PVP - The solution is in front of us

Once you reach around level 110-120 it becomes more about deck building and knowledge in pvp then it does about your characters actual skills.

This is policed by the players. If you act like a dink to enough people, they will all eventually kill you on sight and you won't be able to travel in the pvp zones without being continuously ganked and ambushed. Stuff like this is what makes pvp fun for a bunch of people... good vs evil.

Go to a different ankh... if everyone was polite and followed the "rules" pvp would be extremely boring.

Go check out the shardfalls and see what you get for loot and xp in like a half hour. Don't worry you will be alone because its a joke. They need to be adjusted if we want players to fight in those zones.

 

There is a simple solution to what you feel is preferential drop areas for PVPers.

Why not incorporate a 50% chance for the items that are exclusively dropped in PVP areas to also drop in comparable PVE areas.

The thing is not only to encourage and reward PvP but also to do it in such away that avoids alienation and creates added friction between the two different play styles.

@Antrax Artek ; This “No Ransom” rule for this month has piqued an interest yet more is still needed for the ultimate adrenaline rush of the big battles we have been part of and of the one @Catherine Rose is planning in Blood Bay very soon.

R/Boris/El Pirata/Black Sails Forever

 

Perhaps it's not the scenes that need fixed as much as the incentives to pvp. Ransom was a bad idea to start with. In trying not to be a gear grind game we forgot that things like that are incentives in many games that are successful. Rewards can be pvp tokens given on successful fights for pvp gear or pvp supplies. Supplies could be pvp related so as not to interfere so much with pve stats. More pvp quests should definitely be made available. Quests with pvp stories of woe perhaps someone will hire you to kill. Daily pvp quests are as important as daily pve to give the tasks to those who want incentives.

I for one want a battleground system to come in game. It could be faction related. Perhaps two types of pvpers battling 1)those who kill for fun called the Blackhearts and 2)those who kill for good could be called the Redeemers for example. Players can select their factions or go with what is needed in the battle ground. We also need a raid system implemented now. Battlegrounds are capture areas with quests and timed.

Battlegrounds are only one addition to pvp I would like to see. I spent many fun hours in WoW daily on these and I'm no pvper usually. Also daily pvp quests and bounty quests to do will also give reasons to fight in any areas. Getting your name on the bounty board for example will cause you to be hunted and your bar title could say this. Rewards should be fun like cotos, tokens, titles with buffs, and gold rewards. I really don't see any efforts like these going into the game. It is all part of the missing basics again that we have.

Always distractions take us from getting these into the game. Can we have a wakeup call please? Monster killing is not all that is missing in this game. We have a zillion scenes of monsters and dungeons now. We can tweak those here and there but in the meantime it is forgotten that this is not just a game about monster hunting. Much more needs implemented soon. Get the raid system in and wonderful rewards and quests for pvp and pve and add achievements, lore, and progressive daily system from all merchants. Have scenes tell a story.

 

The main gripe I heard from pvp-inclined friends who sadly don't play anymore wasn't so much to try and get PvErs to go PvP and be fodder (which some people simply wont do, no matter what the incentive, particularly when they'd just lose money each time) but that in the designated PvP areas, there was very little to do while waiting for some PvP to happen.

It would make sense to me to start with one of the shardfalls, and add a good-experience/loot wave battle (similar to UT, say) in a contested scene, where PvPers could 'fight over' the 'xp spot'. If there's no PvP action, you're still able to accomplish something other than standing around looting the occasional cottonbush, which is boring. Even having some sort of thing to capture or defend on that spot which perhaps gives you a buff of some sort opens possibilities, and different flavors could be put in the various different ruins. The PvP areas should be at least on par with adventure scenes in terms of xp gain, and sprinkling in a few unique drops in that scene, preferably items desired for PvP purposes, adds to the flavor. I think that would improve things for everyone involved, might encourage a few people not normally inclined to PvP to give it a try in a group, and as long as it doesn't cross the line to being "only good place to XP is in a PvP scene" should meet minimum resistance. The small bonuses for being in open mode and pvp flagged would apply to xp gains as well - enough to make it appealing, but not so much that it alienates those who simply don't want to be hassled with it.

Honestly the ransom? Don't need it. Something to fight over is a much better idea. The ransom and associated inventory management obstacles it creates were just a bit put-off to the entire thing. Have some sort of currency type item drop in PvP zone, and when you die, winner gets half unless you go bank it. Make that currency for -whatever-. Gives PvPers something they can go farm and sell on the market, too, that only comes out of PvP scenes, creates a new economic dimension. As long as it is implemented thoughtfully and carefully balanced, I think being able to play the game, in a PvP scene, 100% of the time, should be a viable choice absolutely, but it shouldn't be the only viable choice else you'll lose a lot of folks for whom mandatory PvP is simply a dealbreaker.

