"Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected" - Sun Tzu
One of the core design challenges in creating a mobile MMORPG is balancing meaningful PVP with the reality that players can't constantly monitor their screens. Traditional MMORPGs rely on players being actively engaged, but Afterglow's action queue system means your character might be gathering resources or crafting while you're in a meeting.
This creates a unique problem: how do we make PVP feel fair and engaging when players aren't always watching?
Concepts
Before we dive into the ambush mechanics, let's define some concepts.
Safety Zones
Every location in the game world has a safety rating from 0 to 100, where 100 represents maximum safety. Generally, lower safety ratings correlate with higher risks and greater rewards for performing actions in that location.
Based on safety ratings, there are three types of zones:
- Green zones (Safety > 50): Safest areas with minimal risk
- Yellow zones (Safety 26-50): Moderate risk with increased rewards
- Red zones (Safety ≤ 25): Highest risk, highest rewards
Characters who die in red zones lose all items in their inventory, including equipped gear. If they died to another player character - there is a 50% chance for each of their items to be received by their killer.
Active Characters
Not all player characters in the world can be targeted for interaction. Only characters meeting these criteria are considered "active":
- Characters currently performing an action (such as gathering resources or crafting)
- Characters who have recently interacted with the game (sent any communication to the server, such as checking inventory or logging in within the last 15 minutes)
Ambush
In red zones, characters can perform a new Ambush action. Characters performing this action hide in the shadows, searching for other players in that location to attack.
Every 10 seconds, the game server checks for active characters in the location, randomly selects one as a potential target, and rolls to determine if your character successfully ambushes them.
The current formula is: d100 + stealth skill bonus vs. base awareness + activity modifier
- Stealth skill bonus: Based on the ambushing character's stealth skill level
- Base awareness: 95 for all characters
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Activity modifier: Varies based on the target's current action:
- Moving = -2
- Gathering = -1
- Crafting = -1
- Tracking = +2 (Actively searching, more alert)
- Ambushing = -15
That gives a new character 5% chance every 10 seconds to successfully ambush another character if they are idle. Which is roughly 26.5% within a minute, or roughly 99% to detect an idling character within 15 minutes. (Note: These percentages assume only one potential target in the location)
If the ambush roll succeeds, a 1v1 fight begins immediately between the characters.
Ambush action lasts 2 hours or until the amount of repetitions (successful ambushes) reached
Counter play
"We're going to out-guerrilla the guerrilla and out-ambush the ambush…" - Lyndon Johnson
We aim for Afterglow to appeal to a wide range of players, not just hardcore enthusiasts. This is why our full-loot PVP system is geographically limited and features reduced probability mechanics. Our goal is to balance the game so that every venture into a red zone feels risky, but only occasionally results in character death—ensuring that potential rewards generally outweigh the risks.
As you can see, ambushing players currently have a much greater chance of successfully detecting each other, which increases their mutual risk and creates natural predator-prey dynamics.
Additionally, we're developing several counterplay mechanics to provide more tactical options:
- Perception Skill: Improves your awareness rolls, making you harder to ambush
- Counter-Ambush Mode: Allows players to target only other ambushing players
- Death Heatmap: Visual overlay showing recent PVP activity zones for better situational awareness
Automatic health recovery
After each fight, if your character's health drops below 90%, they'll automatically consume food from their inventory (up to 5 items, starting with the least potent). This system works after every PvE and PvP fight and keeps characters healthy even when players are offline.
Open world PVP is notoriously difficult to balance, so we are looking for your help. Join our Discord to participate in Alpha testing, try new Ambush action and help us shape Afterglow in the way it will be enjoyable for all!