Unlocking SOTA's Potential with PVP

Discussion in 'PvP Gameplay' started by Maghetti, Aug 25, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Having discovered this game recently I am beginning to see its great potential to be the MMO I have been missing in my life. The gaming experience I am looking for needs to have three things, complex gameplay, a massively multiplayer environment, and the ability for cooperation and conflict. The game has the complexity I am looking for; Deep skill trees, large and varied environments, many hundreds of items, advanced crafting, a player driven economy, questing, guilds, player housing, etc. The game is setup for massive numbers of players through many of those features I just listed. My only concern is the ability for cooperation and conflict through player on player interaction. Having played well over 120 hours I would like to make a few proposals on PVP I feel would be fair to every type of gamer, including those looking for murder and chaos and those wanting little to nothing involving PVP. And let me be clear, when I refer to PVP I mean the ability to kill and steal. I believe my approach will offer sufficient risk and rewards to everyone involved.

    1. A functioning guard system.
    For this to work I would make the PVP protection a temporary thing offered to new players, ending after a period of time. I would make all people after this time PVP enabled. The guards that currently do nothing but walk around would be programmed to kill or arrest criminals committing murder or stealing. Within the sight of guards all murder would be impossible. Any violent action would set off the guards. For stealing any uncloaked attempts would also set off the guards. However, murder and stealing would be possible in locations unpatrolled, such as inside certain buildings and, perhaps, shadier parts of town. A cloaked thief could still steal from anyone, but a target could catch them in the act by pointing and double clicking, alerting the guards. This discourages the overwhelming number of crimes but without outright preventing them. Devs can strategically place guards in locations they want to be relatively safe and people wanting to avoid PVP can do so almost entirely, inside of cities and other story driven locations.

    2. Separate instances.
    One problem with this is that guards cannot realistically be everywhere. You cannot have them littered around every dungeon and forest, so you need more than just guards. I propose that for significant story driven locations, such as dungeons, players are separated into their own instances of the location, unless with friends or party members. This will effectively make these locations off limits to PVP, allowing story focused players to enjoy the story aspects of the game without being murdered or robbed.

    3. A mix of PVP enabled and PVP disabled non-story driven locations.
    Littered all over the map are locations not critical to the story that are not player run towns. These locations include forests, roadways, mines, caves, etc. For these locations I would make some PVP enabled and with greater more valuable loot and locations with PVP disabled with not as good of loot. This will reward people willing and able to take the risk of PVP(being murdered or robbed) but still allow those who wish to avoid it to do so and still be able to find crafting materials, kill enemies, and so on.

    4. Five types of player owned towns.
    I would like to see player towns gains 5 different options for PVP.
    1. PVP disabled. Pretty straight forward, no PVP options available.
    2. Chaos PVP. These locations would have PVP enabled with no guards or disincentives to mass murder.
    3. Lightly protection. These towns would have a minimal number of guards making murder and stealing harder but doable.
    4. Medium protection. These towns would be well guarded, but with holes that could be exploited if people are not careful, such as a shadier neighborhood.
    5. Heavy protection. These towns would be be at a similar level of protection as major story driven locations. Here people can be relatively safe so long as they do not go hanging out in some random unguarded building.
    I think this system offers a lot of interesting variety to player towns and the people who run them to reflect their own desires and playstyle.

    Now let me bring my vision together. PVP would be entirely disabled on the world map, in important quest locations, in some portion of player towns, and roughly half of non-story driven locations(caves, forests, etc.) PVP would be heavily discouraged in large cities and other major locations and in light, medium, and heavy protection player run towns. PVP will be possible but difficult in major cities/towns and guarded and unguarded PVP enabled player towns. PVP will have no restriction in chaos towns and roughly half of the non-story driven locations. I find this to be a fair approach with risks and rewards, safe locations and dangerous locations. Good thieves will be rewarded and bad thieves punished. Observant targets rewarded and unobservant ones punished. Add on top of it all the potential protections guilds can offer and you have a multiplayer game with amazing potential for years to come. I am interested to hear what others think about these proposals and willing to answer any quests people may have.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, Abydos and 6 others like this.
  2. PrimeRib

    PrimeRib Avatar

    Messages:
    3,017
    Likes Received:
    3,576
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    While I'm not particularly against this, I couldn't care less about it and generally don't see any point. And it seems like a big distraction from meaningful group vs group objective based PvP.
     
  3. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    6,334
    Likes Received:
    14,098
    Trophy Points:
    153
    This would be the point of contention for your suggestions. Portalarium has already said PvP will be concentual only, so this will not change.

    That said, your other ideas have merit and can make the game better for those players who choose to engage in PvP. Guards would be great, love the additional options for towns, and even additional scene types (or scenes that would react differently if you are PvP flagged).

    It would be interesting to see some of these ideas merge with the current plan.
     
  4. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

    Messages:
    6,347
    Likes Received:
    15,785
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    All of this has happened before and will happen again.

    PvP has been and will always be fully consensual in Shroud of the Avatar.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, FrostII and 8 others like this.
  5. Womby

    Womby Avatar

    Messages:
    3,299
    Likes Received:
    12,165
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    South Australia
    "For this to work I would make the PVP protection a temporary thing offered to new players, ending after a period of time. I would make all people after this time PVP enabled."

