Getting more players into pvp zones

That is a rant about a screwed up mechanic that drives your sheep away. You want people more to kill, fix it.

 

My sheep?
I didn't do pvp for roughly 10 or so releases now.
Hear the word from the mouth of a hardcore pvper:
Pretty much every decision regarding PvP was a bad one so far.

 

Lol yup.
Im just talking about my sota pvp experiances so far. That being said at something like 1500 h or sota.. ive probly spent less then 2 hours of enjoyable pvp. Including duels lol.

Every step in the right direction they took in sota for pvp, theres a massive turn off in one form or another.

 

if pvp were embracing a wider spectrum of players and we had a closer gap between all players (i'm almost afraid to sai it ) and it wouldnt that much depent on spent time in the game, additionally there were no loot to earn and ransom to pay, but a faction system, titles maybe and now the maybe interesting part 2% of gold from your victim, if we are able to split gold and store it!
...i guess we would have many more players visting the pvp scenes.
Then you can decide how much gold you carry, but you won't losse randomly something and maybe need to buyback, no matter what the costs are, it just feels bad.
But then you maybe loosing 2% of the gold you got while adventuring or risk to carry with you - much better experience to me.

 

Is it possible you have overestimated the effects of PvP? First, many of these zones (Ruins, Shardfalls, Blood Bay) are empty. Second, you only put up stuff for ransom - usually 1 piece of equipment, 1 miscellaneous item (reagents, arrows, potions, etc.) and 1 body part. You get to hit "." (period) on the Number Keypad and pay the "Price of the Oracle". Granted, if you are wearing high-end gear and it gets selected, or if you stack 500 obsidian chips, then your ransom will be HIGH.

However, there are ways to mitigate that ransom. 200 arrows individually placed in a bag. 100 maple wands individually stacked in a bag. All reagents 10 stacked. TURN OFF STACKING IN THE SETTINGS so bag items won't automatically stack. Oh, and the reagents, you can buy the 10 stack from the magic vendor. Just open/close/buy one stack at a time. Boom, 10 stacks of 10 reagents each. This messes with the RNG of what is plucked from your bag. I can't tell you how many times I died and smiled that the person got an arrow, or silly potion. I also carry extra gear that's worthless.

So, the point is, this is not some gankfest PvP we are talking about. This PvP is "Magnus Approved". And I suck at PvP.

 

Theres LITERALLY hundreds of ideas of how to make the PVP in SOTA not suck, but thats not the issue.
The issue comes allll the way back to the fact that the majority of backers who wanted GOOD PVP, left already... and now theres very few people who push for it.
This has led any re-work of the PVP system to being a low priority to the DEVS. Who i get the feeling are convincing themselves what they have is *good enough for now*.

I can tell you im not holding my breath for anything decent, as they simply have no foundation of good mechanics currently in play for it.
And i say that as nicely as possible. And the exact reason i play other games for actualy PVP.

 

We need more people in game period, that is the only thing that will get more people into PvP zones however, I really dont think at this point the game will draw in a lot of people who PvP. As long as marketing for this game keeps going out as dance parties and PvP is not taken seriously by the dev's.

 

I thought about this last night when I was in Blood Bay, near the entrance to The Fall, and looking down at the Clockwork Dragon sitting there, all alone, on the Isle of Bones.

I wondered aloud to my guild how it was a shame that the Dragon was alone, with nothing to do, and that it likely was the crappy loot he held.

I would imagine that just simply increasing the loot, and maybe figuring out the timers, would turn something like the Clockwork Dragon into a hotly contested area as groups/guilds fought for the right to farm/loot. If the concern is that we have a repeat of the Control Point problem, then maybe just put a timer for when someone who already killed/looted can do so again (an hour, 3 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever).

 

Most PVPers din't get into MMORPGs PVP as it is seen as time-based and not skill-based. It's why you have never seen MMOs featured in any of the Gaming Leagues.

Anything that you can become dominant JUST by time invested in grinding... is unappealing to most skill based players, that won't to be able to jump on and just compete based on their skills. The way SOTA can do it, is buy capping skills and deck focusing in open PVP arenas. The skill would then be tied to deck-building. Not time-played + gear + artifacts + potions.

