Everyone's thoughts on forcing PVE players into Open PVP areas along the main storyline.

They put a dried turnip instead of a carrot on the stick

 

Lol, which now is starting to rot!

 

Speaking of which, I am really curious as to your opinion on why we strive so much to encourage people to PvP.

Do you understand how it creates stronger communities when people are forced to combine their strengths to defend themselves against an aggressor ?

That is the essence of the sandbox, if there is no conflict that has any true influence on the game, then the game stagnates and the only way to keep people interested would be to pump more and more content until the well runs dry, rince and repeat... which we've seen a little too often.

At the moment that is my main problem with our "sandbox" I can be the most virtuous player on the whole game and still people treat me as any other fool that never even attempted to follow the game ethos. This makes it very hard to roleplay...

Then people grief you though game mechanics, and laugh at you because the oracle is protecting them from the return of the balance.

I know you are against PvP in any form, but do you at least understand where it comes from ?

 

Sure, I can understand and appreciate where you and other PvP centric folks are coming from. I can only speak for myself, but I am brought together with the community through the mutual bonded interest of questing to achieve a goal together. In my personal case, that would be working with my friends and guild mates to accomplish the various quests within the storyline. The sandbox, open world, portion that I love are the little bits of lore and hidden places within the game that we come across together and can enjoy joking about over Discord, outside of the main story. I don't need PvP to bring me together with the community, the camaraderie of mutual goals does that for me. Besides, I get enough PvP in the real world, I don't like it in my games. That is just me, my friend.

Your point about consequences (at least I think this is what you are alluding to, correct me if I am wrong) is one that I think all players PvE and PvP can agree on. I bought into this game under the auspice that it was going to be a compelling story-driven game where our actions have consequences. I don't think you really have that at all so far. Sure, you can take a "virtue hit" for not giving gold to a beggar or by mistakenly typing your name wrong when an NPC asks it (woops ), but how does that really affect you and play out in the game world? I have heard NPC's will start reacting differently to you, predicated on how "virtuous" you are, but to what end? Will they make comments? Will prices at merchants be higher? What are the definitive consequences?

I have never griefed (not even really sure what that means) anyone and I certainly would never laugh at someone (unless it's @EclipseMaiden , that can't be helped ) and would never condone such behavior. Yet I certainly do understand why people want to PvP and why they are currently frustrated with how it works in game. At least the best a non-PvP player can!

In lieu of that, I would like to ask you a question, respectfully. As a PvE player who adamantly refuses to enter a PvP scene, there are areas of the game that I will never go into online, limiting some very cool areas of the game to me and friends. As a PvP player you can access 100% of this game with wild abandon; whereas I willingly only have access to 90% (roughly). Is that fair? Is that really balance? Granted it is my choice to not go into those areas, but it is a choice (whether right or wrong) that is being forced upon me.

Not only that my friend, the alternate routes to access the PvE portions of these PvP areas are terrible. They are boring, repetitive and completely unbalanced. Damn those water elementals and their limitless focus and 100+ hp heals! Again, these are just my qualms with the game as a PvE only player and I'm sure I am not the only one. So I ask you, do you at least understand where I am coming from?

 

We do not force anyone to PvP. All areas for questing are accessible outside of PvP areas. If you feel those alternate routes are too difficult to traverse, then we need to address that separately.

If you are not able to complete a quest otherwise, it may likely be a bug. Please ask about it here in the forums and we'll check it out!

 

Keep it up Cordy... I know where you hang your cloak

 

Oh yes I do ! And I understand it even more because you are a firefighter, a job I wanted to do as a kid especially for that reason, team work !

As a PvP player, I have wandered the whole world and never had a single PvP encounter... in fact I did, but they ran away even if I was very low level, maybe I wasn't such an interesting target

Do I think the current implementation is fair ? Of course not... I would have WAY preferred a separate PvP server, with slower advancement like Siege Perilous, in fact that would have pleased me so much that I would probably play even more on the regular server.

Lets not forget that many of the devs have the same background as I, many have worked in UO and miss those dynamics.

