but be prepared to fight – those Battle Zones will not be easy to conquer! 

 

Question 8: Are there rewards for defending a Battle Zone, and if so, what types of rewards?

Answer: You can earn defensive buffs through Dominion for World Map and Quickmatch play – such as boosted building health and turret damage.  

 

Question 9: Do I have to participate to earn the rewards, or will the entire alliance receive them?

Answer: All you have to do is be in an alliance that has conquered a Battle Zone to earn the rewards. Doesn’t matter if you took part in the war to conquer it or if your base is on the other side of the World Map. 

 

Question 10: How do the rewards change/increase as my Alliance captures more Battle Zones?

Answer: Buffs will stack – so go out and conquer all the Battle Zones you can! 

 

Question 11: How are steal rates changing, and under what circumstances is this applicable?

Answer: Inside Contested Battle Zones, all steal rates are reduced by 50% to encourage repeated attacks back and forth. 

However, Metal steal rates in Neutral Zone PvP play can be buffed through conquered Battle Zones. So fight hard to secure a Battle Zone, then go hunting out in neutral territory to take advantage of the buff! 

Combat & Logistics Questions

Question 12: With Oil-based cooldowns, isn’t the winner largely determined by how much money they’re willing to spend on oil?

Answer: There are many factors that will help you win a Dominion War – you need to have a powerful offensive platoon to kick enemies out of the Zone, a strong defensive base to fend off attacks – and most importantly, an active alliance to coordinate your attacks and help take and hold territory.  

 

Question 13: Is there any type of oil kickback for attacks?

Answer: Normal oil kickbacks from the Alliance Tech Tree will apply to Dominion War battles – plus Oil kickbacks buffs can be earned as rewards. 

 

Question 14: In Dominion there are contested and protected timers, how long are the timers? Why?

Answer: The Contested Timer is 15 minutes – meant to create a sense of urgency for Dominion Wars, where every second off the clock feels meaningful, but still long enough that alliances have time to message their members to join in the battle. Even in a short session, you can help your alliance conquer a Battle Zone.

The Protected timer is 36 hours – long enough to provide protection and buffs for alliances who conquered the Battle Zone, but short enough to keep the World Map active and dangerous! 

 

Question 15: Why can’t we use FOBs in Dominion battle zones?

Answer: FOBs will not be part of Dominion gameplay, and cannot be deployed inside Battle Zones. This will make it easier (and less resource intensive) to move back into a Battle Zone during a war. 

 

Question 16: Who can attack who? Do I need to be in an alliance? Is there a restriction of CC level or Base level?

Answer: To participate in a Dominion War, you need to be part of an alliance, find a contested Battle Zone within your player level range, then move within its borders. Then you can attack anyone else in the Battle Zone, but be careful – they can hit you back. 

 

Question 17: How do Control Points interact with Battle Zones?

Answer: Battle Zones replace Control Points entirely. Once Dominion is released, Control Points will cease to exist. 

 

Question 18: Will this stop fake wars?

Answer: Dominion was created to discourage fake wars in multiple ways. Because there is no limit to the number of opponents vying for a Battle Zone, an alliance can interrupt a one on one fight over a Battle Zone. Furthermore, resource steal rates are reduced by 50% within Dominion Wars. Finally, the main benefit of a Dominion War is the buff earned by conquering a Battle Zone – something that can only be enjoyed by the winning alliance.  

 

Question 19: Will the amount of Contestable Zones change? How many Battle Zones will there be? Why that amount?

Answer: There are a limited number of Battle Zones on the World Map proportional to the number of players at each level cap, so you should have no trouble finding many different Battle Zones for your current level. 

 

Question 20: How many alliances can attack a BZ?

Answer: There is no limit on the number of alliances that can fight over a single Battle Zone. 

 

Question 21: The max level of ~85 hasn’t changed for quite some time, but new units have been created the entire time – how does this factor into the BZ level restrictions?

Answer: As we continue to expand the game and add new player levels, we will adjust the Battle Zone level restrictions accordingly. 

 

Question 22: If there are player level restrictions to Dominion battle zones and only 3 control points, how am I supposed to stop helping my lower level alliance members and fight against the top alliances when they’re so far ahead?

Answer: The number of areas for level 85s to fight over (now call battle zones) have increased well beyond 3. Note that there are no more control points in Dominion. They’ve been removed. Top alliances will likely want to battle over the most valuable battle zones with the golden buffs.

 

Question 23: How much Oil is required to move to a different zone? How was this chosen?

The amount of Oil needed to move from one zone to another depends on player level (see below). Before the 5.11 update, there was no way to move zones within the one-hour cooldown timer.

This introduces new strategic choices to make in the war zone. For example, do I stay safe in my protected battle zone where my resources are protected, or do I risk it all and help my team in another zone when they reach out to me for help?

The choice is yours.

Player Level Oil Required
1-34 830
35-44 1539
45-54 1985
55-59 2592
60-64 3341
65-74 8424
75-79 9315
80-85 110419

Have a question about Dominion? We’ll consider adding it here or the full briefing once it’s released – let us know here! https://forms.gle/VgdT5hvQfaefkfU8A

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