 

I have been reading this and several other PVP threads for a long time and would like to share my insights into it. I have pvp'd sometimes to try it out. Honestly, its at best ,fair from a mechanics standpoint. What I am saying is that If I feel like PVPing, there are so many other games I would go do it in.
That said, I think what is off putting to a bulk of the population is that its actually a totally different experience than PVE and it attracts a totally different type of player. Please don't take this the wrong way, because I know a lot of PVP players who are good folks who just enjoy the heightened challenge of combat against a human opponent, however for every one of you that there are there are 3 people who are just people who enjoy hurting other people, causing grief and get off ruining someone else's play time. I am not going to get into a psychological profile of those types of people, just point out that there is a large group of folks on this site who deal with enough bullies in real life and don't seek it out for their leisure time activity. I have spoken with a lot of people who enjoy the PVE version of the game and are quite capable adventurers. For whatever reason, the thought of being killed repeatedly and having an adventure session ruined by someone who has crunched the numbers and gotten good at the totally separate set of skills require to proficiently PVP in sota is not attractive. Its just a matter of preference, some folks like the rush of PVP and some folks just dont. Forcing those players to engage in PVP and put themselves in jeopardy regardless of financial penalties being in force or suspended, is just not going to work.

 

I'm in that same boat, I dont want to have to worry about my gear or what i carry into battle. I also hate giving up coin.

Two of my favorite PVP games was Rift and WoW with factions. They did not have drops but offered currency to buy pvp related gear. One would have to consider how to control it to prevent alt farming for sure, but I would love to see something like that over the present system.

 

I agree with this and mentioned in another post about how a jail system could be implemented, having more balance in pvp would help. there are many games out there that balance players that pvp in specific zones etc.

 

Punishing players for playing isn't the greatest idea. Just look at how many people are praising crafting / loot RNG and attenuation.

There is a lot of argument for "fair" pvp here. To which I would ask those championing it - how many times per week do you go to Obsidian Trials or Opalis Ruins?

To those saying loot is the problem - How often do you flag in no loot towns?

Maybe pvp isn't your thing or you want to do it 1% of the time. That's ok! Lets at least even things out with PvE rewards so that new players will come and the game will grow in all facets because of new population.

 

A reputation system could be fun, a bounty feature too, and most of all, something I would find hilarious, is a Kill On Sight order for POTs, as in, if you don't necessarily want to ban someone from your POT, but have beef against that person, you could set a KOS order on their head and they would be insta flagged in that POT, like in Shardfalls.

But a jail system? Nope, I agree with you I would dislike it.

 

iiiiiiiinterdasting

 

I can't wait to try this new PvP scene. Any idea how long the ransom experiment will continue?

 

Technically until R73, but with the grapgs Chris released it could be extended or repeated

 

Come pick a side and join the battle today.
No ransom, big group, newbies welcome.
HAIL YE ALL YE! COME ALL.

 

We came and joined in. No ransom made endlessly dying without being useful A LOT more tolerable. I finished up feeling like it was nice to have participated, rather than being angry at having shelled 20k in gold (which was how the last big battle ended).

We're going in the right direction.

Tried it, realized I'm still underpowered even with the caps, didn't go back. If they raised and lowered everything to 100, that would mean anyone UNDER 100 could play too.

 

Absolutely not. You underestimate gear.

 

I participated in the Black Sails event.
A lot of friendly attacks killed me.
Without raid groups there is no way to avoid that with large groups.

Also, there are still some that delight in picking on weaker opponents and kill them over and over. It must make them feel good or something. I died 20+ times and most of them were from one opponent that followed me around.

Getting killed at the anhk sucks. Especially when someone is targeting you over and over. Perhaps a protective force field should be applied when we rez. A clear bubble around the person at the anhk that does not allow damage until they leave the bubble.

This would allow buffing or protection until you are ready to fight again. If someone is ganking you at the anhk then you could just stay there until they lose interest, or until help from party members arrive. Something needs to be done about that or PVP will never grow.

 

I totally agree with both of you: don't put the best stuff exclusively in PvP zones... It did not work in UO and it won't work here...

As for Pets: this needs attention... Why is it mandatory to resurrect a pet within 1) the zone or next to the corps, 2) within a curtain time frame... I can't tell you how many pets I've lost simply by exiting the scene, mainly road encounters... I've stopped purchasing pets because of this mechanic...

Just my 2 cents...

 

Well it would be better than now. As it is now, we could hang up a sign at the start of the game "You can't PvP for many, many dozens of hours. If you don't like that, go vote for someone else."

 

If there were more low tier pvp zones with good rewards for low level but not enough for higher lvl i am sure you would not have even noticed this problem, cause you would have other people with level similar to your to fight with.

 

No, it wouldn't. I have many hours pvping. 1000s of losses and some wins. Knowing what gear is out there - anyone of equal levels will be gear dependent.

If someone new goes into this hypothetical zone, and it doesn't go the way they want - guess what the easy button is. Talking to a pvper and finding out an OP gear set. Then taking out a credit card to buy COTOs directly from SOTA and paying for materials with them.

Now you'd have someone with a bronze spear with puncture dmg bonus vs a pine spear with only str bonus and guess who wins? And that's not even talking about OP materials, ench/mw or armor. That is very base level not even needing to buy COTOs for.

Please do not get me started on deck making either. It's the reason why my level 124 can compete with level 137. Just to make this easy, that gives the lvl 137 an approximate advantage of 3,024,989,978 experience. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now imagine anyone who pvps regularly going into your hypothetical zone with OP gear and decks.