The other day I was thinking, you know, there ought to be some big reward items captureable to be fought over. I thought that because there doesn't seem to be any goal except cert farms; which, while a noble pursuit, there ought to be something big time to coordinate and defend against like this:
While granted there were a large number of NPCs in that game, I think the mechanics of that system could be translated to PS2. If it were possible to steal worthy items of power from other factions I think it would add another level of striking the enemy to the game.
From my memory, in the old classic Dark Age of Camelot, taking a relic was a very demoralizing thing indeed; as it meant the enemy realm had beat not only a stiff AI/NPC defense, but the player characters who could turn the tide as well. Thus it was often attempted at odd hours and secrecy was sometimes the utmost of importance. I myself took part in several of these raids, after being advised to avoid both legitimate in game player scouts and the less threatening and more questionable cross-faction accounting spies, which were both known to be a part of the game.
For instance, I remember sneaking with a 200 person group under the radar so to speak, past the automated NPC guard patrols; having to mesmerize with the magic in that game so they sit still in place while we moved on, most of us peons sitting stuttering in terrible framerate /stuck to one another through game commands so as not to be left behind while the leaders did the crowd control on patrols, as killing even a single one would send a broadcast report to the enemy realm, including the number of intruders in the area. This was only to minimize the amount of time the enemy realm was aware of the attempt, and thus muster a defense, since the relic fortress was the most imposing realm vs realm fortress, and was deep inside unfriendly territory very near to their respawn location. The number of NPC guards lessened in the Relic fort as lesser forts were taken in the frontier, thus either a total conquer of the lands was advised, or a sneak attack as described and a blockade by a token force of elite heroes of their route to the fort.
Now that there are more internet users and computer capability I think that is well past what would happen, and NPCs aren't really needed to fill in the gaps, though I would welcome some AI to get killed by if it was equal for all the realms and well designed to be utilized by defenders rather than only to be a pain in the ass of a certain number of attackers. Maybe respawning AI 'conscripts' that follow you around the relic base while shooting inaccurately or only using the rocket launcher or something. That said though, I think the current system of only players shooting each other would be fine, if the base was defensible enough. With the current system perhaps locking a continent could allow access to a base where something of value to the whole realm is to be looted. Perhaps it shouldn't be terribly strong, as without a constant AI defense an enterprising player or squad would probably find a way to sneak away with it with less contest than it deserves at some point.
If AI/NPCs/base defense are added in the future, I'd suggest more powerful relics guarded by a formidable realm NPC force, so as to encourage whole realms having to turn out and work together to even have a hope at assaulting the other realms.
VR might be a good place for the devs to practice having NPCs moving around and stuff, since it would be useful for people in VR to have stuff moving around anyways.
What kind of relics would be the question, any ideas? Daoc had relics that gave +10% damage to melee or magic across the board, all three realms had a magic and melee relic, and they stacked with each other. Perhaps in PS2 you could use in game resources to obtain expendables or something by controlling the relic that produces the backstory ingredients.
Perhaps even it could unlock cosmetics, like colored smokes or camos.
Or extra abilities to go in one of your equip slots, across the whole realm.