The reason isn't that we need PvP to bring a community together, its that it creates an environment where the bonds are stronger.

If you saved me from evil players trying to ransack my town, I'll be grateful. If you are just another player moving around and it makes no difference what so ever to my gameplay, then sure I'll be friendly but its not the same.

Do I think its possible to bring consequences as promised into the current game model ? Yes... but its extremely hard because AI would have to be up there with google type deep learning algorithms, which is improbable for the time being.

Thats the thing here... the reason my idea for a separate server was outright rejected by the devs and community is because it could "split" the playerbase. I think in theory in might but not in reality, you can have only so much fun in an open pvp environment, at one point everyone likes to relax and enjoy the game without being reminded of real life conflicts as you so eloquently put.

I think that in reality, a core community would form from this open pvp, but then it would encourage diversity and since the open pvp server would be less openly social and "fun for fun" then people would move back and forth and we would have the chance to please more types of players.

 

Right now what we have isn't fair... its a compromise. And I never likes compromises in a gaming context, to me it shows weakness.

There was no warnings when you entered UO, you learned all the hard way.

How often have I worked for weeks to get a good equipment and even houses, and then in the blink of an eye, I was looted clean and people often found a way to steal my whole house before I could res and get a key change.

But did that discourage me ? nope... I put my next house in a "guild owned" village, and there people had my keys and could intervene if I needed.

Those people, my true friends in UO, I would have given them my CC number without any questions, my house keys even.

Our friendship had evolved to a point where I had that level of trust, which I will agree has no real practical value, but in my heart... well its a moral compass.

 

It's never too late! I quit my job as a financial services lobbyist to become a firefighter and never looked back!

 

Yes that one should be a quest key since you have to go through that area twice and may not be able to go through as a lower level character.

 

I can't do it at level 67, I can't imagine doing it at a lower level.

I've gotten "offline" Cord to lvl 38 simply by questing along the storyline. It's been pretty good so far with limited grinding. Unfortunately, I am now stuck at the Midras Ruins because it's just a little to tough for me. Which is totally cool because there are other side quests I can work on. I just hope that those elementals get balanced out because they are just brutal!

 

So are you guys saying that the PvP path is easier ?

That would be irony ...

 

I don't know. For me, probably not because I suck at PvP lol. Though, if I was a kickass PvP player who wanted to finish the latter part of the story, yes. I do think it is easier.

 

I'm not even sure I understand how this works... are they matched in the instance ?

Maybe you would just get in the PvP scene and theres no other players to PvP ? Then the PvP road would be much easier than the infamous water elementals !

That would be funny and sad at the same time !

 

Some of the above ground entrances are easier to find than others.

Also some of the ruins mobs are easier depending on the skull level.

Also the area in question you need a key to get in either way.

The other areas you do not need a key to get to the underground entrance.

 

Current player community is great, but there will be a lot of new players that try SoTA when it releases. There certainly will be those who will enjoy camping PvP entrances in the quest lines just for preventing us 'care bears' from progressing, regardless of earnings. I'm thinking of some of the entrances in Eve Online.

I also understand the excitement that a large risk/reward situation provides.

Please make the 'longer' and 'less interesting' paths find-able.

 

Certainly the community will undergo change once the player population rises substantially - changes in it's general nature will certainly take place.

Ironically, the most number of dead avatar skeletons I've ever seen is right after the entrance to Owl's Head. The number is probably much more than all the gated deaths at the PvP area entrances combined. I think there is more danger in unknowingly flagging yourself for PvP and entering a popular town than accidentally entering a PvP area ignorant of the forced PvP flag that that action involves.

 

Thats where I was getting at.

 

Lol, love when I am called this. Does that mean I can do a "Care Bear Stare"?

This definitely being the key!

 

You're not alone. Restricting some areas to PvP only caused many an avatar to leave. It certainly wasn't the only reason that lead me to leave, but it was a contributing factor. Now my only hope is seeing the PvP only zones in offline mode. Pretty crappy to force people offline if they want to experience scenes without the threat of attack, imo. But it's the game mechanics they say people want. So....I await to be dazzled with offline mode.