You can't balance PVP games based around grinding in PVE.

 

Q:Vassflam: Can we have more discussions concerning PVP, game balance, and stability?
A:Yes

Q:Fantalio: open world pvp, factions, guild warfare, player home defense, or any other type of engaging gameplay experience on the way?
A:You can already flag open PVP, Guilds can already declare war, you can already live in an Open PVP POT and defend your house against invaders.

LOL And this is why the PVP group has left.

@DarkStarr
Guilds can declare war, but all it does is open your whole guild to OPEN PVP, so its NO DIFFERENT THEN me having my WHOLE guild go open PVP. So no thats not a *WAR*. It's not even a dispute between 2 sides. Its literally just an agreement to all go to open PVP.
And explain to me the *defend my house from invaders* aspect? Is this a role playing thing? Can people actually damage, or do ANYTHING to my house thats worth defending? Or is this another one of those *use your imagination things*.



--
Im not even going to rip this apart because this just amplifies my belief you guys don't play other games, and your intent to use misleading terms to make things sound better.

The GUILD WARS mechanic right now is weak, and shouldnt even be called that. Its more like your *guild leader has the ability to tag the whole guild with open PVP flag*.. thats it.

So im curious.. How many guild wars have happened? How many even organized GW have happened? Because theres really no way to limit 1 side vs the other with the current mechanics. Unless i BUY A PVP POT, and ban anyone/everyone who isnt part of the 2 guilds * Warring * ...

you guys should REALLY just remove the guild Vs guild *mechanic* you have in place now.. and take it out of the description untill you do something better. As its blatently insulting to your customer base.

----
Copy and pasted from the announcements.
Goes and ties in with my thought that they are * happy with whats in play * -- and that anyone who has played.. well any other good game before, understands that their term of *guild wars* is basically saying that we can use our imagination.
( Basically i look at this as labeling the game Sandbox, then using any description/term i want, regardless of how decieving, because TECHNICALLY, i can pretend ANYTHING in game)
Conquering towns --- Ties in with this.. because TEHCNICALLY i can pretend to siege Starmans POT ... and TECHNICALLY i can *conquer it* .. with a little imagination.
So they see this as reasons they can keep it in their descriptions despite people calling htem out on it for being misleading.
And their inibility to understand this, or lack of concern ABOUT this, is exactly why some people feel they are *Shady*, and choose to be other places.

Im so glad they told me good guild vs guild mechanics were coming.. yet thers no real plans for them. Im so glad that we have *Table top catapults* because thats completly the same thing as *Craftable siege equipment for PVP and Guild Wars * ...

- End of rant about why SOTA is hardly my 2ndary game anymore.

 

What would be awesome... if you declare guild war your flag doesn't even get turned on, but anyone encountered from opposing guild would pull you into an encounter until someone was dead or surrendered an item!

 

@ship2 currently this is a global issue with loot. The "reward" for taking on harder challenges is just a better chance at very rare drops. These drops are still so rare that rare boss spawns dont feel rewarding as its much easier to eliminate 50 small guys which gives better chances for rare loot than to eliminate one very difficult rare spawn.


At the moment the reward for pvp zones specifically is a large quantity of obsidian chips, and the noticably higher drop rate of potions/artifacts from obsidian golems. Technically you may have a better shot at finding a coto in a pvp zone but thier drop rate is so low that it would be very unnoticable

 

From 1998-2012 all I did in Ultima Online was PvP. All my characters were red at some point, even crafters. There wasn't much incentive to PvP I guess unless you were in factions which I never did. Honestly the rush, risk and the roll play aspect that I put into it made it fun for me. I was never considered an ubber elete PvPer, in fact some said I had GM running. But I was tricky..and that was so much fun.

It wasn't until I was watching Kor during the Streamathon that I got to see the PvP areas. He was accepting people into his party so I joined. I was exploring on high alert and it brought back a lot of the good feelings UO gave me. I've been back to the PvP areas to explore some more. For anyone into PvP I'll be an easy kill but I think I'm ready to figure it out now and get used to the areas..knowing ones terrain is essential to a good fight if you're a coward like me : ) or just in general. I might add too that I think this is a great time to explore those PvP areas as the population is low and you won't have to worry about getting ganked when more players arrive.