    Having arrived recently you may not be aware of this, but that will never happen.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, Krohon and 5 others like this.
  6. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    I don't see this as that big a jump from completely concentual PVP, but with that said it isn't completely necessary to force enable PVP. You could still take the bulk of my ideas and add incentives to incentivize PVP. Incentives would fit into my risk vs reward mentality.
     
  7. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Are they not making PVP only zones even now? According to what I read on release 33 some areas will enable people for PVP by defaul, regardless of their protection status. That sounds like a violation of strict consentuality already. Not a big step from that to what I would like to see.
     
  8. Womby

    Womby Avatar

    Messages:
    3,299
    Likes Received:
    12,165
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    South Australia
    That is still fully consensual because players are warned, and nobody is forcing players to go into PVP areas (there will be alternative access provided for story scenes located in such areas). In other words, entering a PVP area requires informed consent.
     
    Time Lord, Acred and Baalice like this.
  9. Hawkshield

    Hawkshield Avatar

    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    138
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Celestis
    [QUOTE="For this to work I would make the PVP protection a temporary thing offered to new players, ending after a period of time. I would make all people after this time PVP enabled."[/QUOTE]

    Nope, ain't gonna happen. Because it worked so well in Black Desert Online and Archage lol
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  10. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    I am all for warnings. Also, I am unsure what areas are being made into PVP. The specifics could make a big difference. But I still don't see a big difference between no PVP in these areas and having these areas heavily guarded. Realistically avoiding conflict would be easy, it just wouldn't be down right prevented altogether. I just don't get why this would be such a big hangup on an MMO. The heart of an MMO is players working together and against each other. You remove this and you have a weird single player everyone plays at once.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  11. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

    Messages:
    6,347
    Likes Received:
    15,785
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    The PvP+ areas have been part of the plan since the Kickstarter. Feel free to make suggestions that work within that framework. Expansion of those areas that are designated PvP+ which include Shardfalls, Two NPC towns, and as many POTs as there are Governors who wish to make that choice, will be met with staunch resistance. You're attempting to make drastic alterations of a product with 3 years of development history and massive and passionate community involvement throughout the development process.
     
  12. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Nope, ain't gonna happen. Because it worked so well in Black Desert Online and Archage lol[/QUOTE]
    It worked in Ultima Online. I never played myself but I watched streams of it. So long as you have the other things I mentioned it should work fine. If there was no guard system(or something like it) it would be a disaster though.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  13. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

    Messages:
    6,347
    Likes Received:
    15,785
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    From my point of view the heart of an MMO (SotA being an MMO is another point of contention, but an entirely different subject, so I will honor your terminology) is players working together for each other.

    You're projecting your beliefs on a population of people who do not all share your vision.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, Womby and 1 other person like this.
  14. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    My entire point was to try to come up with small easily executed changes that leaves the entire framework of the game in place. I do not see anything I said as drastic. The effective difference between the ability to keep protection on all the time and not being able to with a guard system is very small. And that is the only idea that I would consider in any way a drastic change.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  15. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

    Messages:
    6,347
    Likes Received:
    15,785
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Again, an opinion not shared by all... For many people, including myself, it certainly did NOT work in Ultima online... It was the thing that drove me from the game and made the experience one of if not the worst gaming experience of my life. Furthermore, this is Not, nor was it ever intended to be Ultima Online II. If it had been the effort would never seen a dime of my money in support.

    Perhaps you should take some time and educate yourself on the three years of history you're fighting against and on how PvP is proposed to work in SotA before you start suggesting massive changes to what is planned to be.
     
  16. Oba Evesor

    Oba Evesor Avatar

    Messages:
    974
    Likes Received:
    2,188
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    S.F.
    Just a point of clarification.
    The areas were always PvP. The recent change was to make PvP areas multi-player instances only.
    Before you could access the higher level node spawns from Single and Friends Only.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, Womby and 1 other person like this.
  17. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Working towards what end? I honestly can't tell. From what I can tell, you do the quests, then they run out. You build your character to...do what? You get a house and cool stuff and sit on it to do....what?
     
    Armar, Time Lord and Acred like this.
  18. Ravicus Domdred

    Ravicus Domdred Avatar

    Messages:
    3,708
    Likes Received:
    9,037
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Location:
    Get In MY BELLY!
    Its your story you do what you want. Thats a sandbox. There is no endgame.
     
    Time Lord, Acred, Womby and 2 others like this.
  19. Maghetti

    Maghetti Avatar

    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    73
    Trophy Points:
    8
    No need to be so hostile. Perhaps you will understand my perspective if you know how I came to play this game. I watched Peeve, a streamer and old UO player play UO. He was a legionary thief in UO and I spent 40+ hours watching and listening to all his stories of UO and I was impressed. He then started playing this, saying repeatedly that it was the spiritual successor of UO, made by the same guy. He wanted to start up his old shenanigans in SOTA and I was convinced to give it a try.
     
    Time Lord, Acred and TEK1 like this.
  20. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

    Messages:
    6,347
    Likes Received:
    15,785
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    But you've stated in a post up this page:
    They are creating one new one... It's not yet in the game... All other PvP Zones have existed since the continent of Novia was first opened with Grunvald Shardfall, and even before the with ... what is that island's name? I want to say Sword Coast, but that's from another game/novel.

    Please educate yourself on what is before suggesting what should be.
     
    Time Lord, Acred and Womby like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.