[AndMetal]

Originally Posted by kedra

I just briefly read your initial post, but I think I have the gist of what you're saying. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure all of that could be done pretty easily just using perl to update your database.

Yes and no.

Originally Posted by kedra

You'd need to create some type of criteria for 'defeating' a city (ie. killing a boss mob or a certain percentage of NPCs)

That would be done using a quest (Perl).

Originally Posted by kedra

Create a new table to keep track of contestable cities and the current ruling faction.

No new table is needed, you would use a combination of quest globals & spawn conditions, triggered in the above mentioned quest:

quest::spawn_condition(zone_short, condition_id, value); - uses variables in the spawn_conditions table for spawning, despawning chosen npc's in a given zone. See SampleQuests.
quest::InsertQuestGlobal(charid,npcid,zoneid,varna me,value,duration) - Creates a Quest Global variable.
quest::setglobal(varname,value,options,duration) - Sets a variable for the current quest mob. See Tark's post below. DEPRECATED: requires qglobal=1 in npc_type.
quest::targlobal(varname,value,duration,npcid,char id,zoneid) - Set a variable for any mob. See Tark's post below. DEPRECATED: requires qglobal=1 in target's npc_type.
quest::delglobal(varname) - delete a variable for the quest mob. See Tark's post below.

The Sample Quests actually has pretty much what you're trying to accomplish, just on a more limited scale.

Originally Posted by kedra

Lets say an evil faction defeats a good city. So update NPCtypes table so that all NPCs in defeated zone are now ogres on the evil faction. Update your new table so that the evil faction now owns the city. (It's late, I hope I'm not forgetting anything.)

This is actually already in the server code. Check out the spawn_conditions table in the Wiki.

Originally Posted by kedra

I would set it up so that each faction has their own completely safe zone that they respawn in when they die, from that zone they can use an NPC to go to any city that their faction controls. So, potentially, one faction could capture all of the cities and the game would end as the other team could no longer leave their safe zone.

I'm thinking the best way to handle this is to have 2 separate zones as essentially a graveyard. Or, maybe use the Bazaar, since it's basically separated into 2 halves. Then, just set everyone's starting bind point there (only differing depending on what side they choose) and either have NPCs to teleport to other zones or change some zone lines. That way, they can still go to the same spot after death, and can spawn without immediate fear of dying.