TL;DR my small rant. Watched a streamer go into a PvP area and partied up with them. Now I'm going into PvP areas by myself.

 

SOTA - Guild Wars - What do you think?

1) War Objective
2) Declaring War
3) Declaring Alliances
4) Hiring Mercenaries
5) Guild War Encounters
6) Guild War Sieges


1) War Objective
The objective on the War is to:
1) Be first to win 20 Guild War Encounters within the 30 days.
2) After 20 wins, to Guild War Siege to a town. (you have 4 days to complete a siege within the 30day window)
3) Win the combined coffers.
a) if at the end of 30days, one side has completed 20 wins, but not the siege, they only get 1/3 of the opposing guilds coffer.
b) if both sides fail to complete either tasks, only half of the war coffer money will be returned to the guilds.

2) Declaring War
"It's easy to declare war. However, will you win?"

Guilds will get ranked, by number of members and average Adv. Level (only members lvl30 and above will qualify, to prevent guilds from artificially lowering their strength with newbies.)

There will be 3 ranks:
Tier 1: (100+ members) - Can only ally with two Tier2 guilds
Tier 2: (50 to 99) - Can ally with one Tier1, one Tier2, and three Tier3
Tier 3: (20 to 49) - Can ally with one Tier2, and two Tier3

You can declare war through the UI. It will show you the strength of the Guild, but not it's alliances. If you choose to declare war on a guild and they accept, you will be locked into Guild War for 30 days.
1) Leader or officer declaring war, must put 10000gp in the coffer.
2) Each member in the guild will be required to contribute to the war coffer = 1000 gold per member. Any member of the guild can contribute to the final total.
3) Both guilds have 24hours to fill their respective coffers. If within the 24hours the coffer is not filled, the 2 people declaring war lose their 10K. All other contributions will be returned.



3) Declaring Alliances

1) Any guild can only be allied to 1 guild alliance at a time.
2) If you are currently at Guild War with another guild in the alliance, you cannot be in that alliance. If you declare war on a guild in your alliance, you are removed from the alliance, after which you can join another alliance. The alliance you join will automatically be put into a guild war with that guild and it's alliance.



4) Hiring Mercenaries
Mercenaries can be guilds (of 20 or less people) or individuals level30+

Mercenaries are paid from the Mercenary coffer.
Mercenary coffers are kept separate from the Guild War coffer. Gold added to the coffer cannot be removed, or refunded until end of War. So if your mercenaries are successful, keep that coffered filled. When the money runs out, who's to say they won't switch sides?

Mercenary Coffer tasks:
1) Each encounter won - 5000
2) Successful Siege participation - 20000

On completion of tasks of a task, money is automatically sent to the mercenary. Mercenaries cannot drop a contract. However, if your mercenary coffer does not meet the minimum encounter contract, all contracts from mercenaries are removed.


5) Guild War Encounters
Similar to overworld encounters. Once within range of opposing member(s) you will be pulled into an enclosed area that requires a win or surrender. If a person is in a party before getting pulled into an enounter, party members also in the guild war can Follow their party member in, if within range on the overworld map, or same zone.


6) Guild War Sieges
Once 20 encounters are won, the guild then has the option to siege the opossing guild's town. They will have the option of choosing Forest, Hill or Naval Siege. They must protect the catapults for 30 mins from being destroyed to win.

Town under siege must destory all 3 catapults to retain at least half of their war coffer.

 

World of Warcraft and GuildWars had a pro-gaming scene. Heck, WoW is still listed on MLG's along with Runescape.

SotA will need more than guild-size PvP to sustain itself.

 

Right from Chris blog. It's annoyingly exactly what he does at times.

"Next topic, now that I have some new data mining stuff setup, what to do about this....
Big green slice is Elysium Mines. :/"

 

DAYUM... everybody straight trying to make a dollar!

 

Key word being featured...

 

The PvP boat has sailed.

SotA will have to do something very special and interesting to revive the PvP community and pull them back into the game...............sadly, I simply cant see it happening.

Much much better games out there for PvPers (Albion Online launches in a couple of weeks).........PvPers have zero reason to be playing SotA.