Your cotton should not be safe, you need walls.

It's a very difficult thing to balance. The answer is unfortunately not as easy as saying "you can steal anything in a pvp zone". That would completely ruin the economy of my POT.

There's a risk vs. reward dynamic that would have to be created. I don't think it's possible the way the game is currently designed.

 

I agree that crops in PvP zones shouldn't be automatically stealable. After all, you can't steal the decorations someone places down in their house just because the zone is PVP. My earlier suggestion about being able to set crops as freely harvestable by anyone would allow people to role-play vulnerabilities in siege type scenarios without making PVP towns less desirable to live in.

 

I think the cotton could be "stolen" by means of harvesting in a pvp town. Precautions could be put up such as high walls and fences to keep people out. I cant remember if you can use permissions to make your lot private in a pvp town but if you could that would be another option. Also the basement. If we have theft in game and you are in a pvp area, you should not be immune to it.

 

I have no problem with the owner of a plant making it available for public harvest. Or having a public flower bed that works like a public chest.

Archeage has a really cool stealing mechanic, from the point of view of the thief.

But what happens in these games is that people can steal when it's opportunistic and there's really little anyone can do to prevent the theft. It becomes a matter of reactive controls that punish thieves for damage that is already done. In real life, there is one basic constant that makes being a thief difficult. Mortality: You don't respawn when you die, and being attacked hurts.

We lack mortality in online games and that makes things very difficult to scale appropriately. I like the concept of having things lootable if your town is sieged. But I don't like the incredible advantage that a non-pvp town would have in that situation. I mean just look at the pictures above. Would either of those people put those crops into a town that could be seiged and risk losing all of it? No, they wouldn't. The only reason that PVE towns do that sort of thing is because there's no risk involved. Until we find a way to balance that out with PVP towns, I don't see how we can fairly create mechanics where people can lose their "stuff".

 

You can use permissions to keep people out. To which I say, what's the point then? Because if you have something you want to keep safe you'd just use permissions to do so.

One way that might be explored is leveraging this system of permissions into more of a risk vs. reward type theme. Just thinking out loud here....say you make an area of your town or lot stealable? Maybe anything planted there grows exceptionally fast.

That could be applied to PVE towns too.

 

I meant if people were Role-playing a siege in their town, not actual game-mechanic POT sieges (which I am not sure the devs are even still considering, I think the current castle siege in planning is for NPC towns only). So we agree.

 

I would suggest that if/when we get a pvp population one would be able to patrol these areas. Here is where I see the problem though with this, and its game mechanics. I agree that in pvp zones you should not have single player mode for this reason. If you were to try to protect your farmers fields and some one could come along in single player and harvest it, that would be just dumb lol.

 

You're probably right about the devs no longer considering it. But I honestly think that the way sieges have been described that they could EASILY be applied to PVE and PVP towns. I could see where a PVP guild could siege a PVE town, since it's just putting a "circle" around the town that you have to "get through". Don't want to pvp? Don't go through the circle.

 

Being able to steal crops is a really cool idea as long as there is a mechanic to catch the offenders.

I really hope there are sandbox systems like this or the world is going to be too structured and clean for many people's tastes, there really needs to be at least some element of risk or things will become dull quickly.

 

Have the Devs thought about the implication of these large scale farming ventures? This looks like it throw balance way off and break the in game economy.

 

Ok, so I don't get it.

In a PVP zone, the community has long argued for the power to walk off with someone else's weapons, armor, and anything else in their pack which they likely worked hard for.

But we don't want to be able to steal their cotton harvest in the same PVP zone?

This would seem to be a good, old-fashioned conundrum.

 

I agree. To me its a no brainer, if you are in a pvp zone, and there is stealing in game, then everything is up for grabs. Well besides what is basically blessed like pledge gear and store bought items.

 

Um if this is implemented then payers will simply NOT farm in Pvp zone - seriously why would you - need to seriously STOP trying to accommodate PvP styles that want to succeed here by only killing players, stealing their wares, etc.

 

You may not like it but there needs to be things to bring conflict in this game for pvp. It may not be for everyone, but some people will want it.

 

There's fun and then there's people stealing your cotton when you're 1. Not online. 2. Not in the town and out doing something. 3. Every single time you plant cotton.

You have to make a GAME out of stealing. You can't just "let people steal" or it stops being fun. When you play a game it's only fun when there are clear rules and everyone has a chance to win. If people can just steal your stuff the moment you're not guarding it, that's not a game anyone wants to play. (at least not anyone that is being stolen from)

 

I hate to say it but that is one of the downfalls of living in a pvp town. It goes with the territory and you cannot have the best of both worlds.

 

You have to. Otherwise no one and I mean NO ONE would plant cotton or anything else because they know it will be gone.

It's the same reason that you can't have homes being broken into. Otherwise no one will want to live in a house that they can be attacked in 24/7. They will go live somewhere else that has some level of safety (assuming it's available) and there's an entire world out there that offers COMPLETE safety. So they would just go live there and then vacation in the pvp areas.

I don't want that. I want people to LIVE in my PVP POT because they have "reasonable" safety. Not complete safety. It's not the best of both worlds, it's better from a PVP standpoint, and not quite as safe but still REASONABLY safe compared to the rest of the world.

 

maybe have your guards patrol the fields?

 

Yes, good point.

And that's exactly why I'll have guards. But they're just NPC's. Again, if you're choice is "put cotton in Pax Lair and never have it stolen" or "put cotton in Rats Nest and have it stolen" what are you going to choose? It's not something that players are going to think twice about. So there has to be a way to balance it out mechanically so that it's "fair" and "reasonable" and there's a "game" where everyone has a chance to win - not just the people that are doing the stealing.